– ‘Delicate time’ –
But critics hope the groundswell of discontent, expected to result in losses for the ANC in municipal elections later this year, could lead the party itself to oust Zuma as president.
The EFF has also vowed to disrupt Zuma’s address in parliament if he fails to explain his sacking of the finance ministers in December, which sent South Africa’s rand currency into free fall and hammered the stock market.
Similar tactics used by the EFF last year saw parliament degenerate into chaos and led to lawmakers being violently evicted.
Special precautions are in place this year in an attempt to avoid a repeat performance at this evening’s speech, due at 7pm (1700 GMT).
Security around parliament is expected to be particularly tight, with several groups planning anti-Zuma demonstrations on the streets in major cities, including Cape Town.
The heightened tension comes amid social unrest over a sharply slowing economy, high unemployment, grinding poverty and a resurgence of public racial animosity.
Commentators have predicted that 2016 could be South Africa’s toughest year since the ANC came to power under Nelson Mandela at the end of apartheid in 1994.
Even Zuma’s lawyer Jeremy Gauntlett told the Constitutional Court this week: “This is a delicate time in a dangerous year.”
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