Zuma+harrassment,+COSATU+CC+statement



=COSATU Central Committee statement on the continued harassment of Jacob Zuma=


 * 18 August 2005**

The Central Committee of the Congress of South African Trade Unions unequivocally condemns the systematic, brutal persecution of Jacob Zuma by the National Prosecuting Authority. It is quite clear that the raids on his residence are a direct response to the resolution of the Central Committee to petition the president to reinstate him and to get the charges withdrawn.

This provides more evidence that the NPA and the judicial system are capable of being manipulated and influenced to take biased political decisions and actions.

We see this as an assault on our hard won democratic gains. It is a full frontal attack on our revolution itself.

We are not intimidated nor will we succumb to political blackmail. Instead this only strengthens our resolve to mobilise our members and society behind the resolution we have taken to support Jacob Zuma. We call on him not to submit to political blackmail and intimidation including use of the judiciary to carry out politically inspired raids.

The history of this saga is well documented. The NPA investigated Jacob Zuma for five years without anyone informing him that he was being investigated. It collaborated with some in the media throughout this period to run a campaign to discredit him. At the end of this period, it announced that there was //prima facie// evidence against him, yet in a bizarre turn of events said it would not charge him since it claimed not to have a winnable case. Despite this, it effectively tried Jacob Zuma through Shabir Shaik without offering him a chance to respond to allegations and innuendos. Lastly, it charged him on the basis of the evidence used by Judge Squires to convict Shabir Shaik.

All of a sudden it conducts these raids suggesting that it had no evidence in the first place and is now clutching at straws and searching for evidence that apparently it did not have after five years of investigation. The timing of the raids is a calculated provocation to the COSATU Central Committee.

This underscores the correctness of our conclusion that Jacob Zuma is facing a politically inspired trial and now persecution. His sin is to be loved by the working class and the poor.

The real enemies of the independent judiciary are those who work with the media to run a media trial, those who announced that there is //prima facie// evident but refuse to charge Zuma, and those who then decided to charge him in contradiction of what they had told the country earlier when it suited their political agendas. The real enemies of democracy and our constitution are those who use the judicial system to manipulate and settle political scores.

The political prosecution of Jacob Zuma risks plunging our new democracy into turmoil. It has already begun to divide our movement. We are in consistent contact with the ANC leadership and will seek to discuss this state of affairs as soon as we get the opportunity.

1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets, Braamfontein, 2017
 * Paul Notyhawa (Spokesperson), Congress of South African Trade Unions

P.O.Box 1019, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa

Cell: 082 491 1591, Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24, Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940 E-Mail: paul@cosatu.org.za**