Media sent on wild goose chase

2006-05-14 20:29

Johannesburg - Members of the African National Congress evaded the media on Sunday evening when they changed the venue for the national executive committee meeting from Luthuli House to the Esselen Park training centre in Kempton Park.

The meeting - scheduled to start at 18:00 - began on time at the training centre, while journalists were left waiting at Luthuli House.

At Esselen Park, security guards at the gate turned journalists away, saying they had strict instructions from the ANC not to allow the media within 50m of the gate.

Jacob Zuma's role in the ANC is expected to be discussed at the meeting.

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

Not a mere formality

While most commentators believe there will be little objection to his resuming his duties after his rape acquittal, ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe said recently this was not "a mere formality".

"The national executive committee (NEC) has to consider and pronounce itself on it," Motlanthe said.

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 about 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.

Its sister newspaper, City Press, reported that heated discussions were expected at the meeting about 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".

Woman president

Serious debate was also expected about 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 of 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 Zuma, 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".

'The ANC decides'

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 possibility of Zuma becoming president had divided the nation, the Sunday Times 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."

49% agreed with verdict

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 showed that no clear successor to Mbeki had emerged in people's minds," reported the Sunday Times.

- SAPA