Kwa-Zulu Natal premier S’bu Ndebele has pledged to personally lead a delegation of top ANC leaders to support axed Deputy President Jacob Zuma when he appears in court on October 11.

In an interview with the Sunday Times this week, Ndebele said some national leaders were expected to join the ANC’s provincial executive in court on that day.

Ndebele, a close ally of President Thabo Mbeki, has recently been under pressure from his mainly Zuma-supporting colleagues in the province.

Zuma is facing charges of corruption stemming from the conviction of his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, on fraud and corruption charges.

Ndebele said the move by the ANC was aimed at defusing the tensions over President Thabo Mbeki’s sacking of Zuma, which has sparked angry protests at ANC and government events throughout the province. Ndebele himself was heckled and pelted with bottles on June 16 when he attempted to address a Youth Day rally at KwaMashu about Zuma’s “release” from government.

“I will be there, not just myself but the entire provincial leadership will do so,” Ndebele said. “Several national leaders from the National Executive Committee (NEC) are also expected to come.”

When Zuma first appeared, several thousand supporters turned the streets around Durban’s Regional Court into a no-go zone. Three of Ndebele’s MECs — Bheki Cele, Zweli Mkhize and Mike Mabuyakhulu — were inside the court, but there was no leadership presence outside where the masses ran riot.

This time, said Ndebele, the show of solidarity would be “well marshalled, well disciplined” with leadership taking control of the situation in the streets.

There have been indications that Ndebele, who is provincial chairman, was losing control over ANC structures.

“The entire provincial leadership, and the leadership of the alliance, has endorsed the statement that we support both the president of the ANC and the deputy president of the ANC. This is a unanimous position,” Ndebele said. “There is no division on this issue.”

The ANC’s Provincial Executive Committee had put forward a proposal that Zuma and Mbeki meet and seek reconciliation in a bid to unite the ANC, an initiative identical to that endorsed by the NEC.

“The ANC has made a massive investment in these two leaders. President Thabo Mbeki has been in the ANC since the age of 14 ... ANC Deputy President Jacob Zuma has been in the ANC since 17 ... these are both legitimate and correct leaders of the ANC,” Ndebele said.

“We believe Thabo Mbeki does not want to leave behind a weakened and divided ANC, just as Jacob Zuma does not want to inherit a weakened and divided ANC,” he added.

Ndebele said he had been caught by surprise by the response to Mbeki’s decision to fire Zuma and that the period since had been “traumatic”.

“A leader of Nadeco [the National Democratic Convention, a new political party in Kwazulu-Natal] came to me and said that when the ANC is ailing, South Africa is ailing and this is really true. We have a responsibility to deal with this problem politically and then the other issues, the legal processes, can be followed.

“We need to start the work of repairing relationships by saying who we are and what we want to achieve. This problem is resolvable. Victory will come to the party which has the clearest conception of the next step.”

Ndebele said two ANC regions — the South Coast and Newcastle — had been briefed on Zuma. More briefings, some involving Zuma, would take place in October. Zuma would also be deployed in KwaZulu-Natal in the local government election campaign, he said.

With acknowledgements to Paddy Harper and the Sunday Times.