Calls for him to be reinstated as country's deputy president

Jacob Zuma was riding the crest of a tsunami last night, with resounding calls that he should be immediately reinstated as South African deputy president.

Should the state not prosecute him for corruption at a later date, Zuma appears well on the road to become President Thabo Mbeki's successor as ANC leader.

In his affidavit, Zuma also mentioned that the delay of the case against him, was a ploy to bar him from the top office in the land.

Zuma's reinstatement was demanded by the Congress of SA Trade Unions yesterday as his supporters ratcheted up his unofficial election campaign.

Zuma's victory yesterday - at least for now - has tilted the balance of forces in the middle of the Coastu congress, as well as next year's SACP congress and ultimately the decisive ANC elective congress.

By yesterday, alliance leaders on the Left, were already talking about the massive boost to their campaign to wrest control of the business-dominated ANC and ultimately government.

SACP General Secretary Blade Nzimande had earlier told the Cosatu congress that his party had an interest in what crop of leadership would emerge from the ANC.

Cosatu leaders aligned to Zuma strutted on the congress floor declaring they had won - an indication that this could sway the voting today for the highly-contested position of the federation's president.

The call for Zuma's immediate reinstatement is a view shared by the Young Communist League, among others, who have stood firm behind the man whom they believe is the victim of a political conspiracy to ensure he never became the ruling party and the country's number one citizen.

A special resolution sponsored by Sadtu and Nehawu was to be moved from the conference floor yesterday to coincide with Zuma's "victory party" at Cosatu's 9th national congress in Midrand after the Pietermaritzburg High Court struck his corruption case off the roll.

At the time of going to press, Zuma had not yet arrived at the congress.

With the possibility that the state could still prosecute Zuma, the resolution also urged that "that the legal moves against the deputy president of the ANC be laid to rest once and for all".

Mbeki, who fired Zuma as deputy president on June 14 last year, was in New York yesterday. His spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga declined to comment on the calls to have Zuma reinstated.

The anti-Mbeki sentiment played out outside court yesterday, with a Zuma supporter carrying a coffin bearing Mbeki's photograph, however, Cosatu delegates were more disciplined when news broke that their icon had been struck off the roll, despite some unionists privately saying that the support for Zuma is influence by ill-feeling towards the president.

Government spokesman Themba Maseko also told the Cape Times that he could not comment at this stage on calls for Zuma to be reinstated.

However, ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said the reinstatement issue "should be left for discussions in the structures of the ANC".

While it was the prerogative of the president to hire and fire his executive, it was not something that would be left entirely with him.

"The ANC would expect to say something also."

On the view that the judgment proved that a political conspiracy did exist against Zuma, he said: "It is a matter for the National Prosecuting Authority to disprove that assertion, it's not for the ANC to get into that."

Ngonyama noted, however, that "right now the case is struck off the roll, but we don't know what is going to come tomorrow".

Meanwhile, the striking of Zuma's case off the roll, was a further blow to Cosatu President Willie Madisha's chance of re-election. His was the only post to be contested.

Zuma's appearance at the congress last night was to have further boosted those caucusing for Cosatu Eastern Cape chairperson Zanozolo Wayile to succeed Madisha.

Madisha himself told the Cape Times that he would not withdraw, although some trade unionists acknowledged that he was still considering the option. It was a matter of timing the announcement if he did change his mind.

Several delegates expressed concern that the Cosatu leadership battle would divide the trade union federation.

Discussing the organisational issues in his secretariat report yesterday, Cosatu General Secretary Zwelenzima Vavi reported on Cosatu's weaknesses, among others, its involvement in the "divisions in the liberation movement", when he launched into an apparent attack on Madisha's camp without mentioning him by name.

"What has been disturbing recently was that some of us come here to congress and raise no objections but outside they begin to tell us what to do. This is one way of killing the coherence in the movement.

"When we keep quiet in debates and outside you go to the newspapers and say you don't agree.

"Some of us have a dream of being ministers and premiers, but we never declare our dreams openly. Then we want to ride on the back of workers with our ambitions. This must never be allowed to happen that people ride on the back of workers anywhere.

"So, in this report we say we are seeing leaders going to meetings, holding their CVs under their arms. The triumph of Zuma today is a triumph of these things. We must beware of false communists."

Nzimande, too, launched an indirect broadside at Madisha and defended Vavi for sticking to principled decisions about Zuma.

Earlier, delegates attending the Cosatu congress erupted into a frenzy when some of the leaders relayed a message that Zuma's case has been struck off the roll. They had received an SMS from Zuma aide, Ranjeni Munusamy, declaring: "Struck off". Delegates started hugging each other and dancing as the message reverberated across the hall.

Vavi, who relayed the news to delegates, raised his two fingers in both hands in a victory sign, to rapturous applause.

"We told you when we opened this congress, we will smell a victory … Let me tell you one thing there is a difference between rumour-mongering and actual justice in a court of law. Today justice prevails."

With acknowledgement to Angela Quintal, Moshoeshoe Monare, Christelle Terreblanche and Cape Times.