Publication: Sapa Issued: Johannesburg Date: 2005-06-12 Reporter: Gillian Jones Reporter:

Zuma's Fate Still Unknown

 

Publication 

Sapa
BC-MBEKI-LD-ZUMA

Issued

Johannesburg
Date 2005-06-12

Reporter

 Gillian Jones

 

It was still unclear on Sunday when President Thabo Mbeki would announce the fate of his deputy, Jacob Zuma, who has been implicated in corruption.

"I am as in the dark as you are," said presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo, asked when Mbeki was expected to make an announcement.

"The timing of any announcement is the prerogative of the president," he said.

Media and opposition parties have called for Zuma to resign or be fired following the finding in the Durban High Court that Zuma had a "generally corrupt" relationship with his financial advisor Schabir Shaik.

Sunday papers reported that Mbeki and Zuma had met privately, and Zuma had insisted he would not quit.

Khumalo said he did not know anything about such a meeting.

"I don't know anything about it, I really don't know," he said.

Mbeki was in Pretoria this weekend, and would head to Doha, Qatar on Monday night or Tuesday for the Second South Summit of the Group of 77.

"He will be back in time for June 16 Youth Day Commemorations in Kimberley," Khumalo said.

Earlier this week, government spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe said Mbeki would "communicate to the public any decisions that he will have taken on the matter" as soon as practicable after his return from a state visit to Chile. Mbeki returned on Thursday morning.

The Sunday Times speculated that Mbeki would wait until after an African National Congress General Council meeting in three weeks before making his move.

Both the SA Communist Party and Cosatu have backed the Zuma, saying the principle of being presumed innocent until proven guilty should be upheld.

Shaik was sentenced to 15 years in jail on Wednesday last week after being convicted of fraud and theft involving improper financial dealings with the deputy president.

Judge Hilary Squires ruled that the men had a "generally corrupt" relationship, and found Shaik guilty of soliciting a R500 000-a-year bribe for Zuma from French arms company Thomson-CSF in return for protection from a probe into South Africa's multi-billion rand arms deal.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance's justice spokesman Sheila Camerer said she had written to Public Protector advocate Lawrence Mushwana suggesting he reopen his investigation into the complaint by Zuma about the way he was treated by the National Director of Public Prosecutions.

"Deputy President Zuma lodged the complaint in October 2003 alleging that the NDPP statement to the effect that there was a prima facie case against him, although an unwinable one, was conducted in bad faith and had been designed to humiliate him.

"The subsequent finding was that the NDPP and NPA should be held accountable for infringing the Deputy President's rights and acting in an unfair and improper manner," Camerer said.

"Now that the judgment in the Schabir Shaik case has found that a generally corrupt relationship existed between Shaik and the Deputy President we would suggest it would be appropriate to reopen the investigation."

If Zuma were to stay in office without clearing his name, it would "really make life difficult for everybody", said Paul Graham, executive director of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa.

"It would affect our international standing, particularly with the G8 coming up," he said, referring to next month's G8 group of industrial nations meeting in Scotland which was due to consider proposals to scrap Africa's debt and increase aid.

"It's going to mean there is always an undercurrent whenever he has to take a policy decision.

"And it is always going to allow people who disagree with him... to undermine him. All those things degrade our society.

"It may damage development and the country's reputation and ability to sustain rational policies," he said,

Zuma's name could only be cleared through a trial or if he made a public statement dealing with all the accusations against him, Graham said.

"He is stuck, as whatever he says can be used against him, His lawyers and advisers would advise him against taking this initiative," he said.

The National Prosecuting Authority on Friday denied a Mail & Guardian report that it was preparing to charge Zuma.

The final decision rested with national director of public prosecutions Vusi Pikoli, who was still studying the Shaik judgment and had not yet made a decision, it said in a statement.

Graham said there were two competing views on what should happen when someone is accused of corruption.

"One view is that until the person's name is cleared, he should withdraw from public office. This is the view driving calls for his resignation."

The other view is that a person should not be hounded from office through baseless accusations.

"In a society where leadership is somewhat scarce, it's too easy for people who may have a political motive to throw mud and in that way drive people from the political field," Graham said.

Both of these arguments were genuine and valid, he said, predicting that the Zuma saga was "going to be a long drawn-out process like the arms deal".

With acknowledgement to Gillian Jones and Sapa.


*1       Do the right things - get it over with - however painful in the short term :