ANC deputy president in name only

Axed as South Africa's second-in-command last week, Jacob Zuma was effectively stripped yesterday of his remaining hold on power. He remains deputy president of the ruling party in name only, pending the outcome of his trial on two counts of corruption.

In yet another day of high drama, Zuma and his supporters were berated by the ANC's top leadership for alleging that the former deputy president was the victim of a "political conspiracy".

The ANC angrily denounced their "reckless statements".

Zuma did not attend the national working committee meeting at ANC headquarters in Johannesburg yesterday.

The ANC said Zuma, after being told by National Prosecuting Authority head (NPA) Vusi Pikoli that he was to be prosecuted, had asked the national working committee "to withdraw his participation from all ANC structures pending the completion of the legal process".

This could take up to two years and could conceivably take Zuma to the ANC's 2007 national conference, at which the succession race is to come to a head.

ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama repeated that Zuma had asked that he be relieved of all active duties, including work on the ANC's national executive committee - the party's highest decision-making body outside its five-yearly national conference and its influential 25-member national working committee.

There was also a strong possibility that Zuma would not be speaking anywhere on behalf of the organisation, Ngonyama said. This included the Freedom Day celebrations in Durban on Sunday and the crucial ANC national general council meeting next week.

Zuma will be out of the public eye and, in effect, unable to drum up public support.

"He will not be participating in the national executive committee or the national working committee and perhaps also he will not be going out to speak on behalf of the ANC," said Ngonyama.

ANC insiders said Zuma had no choice but to take this route. If he did not, he would face being disciplined and suspended by the ANC for "conduct unbecoming".

The ANC leadership plans to travel the length and breadth of the country explaining the situation and trying to contain the fallout.

In a statement, the national executive committee urged ANC members "to maintain the organisational discipline and high standards of political conduct that have characterised the movement even during the most difficult periods of its history".

Ngonyama denounced statements made by Zuma and supporters in the ANC Youth League and the ANC's alliance partners, the SACP and Cosatu, that the former deputy president was the victim of a political plot.

"Now that Zuma will be facing formal charges, the ANC hopes it will put to rest some of the reckless statements that have been made in the public sphere over the past few weeks.

"These include careless allegations relating to notions of a political conspiracy, the supposed existence of a 'right-wing clique' in the ANC, and suggestions of the use of state institutions to settle political scores.

"There is no basis to such statements. Leaders and members of the ANC do not engage in political conspiracy or intrigue. All ANC leaders and members operate according to standards of political conduct forged over decades of struggle."

Ngonyama noted that the NPA's decision to prosecute came two days after Zuma told an interviewer there were other ways to clear his name than having his day in court.

Zuma was apparently "very calm" when Pikoli called to say he would be charged.

He is to be spared the humiliation of being arrested as other high-profile politicians before him, including former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni, have been.

He is to be told to appear in the Durban Magistrate's Court, where he is to be formally charged, later this week. The case against him may take as long as a year to come to court.

In an interview with SABC Africa on Friday, Zuma was asked whether he wished to be tried in court to clear his name.

"People are misunderstanding. There is no man who says arrest me. I'm not standing here asking to please take me to court. It is not necessary that a person must go to court. There are other processes," Zuma said.

The announcement by the NPA yesterday was in stark contrast to the media bunfight almost two years ago when then-head of the NPA, Bulelani Ngcuka, accompanied by then-justice minister Penuell Maduna, told the world there was a "prima facie" case of corruption against Zuma, but that the prospects of a successful prosecution were not strong enough.

Yesterday, there was no sign of the NPA's big guns and it was left to spokesman Makhosini Nkosi to make the announcement. He said the NPA believed there was a "reasonable prospect of a successful prosecution".

The NPA had not succumbed to pressure from any quarter to prosecute Zuma, Nkosi said.

"We looked at the judgment. We looked at the evidence available. We looked at all other considerations, such as the interests of the public, Zuma's own interests, the interests of the criminal justice system. It is not through pressure from anyone."

With acknowledgements to Angela Quintal, Jeremy Michaels, Moshoeshoe Monare and the Cape Times.