Nothing to see or hear here – this was the general vibe around Parliament and Tuynhuys on Wednesday as the country held its collective breath waiting for news on President Jacob Zuma's future.
While journalists set up camp under a tree opposite the entrance to the National Assembly on Wednesday morning, Speaker Baleka Mbete was inside the building with party chief whips for a special chief whips' forum meeting.
This meeting couldn't set a new date for the State of the Nation Address (SONA), but there was an agreement that the budget speech would definitely go ahead on February 21, regardless of any change in the Presidency.
Meanwhile, at Tuynhuys, Zuma was holding Cabinet committee meetings with select government clusters this week, with ANC president and deputy president of the country Cyril Ramaphosa also in attendance.
The government's Twitter accounts posted photos of Zuma sitting next to Ramaphosa – both smiling like Cheshire cats. Several ministers and deputy ministers were also pictured, all smiling. The tweets were at pains to point out that these were "scheduled routine meetings of Cabinet committees in Cape Town".
Source - News24
