The African National Congress’s alliance partners have not been officially informed that the ANC has agreed in principle to a proposed commission of inquiry into claims of a plot against former deputy president Jacob Zuma.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and South African Communist Party said on Tuesday they only expected to be told about the ANC’s stance at the next alliance meeting.
ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama told a daily newspaper that the commission would ”clear the air”.
The decision was taken at the ruling party’s national working committee meeting in Johannesburg on Monday night.
”The national working committee agreed to withhold detailed comment on this matter pending African National Congress and Alliance processes,” said Ngonyama.
Both the SACP and Cosatu have rejected the commission.
President Thabo Mbeki proposed the commission in a letter to an alliance meeting convened last month to discuss the Zuma saga.
He said the alliance should set up the commission to establish whether ”members of the ANC and broad democratic movement, including the president of the ANC, had been and are involved in a conspiracy targeted at marginalising or destroying deputy president Zuma”.
Some members of the alliance believe there is a politically inspired conspiracy to stop Zuma from becoming the next president of the ANC. He is seen by some as being too close to the working class.
Cosatu spokesperson Paul Notyhawa said on Tuesday it was expected that the alliance meeting would take place after an ANC national executive committee meeting on Friday. The commission was expected to be discussed further at the ANC meeting.
”We are still waiting [to hear about the ANC’s stance] just like anybody else,” he said.
SACP spokesperson Kaizer Mohau said: ”We have just heard about it, we haven’t been officially informed.”
Cosatu rejected the commission because it believes it will not solve the underlying political problems facing the alliance.
If a commission were established, it should look at the entire operation of the tripartite alliance and not just one person, Cosatu President Willie Madisha said last week.
The SACP said on Sunday it was not convinced the commission would adequately deal with the problems which had arisen regarding the treatment of Zuma.
”As the SACP we believe that there are much more fundamental issues underlying the problems that have emerged around the treatment of comrade Zuma. These issues have led to various perceptions, and can only be dealt with effectively through collective political engagement.” – Sapa