Publication: Pretoria News
Issued:
Date: 2005-06-11
Reporter: Jimmy Seepe
Reporter: Makhudu Sefara
A defiant Deputy President Jacob Zuma has effectively dared
President Thabo Mbeki to fire him.
Having personally told Mbeki and
other emissaries to leave him alone, the stage is now set for Mbeki to fire Zuma
either tomorrow or when he returns from a trip to the Middle East, for which he
leaves on Tuesday.
Presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo yesterday
said nothing had changed and the president was still expected to make an
announcement.
He did not say when this would be forthcoming.
It
is understood that, following last week's meeting of the top five, Zuma
privately met Mbeki and insisted that he would not resign.
Zuma, buoyed
by visible and voluble support as he trudged through the country's hinterlands
effectively mobilising grassroot support for the ANC, would have been emboldened by the ANC Women's League, which yesterday said
he should not resign.
Zuma is understood to have told those close to him
that Mbeki should fire him, if he (Mbeki) did not want him to serve in his
government.
In what is seen as a desperate last attempt to hold on to
his post in the ANC, Zuma has offered to explain himself to ANC and tripartite
alliance members.
Matters are once again expected to come to a head
tomorrow when the ANC's National Working Committee (NWC) sits at its regular
meeting.
Senior government a sources said: "People are failing to
differentiate between the ANC and government.
"Zuma's position within
the ANC can only be determined by the leadership of the ANC and they will most
probably wait for the conference in 2007.
"However, the president
decides who continues to serve in his cabinet because neither the national
constitution nor the ANC's constitution says the deputy president of the
organisation will or must be the deputy president of the country."
ANC
sources said there was general astonishment about
Zuma's response to the court ruling in the Schabir Shaik
trial, which indicated that he had a "generally corrupt" relationship
with his former financial advisor.
"Most of us have been shamed by Jacob Zuma's shamelessness.
"A court of law, after thoroughly
considering evidence for seven months, says there is a generally corrupt
relationship.
"He then goes about unmoved
about it, as though this does not matter.
"He
carries himself as though the nation is wrong in expecting him to at least admit
a few things went wrong.
"Some of us watched in horror when he blamed
the media for finding him guilty.
"His theatrics are like groping in the
dark, they are shaming.
"Members of the ANC are not fools. Their silence
is not a lack of support for Mbeki, it's to allow for the
shock to sink in.
"There is a point beyond which all of us have
to say thus far and no further Mr Deputy President."
National Director
of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Vusi Pikoli, is expected to take a decision on
whether to charge Zuma within days.
"The ball," said an ANC MP
yesterday, "is in Mbeki's court on what he wants the Scorpions to do with Zuma.
"No gentlemen's agreement seems possible."
Another source said:
"Our information is that comrade Pikoli has sought legal
advice from top legal minds on how to proceed in the wake of the
conviction against Shaik.
"All of the experts
that he contacted told him that it was impossible and
legally indefensible not to charge Zuma."
Zuma spent the last
three days in the Eastern Cape on a government imbizo, but his supporters told
City Press that he was using the trip as an opportunity to garner support from
the area.
"He was told to stay longer and
meet with structures there.
"We are happy with the support, even former
MK operatives now in the defence force, some of them in senior positions, have
indicated they want to be heard on the matter as they feel Zuma should not go,"
the source said.
However, a senior government source said: "There may
well be individuals who declare their support for Zuma but it does not amount to anything to write home about."
As the country waits for Mbeki to make his decision, it is understood
that Pikoli; Advocate Leonard McCarthy, head of the Directorate of Special
Operations; and Anton Ackerman, head of the Priority Litigation Unit, are
currently grappling with:
- Whether to wait for a decision on Shaik's appeal before they go after Zuma;
- The fact that the volume of direct evidence available related more to Shaik
than to Zuma; and
- The fact that the admissibility of documents, like the encrypted fax,
related to Shaik and were not automatically related to Zuma.
With acknowledgements to Jimmy Seepe, Makhudu
Sefara and City Press.