Publication: Business Day Date: 2005-11-25 Reporter: Vukani Mde Reporter: Karima Brown

Noose Tightens on Zuma as Cosatu Weighs ‘Rape’

 

Publication 

Business Day
Date

2005-11-25

Reporter

 Vukani Mde, Karima Brown

Web Link

www.bday.co.za

 

The noose tightened around Jacob Zuma yesterday as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) confirmed it would soon make a decision on whether to charge him for rape, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) hinted it would ditch Zuma in the event he is charged.

In another sign that Cosatu is looking for a way out of the Zuma controversy, general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi stressed yesterday that the federation had never adopted Zuma as its candidate in the African National Congress (ANC) leadership succession race.

“At no stage did we say we want Zuma or someone else to be the leader of the ANC.”

He said succession was an ANC issue. However, Cosatu members and leaders who are ANC members had the right to their views, and would make their preferences known in ANC branches, he said.

Vavi earlier this year described Zuma’s succession bid as an “unstoppable tsunami”, a remark that earned him a rebuke from union leaders.

So divisive has the Zuma issue become that Cosatu yesterday called for the convening of a tripartite alliance summit to debate the crisis. This would be the next best thing for those in the ANC who have called for a special national conference to discuss the divisions around Zuma.

It is likely that the call for a summit will grow should Zuma be charged for rape *1.

Until now Zuma and his supporters have been shielded from the full effect of the rape crisis because police refused to confirm or deny a rape investigation involving him. But the prospect of prosecution in a second criminal trial moved closer with the NPA’s confirmation that it had received a rape docket from the police.

This signals that police have concluded their preliminary investigations into the rape claim.

Once again Zuma’s political fate rests with NPA head Vusi Pikoli, who will soon announce whether Zuma will be charged.

Vavi and the federation’s leaders refused to be drawn on what they would do should Zuma face a rape charge. Vavi would only say: “If and when the matter goes to court, Cosatu will issue further comments, which will be based on its historic stance on the matter of rape. We will not engage on the matter in public until that has happened.”

The terse statement was the result of a compromise struck at the federation’s central executive meeting, where Zuma’s rape debacle was hotly debated.

A source who was at the meeting explained the sentiment that influenced the final resolution read by Vavi yesterday. “It’s a male-dominated organisation so there’s not a lot of sensitivity to rape *2. There’s also strong class solidarity with Zuma, and a sense that he is being targeted by his opponents.”

But the source said the Cosatu’s continued support even in the face of the rape debacle was bitterly contested. The compromise that Cosatu leaders struck was that should Zuma be charged, the federation’s standing policy would “kick in”.

The federation’s policies on sexual assault and harassment allows it a political fallback position that would extricate it from the Zuma mess. Cosatu practice is that any members accused of such an offence stands down until they are cleared by either the courts or disciplinary hearings. As Zuma is not a Cosatu member, this suggests Cosatu would be bound to call on him to relinquish his post as ANC deputy president until the case is concluded. Cosatu maintained, however, that Zuma was the victim of a political conspiracy, despite rejection of this claim by the ANC’s national executive earlier this week.

The executive said it stood by Zuma, although ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said the rape allegations were of “a great concern” to the party.

With acknowledgements to Vukani Mde, Karima Brown and Business Day.


*1  Viz: no call for a summit should party deputy president be charged for corruption.

*2  But much less sensitivity to corruption.