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Zuma: I'll accept nomination
17/04/2007 18:53 - (SA)
Cape Town - Jacob Zuma, deputy leader of the African National Congress, said on Tuesday he would accept nomination for the presidency of the ruling party even if charged with corruption.
"We have a constitution in this country that says, whether charged or not charged, you remain innocent until found guilty," said Zuma, the subject of a lengthy graft probe which has seen his former financial adviser jailed.
"Why should I find myself guilty when I have not been found by any court to be guilty?
"Why should I believe I've committed a crime when I've never committed a crime?
"Why if I'm charged and I'm innocent I should then say to the ANC I am guilty?
"If I did that, I would be saying I am guilty even before the court says so. It would be totally wrong, it would be unconstitutional."
Fired as deputy president
The ANC will vote in December on a successor as party chief to President Thabo Mbeki.
Given the ANC's hold on power, the next party leader would also be odds-on favourite to take over from Mbeki as head of state after he stood down in 2009.
Zuma was fired as South Africa's deputy president after his advisor Schabir Shaik was sentenced to 15 years in jail for corruption, and he was subsequently charged.
Despite a judge throwing out charges against Zuma in September last year, linked to a 1999 arms deal, the country's national prosecuting authority is pressing ahead with investigations.
Zuma was acquitted last year of raping an HIV-positive family friend, but was widely slammed for admitting in court to having had sex with her without a condom, and for stating that he showered afterwards for protection.
Zuma has already received the public backing of important players, including the ANC's Youth League, but he denied on Tuesday that he was actively campaigning for the presidency ahead of the party conference .
No campaigning in ANC
"We do not campaign in the ANC," he told the Cape Town Press Club.
"The only time you know you are standing or not standing for anything in the ANC is when the nominations are done, and even then you don't campaign."
He declined to offer opinions on alternatives to Mbeki, saying: "I am not an independent person. I belong to an organisation."
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