Embattled African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma harbours strong and scathing views on how the media has reported his run-ins with the law.

This emerged from an exclusive interview with The Star, when he said the media had been "properly lobbied" to gang up against him by former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka.

Zuma slammed the infamous off-the-record briefing by the Scorpions boss with black editors as the highlight of a "conspiracy" to destroy his political career, in which, he claimed, the media was roped in to support efforts to throw mud at him.

He said "even the media has been recruited to help this campaign" to topple him from power, destroy his political career and remove him from the race to succeed Thabo Mbeki as ANC president and the country's president.

"For instance, how can you have editors being lobbied by a man leading such an important institution of our democracy saying 'Please help me', and they complied."

The contents of the off-the-record briefing, which was held in July 2003, were laid bare by disgraced former City Press editor Vusi Mona, who later told the Hefer Commission that Ngcuka had told editors he would wash his hands of Zuma and leave him to be tried in the court of public opinion.

Zuma told the paper he agreed with the views of former South African National Defence Force chief General Siphiwe Nyanda, who wrote recently in a Sunday newspaper that the "media wished for Zuma's demise even before Schabir Shaik's conviction for fraud".

Zuma, who is gathering his thoughts with a view to writing a series of books about his experiences and the latest challenges facing him, vowed never to forget the treatment he had received at the hands of South African journalists.

Zuma also dismissed the rape and corruption charges against him, saying he was not guilty of any of the offences.

With acknowledgements to Zukile Majova and The Star.