PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s overseas working jaunt continues this week as crises engulf his administration and the ANC here at home.
Zuma is at the Group of 20 meeting in China with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, whose ministry is one of the crisis-ridden fronts.
The president will remain in China for the second Investing in Africa Forum taking place on Wednesday.
On the home front, fires rage on as Gordhan faces possible charges for his role in establishing a so-called rogue unit at the South African Revenue Service when he was commissioner of the tax authority.
Zuma himself is facing growing calls for his resignation from office, with the latest salvo fired by ANC stalwart Zola Skweyiya.
Opposition parties, the ANC and the South African Communist Party have appealed for the president to discipline Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane for saying in a statement that the Cabinet had taken a decision to call on Zuma to appoint a judicial inquiry into the closing of the Gupta family bank accounts.
The fiasco caused by Zwane deepened suspicions he was using his Cabinet post to do the bidding of the politically connected family — his own spokesman dismissed the idea.
The Presidency said Zwane’s comments were his own, made in his "personal capacity".
Further developments around the banks and Zwane’s curious statement are likely to unfold this week.
On Monday, disgruntled ANC supporters are expected to show face for #OccupyLuthuliHouse protests, during which more pressure will be piled on the party to get rid of its president and national executive committee.
The event will be closely watched for disruptions after the ANC Youth League in Tshwane on Friday threatened the organisers.
In other developments, the Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law have written to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to ask for assurance by Monday that the finance minister will not be arrested.
The nongovernmental organisations are threatening to interdict the NPA from charging Gordhan because they say the charges he is likely to face are spurious.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane is set to address the media on Monday on what action his party will take to challenge South African Airways chairwoman Dudu Myeni’s reappointment to the board.
On the labour front, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA continues to mull the three-year-wage offer by the motor sector. It may have some idea on its members’ stance towards the offer this week.
The National Economic Development and Labour Council holds its annual summit on Friday.
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