The congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) passed a resolution on Thursday calling on President Thabo Mbeki to reinstate his former deputy Jacob Zuma immediately, following the collapse of a graft case against him.
Political analysts ruled out any such move by Mbeki, but said the call by Cosatu signalled that the controversy around Zuma could seriously rock South African politics.
Cosatu, a partner of Mbeki’s African National Congress (ANC), said Wednesday’s court decision to strike down corruption charges against Zuma showed he had been ”maliciously prosecuted”.
The resolution, passed at a Cosatu congress, demanded ”the immediate reinstatement of comrade Jacob Zuma to the position of deputy president of the Republic of South Africa” and an end to all legal moves against him.
”It’s a demand Mbeki is not going to meet,” said independent political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi. ”It means therefore that the contradictions between those who support Zuma and those who support Mbeki are going to sharpen further.”
Mbeki fired Zuma as his deputy last year after another judge found he had a ”generally corrupt” relationship with his financial adviser.
Zuma, a hero of South Africa’s liberation struggle, was until then seen as frontrunner to succeed Mbeki in 2009. He was charged separately with rape but acquitted at trial.
Trade unionists, communists and rank-and-file ANC members rose to the support of the hugely popular Zuma, echoing his allegation that the charges against him were part of a political plot to prevent him from succeeding Mbeki.
After the judge threw out charges against him, Zuma flew directly from the hearing in the eastern town of Pietermaritzburg to a hero’s welcome at the Cosatu congress, just outside Johannesburg.
Mbeki’s office has so far declined comment on Wednesday’s ruling, which stopped short of completely dismissing the case against Zuma — leaving open the possibility the corruption charges could be refiled.
But ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe said the party welcomed the ”respected” Cosatu’s resolution on Zuma.
”We know that in the implementation they will come to us so that we all together [can] try and find the most practical ways of implementing the resolution,” Motlanthe told South African Broadcasting Corporation radio.
”And where there are difficulties in implementation we will arrive at that decision together,” he added.
Matshiqi said, with Mbeki not expected to yield to Cosatu’s demand, Zuma’s supporters in the ANC and its union and communist allies were now likely to try to remove him as the party’s president.
They could therefore push for the ANC’s leadership conference scheduled for December 2007 to be brought forward.
”So we cannot rule out attempts being made to pass a resolution of no confidence in Mbeki and therefore push him out as president of the party,” Matshiqi said. — Reuters