South Africa’s President Zuma survives no-confidence motion, hails party unity

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, exultant after defeating a no-confidence motion in the national assembly, said on Tuesday that his African National Congress (ANC) party was united and the opposition could not take power through parliament.

“They are pumping propaganda through the media that the ANC is no longer supported by the people. It is their own imagination,” Zuma told a cheering crowd. “The ANC is supported by the overwhelming majority,” he said, before breaking into song and cracking jokes with the crowd.

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma survived a no-confidence motion against him in parliament on Tuesday by garnering 198 votes to the opposition’s 177 votes as African National Congress lawmakers rallied to his support.
There were nine abstentions in the secret ballot. ANC lawmakers erupted into singing and dancing in parliament even before the speaker of the house announced the result of the vote in favour of the 75-year-old Zuma who has been dogged by allegations of corruption during his eight years in office. “The motion of no-confidence is … negative,” Baleka Mbete, speaker of the 400-member parliament, said.
The rand fell by 1 percent on the announcement of the outcome.

Zuma, who has held power in Africa’s most industrialised economy since 2009 …read more