Publication: Sapa Issued: Pietermaritzburg Date: 2009-02-04 Reporter: Sapa

I Won't Step Down As ANC Candidate: Zuma

 

Publication 

Sapa
BC-COURT-13TH-LD-ZUMA  
Issued Pietermaritzburg
Date 2009-02-04

Reporter

Sapa



ANC president Jacob Zuma said stepping aside as the ANC presidential candidate would be like pleading guilty to the charges against him.

Addressing thousands of ANC supporters who gathered outside the Pietermaritzburg High Court during his court appearance on Wednesday, Zuma said stepping a side would also create a bad precedent.

"What has happened to me is that certain people have thrown this dark cloud to me with the aim of demonising me. So if I step aside, a bad precedent will be created. People will know that if you hate somebody, you just throw a dark cloud and it is the end of the story *1."

Zuma said President Kgalema Motlanthe was also becoming a victim of people wanting to make him look like a bad person *2.

"I am not going to step aside simply because I have not been found guilty by any court of law. I respect the Constitution and I understand it *3," said Zuma.

Earlier, ANC general secretary Gwede Mantashe said Zuma's court case had gone from being prosecution to persecution *4.

"This is not only about Zuma but about the ANC. They want to prevent the ANC president from becoming the president of this country. The want to destroy the head... because they know that if you destroy the head, you destroy the body *6."

If the ANC's leader was destroyed, the party would struggle to survive in the long run *7, he said.

"The attack will also spread to all of us. That is the reason why we have appointed our own legal council to represent our interests in the case."

The ANC election front-runner faces charges of corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering.

The criminal charges against Zuma were reinstated after the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in favour of an appeal by the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP).

The NDPP had challenged a ruling made last year by Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Chris Nicholson, which held that the charges against Zuma were invalid.

With acknowledgements to Sapa.


*1       Except in this case someone threw a dark cloud and it is the just the beginning of the story.


*2      People want to make him look like a bad person because he is a bad person.


*3      No, no one who really respects and understands the Constitution would put is one persons legal problems, which in any case were the results of his own conduct, before the entire country.

Whatever respect and understanding this nincompoop says he has for the Constitution, is minimalistic and opportunistic.


*4      No, from prosecution under the rule of law to self-flagellation under the abuse of the rule of law *5.


*5      Ably abetted by some really pathetic administration of the rule of law by the National Prosecuting Authority and the Presidency.


*6      No, because they know that if the fish has started to rot, you destroy the head, so that you might save the body.


*7      Such are the wages of foolishness and sin.


What a luverly dose of tripe from this nincompoop.

Every uttering is rebuttable.

It shows the simplistic mindset of the target audience.