Vavi+-+Dont+you+dare,+Brown,+Mde,+West,+Musgrave,+Weekender

Business Day Weekender, Johannesburg, 2006/12/16 12:00:00 AM
=Don’t you dare charge Zuma again, warns Vavi=

//The possibility of new charges against the former deputy president has given Zwelinzima Vavi the opportunity to lash out, write// **Karima Brown**, **Vukani Mde**, **Edward West** //and// **Amy Musgrave**

FACTIONS supporting Jacob Zuma in the battle for the succession in the African National Congress (ANC) went on the offensive this week following the humiliating defeat of Zuma-aligned candidates in provincial party elections in Eastern Cape, the party’s most influential region.

As the succession storm intensified, key Zuma allies warned of dire consequences should their man be charged with fraud in the new year. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, warned that there may be “hell in the country" if the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) decides to recharge the ANC deputy president on corruption charges.

Speaking at the second national congress of the Young Communist League in Umlazi on Friday, Vavi said: “We will not allow you (Zuma) to go to court where we know you will not stand a fair trial.

“We say to the NPA, if you dare to charge Zuma again, you will face the might of the people through the length and breadth of the country."

With hardly two weeks left before the year ends, there appears to be no improvement in the internecine struggles that have pitted Zuma supporters against those who favour another term for President Thabo Mbeki at the party’s helm.

This is despite the fact that the party will not have to decide on new leadership for at least another 12 months. Despite the remaining time, no one in the ANC and its allies in Cosatu and the South African Communist Party (SACP) is taking any chances.

On Friday the ANC Youth League announced its intention to postpone its elective national congress to 2008, after the ruling party’s own national conference in December 2007, where a new leadership will be elected. The league also announced that it had disbanded its rebellious Eastern Cape structures. The moves are aimed at maintaining the league as a secure and reliable base for Zuma in his bid for the top job.

“The ANC Youth League has important political interest in the outcome of the ANC’s 2007 conferences. We want to influence and be influenced by the ANC (national) conference. We have positions and we are lobbying people," said league president Fikile Mbalula on Friday, in the most explicit admission yet that succession lobbying had already started in earnest.

The league’s strike against Eastern Cape came a week after factions supporting a third term for Mbeki as ANC leader defeated the pro-Zuma lobby in fiercely contested elections. The youth league in the province was central to the defeat of the Zuma faction.

In a development that shows the extent to which the gulf between the factions allied to Mbeki and Zuma has widened, at least three of Eastern Cape’s eight ANC regions are challenging the outcome of the elections.

In letters written to the party’s secretary-general, Kgalema Motlanthe, the Chris Hani, OR Tambo and Ukhahlamba regions allege procedural unfairness during the conference, and even election rigging. Pundits have read the Eastern Cape election results as signalling a comeback for Mbeki, who has suffered many setbacks as Zuma’s star rose.

Vavi’s comments on Friday echoed those of Young Communist League national secretary Buti Manamela, who also threatened “hell” following last month’s revelations that the NPA had sent a request to prosecutors in Mauritius to release documents that the state will need in a new trial against Zuma.

The Young Communist League, Cosatu, the SACP and the ANC Youth League have expressed the view that Zuma has been victimised by political opponents and will not get a fair trial.

“His dignity and constitutional rights have been trampled upon as if he has been found guilty. The shabby treatment of comrade JZ has led a significant section of our comrades to believe that he will not receive a fair trial, given the prejudicial manner in which his case has been handled,” said Vavi.

If the second-in-command of the country could be treated “so shabbily", how much more worse were ordinary people being treated, he asked.

There were, however, genuine discussions and disagreements about how the national democratic revolution functioned in the ANC both as a political party and as the ruling party.

“This debate is about the relationship between the social power that lies in the mass democratic movement led by the ANC, and the state in which the ANC plays a dominant role," said Vavi.

“It isn't a debate about that or this messiah, but the programme and collective required to pursue the national democratic revolution to its logical conclusion."

He said political power in SA was concentrated in too few hands, and that the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative was an example of this. He alleged that those who had approved it were given 45 minutes to read it, and that the policy document was then “adopted, with no change, no comma shifted".

“The alliance is not the political centre that drives transformation and deployment of cadres. It is the presidency that does that," said Vavi. He alleged that most of the important policy in government arose from the state institutions, and overseas.

“Those in the executive basically monitor their own performance," said Vavi.

He said the power of capital to unleash materialism and careerism had been underestimated, and that leaders “push to the front and actually take the food out of the mouth of the poor."


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=2460988**

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