President Jacob Zuma described his account of the past two weeks, which saw ongoing negotiations between himself and members of the ANC leadership.
In an interview with the SABC on Thursday, Zuma detailed how he had provided the party with an "exit package" – which they refused.
"I asked ... what was the problem. Why must I be persuaded to resign? Have I done anything wrong? Of course, the officials couldn't provide what I had done... Speaker after speaker; nobody came to say: 'This is what you have done.' I need to be furnished on what I have done," he said.
Zuma exclaimed that his recall was unfair, and that the felt victimised by the process.
When the ANC's national working committee (NWC) met after discussions between the top six and Zuma, Zuma supporters and members of the ANC clashed outside the meeting venue at Luthuli House.
"One of the colleagues showed me a clip of a clash of ANC members outside Luthuli House. This touched me very seriously, because I said to myself this is a problem... already the comrades on the ground are fighting," Zuma said.
"I thought I should therefore engage the presiding officers to postpone the date [of the state of the nation address] ...We should have this date away from us, so we can have a chance to have discussions among ourselves."
After the NWC meeting, an urgent meeting of the national executive committee (NEC) was scheduled, but ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa met with Zuma the day before.
"I then made the proposal to [Ramaphosa] ... which was influenced by the feeling that we need to address this situation. I said, instead of dealing with those kinds of issues [his resignation], I think we should have something in the middle that we should agree on," he said.
Zuma said that he agreed to resign after June. This would give him time to attend, and introduce Ramaphosa to, the Brics summit, the SADC conference and the African Union. He also wanted time to address public and ANC meetings side-by-side with Ramaphosa, to present unity in the party.
"And the president [Ramaphosa] agreed. He said this is a good proposal. We all agreed," Zuma said.
The NEC meeting was postponed.
"The next Sunday, both the president and the secretary [Ace Magashule] came again... and they came in another mood, wherein they indicated they reported this matter to the top six, and the top six does not accept this. Something we had agreed and thought this was the way," Zuma said.
"They said they do accept one element – that I agree to resign – not others. I told them I have a problem with that. Because I presented a package. You can't take one part of that. I said this matter must be discussed by the NEC."
Earlier this week, the NEC met and decided to recall Zuma.