How Long Can President Jacob Zuma Remain at the Top?

It was a familiar scene. On November 10, South African opposition leader Mmusi Maimane stood before a rowdy Parliament in Cape Town and argued that President Jacob Zuma should leave office. For the third time this year, Maimane appealed to members of the African National Congress, the ruling party, to support a vote against their leader. “I know that there are men and women in the ANC benches who want to do the right thing today,” Maimane, head of the Democratic Alliance (DA), said over shouts from the chamber. “Will your conscience allow you to inflict another three years of Mr. Zuma on our country?”

As expected, ; the ANC has a clear majority in Parliament, and though many party veterans have called for him to step down, ANC lawmakers supported their issued before the vote. “Parliament and the nation are therefore dragged into the opposition’s petty games.”