All-Out Bid to Save Zuma [Sunday Independent, 2009-01-18]

Publication: Sunday Independent Issued: Date: 2009-01-18 Reporter: Maureen Isaacson Reporter: Sibusiso Ngalwa

All-Out Bid to Save Zuma

Publication	Sunday Independent
Date	2009-01-18
Reporter	Maureen Isaacson, Sibusiso Ngalwa
Web Link	www.sundayindependent.co.za

The ANC's national working committee (NWC) will meet on Monday to thrash out strategies to prevent Jacob Zuma, the ANC president, from facing trial.

And his office has been beefed up by the deployment of top party officials to manage him.

Zuma suffered a legal setback in the Supreme Court of Appeal this week when the court upheld an appeal by the national prosecuting authority (NPA), thus exposing the ANC president to further criminal prosecution.

A subcommittee comprising senior ANC national executive committee (NEC) members will present the national working committee with the different strategies that the party could employ to get Zuma off the hook.

Lindiwe Sisulu, a senior NEC member and the minister of housing, told The Sunday Independent this week that the party was equally affected by Zuma's case, hence it wanted to get "involved".

"We are bringing the matter to the national working committee on Monday where we are going to thrash out exactly what we mean by getting involved. The ANC is de facto affected," she said.

The subcommittee was formed soon after Zuma's election as ANC president in Polokwane to "support" him and look at all aspects of his case.

The subcommittee was chaired by Sisulu, who said that it wanted to understand the Zuma case "entirely". "It was specifically looking at legal matters, so that we understand what was behind the case itself, what the various charges mean. So the ANC can understand and decide what to do," she said.

Sisulu said the ruling party remained convinced that Zuma was being unfairly treated by the NPA.

"He is the president of the ANC and the ANC has always been convinced that a grave injustice has been unfolding *1 in the case of Jacob Zuma.

"On various levels this case has been dragging on for an inordinately unjust period of time for anybody to be facing a trial *2.

"It has been out in the public and everybody is making up their minds about the case from what [information] is available in the media. That is why the ANC has always turned up to support Zuma at the trials, wherever they be.

"Certain assumptions have been made about Jacob Zuma himself."

She did not rule out the possibility of Zuma applying for a stay of prosecution.

"[If] the ANC decides to go that way, that is what it would be. Zuma is the face of our elections and we have a vested interest in seeing speedy justice done *3.

"And there hasn't been speedy justice and the current environment doesn't allow for the kind of prosecution that would be fair and just and dispassionate," she said.

The ANC's decision would only be made by the NWC formally tomorrow. Sisulu was unable to furnish further details before the matter had been discussed.

With the ANC following every available avenue to dispel the legal cloud over Zuma, the party has also deployed Joe Phaahla and Bathabile Dlamini, two senior NEC members, effectively to run Zuma's office - from his diary right down to the people he meets.

One ANC functionary quipped that the move was to block "Zuma's personal friends *4 and outsiders from running him from Forest Town (Zuma's Johannesburg residence)".

Phaahla is the "overall manager" and a gatekeeper of Zuma's office.

This article was originally published on page 1 of The Sunday Independent on January 18, 2009

Zuma faces a presidential nightmare

Pop star Zuma does it again

Zuma: the polygamist medical aids would avoid

Is this an admission of corruption?

'ANC will not change law to protect Zuma

With acknowledgements to Maureen Isaacson, Sibusiso Ngalwa and Sunday Independent.

*1       Yet has never tried to take the opportunities presented to him by all of the NPA, Parliament and the Public via the Press to explain his conduct.

To the contrary, he lied point blank.

This dingbat deserves public prosecution, not public nor party sympathy.

*2      Actually, it has not.

Formal investigation commenced on 24th August 2001 and initial investigations were completed two years later around 23rd August 2003.

So the case has been ongoing for some eight years. This is not extraordinary for a complex case consisting of nearly 1 000 individual counts of unlawfulness.

The the prosecuting authority has been active with the case all of the time since at least 2005 while the Accused has been active delaying the case since 2006.

Once a case has been ongoing for around 15 years, especially with little sign of progress, or at least action, then such a case can be considered as "dragging on".

Other cases in point are the Dave King and Gary Porritt matters.

*3      The entire country has a vested interest in seeing speedy justice done.

The speediest method would be for the Accused to submit himself to court during the first week of February and agree with the court and the prosecuting authority on a date to commence the trial.

nine months later there can be a first pass conclusion of this matter.

A permanent stay of prosecution is only in the interest of :

the Accused;
The Two Thints;
The ANC;
a group of anxious bumiputerians numbering less that 0,0001% of the country's population.

*4 One of who is Mr Moe Shaik, a friend with a particular and very personal interest in this matter.

Related Articles