Zuma: I will never resign
President Jacob Zuma says he will never voluntarily resign.
The president has been under pressure, with calls from both inside and outside the party for him to step down. Several ANC veterans, together with civil society organisations like Save SA, have said that it would be better for the president to leave office following numerous scandals.
But the president told the ANC Youth League in eThekwini that he is not going anywhere.
"I sometimes listen to the news. Some chamber from outside the country demanding that the president must go. And some big business who (also) said so. And I realized that I would never on my own resign."
"Because if I did so I will be surrendering to the monopoly capital. Because I ask, what is it that I've done wrong?"
The president has endured a tough year. The ANC fared poorly at the polls during the local elections and was forced to pay back the money spent on non-security upgrades on his Nkandla home, following a scathing judgement against him in the Constitutional Court.
"I've asked those who have talked to me. Tell me, what is it that I've done wrong? And when I ask them, they run out of answers."
"The only thing that has happened is the repeating of the narrative. The repeating of corruption, corruption, corruption until all comrades repeat it - corruption, corruption, corruption! And you think it is reality."
President Zuma also touched on the firing of former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, and the decision to replace him with Des van Rooyen. Zuma was forced to reverse the decision, following pressure from the business sector and senior leaders in the ANC.
"Monopoly capital and their friend and stooges attacked me and they still attack me today. We were not there to defend the collective decision. The question is, if the president takes another decision, are we ready? Are we alert? The fact of the matter is the economy is in the 'fewer' hands. The fact of the matter (is) that the hub of the economy is finance. What do we do?"
"I said to myself. This is what happens when the nation is not alert. When they don't even understand the action that you take."