African press review 13 February 2018

ANC chiefs call time on President Jacob Zuma after 13-hour meeting. But questions linger about the party's next move, amid allegations that he may not cooperate.

We begin in South Africa where the papers have been waiting to land the scoop about President Jacob Zuma's awaited removal from office. This, as the top six members of the ruling African National Congress ended a decisive meeting on what to do with the graft-tainted Zuma.

Times Live says that after 13 brutal hours of negotiations the party's highest decision-making body decided to recall Zuma, the publication citing what it calls two highly placed sources it spoke to at about 3am this Tuesday morning, as vehicles started leaving the Hotel in Irene, Pretoria, where the NEC meeting opened at 2pm on Monday.

Times Live says it is able to report that the NEC had resolved to recall Zuma after he reportedly refused to resign. The paper claims that while the timeline of the recall was not immediately known there was some media speculation that it could be as early as this Tuesday morning.

City Press also quotes sources in the National Executive Council meeting as saying that Zuma wanted to stay in office for 3 months as one of his conditions which was rejected.

Business Day also quotes its own sources at the NEC meeting as saying that after they reached the decision to recall President Jacob Zuma, he dug in his heels,   telling the ANC to do as it pleases. The newspaper holds that the ball is now likely to shift to Parliament, with the ANC having to navigate the complexity of bringing its own motion of no confidence in Zuma.

This probably explains the opinion upheld by the Sowetan that the story may still be developing.

Cape Times says even if the 75 year-old Zuma accepts to throw in the towel formalities on how to tell the nation still have to be agreed on as well as the issues relating to a swift transfer of power to the new party leader Cyril Ramaphosa.

In Kenya, the Standard leads with the news that Boda Boda commercial motorcycle riders are now one of the biggest drivers of the East African nation's economy. The paper reports that the findings are contained in a new study published by the Motorcycle Assemblers Association of Kenya. The syndicate underlines in the report that the Boda boda industry generated 219 billion Shillings about 1.7 billion euros in revenue in 2017. The new survey puts the number of commercial motorcycles on Kenyan roads at around 600,000.