Jacob Zuma has acknowledged that he forced President Thabo Mbeki to push him out of the government - he refused to go voluntarily - but said that the decision to resign as an ANC MP was entirely his own.

He also made it clear that he would not resign from his position as ANC deputy president unless a disciplinary committee found him guilty of wrongdoing.

In a wide-ranging interview with SABC Africa, Zuma took his message of innocence to a wider continental audience. He remains the facilitator of the peace process in Burundi.

Eschewing the formal dress of his days as South Africa's deputy president, Zuma opted to wear a black leather jacket, white casual shirt and chinos for the interview.

Asked why he had not resigned as deputy president, he replied: "Why should I have left?

"If I was guilty - if I knew I at any given time was guilty - I am sure I would have made it as easy as anything."

Zuma repeated that he was innocent and his conscience was clear.

"I find it very difficult that you are dealt with indirectly, yet you are expected to take very direct action.

"Why would I plead guilty when there are no charges placed before me?"

'Check with Mr Ngcuka' Had he resigned, given his "unfair treatment", Zuma would have been "giving the wrong leadership; that if allegations are made about someone then that somebody must plead guilty", he said.

"I believe our democracy, our constitution, our state, should treat everyone fairly... [It is] too big a precedent for me just to walk away simply because people think there is something wrong with me. It is the principle of the matter."

Zuma said he had decided to resign as an MP, however, to protect the ANC from the mileage the opposition would try to gain from his presence in parliament.

Politically it would have been wrong for him to remain in parliament, he said.

"It would be very awkward to sit in parliament, for the ANC in particular, while the president has said 'I can't have Zuma in my cabinet'.

"And then you want to subject the ANC to unfair treatment by the opponents in parliament."

Zuma said that if he were in opposition he, too, would say, "here is a man whose own president is saying he is not fit to be a deputy president, but he thinks he can sit in this honourable house of the representatives of the public".

The former deputy president did not mention that by quitting as an MP he would also escape calls for parliament's ethics committee to re-open its inquiry into whether he had declared his financial interests as required by law, something that could prove embarrassing to the ANC.

He acknowledged, however, that personally he did not want to have to put up with the treatment he would invariably receive in parliament when "I believe everyone else will say 'this man was said not to be fit for the position' ".

On whether he might be compromising his party by remaining as its deputy president, Zuma said: "I would not have walked away on my own from the deputy presidency of the country when I am not guilty ... and so there is no reason why I should walk away from the ANC.

"The ANC has not said there is anything that they found wrong with me." The ANC treated its members fairly and did not jump to conclusions based on allegations, he said.

However, if he were to be disciplined by the movement he would respect its rules and regulations.

On his relationship with Mbeki, Zuma said: "We have worked together for over 30 years very closely and in government. I still hold him in high esteem. My comradeship will continue. He is president of the ANC and I am the deputy president of the ANC. We sit together every Monday in the same meeting."

Zuma repeated that he had been a victim of a political conspiracy. He noted that other than a list of written questions, he had never been questioned in person by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

Moreover, the NPA's chief at the time, Bulelani Ngcuka, had soon afterwards gone public to say there was a prima facie case of corruption against Zuma, but prospects of a successful prosecution were slim.

Referring to Ngcuka's infamous off-the-record briefing of black editors, Zuma said: "He said as much: 'I am going to try Zuma through the media.' That could only be a political thing."

Asked whether the "conspiracy" was wider than just Ngcuka, Zuma said: "Check with Mr Ngcuka. I am not ready to discuss it now. Probably the time is coming for me to do so."

With acknowledgement to The Sunday Independent.