Zuma in court in 2010 - ANCYL

2008-05-14 18:14

Johannesburg - African National Congress president Jacob Zuma's corruption case will not be heard in August this year, but in 2010, said ANC Youth League president Julius Malema on Wednesday.

He said the case against Zuma was aimed at disrupting the ANC's campaigning for the 2009 elections.

"We will be answering questions about the rape and corruption cases rather than explaining the election manifesto.

"We will be going to court rather than going to stadiums," he said at a Chris Hani workers' heritage exhibition in Johannesburg.

Zuma is due to appear in court in August on charges relating to corruption and money laundering.

Malema said charges against Zuma were a political ploy to project ANC leaders as dishonest.

"Those who were bitter that Zuma was elected president were quick to charge him and issue a court date without following proper court procedures.

Pays tribute to Chris Hani

"It cannot be that Zuma will be on trial before 2009, the only time he will be on trial is in 2010."

He said allegations that leaders of the alliance received R500 000 in a bag transported in a boot of a car and that leaders of Cosatu misused a credit card were aimed only at projecting leaders as corrupt, ready to steal from the poor.

"There is no crisis in the ANC, a crisis is when a leader walks out of the party conference and that did not happen," he said.

Paying tribute to the late SACP leader, he said Hani never suppressed his views on a particular issue.

The Chris Hani workers' exhibition aimed at informing people about the struggle of workers and the role Hani played to model the present democracy.

Hani was the leader of the SA Communist Party and chief of staff of the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) a military wing of the ANC.

He was assassinated on April 10, outside his home in Dawn Park in Boksburg. Polish immigrant Janusz Walus, shot him in the head as he stepped out of his car.

Walus and a senior member of the Conservative Party, Clive Derby-Lewis were arrested for Hani's murder.

Both were sentenced to death, but their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment in 1995.

- SAPA