Zuma takes time out ahead of crunch meeting

As tensions between the camps of former African National Congress (ANC) president Thabo Mbeki and his successor, Jacob Zuma, reach boiling point over the decision to charge Zuma, the newly elected ANC president has retreated to his Nkandla homestead ahead of the party’s January national executive committee (NEC) meeting.

Zuma’s personal assistant, Ntokozo Luthuli, on Monday told the South African Press Association (Sapa) that the ANC president was currently relaxing with his family in rural KwaZulu-Natal.

“His diary is blank at the moment—he is just relaxing with his family,” she said.

Zuma’s backers, who have accused President Mbeki of masterminding the Directorate of Special Operations’s (Scorpions) campaign against Zuma, are intending to use the NEC meeting to rein in Mbeki and those state institutions deemed to be anti-Zuma.

Newly elected ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, a staunch Zuma supporter, was on Sunday quoted as saying “the sequence of events”, including the announcement by the Scorpions that they would charge Zuma two days after he was elected ANC president, needed to be “looked into carefully”.

A Western Cape-based Zuma backer, who is a member of the newly elected ANC NEC, told Sapa that there would be “fireworks” at the January meeting.

“The people have spoken—they are fed-up with Mbeki’s undemocratic practices.

“Mbeki’s dictatorial tendencies have to be brought to an end,” she said.

The ANC NEC meeting is due to be held on January 7.

Meanwhile, Independent Online (IOL) on Monday reported that Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka could lose her job to an ally Zuma.

Quoting high-placed sources in the ANC, IOL said there was great uncertainty on how Zuma would manage the tense relationship with Mbeki and his administration.—Sapa