Image source, Reuters

Among the chorus of condemnation for Mr Zuma's sackings, there is also support for his moves in some sections of his ANC party.

The ANC youth wing said it welcomed the reshuffle and appointment of the "experienced and intelligent" Malusi Gigaba as finance minister. 

"Younger ministers will mean more transformation," Youth League leader Collen Maine told Reuters, citing land redistribution, free education and the creation of a state bank as reforms the youth league wanted. 

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Image source, SA gov

It was the night of the long knives when President Jacob Zuma sacked the finance minister against the wishes of his senior party leaders.

Some say he has chosen a path to the abyss by removing the much respected Pravin Gordhan from the Treasury.  

There is huge outcry across the nation following the biggest cabinet reshuffle since the early 1990s. Calls for President Zuma to step down are now echoing throughout South Africa.

This reshuffle affected nine ministers and six deputies. But the biggest fish, by far, is the finance minister.

There is no doubt that Mr Gordhan was a hard-working minister, respected globally and he came with impeccable anti-apartheid struggle credentials as well.

Mr Zuma used his presidential powers to steamroll a list of cabinet ministers not approved by either his deputy president or the secretary general of the governing African National Congress (ANC) as is the norm.

This move surprised not only ordinary folks but it has also shocked those right at the top table sitting alongside him.

"It felt like this list was developed somewhere else and it was given to us just to legitimise it. These were hard working ministers. We are unhappy," lamented ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe. 

President Zuma was clearly rewarding loyalists and getting rid of opponents within the party. 

To demonstrate how high the stakes are for the 74-year-old president you have to look at what opposition MP Julius Malema said about the repercussions that would follow if Mr Zuma were to sack Pravin Gordhan.

"Once Zuma announces the removal of Pravin and (deputy) Mcebisi that will be the end of his journey as the president," warned the radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader.

Mr Malema has lodged an application with the Constitutional Court to order the speaker of parliament to institute impeachment proceedings against Mr Zuma.

If you want to know why President Zuma fired Mr Gordhan, you have to trace the story back to December 2015.

This was when the president fired a highly regarded finance minister Nhlanhla Nene and replaced him with a little-known ANC backbencher, Des Van Rooyen. Chaos ensued and markets reacted negatively to the sudden reshuffle.

The value of the rand tumbled to record lows, as it has today. The scandal was known locally as Nenegate.

Mr Zuma was then forced to make the biggest political u-turn since the end of apartheid. He removed the newly appointed finance minister a mere four days after appointing him.

He was forced to re-appoint Mr Gordhan, who had served as finance minister in his first term.

So in essence, Mr Gordhan was never Mr Zuma’s choice in the first place.

Now, Mr Zuma wants to spend, and he wants to spend big.

He supports a deal to build two nuclear reactors set to cost nearly $60bn (£50bn) - money the country does not have, according to the former finance minister. 

Another reason why Mr Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas were axed is because they also wanted to rein-in State Owned Enterprises (SOE) such as the forever thirsty national carrier South African Airways, the on-and-off power utility Eskom and others such as Transnet which is responsible for ports and rail.

The government has been spending billions of dollars to shore up SOEs, which have been described as cash cows for the politically connected elites who milk the state through corrupt contracts.   

One of the ANC’s key partners in the tripartite alliance, the South African Communist Party (SACP), opposed the idea of axing of the finance minister and also challenged the president’s right to do it unilaterally. 

Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa reacted with shock too. He said the sacking was "unacceptable".

So the question is  - what is he going to do now?

He said he will continue to work in government - but will he take his boss head-on or will he just keep going with the hope that come December he will be richly rewarded at the party leadership contest. 

He wants to replace Mr Zuma as president of the ANC. Mr Zuma prefers his former wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, instead. We have a fight at hand.

This reshuffle could have triggered the hairline crack that eventually splits the 105-year-old liberation movement. 

And that would bring to an end the ANC’s grip on power here, after such great promise.

South Africa's Times Live website has a cartoon that vividly depicts the political machinations of the past few hours. 

In it, President Jacob Zuma is seen stabbing Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in the back, after he requests his assistance during an "operation" on the country's economy:

And South Africa's leading political cartoonist Zapiro has reshared a cartoon from March last year, in which President Zuma is depicted as a lapdog eating out of the hand of one of the members of the powerful Gupta family, who are lined up on the sofa together.

The Guptas have denied accusations that they wielded undue political influence and tried to interfere with the appointment of ministers.

SA Gov News has tweeted a photo of the president avoiding the storm over his cabinet sackings, with a visit to a mealie (maize) field in the Eastern Cape:

Here's a flavour of the scene from protests in South Africa over the sacking of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy. 

Campaign group Save South Africa called for protesters to gather outside South Africa's Treasury in Pretoria and the parliament in Cape Town. 

Another line from the Gordan news conference, via the BBC's Africa correspondent:

The governing ANC party's chief whip  Jackson Mthembu, external  has become the latest senior figure to disagree publicly with President Zuma over his sacking of the finance minister and his deputy.

He said the two had integrity, were incorruptible and had unquestioned commitment to the national democratic revolution.

The BBC's Pumza Fihlani has more from Pravin Gordhan's news conference:

Mr Gordhan's former deputy, who was also sacked, spoke too:

Image source, AFP

The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, has said President Zuma's cabinet sackings "constitute an assault on the poor of South Africa". 

In a statement, he said:

The archbishop said he hoped the ANC would "reflect on how they are betraying the hopes of our people and take appropriate action". 

He said the risk was that "the gains of our democracy [would be] destroyed".

Read the full statement here. , external

Former South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is addressing media live following his sacking by President Jacob Zuma.

You can watch the press conference live on eNCA below:

Local Eyewitness News has been tweeting key quotes from the speech. Mr Gordhan has been addressing allegations believed to be in an intelligence report that was reportedly used as a basis for his sacking:

South Africa's Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has called the sacking of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan " totally unacceptable, external " and said the minister had been serving in his position with "absolute distinction". 

However, Mr Ramaphosa has said he is not going to resign over the issue, local eNCA news reports. 

South Africa's main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) plans to go to court to block the appointment of new cabinet ministers after the mass sackings announced by President Jacob Zuma overnight.

"We will this afternoon file papers in the Western Cape High Court seeking an urgent interdict to halt the swearing in of Jacob Zuma's compromised cabinet members, and the implementation of his reshuffle," a DA statement said.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane told media:

His full address to the media has been shared on the opposition party's Facebook page:

The new cabinet is due to be sworn in at 16:00 GMT (18:00 local time).

Chris Ewokor
BBC Africa, Abuja

The Nigerian Senate has passed a law to approve electronic voting in future elections.

It was an amendment to the Electoral Act 2010.

The lawmakers also approved a move for election results to be electronically transmitted to vote collation centres.    

This law is likely to change the entire system and structure of future elections in Nigeria.

One of South Africa's most prominent political commentators has made some powerful comments about the cabinet reshuffle. Justice Malala calls it a "purge" of South African Communist Party members who stood up to President Zuma.

He also criticises Mr Zuma's reported lack of consultation with senior colleagues over the reshuffle, saying South Africa now has a "rogue president".

The South African government has just posted a video of President Jacob Zuma explaining what lay behind his dramatic midnight cabinet reshuffle, which saw Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan sacked, along with more than a dozen other ministers and deputy ministers:

Image source, Reuters

Three foreign oil workers seized by rebels earlier this month in South Sudan have arrived in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, following their release from captivity.

The men, two Pakistani nationals and one Indian, were released on the orders of rebel leader and former vice president Riek Machar, his SPLA-IO group said in a statement. 

Image source, Reuters

One of the released men said his rebel captors had told him to pass a message to foreign oil companies to stop operating in South Sudan because oil revenues were being used to fund war. 

Oil is the main driver of the country's economy. 

There were no orders given in relation to locals seized alongside the foreign workers, who would continue to be held, a rebel spokesman said. 

Image source, Reuters

South Sudan has been devastated by more than three years of civil war and a famine was declared in parts of the country last month. 

Read more: South Sudan conflict - The hungry emerge from swampland for aid

Alastair Leithead
BBC Africa correspondent

Image source, AFP

President Jacob Zuma said his midnight cabinet reshuffle was all about "radical socioeconomic transformation" but by sacking detractors and hiring loyalists it was clearly about politics. 

Earlier this week, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan was in London reassuring investors to have confidence in his country’s economy, but his sacking will have the opposite effect. 

The rand immediately started to drop in value as his replacement was announced – a man with little economic experience, but a keen supporter of President Jacob Zuma. 

There will be a sharp economic and political reaction to this move by a president still fighting off allegations of corruption and what’s known as "state capture", over the political influence of a controversial family. 

A nuclear power station deal with Russia worth billions, could now be back on, and commentators will wonder if radical transformation refers to his recent comments about taking land without compensation to give to the people.

The new cabinet members, who will be sworn in later today, are as follows, external :

Image source, South Africa government

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