S. African President Zuma resigns

FILE: President Jacob Zuma (Photo by World Economic Forum [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)])

“The ANC (African National Congress) should never be divided in my name. I have therefore come to the decision to resign,” Zuma said in an evening address to the nation.

Zuma announced that, although he doesn’t agree with ANC’s decision to recall him, he will resign as president of the republic.

Zuma’s resignation followed two weeks of turmoil in the governing party in which he had refused to step down after being asked to do so by the ruling ANC’s leadership.

The party had finally resolved in a special national executive committee meeting on Monday that Zuma should be recalled as state president. The ANC had given him until Wednesday to resign.

Zuma had said earlier Wednesday that the party’s leadership had not furnished him with reasons of what he had done wrong. He made it clear in the interview that he was being victimised by the ANC’s leadership.

The deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is now acting president of South Africa. He will be sworn-in as president on Thursday or Friday.(Xinhua)