The African National Congress’s policy-making body had been correct to express its support for former deputy president Jacob Zuma “during these trying and painful times”, wrote President Thabo Mbeki in his internet letter on Friday.
In his column ANC Today, on the ANC website, Mbeki said: “Once more, we have emphasised the point that it is an imperative of natural justice that he should have an opportunity to defend himself against whatever accusations have been made against him.
“We are all united around these principled positions and join him in hoping that the judicial processes will not be delayed unnecessarily,” said the president, without referring directly to the corruption charges that Zuma will face.
Zuma appears again in court in October.
But Mbeki — repeating a message he made in his closing speech last Sunday at the end of the policy-making national general council meeting of the ANC — said: “I would appeal to all our members that while we await the outcome of these processes, we must conduct ourselves in a dignified manner befitting members of the ANC and consistent with the traditions of a movement that our people not only respect but genuinely love and admire.
“We must take the greatest care not to act in any manner that would compromise the image of both the [ANC] deputy president and the ANC.
“It is indeed during difficult and painful periods such as the one we are going through that we face the greatest challenge to behave as genuine members of the ANC who would do everything to maintain its prestige, its unity and cohesion.”
Zuma retains the position of deputy president of the ANC although he has been dismissed as the deputy president of the nation.
Mbeki did not refer to the stance taken by the council to allow Zuma to participate fully in party structures as the movement’s deputy president — reversing a stance taken by the national working committee, which agreed with Zuma’s request for him to be suspended from party structures during his participation in court proceedings.
But Mbeki did note that the delegates to the national general council “made reference to resolutions we adopted at our 50th national conference in Mafikeng in 1997, in which, among other things, we said: ‘Corruption adversely affects development and, as a consequence, results in poverty becoming more prevalent … Corruption undermines the objectives of the national democratic revolution.'” — I-Net Bridge