The African National Congress has rejected a Johannesburg daily newspaper report on Tuesday that President Thabo Mbeki and ex-deputy president Jacob Zuma had met ”face to face” at an ANC national working committee meeting on Monday.
Business Day said that at the meeting, Mbeki had ”come down hard on key backers” of the embattled Zuma, who will face corruption charges in Durban on October 11.
The ANC said none of the claims attributed to ”insiders” with respect to Monday’s proceedings of the ANC National Working Committee meeting was true and the report was a ”complete fabrication”.
”The fact that President Thabo Mbeki did not attend yesterday’s [Monday’s] meeting of the ANC National Working Committee renders the main claims in the article even more absurd.”
The party, accordingly, wanted a front page apology.
Given that the fabricated claims were repeated on its street pole posters, the party insisted that the newspaper print an apology to the ANC and to Mbeki on its posters. – Sapa