STEP-ASIDE: ZUMA REMAINS UNTOUCHED
THE ANC has yet to ask former president and corruption accused Jacob Zuma to step-aside, raising suspicion of selective justice in applying the organisation’s controversial resolution.
While suspended party secretary-general Ace Magashule and national executive committee (NEC) member Bongani Bongo were removed from the party’s virtual NEC meeting at the weekend, Zuma was left untouched, with the ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledging him in his post-NEC address on Monday.
In his address, Ramaphosa said:
“During this meeting, we received a report from the National Working Committee on the implementation of the resolution that all ANC members indicted for corruption and other serious crimes should step aside or be temporarily suspended pending the finalisation of their case.
“The report indicated that, in line with the decisions of the NEC meeting of March 26-29, a number of ANC members had stepped aside and others had been served with notices of suspension.”
Zuma is expected to appear in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday in connection with the multibillion-rand arms deal.
He attended the NEC meeting in his capacity as an ex-officio member of the decision-making structure.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said yesterday that the former president took part in the meeting because his fate has not yet been discussed.
“I don’t want to formulate my own views about it,” he said, when asked about Zuma’s attendance.
This has raised eyebrows, with political analyst Xolani Dube saying it was suspicious that the NEC failed to act on Zuma, yet it was swift to deal with Magashule and Bongo.
He said this would fuel long-held perceptions that the step-aside resolution was being enforced to deal with members like Magashule, Bongo and others who are thorns in the side of the dominant CR17 faction of the governing party.
“As I have always said, the step-aside resolution was weaponised to deal with people like Magashule and Bongo.
“What is happening with the ANC NEC failing to kick Zuma out as well is confirming just that. If this was fairly applied, they should have kicked him out of the ANC meeting and suspended him from taking part in any meeting or party political activities,” Dube said.
The ANC’s failure to act tough on Zuma could be because the whole of the NEC was afraid of the former head of state, said Dube.
“Hence they could not serve him with a suspension letter or ask him to leave the virtual meeting of the NEC. Remember that Zuma is not just an ordinary member of the party,” he said.
Another political analyst, Professor Bheki Mngomezulu from UWC, said the whole step-aside resolution was questionable and further cast doubt about why it was delayed from January 2018.
He added that when the ANC started implementing it, they were supposed to do so across the board, and applying it selectively as it was currently going was bound to raise suspicions.
In the case of Zuma, Mngomezulu said the governing party’s hands were tied as he has previously told the ANC’s Top Six that they were persecuting him together with his enemies, and any action against him now will make him cry foul again.
“However, he (Zuma) has cases in court and, like others, he was supposed to be served with a suspension letter because some will say, ‘Why allow someone facing corruption charges to address party events?’
“But then the challenge with suspending Zuma is that he is a drawcard for the ANC when it comes electioneering. They need him,” Mngomezulu said.