ANC meeting to be 'heated'

2006-05-14 14:42

Johannesburg - Jacob Zuma's role in the ANC will be thrashed out at an extraordinary meeting of its national executive committee in Johannesburg on Sunday night.

While most commentators believe there will be little objection to his resuming his duties following his recent 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.

It is not known whether Zuma himself will attend the meeting - to be held behind closed doors.

According to the SABC, the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust claimed he had cancelled an engagement at his home in Inkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, to be there.

Zuma withdrew from duties as deputy president of the ANC when he was charged in December with raping a 31-year-old HIV-positive woman at his Johannesburg home.

This, after President Thabo Mbeki released him from his post as deputy president of the country pending his corruption trial in July.

He wants to resume his ANC duties now, telling the SABC's Special Assignment: "The case is over and therefore I'm back. I took a decision (to step down temporarily), which was accepted by the ANC for the duration of the case."

The media expects a "war of words" at Sunday's meeting.

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.

Goodwill towards Mbeki within the party had virtually dried up, Rapport continued.

Its sister newspaper, City Press, reported that heated discussion 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 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, 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 Sunday Independent, however, reported that evidence of his ambition was revealed on Friday in an affidavit by his lawyer in support of a bid for further particulars in Zuma's pending corruption trial.

His attorney Michael Hulley argued that the trial be speedily concluded "so as not to harm his political aspirations in both the ANC and the government".

"All delays are essentially harmful to Zuma and advantageous to his political opponents," Hulley said.

The possibility of Zuma becoming president had divided the nation, the Sunday Tines 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