Mbeki wants Zuma probe
2005-08-26 16:02
Johannesburg - President Thabo Mbeki has suggested a commission of inquiry to probe allegations that he and others are seeking to politically destroy Jacob Zuma.
He said the alliance should establish the commission to establish whether "members of the ANC and the broad democratic movement, including the president of the ANC, have been and are involved in a conspiracy targeted at marginalising or destroying deputy president Zuma".
Some members of the alliance, including Cosatu, believe there is a politically inspired conspiracy to stop Zuma from becoming the next president of the ANC because he is seen to be too close to the working class.
Therefore, Cosatu's central committee resolved last week to call on Mbeki to ensure corruption charges against Zuma were dropped, and that he be reinstated as the country's deputy president.
Mbeki called for the commission in a letter written to an alliance meeting on Wednesday to discuss the Zuma saga. The letter was submitted by ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe and posted on the ANC's website on Friday.
Mbeki said the commission would give an opportunity to all members of the ANC, the alliance and the broad democratic movement to present whatever information they had concerning the alleged political conspiracy against Zuma.
To ensure that everybody concerned was free to speak openly, without fear or favour, he suggested that the commission conduct its work in camera.
"I would like to assure you that I would be ready to appear before the commission, if so requested, truthfully and to the best of my ability, to answer any questions relevant to the scope of its inquiry," Mbeki said.
Similarly he trusted all the alliance's organisations would insist their members with information should approach the commission.
"The establishment of the commission would enable the alliance and the broad movement to deal with the rumour-mongering that has attended the controversies that have surrounded deputy president Zuma for some years already."
It would also give the alliance and democratic movement the possibility to directly and in a united fashion combat all factional activities which may have arisen as a result of the law enforcement and judicial processes relating to Zuma.
The commission would have to work in a manner that did not compromise the work and independence of law enforcement, prosecution, and judicial authorities.
"We face the imperative vigorously to fight and defeat any and all factional activity that might have developed around the controversies that have surrounded our deputy president, including any such factional activity as may be or may have been directed against the deputy president.
"To conduct this critically important struggle successfully, what we need above everything else is the truth, loyalty to our fundamental principles and practices, and the unity of our movement.
"The commission of inquiry would help us to achieve these goals," Mbeki said.
He said he firmly believed that no member of the ANC, the alliance and the rest of the democratic movement should be subjected to hidden political agendas.
For this reason the alliance had a collective responsibility to expose and confront any factions that may exist in democratic movement which may be engaged in a conspiracy to discredit Zuma.
"Should such a conspiracy exist, we must unite the entirety of our movement in a determined offensive to defeat it.
"Specifically, our movement must act urgently and in unity to protect the ANC deputy president, and therefore our movement as a whole, from any hostile factional offensive, if it is established that such an offensive exists."
He said the allegations concerning Zuma had already caused great harm to the ANC, the alliance, the broad democratic movement. Therefore the alliance leadership must confront it head-on, with no equivocation of any kind.
- SAPA