African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma is determined to fight on, despite agreeing to the issuing of a public ANC statement that projected his cause as a lost one.
Zuma’s aides insist the statement issued by the ANC after its national executive committee (NEC) meeting last weekend was a “public relations exercise” to project the image of a unified movement. However, Zuma remained convinced that he was the victim of a political conspiracy designed to ensure he did not become the next ANC president.
“The PR exercise is designed to try and walk the ANC through a crisis. But you cannot walk through a burning house and leave a body behind,” said a Zuma aide.
“The exercise is meant to dovetail smoothly with the upcoming local government election campaign, but we will see what happens when the NEC explains its decision to the branches.”
Another aide described the NEC statement as an “elite pact”.
“If the masses are not taken into confidence about how decisions are taken, we will see more mass defiance of ANC leadership.”
The NEC statement, which Zuma endorsed, rejected his repeated claim that he is the victim of a plot. In the statement, he also denies having pursued any ambition to become the next president and agrees not to encourage campaigning on his behalf.
The NEC meeting was convened to discuss public differences between President Thabo Mbeki and Zuma which have caused huge divisions in the party.
In his lengthy unscripted address at the end of the NEC pow-wow, Zuma is said to have stated that for the sake of the movement he would not publicly pursue his allegation that he has been ill treated, but would continue to raise them with Mbeki.
In his speech, Zuma is said to have accused members of the NEC of investigating him and of thereby taking part in the conspiracy. He did not name them.
He also said he was aware that there were foreign forces, whom he also did not name, working to ensure that he did not play a leading role in the ANC.
For his part, ANC Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe told the meeting that Zuma, as former ANC intelligence head, had carried out his own investigations into certain individuals in the movement.
The meeting agreed that the party should strengthen its internal organisation, improve internal political education, assess how the pursuit of material resources was impacting on the party and prevent campaigning for positions ahead of the 2007 party congress.
The Mail & Guardian has also learnt that Motlanthe circulated to NEC members copies of controversial e-mail messages cited by the Zuma camp as evidence of a plot against him by senior ANC and government figures. Such is the sensitivity around them that Motlanthe collected the copies at the end of the meeting.
Many NEC members, reading the messages for the first time, are said to have been shocked by the extent to which they allegedly implicate senior ANC leaders, including Mbeki and his deputy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Motlanthe told a press briefing after the meeting that people in whose name the e-mails were allegedly sent were considered “cleared” until investigations by the Inspector General of Intelligence were concluded.
Because of errors in the spelling of people’s names in the e-mails, the NEC concluded that if they were smear campaigns, none of its members could have been involved.
But questions have been raised about whether the misspellings were not a deliberate misdirection.
Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan apparently told the NEC meeting that the real danger lay in the very suspicions of political conspiracies, and that these should not be cast aside as ludicrous.
In a veiled caution to the ANC top brass, Jordan used former Soviet leader Stalin as an example to make his point. He said Stalin’s obsession with power and increasing paranoia about conspiracies against him by his generals — whether real or imagined — had resulted in the persecution of some of his closest collaborators.
During the frank interactions, some NEC members are said to have challenged former parliamentary speaker Frene Ginwala for publicly criticising Zuma over his speech in Limpopo where he told youth they should defend democracy, if necessary, with their lives.
Ginwala was told that the ANC had spokespeople, and that she had no right to speak in her own name.
However, the NEC refused to discuss the merits of Zuma’s corruption case, which he considers part of the plot. “The NEC is of the firm view that the judicial process is the appropriate mechanism to come to a determination on this matter,” the statement says.
It concluded that unfair treatment by any government agency, as alleged against the Scorpions, did not amount to a political conspiracy.
It said state institutions charged with investigating criminal matters had the right and duty to pursue such matters, as mandated by the Constitution.
But the broader issue of state resources, and how they are or could be used to settle political scores, has been pencilled in for discussion at future ANC meetings.
The NEC showed it did accommodate Zuma to the extent of apologising to him for not being more outspoken after the public protector found the National Prosecuting Authority had violated his rights.
But his ability to canvass public support was curtailed by an NEC decision that any future demonstrations in support of him should be coordinated through the office of the secretary general.
The NEC sought to contain the succession debate, especially in the media, by imploring members and party structures to wait for the appropriate time before raising the issue.
“While recognising that members of the movement may have views on the suitability of various leaders with respect to the presidency of the ANC, the NEC counsels caution patience and discipline,” its statement said.
It is believed the aim is to stop the public posturing around Zuma, including T-shirts carrying the slogan “Zuma for president”.