Publication: ANC Today Issued: Date: 2005-08-26 Reporter: Thabo Mbeki

The Truth shall be Heard!

 

Publication 

ANC Today
Volume 5, No.34
Date 2005-08-26

Author

Thabo Mbeki

Web Link

www.anc.org.za

 

(Below we reproduce President Mbeki's letter submitted by ANC Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe to the Alliance meeting this week, which convened to consider "the Jacob Zuma affair". The meeting agreed that the matters contained therein should form part of the issues for further discussion by the Alliance: The Editor)

The Alliance leadership meets to discuss issues of common concern arising from the law enforcement and judicial issues relating to our Deputy President, Comrade Jacob Zuma.

More immediately, the forthcoming Alliance meeting has been occasioned by the "Resolution on the matter of Jacob Zuma" adopted by the 3rd COSATU Central Committee.

I would like to thank the Alliance Secretariat for taking the timely initiative to convene the meeting. This is also consistent with the COSATU CC Resolution in terms of which COSATU decided "to engage the Alliance in the context of the (ANC) NGC on this matter, in order to find a political solution and avoid divisions that could result from this saga."

The COSATU CC Resolution is couched in political terms. Among other things it says that, "The National Prosecuting Authority undertook a systematic political campaign to leak information to the media on a regular basis as part of the struggle to discredit Comrade Zuma".

This observation is consistent with charges that have been made in the past that the impending trial of Comrade Zuma is nothing more than a political trial that has absolutely nothing to do with popular adherence to the rule of law, for which many of our cadres, comrades and people sacrificed their lives.

For example, in its 6 June 2005 statement on the Schabir Shaik judgement, COSATU said that the trial "confirm(s) a long held view by COSATU that the trial of Schabir Shaik was nothing but a political trial of the Deputy President in absentia".

When Comrade Zuma was relieved of his duties as the Deputy President of the Republic, the SACP said "a credible judicial process" giving Comrade Zuma the opportunity to clear himself, would "remove any suggestion of hidden political agendas behind this whole episode".

After the search and seizure operations carried out by the Scorpions last Thursday, 18 August, the SACP said "such actions (like the raid into the offices of Cde Zuma's lawyers), unfortunately feed into an already widespread perception that Cde Zuma won't get a fair trial, and that his is a political trial".

Commenting on these same operations carried out by the Scorpions, a youth meeting which included the ANC Youth League, said on 21 August, "The irony wherein a person is first charged then investigated seems to corroborate the idea that there is an agenda to find the ANC Deputy President guilty against all odds, where the ends justify the means."

All the leaders, members and structures of the ANC, the Alliance and the rest of the democratic movement, without exception, have insisted that our Deputy President should be presumed innocent until proved guilty.

Accordingly, together with Comrade Zuma, we have insisted that if the criminal justice system believes that he has a case to answer, he should be duly charged and given the opportunity to defend himself in an open court.

Even when I addressed Parliament on 14 June 2005, to announce that, as President of the Republic, I was relieving Comrade Zuma of his responsibilities as Deputy President of the Republic, I said:

"I would like to emphasise two basic pillars of our jurisprudence, namely, equality before the law and the right to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise. We are of the firm view that this principle applies to the Deputy President not merely as a matter of principle and common decency, but also in deference to the individual occupying such office and the service that he has rendered to the Republic and its people before and after the attainment of our liberation. Unambiguous as the (Schabir Shaik) judgement may be about an assumed unsavoury relationship, the Deputy President has yet to have his day in court."

However, it is perfectly obvious that a conclusion has been drawn by some within the ranks of the ANC, the Alliance and beyond, that Comrade Zuma is victim to a political trial and/or deliberate hostile political persecution.

This has led those who have arrived at this conclusion to adopt political positions and engage in political actions ostensibly intended to protect the Deputy President from hostile political actions.

I am firmly of the view that no member of the ANC, the Alliance and the rest of the democratic movement should be subjected to what the SACP called "hidden political agendas", whatever the content of these agendas.

All cadres of the various organisations of the broad democratic movement have every right to be treated in an open manner, within organised structures, consistent with the Constitutions, regulations and conventions of these organisations.

Each and every one of our members has a right to call for the protection of our movement as a whole, if they believe that they are being subjected to unfair treatment, meted out to them outside the established democratic processes of the organisations of the democratic movement.

This also means that all cadres, regardless of their rank, have a duty to respect these Constitutions, regulations and conventions, relying on them to address whatever organisational or personal grievances they may have, relevant to the functioning of our organisations.

For this reason, I am convinced that we have a collective and urgent task to expose and confront any and all factions that may exist within the ANC and the rest of the democratic movement, which might be engaged in a conspiracy "to discredit Comrade Zuma", to use the words of the COSATU 3rd Central Committee Resolution.

Should such a conspiracy exist, we must unite the entirety of our movement in a determined offensive to defeat it.

Specifically, our movement must act urgently and in unity to protect the ANC Deputy President, and therefore our movement as a whole, from any hostile factional offensive, if it is established that such an offensive exists.

The 3rd COSATU CC suggested that there may be such an offensive, led by a group of "neo-liberals (who) may use the state apparatus to turn the revolution in(to) an offensive against the true cadres of the revolution".

I am informed that some within our broad movement, who believe that Deputy President Zuma is a victim of a counter-revolutionary, capitalist and neo-liberal offensive, are convinced that as President of the ANC and the Republic, I occupy the leading position in the political onslaught against Deputy President Zuma.

I understand that these are spreading the story that, presumably for counter-revolutionary reasons, I am opposed to Comrade Zuma becoming President of the ANC and the Republic.

This has led some of our own members to make public demands that are unprecedented in the 90-year history of the ANC, that seek to determine who our leaders should be, with absolutely no regard for the democratic processes and traditions of our movement.

I understand that this is being done because some have communicated the notion that what we are involved in is a factional right wing/left wing struggle, represented respectively by the President and the Deputy President of the ANC.

This understanding, whatever its merits or demerits, has already caused great harm to the ANC, the Alliance, the broad democratic movement, the democratic revolution and the country. Accordingly, the Alliance leadership must confront it head-on, with no equivocation of any kind.

In this regard, I strongly suggest that the Alliance should immediately constitute a Commission of Inquiry to establish the truth or otherwise of the allegation that members of the ANC and the broad democratic movement, including the President of the ANC, have been and are involved in a conspiracy targeted at marginalising or destroying Deputy President Zuma.

The Commission would give an opportunity to all members of the ANC, the Alliance and the broad democratic movement to present whatever information they may have concerning the alleged political conspiracy against Deputy President Zuma.

To ensure that everybody concerned is free to speak openly, without fear or favour, I would suggest that the Commission should conduct its work in camera.

It should also have the possibility, with regard to its Report, to withhold the identities of any persons who appear before it, if it is of the opinion that this would help to establish the truth, and nothing but the truth, about the existence of an anti-Jacob Zuma political conspiracy within our broad movement.

I would like to assure you that I would be ready to appear before the Commission, if so requested, truthfully and to the best of my ability, to answer any questions relevant to the scope of its Inquiry.

Similarly, I hope and trust that all our organisations would insist and encourage all their members who might have the relevant information to approach the Commission, desisting from all factional communication of any "relevant information" to any persons and groups of persons, outside the ambit of the Commission.

The Commission of Inquiry I suggest would give everybody concerned the possibility to communicate with the constitutional structures of the Alliance organisations formally and in disciplined manner, as should be the practice binding on all cadres of these organisations.

The establishment of the Commission would enable the Alliance and the broad movement to deal with the rumour-mongering that has attended the controversies that have surrounded Deputy President Zuma for some years already.

It would also give the Alliance and the broad democratic movement the possibility directly and in a united fashion, to combat all factional activities whatever their political complexion, which might have arisen as a result of the law enforcement and judicial processes relating to Deputy President Zuma.

I make the suggestion to constitute an Alliance Commission of Inquiry fully conscious of our obligation not to do anything that would compromise the work and independence of our law enforcement, prosecution, and judicial authorities. The Commission would have to ensure that it works in a manner that does not undermine this principle and practice.

The reality is that whatever the law enforcement, prosecution, and judicial authorities might have done, what has been suggested is that this has originated from within the ranks of our movement, for instance the "neo-liberals (who) may use the state apparatus to turn the revolution in(to) an offensive against the true cadres of the revolution", to whom the 3rd COSATU CC referred.

This should make it clear that the Commission of Inquiry should focus on whatever it is that it is alleged members and structures of our movement have done and are doing within and in the context of these structures.

We face the imperative vigorously to fight and defeat any and all factional activity that might have developed around the controversies that have surrounded our Deputy President, including any such factional activity as may be or may have been directed against the Deputy President.

To conduct this critically important struggle successfully, what we need above everything else is the truth, loyalty to our fundamental principles and practices, and the unity of our movement. The Commission of Inquiry would help us to achieve these goals.

Thabo Mbeki

With acknowledgements to President Thabo Mbeki and the ANC Today.