Thousands of people took to the streets after he sacked the finance minister.
A march organised by the Democratic Alliance, South Africa's biggest opposition party, was expected to pass near the headquarters of the ruling African National Congress in Johannesburg.
Zuma fired Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who pushed for budget restraint and improved management at state companies, in a cabinet reshuffle on March 31, igniting South Africa's worst political crisis in nearly a decade and sparking calls from top officials for him to resign.
South African debt got dealt a second blow in a week as Fitch Ratings Ltd. joined S&P Global Ratings and cut the nation's credit assessment to junk following President Jacob Zuma's move to fire a well-respected finance minister.
Last year, the South Africa's Constitutional Court ruled that President Zuma had illegally enriched himself and had broken the oath of office, but his party ANC saved him at the last hour.
The tensions in South African politics are unlikely to subside in the weeks ahead following speaker of parliament Baleka Mbete's announcement on Fridaythat MPs will debate a motion of no confidence in Mr Zuma's presidency on April 18th.
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DA leader Mmusi Maimane led a march to Mary Fitzgerald Square, Johannesburg, while others gathered on roads across the country, displaying banners and signs calling for the president's resignation.
Maimane's spokesman Mabine Seabe said of Zuma's comments: "He can not argue based on policy and is trying to distract from the issues by using race as a scapegoat".
Protesters in the capital later marched to the seat of government, the Union Buildings, waving placards that read: "South Africa is not for sale". Some supporters of Zuma chanted the president's name. The Guptas deny any wrongdoing, and Zuma has said there was nothing improper in the way he chose ministers.
Congress of the People wants to assure the ANC that their vigilante groups will not stop the march to freedom; they can kill few of us but not all of us. Analysts doubted marches would shake the president. The removal of Gordhan will frighten away desperately needed foreign investment and could open the way to bad deals, like the nuclear plants from Russian Federation, that South Africa cannot afford.
BBC reports, that police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters during one of the demonstrations in Johannesburg. Though several senior leaders protested the cabinet shake-up, including deputy president and potential presidential candidate Cyril Ramaphosa, the party appeared to side with the president last week when its secretary-general called the dissent "a mistake that will not happen again".
One close Zuma ally, Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane, told a WhatsApp chat group: "It's actually better Western investors will pull back and we have an opportunity to bring them back in our own terms, after we have consolidated our relations with Africa and Brics".
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