World Bulletin / News Desk

South Africa's opposition parties on Monday vowed to press ahead with a no-confidence vote in President Jacob Zuma following a shock cabinet shake-up in which he fired his respected finance minister.

The commission will reportedly once again call on the president to step down when he meets the party graft watchdog on April 9.

Zuma last week removed Pravin Gordhan from the top job at the treasury in a purge of cabinet critics that sent the rand currency tanking and triggered accusations that he was promoting graft.

After holding emergency talks in Johannesburg on Monday, six opposition parties agreed to organise mass protests against Zuma as well as continuing to lobby for the vote of no confidence. 

"Opposition parties are fully behind the motion of no confidence in Jacob Zuma," said Mmusi Maimane, leader of the the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).

The DA and the third largest opposition party, the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters Party (EFF), wrote to the national assembly speaker requesting an urgent sitting to debate the no-confidence motion. Parliament is currently in recess.

Speaker Baleka Mbete, who is also the chairwoman of the ANC, cut short an official trip to Bangladesh and returned home on Sunday to consider the opposition request.

"I am alive to the extreme challenges and sense of anxiety our young democracy is going through at this moment," Mbete said on Sunday.