The African National Congress (ANC) has been forced to accede to an emergency meeting with its alliance partners to thrash out a strategy to manage political fallout from the Jacob Zuma affair.

This comes amid growing pressure from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) following dramatic nationwide raids by the Scorpions on Zuma properties on Thursday.

While it is accepted that the ANC is unlikely to agree to Cosatu’s demand that corruption charges against ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma be dropped, a source close to the meeting said the main purpose was to develop a political strategy to prevent the Zuma matter from becoming a “spectacle” — and to ease the deep divisions that are emerging in the alliance.

ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe confirmed there would be a meeting but refused to give details. “We are meeting as the alliance to discuss the matter of Comrade Zuma. Yes, the matter is urgent but I am unable to give you more details at this stage,” Motlanthe said.

Motlanthe’s sentiments were echoed by Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. “We are meeting the ANC for urgent talks, that’s all I can say at this stage.”

Officially the ANC has a scheduled national working committee meeting today that is normally attended by President Thabo Mbeki, Zuma and other senior party officials. However Motlanthe was tight-lipped about whether the Zuma issue would feature on today’s agenda.

Tensions in the ANC-led alliance are at an all-time high over the Zuma saga.

Yesterday delegates at a South African Student Congress meeting staged a walk-out during an address by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

This is the second time the deputy president has been at the receiving end of grassroots anger over the Zuma affair.

She was booed by Zuma supporters in KwaZulu-Natal at a national women’s day event earlier this month.

The incidents, although isolated, seem to signal growing anger in the ANC rank and file over the party leadership’s inability to communicate its message concerning its deputy president.

Zuma’s backers are demanding that ANC leaders speak out to defend Zuma in the face of what they call a “political onslaught” orchestrated by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

Senior alliance leaders admitted that the Zuma issue had deepened divisions in the ANC. A key Zuma backer said: “We need to find out from the ANC leadership what the raids mean, why is it that the deputy president is being humiliated like this”.

The official line coming from Luthuli House is that the Zuma corruption trial is a legal matter.

However, Zuma’s supporters draw links between the timing of the raids and Cosatu’s call for the charges to be dropped against Zuma and to have him reinstated as SA’s deputy president.

Yesterday several youth organisations, including the ANC Youth League and the Young Communist League, led the charge in Zuma’s defence.

They called on Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana to investigate a case of an abuse of power by the Scorpions.

Addressing the media, ANC Youth League president Fikile Mbalula said: “The Scorpions have had five years to investigate this matter.

“Why go with automatic weapons in a dawn raid as if the deputy president of the ANC is a common fugitive from the law?”

Mbalula said the public protector should intervene as a matter of urgency because the conduct of the Scorpions had “violated” Zuma’s rights. The raids were a further demonstration that Zuma was unlikely to get a fair trial and the actions of the NPA fuelled suspicions that Zuma was facing a “political trial”.

Young Communist League chairman David Masondo said: “We are very concerned that the ANC has not spoken out on this matter”.

With acknowledgements to Karima Brown and the Business Day.