A defiant Deputy President Jacob Zuma has effectively dared President Thabo Mbeki to fire him.

Having personally told Mbeki and other emissaries to leave him alone, the stage is now set for Mbeki to fire Zuma either tomorrow or when he returns from a trip to the Middle East, for which he leaves on Tuesday.

Presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo yesterday said nothing had changed and the president was still expected to make an announcement.

He did not say when this would be forthcoming.

It is understood that, following last week's meeting of the top five, Zuma privately met Mbeki and insisted that he would not resign.

Zuma, buoyed by visible and voluble support as he trudged through the country's hinterlands effectively mobilising grassroot support for the ANC, would have been emboldened by the ANC Women's League, which yesterday said he should not resign.

Zuma is understood to have told those close to him that Mbeki should fire him, if he (Mbeki) did not want him to serve in his government.

In what is seen as a desperate last attempt to hold on to his post in the ANC, Zuma has offered to explain himself to ANC and tripartite alliance members.

Matters are once again expected to come to a head tomorrow when the ANC's National Working Committee (NWC) sits at its regular meeting.

Senior government a sources said: "People are failing to differentiate between the ANC and government.

"Zuma's position within the ANC can only be determined by the leadership of the ANC and they will most probably wait for the conference in 2007.

"However, the president decides who continues to serve in his cabinet because neither the national constitution nor the ANC's constitution says the deputy president of the organisation will or must be the deputy president of the country."

ANC sources said there was general astonishment about Zuma's response to the court ruling in the Schabir Shaik trial, which indicated that he had a "generally corrupt" relationship with his former financial advisor.

"Most of us have been shamed by Jacob Zuma's shamelessness.

"A court of law, after thoroughly considering evidence for seven months, says there is a generally corrupt relationship.

"He then goes about unmoved about it, as though this does not matter.

"He carries himself as though the nation is wrong in expecting him to at least admit a few things went wrong.

"Some of us watched in horror when he blamed the media for finding him guilty.

"His theatrics are like groping in the dark, they are shaming.

"Members of the ANC are not fools. Their silence is not a lack of support for Mbeki, it's to allow for the shock to sink in.

"There is a point beyond which all of us have to say thus far and no further Mr Deputy President."

National Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Vusi Pikoli, is expected to take a decision on whether to charge Zuma within days.

"The ball," said an ANC MP yesterday, "is in Mbeki's court on what he wants the Scorpions to do with Zuma.

"No gentlemen's agreement seems possible."

Another source said: "Our information is that comrade Pikoli has sought legal advice from top legal minds on how to proceed in the wake of the conviction against Shaik.

"All of the experts that he contacted told him that it was impossible and legally indefensible not to charge Zuma."

Zuma spent the last three days in the Eastern Cape on a government imbizo, but his supporters told City Press that he was using the trip as an opportunity to garner support from the area.

"He was told to stay longer and meet with structures there.

"We are happy with the support, even former MK operatives now in the defence force, some of them in senior positions, have indicated they want to be heard on the matter as they feel Zuma should not go," the source said.

However, a senior government source said: "There may well be individuals who declare their support for Zuma but it does not amount to anything to write home about."

As the country waits for Mbeki to make his decision, it is understood that Pikoli; Advocate Leonard McCarthy, head of the Directorate of Special Operations; and Anton Ackerman, head of the Priority Litigation Unit, are currently grappling with:

Whether to wait for a decision on Shaik's appeal before they go after Zuma;
The fact that the volume of direct evidence available related more to Shaik than to Zuma; and
The fact that the admissibility of documents, like the encrypted fax, related to Shaik and were not automatically related to Zuma.

With acknowledgements to Jimmy Seepe, Makhudu Sefara and City Press.