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=Zuma’s Men Target Mbeki=


 * Paddy Harper, Brendan Boyle and Moipone Malefane, Sunday Times, 30 December 2007**


 * //Furious backlash over corruption charges//
 * //NEC member hints Mbeki might be removed from office//

President Thabo Mbeki faces a bruising showdown with members of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) over the decision to charge newly elected party president Jacob Zuma.

Zuma will go on trial in August for allegedly receiving bribes totalling R4-million from convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik and French arms dealer Thint in return for abusing his party and government positions to further their interests.

Zuma faces 18 charges, including corruption, fraud, racketeering, tax evasion and money laundering.

As the full extent of the alleged web of corruption involving Shaik, Thint and Zuma became clearer through the indictment issued in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday, Zuma’s backers have, for the first time, directly accused Mbeki of involvement in a “political vendetta” against the newly elected ANC president.

Zuma’s supporters are expected to vent their anger on Mbeki as they also consolidate their grip on the ANC at the first NEC meeting on January 7 when they elect the powerful National Working Committee.

A week later, the party leadership, top government representatives and officials gather for their annual lekgotla, where Zuma’s team is expected to set the tone for the remainder of Mbeki’s term by laying down a set of demands for immediate policy shifts.

There could also be skirmishes over Mbeki’s peremptory appointment of a new SABC board, the left-wing opposition to inflation targeting and the controversial cross-border municipal boundaries such as Khutsong. Any fledgling efforts at compromise have been crushed by anger at charges against Zuma, which many see as deliberately timed to weaken him at the forthcoming lekgotla and NEC meeting.

A senior member of the party’s NEC said: “Mbeki might have provoked something he may not be able to control at the NEC meeting.”

Hinting at the possible removal of Mbeki from office, he added that “we’ve all along said the two centres of power won’t work”.

Former National Intelligence Agency Director-General Billy Masetlha, who is now an NEC member, told a gathering of Umkhonto weSizwe veterans in Soweto on Thursday that “if they [the government] defy us [the ANC], we will punish them”. He was speaking on the ANC’s recommendation that the Scorpions be incorporated into the South African Police Service (SAPS).

ANC Youth League President Fikile Mbalula, who was one of the kingmakers in Zuma’s election campaign, said: “The decision to charge Jacob Zuma is not a decision of the judiciary; it is a decision of the state, and the state is led by Thabo Mbeki.”

He questioned why, in the case of SAPS Commissioner Jackie Selebi, Mbeki had refused to comment, saying he was “not a prosecutor”, while in Zuma’s case he had gone to ANC structures and told them Zuma was guilty of corruption.

“Jacob Zuma, as president of the ANC, could not have been charged without the full backing of Thabo Mbeki.”

Mbalula added that the timing of Zuma’s initial court appearance — August 14 — was aimed at disqualifying him when ANC structures nominated their choice for president of the Republic in June.

“This is a blatant and desperate attempt to block Zuma’s ascendancy to the highest office of the land,” Mbalula said.

“The State President has even said that Zuma will not become president of South Africa … Mbeki is part of this. He is not immune from this case.” Mbalula was making a veiled reference to Mbeki’s role as chair of Parliament’s sub-committee that approved the arms deal when he was still the country’s deputy president.

Zuma has previously told the Pietermaritzburg High Court that Mbeki is the only one who can shed light on the issue.

Mbalula said the decision to summons Zuma during the Christmas period was aimed at weakening the ANC at its first NEC meeting on January 7 to offset Zuma’s victory at the Polokwane conference.

Echoing Mbalula’s allusion to Mbeki’s involvement in the arms deal, Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven yesterday demanded a full judicial investigation into the arms deal.

“The timing of the indictment has all the hallmarks of vengeance, deep-seated anger and frustration by the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] … It indicates a level of personal anger against Zuma,” said Craven.

Businessman Tokyo Sexwale, who is now also in the party’s NEC, entered the fray yesterday, saying: “The timing of charges with a court date already decided, is extremely disturbing and adds fuel to the speculative fires that organs of the state may be manipulated for political purposes.”

Yesterday Zuma met with his attorney, Michael Hulley, for a briefing on the case which will go straight to the Pietermaritzburg High Court, from whose roll it was struck in September 2006 by Judge Qed’usizi Msimang. Zuma’s legal strategy will be to apply for a mistrial when the case sits on August 14. When the case was thrown out, his counsel, Kemp J Kemp SC, had already prepared a motivation for the mistrial application.

Gwede Mantashe, the ANC’s secretary-general, said yesterday the “sequence of events”, including the announcement by the NPA that it would charge Zuma two days after he was elected ANC president, needed to be “looked into carefully”.

A Markinor socio-political trends survey released this week found a representative sample of South Africans split over their support for Zuma with 35% saying they believe that Zuma is guilty of charges relating to the arms debacle and a further 34% saying that corruption charges against him were an attempt by his political enemies to discredit him.


 * From: http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Article.aspx?id=670284**

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