SOUTH AFRICA
Keeping Secrets
South African President Jacob Zuma has overcome no-confidence votes before. But on Tuesday parliament will be allowed to vote in a secret poll for the first time, increasing the possibility of his removal, Bloomberg reported.
No matter what the outcome – analysts expect the 75-year-old Zuma to survive again since he is due to step down as party leader of the African National Congress in December and as president in 2019 – the vote is widely seen as a victory for democracy.
When the opposition filed its no-confidence motion, it argued that parliament should be allowed to vote in secret to remove the president since it does so to elect him. The court agreed, giving the opposition assembly speaker the choice.
Despite the freedom to vote without fear of losing their jobs, an analyst told Bloomberg that most anti-Zuma members of the ANC “think it is better to keep Zuma in place until the end of the year than to tear the party apart.”
The ANC has governed since apartheid ended in 1994 and has a 62 percent majority in the National Assembly. But Zuma’s entanglement in scandals and his recent decision to fire the country’s finance minister – which hurt the country’s debt rating – have weakened his popularity.
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