South Africa’s embattled president, Jacob Zuma, resigned on Wednesday, putting an end to a period of scandal and mismanagement that threatened to destroy the party of Nelson Mandela.
Zuma’s resignation leaves his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, as the country’s acting leader, and a man now charged with salvaging the legacy of Africa’s most famous liberation movement.
Zuma was once revered as a hero of that movement, who served as a political prisoner alongside Mandela in his youth. But Zuma’s nine years in power, marred by a string of corruption allegations, drove even party loyalists away from the once seemingly indefatigable African National Congress (ANC).
Zuma, who had already been resisting pressure from party leaders to quit, remained defiant at first. On Wednesday, he went on television and, in a lengthy statement, insisted that he had done nothing wrong.
He said he had asked ANC leaders what he had done wrong, but none could answer him.
“What is the rush? I have been asking this question all the time,” he told SABC television. “You can’t force a decision as is being done now.”
“It’s the first time that I feel the leadership is unfair,” Zuma said. “It’s ‘No, you must just go.’ The ANC does not run things that way. It’s a kind of ANC that I begin to feel that there’s something wrong here.”
But late Wednesday, Zuma backed down and in a television address announced his decision to resign.
“I do not fear exiting political office,” he said. “However, I have only asked my party to articulate my transgressions and the reason for its immediate decision that I vacate office.”
He insisted the decision to dismiss him was unjustified, but said he decided to resign in order to avoid violence between members of the ANC.
“I am forever indebted to the ANC, the liberation movement I have served almost all my life,” he said. “I respect each member and leader of this glorious movement. I have served the people of South Africa to the best of my ability. I am forever grateful that they trusted me with the highest office in the land.”
Ramaphosa, now the acting president, is expected to be elected president at a meeting of the ANC parliamentary caucus in coming days.
Zuma had been due to leave office when his term ended in 2019. But Ramaphosa and his supporters wanted Zuma out well in advance of next year’s presidential election in hopes that the ANC would have time to rebuild its support.
