ANC party veteran Sindiso Mfenyana has told eNCA on Tuesday on the sidelines of the ANC's policy conference that the ANC's integrity commission asked President Jacob Zuma to step down. After it engaged with Zuma, and heard his case for why he should not step down, the commission even agreed to look at the issue a second time, but came to the same conclusion.
"He felt that in some cases he was being misunderstood and had certain reasons and that we needed a second take. We attempted the second time. We ended up saying, from so far from what we hear, we think it might be a good thing if he stepped aside for the good of the organisaiton. He had a different view, and we respected that," Mfenyana said.
"When you get things going to the constitutional court, saying he has not been true to his oath of office, that's a serious charge."
But Mfenyana said the commission also heard ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe's point, that removing Zuma now when he was already due to leave the ANC presidential chair in December "is not going to change anything."
"We ended up saying so far from what we hear, we think that it will be a good thing if he step aside for the sake of the organisation," Mfenyana said. "He had a different view we respected that. We shall try and follow what the SG has said. He said the removal of president will not change things."
The commission's delegation, is pushing for the ethics structure to be made a constitutional body of the party to give it more clout.
Mfenyana also said former ANC President Oliver Tambo would not have handled things the same way.
"I think president Tambo would have handled the situation differently from the current president. Certainly, I am sure he would not have reached a stage where the Constitutional Court would find him having breached his oath of office."