A blistering attack on the integrity of ANC presidential candidate Jacob Zuma has been launched by the ANC's national chairman, Defence Minister Mosiuoa "Terror" Lekota.

He claims Zuma asked to be fired from the cabinet in 2005.

In an interview with The Times yesterday, Lekota said that soon after Zuma's financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was found guilty of fraud and corruption, President Thabo Mbeki met Zuma ­ then the deputy president of the country ­ and they agreed that Zuma could not remain in office.

Zuma was implicated in the offences that led to Shaik being jailed and the possibility remains that he will be charged with fraud, corruption and tax evasion.

Last week, he trounced Mbeki by winning more provincial nominations than the president for the party's leadership. Elections for leadership positions will be held at the party's 52nd national conference, which begins on December 16 in Polokwane.

Lekota said: "When Shaik was found guilty, Mbeki and Zuma agreed that, given the provisions of the constitution, there was no choice but that the executive respect the decisions of the judiciary ­ therefore, that comrade Zuma should leave office.

"They discussed the matter and the two of them briefed a meeting of the extended national working committee. They briefed us, and in that briefing they said the president had suggested that perhaps the deputy president should resign.

"But comrade Zuma prevailed on the president by saying: 'Rather you dismiss me, because if I resign it might suggest that I'm admitting guilt, when I'm not. Therefore, the best thing is that you dismiss me'."

Lekota said both men were present at the meeting of the extended national working committee.

He said the speech Mbeki read in parliament on June 14 2005, in which he announced the sacking of Zuma as the nation's deputy president, was first read and approved by Zuma.

"Now, having done that, a week later we heard that comrade Zuma was saying there was a conspiracy against him and that is why he was dismissed. We asked him who are the people who hatched the conspiracy [but] he has never told us to this day," Lekota said.

"For the first time, our people are going to look at these truths. While we were busy working in the government, we did not realise that lies were being spread about us ... lies were being spread about the president ... lies were being spread about the ANC.

"We cannot keep quiet about these things any more. We have to tell the truth and people must respond to that truth, otherwise history will judge us very badly. People are going to wake up to the truth and the truth must be its own defence," he said.

The ANC chairman said Zuma attended a meeting of ANC officials in the 1990s at which a letter Shaik had written to the ANC inviting it to take shares in his Nkobi Holdings was discussed. The offer was turned down. Those at the meeting were ANC president Nelson Mandela, his deputy, Mbeki, party chairman Zuma, secretary general Cyril Ramaphosa, his deputy, Cheryl Carolus, and treasurer Makhenkesi Stofile.

"When Shaik was on trial, suddenly evidence came forward that comrade Zuma had shares in Nkobi Holdings *1 and all of us were shocked to hear it. The Nkobi family had been complaining about the use of its name and we told them that the ANC had nothing to do with it. At the time we did not know that comrade Zuma was involved.

"Now we are telling our people these truths ­ that there is no conspiracy, that comrade Zuma was a part of a meeting that decided against getting involved in Nkobi Holdings. We are saying he [Zuma] went there alone. The money that he got from Nkobi never got to the ANC, and it ended with him and him alone. *2

"But now we are portrayed as crooks *3 and that we have trapped him. This is the information we are putting to our people and we are saying this is the bold truth, and comrade Zuma and those who support him must answer to these things," said Lekota.

Lekota's remarks come at a time when the Zuma camp's list for the top six positions in the ANC seems to be crumbling. Sources say that the only two women on the list, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a nominee for the ANC chairmanship, and National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbethe, nominated as deputy secretary, have declined to stand.

Dlamini-Zuma, who is being touted as the next president of the country if the Mbeki camp wins in Limpopo, was put under pressure at a recent KwaZulu-Natal nomination conference to declare whether she would accept. She refused to do so, saying she would disclose her position only if she were approached by the ANC's electoral commission.

Foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said yesterday that Dlamini-Zuma would make her position known on her return from the Middle East peace conference in the US.

Mbethe was not available for comment.

Lekota said the foreign affairs minister could not "be pushed to accept a position lower than the deputy president" of the party because of the ANC policy proposal to have 50-50 male-female representation in all structures of the ANC.

He said: "In comrade Thabo and comrade Nkosazana we already have a combination of comrades whom we have seen working on the international front to raise the profile of South Africa. The two of them have done an exceptional job. It is a team that we throw away at our peril.

"Between now and the conference, members of the ANC will have to reflect very carefully on what we have at present as opposed to what we don't know we might get if we change this team," Lekota said.

With acknowledgement to Xolani Xundu and The Times.