Zille challenges Zuma

2008-02-15 16:34

Cape Town - Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille on Friday challenged ANC President Jacob Zuma to "pledge allegiance" to the Constitution.

Writing in her weekly newsletter on the DA website, she said should he become South Africa's next President, Zuma would hold the highest constitutional position in the country - one tasked with protecting, upholding and promoting the Constitution.

"To be head of state, one must surely be committed, without reservation, to the principles and values of our founding document.

"At the moment, Zuma does not meet that requirement. Jacob Zuma has already shown a disturbing disregard, on a number of occasions, for the rule of law and the Constitution," Zille said.

Among other things, in December 2006, as part of his "unofficial campaign" for the ANC presidency, Zuma had visited Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape.

In an address to ANC supporters, Zuma recalled an incident from ten years before, when he had been called in by the party to mediate a dispute.

'Cadre deployment'

He had added: "I said then that the ANC is more important than even the Constitution of the country."

The incident that Zuma was referring to was when he, in his capacity as ANC national chairperson, was called upon to resolve a dispute in the party's structures in the Free State.

The conflict had centred around the ANC's dismissal of then Free State Premier Mosiuoa Lekota, after he had exercised his prerogative under the Constitution to hire and fire MECs in his provincial cabinet.

Zuma's purpose in "mediating" the conflict was to re-enforce the ANC's policy of "cadre deployment" - meaning that ANC premiers were accountable first and foremost to the party, rather than the Constitution, Zille said.

The now infamous statement that Zuma had repeated more than once, that "the ANC will rule South Africa until Jesus comes", also revealed his contempt for the Constitution.

"After all, who needs a Constitution, when you believe that you rule by divine right?

"The truth of the matter is this. For Jacob Zuma and the ANC, loyalty to the ruling party is prioritised over the values and principles of the Constitution.

"Indeed, when it is in the interests of the ANC to do so, it deliberately blurs the constitutional principle of the separation between party and state.

"And so I have a challenge for the new President of the ANC," Zille said.

'Nothing but contempt'

Just as government wanted to instil a culture of constitutionalism in the youth, Zuma should lead by example.

"I call upon him to state openly that South Africa's Constitution is more important than any single political party and that he pledges his loyalty first and foremost to protecting, upholding and promoting its values.

"If he fails to do so, it will present undeniable evidence that Jacob Zuma is unfit to be South Africa's President.

"It will also prove that the ANC and its leadership have nothing but contempt for South Africa's Constitution," Zille said.

- SAPA