An uneasy truce has settled over the ruling tripartite alliance following marathon crisis talks that ended in the early hours of yesterday.

In a carefully crafted statement, the African National Congress (ANC), the South Africa Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) papered over the cracks and closed ranks around embattled ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.

“The alliance reiterates that comrade Zuma continues to enjoy the full and unreserved support of the alliance and each of its component organisations and members,” said last night’s statement.

The ANC and its allies also called on the state to foot the bill for Zuma’s defence. “The alliance meeting urged comrade Zuma’s lawyers to approach the state to cover the costs of his legal defence, since he is facing allegations that emanate from his role as a public office bearer *1,” it said.

The tripartite alliance said it “disapproves” of last week’s dawn raids on properties linked to Zuma, his lawyers, and financial backers.

“This (the raids) is inconsistent with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act, which urges that the Scorpions must perform its duties fearlessly but with sensitivity to privacy and the dignity of the affected persons.”

The alliance would soon launch an official complaint with NPA director Vusi Pikoli, it said.

But the meeting reaffirmed the rule of law, indicating that Cosatu would drop its demand that President Thabo Mbeki intervene to quash the case against Zuma.

“The alliance reiterated its commitment to the upholding of the rule of law, the supremacy of the South African constitution, the principle of presumption of innocence, and the need for state institutions to respect the rights, dignity and integrity of all citizens,” said the statement.

Alliance partners admitted for the first time in the meeting that the prosecution of Zuma and the suspicions it has sown constituted a political crisis.

Sources said the meeting, which lasted into the early hours of the morning, was acrimonious and showed that all three allies were internally divided over the Zuma matter.

This is in contrast to earlier indications that the ANC alone was paralysed by internal divisions, with Cosatu and the SACP united behind Zuma.

Yesterday’s statement described discussions as “frank, fruitful, and constructive”.

The statement itself came after hours of tense negotiations over its exact wording. Senior alliance leaders were haggling over the statement well into the early evening.

In a tense compromise, Cosatu climbed down on its demand for a political intervention to halt the Zuma trial. They acknowledged that last week’s resolution calling for Mbeki to intervene in the case had painted the federation into a corner.

ANC leaders would not use this lapse to embarrass Cosatu publicly. Union leaders also agreed to stop making public statements alleging there was a political conspiracy against Zuma.

However, they were assured that the trial would be fair and without interference.

The statement also committed the alliance to further talks about the Cosatu resolution, which included a demand for Zuma’s case to be heard by a full high court bench to ensure a fair trial.

Political analyst Adam Habib said the new detente in the alliance would not hold because political tensions did not appear to have been resolved.

With acknowledgements to Vukani Mde, Karima Brown and Business Day.