ANC split over Zuma looms

JOHANNESBURG – South African President Thabo Mbeki met his beleaguered deputy Jacob Zuma on Monday for the first time since a court implicated him in a high-profile corruption case that risks opening deep rifts in the ruling ANC.

But the closed-door meeting with African National Congress (ANC) officials looked set to sidestep the issue of Zuma’s fate. And no action appeared likely soon, as Mbeki was due to leave on a foreign trip later on Monday, leaving Zuma in charge.Zuma’s former financial advisor Schabir Shaik was convicted last week of paying Zuma for political favours and seeking a bribe for him from a French arms firm, in a High Court ruling.The ruling renewed opposition calls for Zuma to quit.Political analysts are almost unanimous in their belief that last week’s damning judgement will spell the end for Zuma’s hopes to succeed Mbeki when his term expires in 2009.Zuma, who was appointed by Mbeki, had previously been regarded within the ANC as a natural progression.Both Mbeki and the ANC leadership went out of their way to condemn corruption and vow to weed it out of the ranks of government just days ahead of the Shaik verdict, leaving little scope to retain Zuma as heir apparent, analysts say.What is less clear is what happens now to Zuma, who has not been charged with any offence despite – as even his most vocal supporters concede – being found guilty in absentia.Beyond defending the principle of being innocent until proven guilty, senior ANC figures have said little in public, and seem keen to wait until after Shaik has been sentenced.Weekend media quoted anonymous party insiders as saying the time had come for Zuma to call it a day.But the militant ANC Youth League and Young Communist League – the youth wing of the ANC’s Communist partners in government – have came out in Zuma’s support.They also questioned the appointment of Judge Hillary Squires, a former minister in Ian Smith’s white minority Rhodesian government, to hear the case, saying he had perpetuated apartheid-era prejudice.”In the Schabir Shaik case it became apparent that it was a political trial,” said Young Communist League secretary Buti Manamela.”Our view was that the deputy president shouldn’t have been drawn into the whole thing and found guilty in absentia.”The ANC Youth League denounced media “rubbishing” of Zuma and attacked former public prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka, a senior ANC figure who said in August 2003 there was prima facie evidence against Zuma, but that a court case against him would fail.Such vociferous protests suggest any move to sideline Zuma would spark resentment from leftist groups within the ANC’s ruling alliance, and may open up existing fault lines as leading members start jostling to position themselves to succeed Mbeki.Zuma enjoys strong support from the ANC’s Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) ally as well as from numerous poor black ANC voters who analysts say regard the urbane Mbeki as a distant figure compared to his hearty, homely second in command.Any steps to remove Zuma could deepen existing divisions between Mbeki’s government and Cosatu over South Africa’s stance on the crisis in Zimbabwe and economic policy.- Nampa-ReutersAnd no action appeared likely soon, as Mbeki was due to leave on a foreign trip later on Monday, leaving Zuma in charge.Zuma’s former financial advisor Schabir Shaik was convicted last week of paying Zuma for political favours and seeking a bribe for him from a French arms firm, in a High Court ruling.The ruling renewed opposition calls for Zuma to quit.Political analysts are almost unanimous in their belief that last week’s damning judgement will spell the end for Zuma’s hopes to succeed Mbeki when his term expires in 2009.Zuma, who was appointed by Mbeki, had previously been regarded within the ANC as a natural progression.Both Mbeki and the ANC leadership went out of their way to condemn corruption and vow to weed it out of the ranks of government just days ahead of the Shaik verdict, leaving little scope to retain Zuma as heir apparent, analysts say.What is less clear is what happens now to Zuma, who has not been charged with any offence despite – as even his most vocal supporters concede – being found guilty in absentia.Beyond defending the principle of being innocent until proven guilty, senior ANC figures have said little in public, and seem keen to wait until after Shaik has been sentenced.Weekend media quoted anonymous party insiders as saying the time had come for Zuma to call it a day.But the militant ANC Youth League and Young Communist League – the youth wing of the ANC’s Communist partners in government – have came out in Zuma’s support.They also questioned the appointment of Judge Hillary Squires, a former minister in Ian Smith’s white minority Rhodesian government, to hear the case, saying he had perpetuated apartheid-era prejudice.”In the Schabir Shaik case it became apparent that it was a political trial,” said Young Communist League secretary Buti Manamela.”Our view was that the deputy president shouldn’t have been drawn into the whole thing and found guilty in absentia.”The ANC Youth League denounced media “rubbishing” of Zuma and attacked former public prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka, a senior ANC figure who said in August 2003 there was prima facie evidence against Zuma, but that a court case against him would fail.Such vociferous protests suggest any move to sideline Zuma would spark resentment from leftist groups within the ANC’s ruling alliance, and may open up existing fault lines as leading members start jostling to position themselves to succeed Mbeki.Zuma enjoys strong support from the ANC’s Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) ally as well as from numerous poor black ANC voters who analysts say regard the urbane Mbeki as a distant figure compared to his hearty, homely second in command.Any steps to remove Zuma could deepen existing divisions between Mbeki’s government and Cosatu over South Africa’s stance on the crisis in Zimbabwe and economic policy.- Nampa-Reuters