African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma should only be allowed to return to office once his name has been cleared by the courts, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.
The ANC is expected to issue a statement on Zuma’s role within the party later on Monday after its national executive committee met on the weekend to decide whether he should resume his official duties after his rape charge acquittal.
”A person facing criminal charges is simply not able to provide credible leadership to the country’s ruling party. Only if Jacob Zuma’s name has been cleared by the courts should he be eligible to return to office,” said DA spokesperson Donald Lee.
Zuma will go on trial for corruption in July, following the fraud and corruption conviction of his financial adviser and friend Schabir Shaik, who was a bidder in a government arms deal.
Zuma withdrew from the official duties associated with party post when he was charged with raping a 31-year-old woman at his Johannesburg home. After his acquittal he said he was ready for whatever role the party deemed fit.
When he was charged with corruption President Thabo Mbeki ”released” him from his job as the country’s deputy president.
According to media reports on Monday, it is expected that Zuma will resume his duties as deputy president of the party.
ANC gives media the slip
Meanwhile, members of the ANC evaded the media on Sunday evening when they changed the venue for their meeting from Luthuli House to the Esselen Park training centre in Kempton Park.
The meeting scheduled to start at 6pm on Sunday began on time at the training centre, while members of the meeting were left waiting at Luthuli House.
Security guards at the Esselen Park facility turned the media away, saying they had strict instructions from the ANC not to allow the media within 50m of the gate.
While most commentators believe there will be little objection to his resuming his duties following his rape acquittal, ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe said recently this is not ”a mere formality”.
”The national executive committee [NEC] has to consider and pronounce itself on it,” Motlanthe said.
On Monday morning, the ANC said it would issue a statement on the future of Zuma, party spokesperson Steyn Speed said.
”We will release a statement later this morning [Monday] on the NEC meeting. The statement will cover everything that came out of it [the meeting],” said Speed.
Discord in the ANC was at ”breaking-point”, reported the Afrikaans Sunday newspaper, Rapport — even as the Sunday Independent reported that Motlanthe had dismissed impressions of internal divisions over Zuma.
Rapport understood the ANC’s top six leaders hardly spoke to each other any more and that only two of them — treasurer general Mendi Msimang and deputy secretary general Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele — still supported Mbeki.
Its sister newspaper, City Press, reported that heated discussions were expected at the meeting over the ANC Youth League’s claim that Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils had a hand in the rape allegations against Zuma — an accusation Kasrils has denied — and its labelling of the rape accuser as ”Lucifer”.
Serious debate was also expected over Mbeki’s recent call for a woman president to succeed him.
This was seen ”as an effort to ‘undermine the party structures’ and impose Mbeki’s views on the succession debate”.
Meanwhile, Zuma’s supporters were calling for the rescheduling of the ANC national conference, at which new leaders will be elected in December 2007, to the end of this year.
”They believe that Zuma is so popular within the party that if a conference were to be held now, he would easily defeat [Mbeki] in the polls”.
An NEC member told City Press that while the not guilty verdict meant the party would take no disciplinary action against Zuma, the NEC could try to ”restrict his activities to ensure that he does not use his office as deputy president to campaign for 2007 and engage in factional activities”.
Zuma has not yet publicly said that he wants to be president — only that he is ready to do the job if the party deploys him.
”The point is, I have never wanted to be a leader — the ANC decides,” he told Talk Radio 702 in an interview on Tuesday.
”I have never refused a task given by the ANC and I am not about to do so now.”
The possibility of Zuma becoming president had divided the nation, the Sunday Times reported on the results of a Markinor survey it commissioned.
”… An overwhelming majority are not in favour of him becoming president and feel that the ANC and the government have been badly damaged by the saga.”
According to the survey, 64% of South Africans opposed Zuma’s appointment.
It found that 49% agreed with the rape trial verdict; 51% accepted Zuma’s apology for his behaviour; 42% felt the trial had affected their perception of the ruling party — 75% of them negatively, 56% believed Zuma would receive a fair trial for corruption, and 59% believed Mbeki had handled the matter well.
”The survey also shows that no clear successor to Mbeki has emerged in people’s minds,” the Sunday Times reported. – Sapa