Publication: The Natal Witness Issued: Date: 2005-12-28 Reporter: Adriaan Basson Reporter: Floyd Sibandae

I will not be scared off by cowards, says Zuma

 

Publication 

The Natal Witness
Date 2005-12-28

Reporter

 Adriaan Basson, Floyd Sibandae

Web Link

www.witness.co.za

 

Jacob Zuma says in a letter he wrote before Christmas that he won’t be scared off by “cowards” and that his supporters are getting stronger by the day.

In the letter to the KZN newspaper Isolezwe, Zuma speaks openly for the first time since being charged for corruption and rape. The letter, written in Zuma’s home language, Zulu, was also put on to his website.

The ANC deputy president rails against the media which, he says, “has undermined his name and good reputation” and makes an appeal to men to love and respect their mothers, wives, sisters and children.

Zuma was charged with rape on December 6 in the Johannesburg Regional Court. It is alleged that he raped a 31-year-old family friend in his luxury Forest Hills, Johannesburg, home.

Zuma refers in his letter to his childhood as a herdboy in Zululand and says the skills he learnt then have helped him now.

“I sometimes remember the old Zulu saying: ‘When it rained, I had no shelter. When I was bitten by dogs, I had nothing to fight back with.

“Things are still the same. It is still raining on me, but the difference is that I now have a raincoat. Dogs are still biting me, but now I have something to fight back with *1.”

Zuma says all the articles and reports about him lack respect for his personality, image, reputation and human rights.

“My family and my ancestors are also involved and being undermined in the process. Most of the reporters are children in terms of age. *2”

Zuma repeats his message that he will “reveal a lot” after his trials *1. He and his supporters have often said that there is a plot against him to stop him becoming the next South African president.

According to Zuma, his family and tribe are being victimised because they know him. “It is a scandal that these people aren’t being protected by the new, democratic South African Constitution.”

Zuma writes that he did not fight alone against apartheid. There were also other people who gave their lives to the struggle *3 “to ensure that black people are free in our ancestors’ land, not to fight over positions”.

Zuma says that he was never treated so poorly by the justice system and the media under apartheid.

But, he added, he isn’t going to throw in the towel.

With acknowledgements to Adriaan Basson, Floyd Sibandae and The Natal Witness.


*1  "Nuf said - but say it before the judge, not after the trial.

*2  Nonsense. A few guesses of just a few examples of the more prolific writers on the subject :
No women are included in the list, not because they do not write on the subject, but because my grandmother told me that one never discusses a woman's age.

But there are a lot of women journalists who have published on the matter, including Chiara Carter, Marion Edmunds, Jessica Bezuidenhout, Estelle Ellis, Angela Quintal, Wendy da Costa, Christelle Terblanche, Alide Danois, Nivashni Nair, Linda Ensor, Nicola Jenvey, Karima Brown, Elise-Marié Tancred, Jean le May and Karen Bliksem . I don't think that anyone could say of these journalists that they are children in terms of age, or their articles childish or childlike.

If there is any journalist whom I have offended, I am waiting for your call.

*3  Such as Comrade Commander "Mandla" Judson Khuzwayo.