Former deputy president Jacob Zuma has pledged not to withdraw legal action he has instituted against members of the media.
Zuma is suing publishers, editors, reporters, cartoonist Zapiro and newspapers for their coverage and comment of his rape trial. The defamation claims run into hundreds of millions of rands, much of it directed at reporters and editors of Independent Newspapers.
Addressing the Cape Town Press Club on Tuesday, the African National Congress (ANC) deputy president said: ”No, I’m not going to drop the case. I’ll stand by what I’ve done. What I say is what I believe you [the media] have done.
”You cannot tell me that the media has the right to take the place of judges, and actually try people and say, ‘This one is guilty.”’
The Constitution states a person is presumed innocent until found guilty by a court of law. Zuma said he had gone to court, a judge looked at the facts before him and found him not guilty, but ”you guys continued to find me guilty”.
This is unfair, he said. ”I think you are abusing your freedom. That’s my view. Once the judge has pronounced, respect the judiciary and the Constitution. You can’t persecute a person when the matter has been dealt with. Impossible.”
Zuma said he had long fought for press freedom and would continue to defend it at all costs. ”But, as an individual and a citizen of this country, I feel the present reporting about me went beyond the borders, and created the impression that the media was, in fact, something to be feared.
”Something to make and break kings; something to do things to individuals; something to try and convict people … and I thought, that’s not the freedom I fought for.”
What he wants, in South Africa’s democracy, is a press that respects the rights of other people.
He said at times he finds it difficult to see the difference between reporting and opinion.
Leadership
On whether he would accept nomination for a leadership position at the ANC’s national conference near the end of this year if the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) reinstated its corruption charges against him, Zuma indicated he would.
Maintaining his innocence of such charges, he said he has not been found guilty of anything, so should not feel guilty.
If he did not accept nomination, it would be tantamount to admitting guilt before being found so in a court of law.
But Zuma also repeated he is not campaigning for the country’s highest job. ”I’m not campaigning [to become president].”
This is an interpretation mooted by certain people, he said.
Zuma said he has always been active in South African politics, even before 1994, and he will continue to do so. ”It’s something new to those who are trying to see something which is not, that Zuma’s campaigning. I am not campaigning. I’ve been doing my normal ANC work.”
There is no campaigning in the ANC. ”In fact, the only time you know whether you are standing or not standing for anything in the ANC is when the nominations have been done. Even then you don’t campaign,” he said.
Zuma also repeated there are no problems between himself and President Thabo Mbeki. The two have been friends for many years, and meet at ANC headquarters in Luthuli House in Johannesburg most Mondays.
They have worked together in the past, and are doing so now. ”There are no problems between me and comrade Mbeki,” said Zuma.
Gun-free country
Zuma also said his thoughts have turned to removing guns from everyone and starting afresh with a gun-free country. He said: ”At times I say [to myself], why don’t we remove the guns from everybody … start afresh?”
One needs a country ”that is free of crime”, he said. It is a critical issue facing the nation and needs the effort ”of all of us”.
However, he also noted that in the rural areas — such as Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal, from where he comes — there are few police officers, if any at all. If there is a matter to report to the police, it takes a whole day for the police to arrive. In Rondebosch, a suburb of Cape Town, one merely pushes a button and the police are there.
Zuma said the other key issue facing the nation is the struggle to defeat poverty. The nation has to understand the need for education and literacy because many people in South Africa find themselves unemployable ”in a world that is becoming so technological”.
He said political stability is a key issue that underpins a stable society. With political stability comes economic stability. All leaders of all parties should strive for political stability, he said. — I-Net Bridge, Sapa