ZUMA BACKS UNITY
‘Power-sharing a practical proposal’
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has thrown his weight behind a proposed power-sharing deal between Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa.
But his supporters are divided on the matter. At the ANC national policy conference in Nasrec, Soweto, KZN chairperson Sihle Zikalala proposed a compromise deal that would see either of the two presidential candidates becoming deputy president if he or she loses to the other in the race for the top spot.
This, Zikalala believes, would prevent a bloodbath and a possible split after the party’s elective conference in December. The Star has reliably learnt that, in one of the closed commissions, Zuma expressed support for the arrangement, as the basis for trying to mend the fissures within the party that arise out of contestation.
“In our commission, it was only Zikalala and Zuma who articulated it. Other people just ignored it. It’s a new proposal, which we obviously need to consult widely on,” said a source, who asked to remain anonymous.
Another source confirmed Zuma’s support for the proposed arrangement. “He (Zuma) said people don’t sleep these days, spending sleepless nights lobbying… He even said it would be good if it (the proposal) could be replicated at lower levels.”
However, some of the influential Zuma supporters don’t agree with the mooted arrangement.
ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Collen Maine said he felt the move would not pass the test of the ANC constitution, which allows for every position in the top six to be contested.
“It means that if there are 10 candidates, and the other one gets 12 votes and others each get seven votes, are we going to have all of them as deputy presidents?” Maine asked.
The ANCYL secretary in KwaZuluNatal, Thanduxolo Sabelo, said they stood by their view that Mpumalanga Premier and ANC provincial chairperson, David Mabuza, should be the next deputy president.
He said uniting the ANC should not be based on who gets elected to certain positions. “If you are not elected in the ANC, the culture of the ANC says you must then be able to support the leadership that has been elected.
“Unity of the party must be the unity of purpose. You cannot be united by positions. We must be united by programmes, which we are here to discuss today,” he said.
However, eThekwini region secretary Bheki Ntuli said the ANC’s biggest region was fully behind the proposal. “The situation whereby we have our own top six and others have their own top six leads to breakaways after conferences. We should have a system that would allow the loser to be accommodated as the deputy president and the deputy secretary-general,” said Ntuli.
Mdumiseni Ntuli, ANC chairperson in KZN, said the proposals were meant to destroy slate politics. He agreed it would mean changing the way voting happens.
A delegate said some viewed the proposal as a sign that KZN “is panicking and now they just want to secure NDZ’s (Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s) future”.
A member of the KZN provincial executive committee said the province had realised that, while it was powerful, it could not afford to be arrogant or overstate its influence.
“Even when the small provinces come to us with proposals, we will engage with them and adopt those positions if it makes sense,” another source added.
ANC Northern Cape chairperson Zamani Saul also slammed the KZN proposal, asserting that the province was trying to achieve “leadership through arrangement”. He added that his province still backs Ramaphosa “because it is a matter of principle” as, since 1956, “all presidents of the ANC had been deputy presidents before”.
Eastern Cape secretary Oscar Mabuyane said he backed the proposal as “a practical proposal when we are confronted with slates”.
THE DA has questioned the decision of former National Prosecuting Authority acting head Mokotedi Mpshe to drop charges against President Jacob Zuma on the eve of the 2009 general election.
In court papers filed in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) yesterday on the dropping of charges against Zuma, the DA said Mpshe’s decision was clouded with emotion, unsubstantiated facts and confusion.
Zuma appealed the decision of the high court in Pretoria a few months ago, after it ruled that charges against him should be reinstated.
The SCA has set aside next month to hear arguments from both parties.
The DA said Mpshe’s decision to drop the charges in 2009 was irrational, and that there was no basis for him to do what he did.
The official opposition has asked the SCA to dismiss Zuma’s application for appeal against the high court decision.
It said Mpshe had missed the point with his decision to drop the charges.
“In the circumstances, it is submitted that Mpshe’s decision was clouded by emotion, unsubstantiated facts, an inadequate investigation, confusion about his own role and about the effect of (former Scorpions head Leonard) McCarthy’s decision,” said the DA in the papers.
“Advocate Mpshe also failed to apply his mind to the crucial parts of the test he had to consider in terms of the foreign jurisprudence he relied on.
“This is the very antithesis of a rational decision,” the DA pointed out.
“Based on the material before him, Mpshe could not have rationally reached the decision he did that this case involved an abuse of the kind which was so serious and so egregious that it justified the extraordinary step of withdrawing the prosecution of Mr Zuma,” it said.
The DA has been pursuing Zuma since he assumed office in 2009, demanding that corruption charges against him be reinstated.
Zuma and the NPA have opposed the DA’s application.
Meanwhile, the DA has has laid criminal charges against the controversial Gupta family and Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane for allegedly using R30 million in state funds to fund the lavish Gupta wedding in Sun City in 2013.
DA spokesperson on finance David Maynier said he wants all the parties implicated in the saga to be prosecuted.
It was reported on Friday that funds from a dairy project in the Free State were diverted to cover costs for the wedding in North West.