Zuma ‘holding ANC to ransom’

EXPULSION: INFORMATION FORMER PRESIDENT HAS COULD COLLAPSE PARTY – EXPERT

JZ part of ANC intelligence gathering during the apartheid years.

Former president Jacob Zuma could expose some of the ANC’s darkest secrets if he was expelled from the party, according to political analyst Fikile Vilakazi.

Vilakazi said Zuma is privy to many of the parties’ secrets. This is because Zuma, who was in the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) structures, had been involved in the intelligence gathering of the ANC during the apartheid years.

“We know that the former president was at the centre of the intelligence of the ANC and for that reason he has exposure to delicate information” she said.

“He may have access to files and records of ANC members that are not meant to be public. He has made threats that if they act against him, he is likely to expose them.”

There have been calls from some alliance partners for the ANC to take action against Zuma.

But Vilakazi said the party is between a rock and a hard place.

“He is holding the organisation to ransom. This is a thorny issue and it could lead to the total collapse of the organisation. The information he has could collapse the ANC,” said Vilakazi.

She said the ANC had enough reasons to suspend Zuma.

“He has put the ANC into disrepute in terms of its constitution. He is one of the members who should have been subjected to a disciplinary procedure and expelled. The kind of offence he has committed is a dismissible one,” Vilakazi said.

According to Vilakazi, the uMkhonto weSizwe party was a suitable political home to a faction of the ANC that identified itself as the radical economic transformation faction of the party.

At the weekend, a leaked letter indicated that Zuma’s ex-wife Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma would not be available to serve in parliament after this year’s national and provincial elections.

This means, should the ANC retain power after the elections, she will cease to be a member of the Cabinet in the new administration, as ministers are appointed from MPs.

Dlamini-Zuma is one of the longest-serving ANC MPs. She has been a member of the National Assembly since the dawn of democracy in 1994, having served under all five presidents since Nelson Mandela’s tenure.