South Africa's president survives vote to oust him

FILE -- In this Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008, file photo. African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma waves upon his arrival at Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa. Zuma escaped a move to oust him as the leader of South Africa by senior members of his ruling party, it was announced Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE -- In this Thursday, March. 17, 2016 file photo, South African president Jacob Zuma, answers questions from opposition party during parliament in Cape Town, South Africa. Zuma escaped a move to oust him as the leader of South Africa by senior members of his ruling party, it was announced Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam. File) (The Associated Press)

JOHANNESBURG – A top official of South Africa's ruling party says that President Jacob Zuma escaped a move to vote him out as the country's leader by the party's senior members.

The African National Congress Secretary General Gwede Mantashe told journalists in Johannesburg on Tuesday that the majority of the party's 80 executive committee members voted to keep Zuma in office.

The motion to dismiss Zuma, 74, who has been embroiled in a string of corruption allegations since he came to office in 2009, was introduced at the executive committee meeting in Pretoria on Saturday.

Many ANC members blame Zuma's scandals for the party's poor performance in local elections in August in which it lost the key municipalities of Johannesburg and Pretoria to the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance.