AS AN enthusiastic subscriber to the Sunday Times, I was rather saddened by your most recent coverage of the Jacob Zuma/Schabir Shaik/NPA soapie.

Your headline read in bold and attacking print “How Schabir Shaik controlled Jacob Zuma for 10 years” ( January 6, 2008) — the operative and damning word being “controlled”.

My question is what message is being cast to the already “on the fence” public?

My understanding from the report clearly places Zuma in a poor light by suggesting that Shaik was in fact the shadow deputy president of this great country and Zuma was his manipulated puppet .

I would suggest some investigation into the sufferings of Zuma while in exile and even when he returned to the country after the unbanning of the ANC.

Friends of the struggle helped him and other freedom fighters to get back their footing.

The hero’s welcome of our soldiers of the struggle was just a momentary feature of our airports. However, no one saw the living conditions these veterans of the struggle had to endure before the elections.

My point, once again, is that Zuma and other comrades endured living conditions not befitting their sacrifices. So if Zuma, as one of the heroes of the struggle, was helped by friends, what is the big deal?

This entire Zuma/NPA/Shaik matter has been handled in an insensitive, callous and unsavoury manner and it now reeks of a Third Force agenda.

I was further horrified to read personal details of Zuma’s financial matters. He has not gone on trial and the courts have not found him guilty, yet you publish material you know will cause public views to tip against Zuma.

Why did you not wait until the trial is over? Zuma made it absolutely clear that his job as deputy president was to heal the country and mould the people as one great nation.

His financial affairs were handled by the person he had placed in charge — Shaik.

It is clear from the records that Shaik even paid for [Zuma’s] car wash, so why do we duplicate what Zuma says?

To place matters in perspective, Zuma was the man who helped bring sanity to the killing fields of KwaZulu-Natal during the period when there was black-on-black violence that had all the makings of a genocide. Zuma had no time to have coffee with bank managers but was busy saving lives, moving from one exhaustive meeting to the next.

Who acknowledges these sacrifices?

People are quick to pass judg ment by looking at Zuma from a one-sided perspective. Give him the space and fair play he deserves to go through these trying times.

— MA Moidin, KwaZulu-Natal

With acknowledgements to MA Moidin and The Times.