South African President Jacob Zuma today faced a no-confidence vote in parliament for a second time in less than a year and a legal bid to reinstate corruption charges against him.
The mounting pressure on the president comes against a background of economic crisis sparked by his firing of two finance ministers within days in December.
The fallout was followed by a public row between the respected new Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and the head of the tax authority, which has again rattled markets.
The no-confidence vote was called by the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA).
"South Africans demand that Jacob Zuma be taken to task for his reckless handling of our economy, and his sending South Africa into financial crisis," DA leader Mmusi Maimane said in a statement.
"A motion of no confidence is the best mechanism to ensure that President Zuma is fired, once and for all.
"It has become common cause that under Jacob Zuma's leadership, our country is spiralling downward - and doing so at an alarmingly fast rate."
DA chief whip John Steenhuisen said that in response to a DA campaign, more than a million online letters lobbying ANC lawmakers to support the motion against Zuma had been sent in the run-up to the vote.
"This is... a clear indication that South Africans are increasingly tired of the president's poor performance and are putting their support behind the opposition," he said.
While Zuma is expected to easily survive the no-confidence debate, analysts say heavy losses for the ANC in the elections could turn the party against the president.
"Zuma has been under pressure in the past but now it's coming from multiple angles," Susan Booysen of the University of the Witwatersrand, told AFP.
"There's nowadays dissident voices in the ANC. The support of Zuma is weaker but not to the point of collapse," she said.
"If ANC suffers badly in local elections it could be a signal they can't approach national elections (in 2019) with him in charge."
Culled from dailyNation
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