/ 24 July 2008

Youth league ‘won’t tolerate’ Zuma’s prosecution

The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) intends bringing an application for a stay of the prosecution of ANC president Jacob Zuma, it announced on Thursday.

It will intervene as an interested party should a similar application by Zuma fail, ANCYL president Julius Malema said in Johannesburg.

Under the banner of the Progressive Youth Alliance, the ANCYL and a number of other organisations have threatened to bring Pietermaritzburg to a standstill in early August, when Zuma is expected to go on trial in the high court.

Zuma is currently involved in a legal battle with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regarding his indictment on charges that include allegations of racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud.

On August 4, he is expected to apply for the corruption trial against him to be declared unconstitutional.

Plot
The youth alliance contends that there is a plot to ensure Zuma does not become president of the country. Asked whether President Thabo Mbeki is behind the plot, Malema said he does not know, but that those conspiring against Zuma are to be found ”everywhere”, including business, the media, political parties, the ANC, the opposition and the judiciary.

The alliance claims that organs of state are being abused to wage the campaign against Zuma, including the NPA and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

Young Communist League national secretary Buti Manamela submitted that state institutions cannot be used to support ”a particular political route”. He said: ”You can’t have state institutions being abused.”

The alliance also claims the fraud case against Zuma’s former financial adviser Schabir Shaik was part of the plot, as is the complaint against Cape Judge President John Hlophe.

Shaik was found to have made ”corrupt payments” to Zuma. Hlophe has been accused of approaching some of the Constitutional Court’s judges improperly while they were deliberating cases involving Zuma.

”We doubt people will stand back and watch [Zuma] walk into jail for things manufactured [to destroy his public profile],” said Manamela.

He said the Umkhonto weSizwe Veterans’ Association and the ANCYL have sought legal opinion on their course of action. ”We are now consolidating all these particular processes to ensure we have one uniform process,” he said.

Action
Said Malema: ”We have concluded this issue is not a criminal case, it is a political case.”

”There should be a political intervention,” he added, explaining that this is the action that the alliance will undertake. It will go from street to street and door to door in villages, townships and everywhere else to mobilise students, the youth, women, the elderly and soldiers in the run-up to the trial.

The people who will ensure Zuma gets a fair trial are ”militant and radical” but ”disciplined” members of the ANC, he said.

”You will see us in action. You will see what militant means. We are not going to tolerate any situation that undermines the president of the ANC,” he said.

”We’ll take our masses along, for as long as we’ve got our masses on our side, we’ll win this revolution,” said Malema.

Among the actions that will be undertaken by the youth alliance ahead of Zuma’s court appearance is a signature campaign in support of its call for a permanent stay of prosecution, it said.

Zuma supporters will hold a night vigil the Sunday before his appearance and into the Monday and Tuesday when the court will be in session.

On Wednesday, at the ANC provincial conference in the Free State, Malema said that Zuma would lead the organisation from prison if he were ever arrested.

”If you arrest him, he will lead us from prison,” said Malema. However, he said the country should spare itself the embarrassment. He repeated that there was no case against Zuma and that the ANC leader would be South Africa’s next president. — Sapa