Zuma free to resume ANC duties

2006-05-09 10:02

Johannesburg - Former deputy president Jacob Zuma is free to resume his duties as deputy leader of the ruling party following his acquittal on rape charges, a senior official has said.

African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe was quoted in a newspaper on Tuesday as saying that Zuma, 64, who was cleared of raping a young HIV-positive woman, was free to "take up his position in every respect."

"The deputy president, as you know, requested to be released from his obligations for the duration of the (rape) trial. Now that the trial is over - once he's ready - he can revert to us again," Motlanthe told the Johannesburg daily The Star.

Zuma could write to Motlanthe requesting that he be reinstated to his duties, and he would in turn table it before the party's leadership, he said.

Motlanthe said his party welcomed the court's decision.

Once the frontrunner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki, Zuma had maintained that he had consensual sex with the 31-year-old woman, the daughter of a family friend, at his Johannesburg home in November.

A Johannesburg High Court judge ruled in his favour on Monday, finding Zuma "not guilty" of rape and stating that the intercourse with the woman was consensual.

His supporters have maintained that the rape charge and a separate corruption case were part of a conspiracy to block his ascent to the presidency when Mbeki steps down in 2009. Zuma is due to go on trial for graft in July.

The court case has caused deep fissures within the ANC and brought unhappiness with Mbeki's style of rule to the fore.

Poor South Africans

Mbeki, who is due to step down in 2009 after a second five-year term, is seen in as aloof and too business-orientated at the expense of poor South Africans.

Asked whether he believed the political fallout from the trial would damage the ANC even more, Motlanthe said: "No. This is a specific trial, and a determination made by a court of law, and that closes the matter on that route."

ANC spokesperson Steyn Speed confirmed that Zuma was free to take up his duties as deputy leader of the ANC at his own request.

"His suspension of duties (after being charged with rape) came at his own request," Speed said.

"He is an elected official of the ANC and he is bound by the constitution of the ANC to fulfil his duties," Speed said.

The complete Zuma judgment

- AFP