Publication: Sapa Issued: Johannesburg Date: 2005-06-13 Reporter: Sapa Reporter:

ANC Not Divided Over Zuma Issue : Party Spokesman

 

Publication 

Sapa
BC-ANC-DIVISIONS

Issued

Johannesburg
Date 2005-06-13

Reporter

 Sapa

 

The African National Congress was not divided over Deputy President Jacob Zuma as has been widely reported in the media, the party said on Monday.

Last week, Judge Hilary Squires said Zuma and Schabir Shaik, Zuma financial advisor, had a "generally corrupt relationship".

Shaik was sentenced to 15 years for fraud and two counts of corruption. He is appealing the conviction and sentence.

"The ANC is not -- and cannot be -- divided over the outcome of the Schabir Shaik trial," ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said in a statement.

"For as long as the South African media has covered the ANC, it has excelled in finding 'divisions' between the communists and the nationalists, the hawks and the doves, the exiles and the internal structures, between Nguni and non-Nguni, and between the supposed supporters of any number of leadership figures."

Ngonyama described as fiction media reports which said the ANC was "torn down the middle between those who support the Deputy President and those who don't".

Said Ngonyama: "It (the media) found evidence of this everywhere, from the results of ANC provincial conferences to the attendance at government izimbizo.

"Once again, these imagined divisions are presented as cataclysmic, with various commentators predicting everything from the dismemberment of the ANC to the end of the alliance.

"The most recent reports, it should be acknowledged, have been fueled by a handful of voices within the ANC and its alliance partners who willingly propagate such falsehoods in pursuit of narrow individual agendas.

"As in the past, these predictions will prove baseless."

In passing judgment, Squires questioned Zuma's involvement with Shaik.

However, there has been much speculation in the media as to how Mbeki will approach the delicate topic of Zuma's alleged involvement in corruption.

Zuma has maintained his innocence and pointed out that he has not been convicted of any crime.

According media speculation, Zuma has refused to resign, leaving the president with tough choices. Mbeki was expected to put an end to the speculation during Tuesday's joint sitting.

With acknowledgement to Sapa.