Zuma Goes for Broke [Sunday Times, 2006-09-03]

Publication	Sunday Times
Date	2006-09-03
Reporter	Paddy Harper, Moipone Malefane
Web Link	www.sundaytimes.co.za

Zuma’s allies have described his new gloves-off approach as a “turning point”, saying that he is now clearly differentiating himself from Mbeki.

Zuma’s allies are now privately saying they will push for his nomination as ANC president next year, even if his corruption trial has not concluded.

“We are aware that he may go to jail but if the 2007 conference takes place before ... we will ensure he stands for the presidency. It is possible. [Former ANC Chief Whip Tony] Yengeni is in jail but still an NEC member,” said a Zuma supporter.

South Africa’s former deputy president received a hero’s welcome at Sadtu’s congress, where in a clear attack on Mbeki he criticised “bureaucratic methods of suppressing debate. We have to guard against over-centralisation of power.”

It was the first time that Zuma had openly embraced Cosatu and the SACP’s criticisms of Mbeki’s presidency.

In another attack on Mbeki’s government, Zuma said the country could no longer afford “any mixed messages or ambiguity” about the scourge of HIV/Aids, stressing that “the lives of our people are at stake here”.

Zuma, a polygamist who earlier this year admitted to sleeping with an HIV-positive woman without a condom, said: “I believe that the greatest challenge that our country faces today is that of combating the spread of HIV and Aids through joint awareness campaigns.

“The application of the ABC strategy of abstinence, being faithful and the use of condoms and practising safe and protected sex should be the central message that we send to our people.”

One Zuma aide described the speech as “the turning point”.

“This is clearly the point of divergence between the two [Mbeki and Zuma], with him creating a new, left-wing path for himself in the ANC,” the aide said.

“In the past Cosatu leaders like [general secretary Zwelinzima] Vavi faced resistance [against backing Zuma] on the basis that he had never done anything or made any declaration which favoured the left. This speech ... clearly positions him with the left, but within the ambit of ANC policy.”

Zuma’s supporters say they will work to raise Zuma’s revamped profile in various trade-union congresses and in the remaining ANC provincial congresses ahead of next year’s ANC national conference.

Zuma stepped into the conference hall flanked by Vavi and SACP secretary-general Blade Nzimande before delegates broke into an anti-Mbeki song that went: “Sihamba no-Zuma. Thina nalo Zuma sobulala igovu lenja” (“We’ll go with Zuma and we’ll kill this big ugly dog” *1).

The senior Cosatu and SACP leaders sang along while a visibly uncomfortable ANC chairman, Mosiuoa Lekota, stood motionless.

The delegates also gave Education Minister Naledi Pandor a cold reception. A senior leader said she was unhappy about having to share a stage with Zuma.

While Zuma was intensifying his offensive against Mbeki, the latter, in his weekly online letter, defended Archbishop Desmond Tutu against criticism by Zuma supporters.

Tutu had questioned the integrity of Zuma as a leader and urged him to abandon his presidential ambitions.

Mbeki said a lot could be learnt from Tutu’s comments about leadership, urging “our movement and our people as a whole to make every effort to obtain and study Archbishop Tutu’s lecture, regardless of whether we agree or disagree with his comments about deputy president Zuma and others of our leaders”.

In papers submitted to the High Court in Pietermaritzburg opposing the state’s application for a postponement of his trial, Zuma has intimated that his lawyers may call Mbeki as a witness to explain both the circumstances of the arms deal and the vitriolic letter to the Select (sic) Committee on Public Accounts of January 9 2001. Zuma says he only signed the letter, and that it was drafted by Mbeki’s office.

Zuma’s lawyer, Michael Hulley, said on Friday that there was “no initiative” yet either to take a statement from Mbeki or to call him as a defence witness.