South Africa's Zuma faces no confidence vote in ANC

South African President Jacob Zuma is fighting for political survival after senior members of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) tabled a motion of no confidence on Saturday against him, an English-language online news publication, News24 reported on its website.

The News24 said on Saturday that the motion of no confidence was proposed by a senior member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) - the highest organ of the ANC -and supported by the current health minister and his deputy, among others.

Earlier the ANC's secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, told reporters that Zuma's removal was not on the NEC agenda.

"We are reading in newspapers that there is going to be blood on the floor. We have not seen that blood on the floor, yet," Mantashe said in comments broadcast live on eNCA television.

Zuma has been under increasing pressure to step down from party veterans and members of the ANC's communist and union alliance partners, as a series of scandals threaten to erode the ruling party's dominance before the 2019 general vote.

The Public Protector, an anti-corruption watchdog, published a report in November that alleged Zuma was influenced by the Guptas, a wealthy Indian-origin South African family with business interests ranging from mining to media, in making government appointments.

Zuma resisted calls to resign over those claims, which both he and the Guptas have denied.

The ANC stood by Zuma at a similar meeting in November in a debate about whether he should step down, and analysts discounted suggestions that he might be ousted or might quit before his term as party head ends in December.