S. Africa President Zuma, in TV interview, says disagrees to resign

South African President Jacob Zuma, in an exclusive interview with South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on Wednesday, said he disagreed with the ruling party decision for him to resign.

Zuma broke his silence when pressure to resign mounts on him as he spoke to the SABC from Union Building in Pretoria. 

In this frame-grab from South African Broadcasting Corporation state-run television President Jacob Zuma is interviewed Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. [Photo: AP]

He said the effort to remove him by the African National Congress, the ruling party, was "unfair", and demanded reasons why he must resign and maintained he did nothing wrong.

"It was very unfair to me that this issue is raised...Nobody has ever provided the reasons. Nobody is saying what I have done," he said in the interview.

"I indicated to the top six (ANC leaders) that what they have raised is not the first time. They have raised it in the NEC (National Executive Committee) itself twice and nobody has ever been able to tell me what the issue is. The NEC themselves said that I must resign, and I find that very strange that I should do so because this is not the first time that they've said this," Zuma said.

"It's not a new matter, I need to be furnished with what is it that I have done and unfortunately nobody has been able to tell me what is it that I've done. There are processes in the ANC that need to be followed if I have been doing something wrong," he said.

Zuma believes he was being victimized by the ANC. "I am being victimized here," Zuma said after he went into details as to what the discussions were between him, Ramaphosa and the ANC leadership.

Zuma said it was the first time he felt the leadership of the ANC was unfair.

Zuma told the broadcaster that he met the top six but they had not told him what he had done wrong.

While expressing his disagreement to resign, Zuma says he is not defying the decision by the leadership of the ruling party.

Zuma said that he is going to make a statement later Wednesday on the matter. 

The South Africa Parliament will on Thursday discuss a vote of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma.

This was confirmed by the speaker of Parliament on Wednesday in a statement.