Gauteng RET President Zuma Support Group in support of president Jacob Zuma’s refusal to attend the Zondo Commission, and in support of all other comrades who are being persecuted for their principled support for RET

15 February 2021

Our country is in the throws of an ever deepening constitutional crisis, due to the shortsightedness and insidious factional politics of those who have decided to declare themselves President Zuma’s enemies, target him, and declare war on him. The time had come to call out those who behave in this narrow minded and factional way, and they must be exposed.

For over two decades our counrty has witnessed the political targetting of President Zuma, accompanied by a well-coordinated stratcom-like propaganda media campaign of character assasination.

History has no blank pages, and we cannot forget the secret meetings that the previous Head of the NPA, advocate BulelaniNgcuka, had with journalists casting aspersions on President Zuma, on the basis of politically trumped-up charges concerning the arms deal.

Nor can we forget the secret phone calls between Leonard McCarthy, the then Head of the Scorpions, and Ngcuka that had been recorded, and which revealed that they were plotting about when to time the indictment to be served on President Zuma, in order to inflict the most political damage on him. From those phone calls it emerged that President Thabo Mbeki, and the then Minister of Justice, PenwellMaduna, were also involved in the plotting, and that the timing of the prosecution of President Zuma had absolutely nothing to do with prosecutorial matters - it was blatantly political.

We also cannot forget that we know that as early as the mid-1980’s in discussions between the CIA and British intelligence - to be more specific MI 6 - there were discussions about who must never be allowed to become Presidents of South Africa, when the ANC was to eventually gain power in South Africa (which in those discussions was described as inevitable, but which can be ‘managed’).

The two ANC leaders who were identified was comrade Chris Hani (because of his unwavering and principled communist commitment, and as a consequence the challenge that he would pose to the continuing control of the South African economy by White Monopoly Capital [WMC]), and President Jacob Zuma (because as Head of Intelligence of the ANC he knew too much about those who had been infiltrated into the ANC by Western intelligence agencies, and whom they intended to ascend to the top leadership ranks of the ANC, in order to controll the ANC, and also the South African government, when the ANC eventually was to become the governing party).

We all know the terrible tragedy that befell comrade Chris Hani, when he was on the 10th of April 1993 assasinated. We still remain convinced that the full extent of the plot to assassinate comrade Chris - and who was actually involved has not yet been revealed - must still be exposed.

As soon as it became clear that President Zuma - on the back of his huge popularity among the grass roots members of the ANC in the branches - was to rise through the ranks of the ANC to become President, a vicious character assasination propaganda campaign was unleashed on the back of those politically trumped up charges.

It was either a case of by-hook-or-by-crook preventing President Zuma from becoming President, or if he does regardless of all the plotting become President (because of his tenacity and huge popularity), to undermine his presidency with constant and vicious character assisination propaganda. The intention was that he must constantly be on the back foot, and will not be able to impliment the fundamental radical economic transformation programme which he was known to favour, and intended to champion during his presidency.

In this, sadly, they found an ally in our courts, that reinstated the politically motivated arms deal charges, despite the demonstrable fact that they were trumped-up and manipulated by political forces that had absolutely nothing to do with proper legal prosecution and justice.

In having been an integral part of these politically motivated machinations organs of state (namely the NPA and the then Scorpions) acted unconstitutionally. By allowing the charges against President Zuma to be reinstated, our courts condoned unconstitutional conduct, and sanctioned the NPA’s independence being undermined with it acting as a political agent. In doing so President Zuma’s fundamental constitutional rights were compromised.

In addition to this unconstitutional conduct by the NPA and Scorpions, with our courts condoning it; the mainstream media became a willing propaganda ally in the comprehensive project to either destroy President Zuma, or to curtail him to such an extentthat he would not be able to impliment his intended programme of Radical Economic Transformation.

Only, as one among many examples, may we remind the mainstream media, how they kept on ‘qouting’ Judge Hilary Squires, when he passed sentence on Shabir Shaik, to have said that there was a general, and mutually, corrupt relationship between Shaik and President Zuma. The honorable Judge had never said anything of the kind! Even after Judge Squires on several occasions protested that he had not said so, many journalists continued to peddle this fake news. Eventually Judge Squires was forced to issue a statement pleading that he should not be miss-qouted. Even after the judge issued this statement, with journalist Max du Preez leading the howling pack of wild dogs baying for President Zuma’s blood, many in the media continued to miss-represent what the judge had said.

In all of this hardly any journalist had the inclination - or should we rather say the guts and integrity - to point out that during the arms deal negotiations President Zuma was MEC for Economic Development in the KwaZulu Natal provincial government, and far away from the national government departments and agencies that concluded the arms deal. The arms deal was done and dusted by the time that he returned to national government, when he was elected as Deputy President of the ANC. Once again - and especially with regards to President Zuma - our mainstream media (despite the investigative capabilities that so-called ‘investigation agencies’ such as Amabhungane boasts about) have shown that they will not allow facts to get in the way of their stratcom-like propaganda smear campaigns.

In addition to the trumped up and politically motivated arms deal case, a totally unclear and far too narrow narrative of ‘state capture’ was developed to attack and undermine President Zuma, and those alongside him, who are committed to challenge the White Monopoly Capital control of our economy.

Let us also not forget for one moment that the control of White Monopoly Capital of our South African economy is directly linked to the Western colonial and neo-imperialist control of South Africa, as one of the most important strategic geographical locations for the defence of Western (and specifically the USA) hegemony and control. Their interests and the control that they have since colonial times exerted over South Africa became increasingly challenged by South Africa’s membership of BRICS, and the insistence of President Zuma to prioritise business, as well as overall political and intelligence relations, with our fellow BRICS members. The massive negative reaction by the West to South Africa’s engagement with Russia during President Zuma’s administration for the further development of nuclear energy, indicated how threatened they felt about loosing their control over our economy, and the future political direction and alliances away from the West that this could lead to.

Evidently such developments had to be stopped in their tracks, and President Zuma had to be removed at all and every cost. In pursuit of this objective the narrative of ‘state capture’ became a handy tool.

It is in this context that the report, ‘The State of Capture’, by the former Public Protector, advocate Thuli Madonsela, should be seen. Hastily and poorly written as it was, and facilitated by the then Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordahn (whom President Zuma was

forced to appoint after the manufactured media-driven outrage against his appointment of Minister Des van Rooyen as Minister of Finance), with special emergency contingency funding, the report’s singular target was President Zuma.

The poor and pathetically shallow quality of ‘The State of Capture' report was of no concern, it’s real intention was to target President Zuma and to unleash a process that would eventually lead to his removal as President. With this objective in mind local White Monopoly Capital, international Western business and intelligence interests, and their planted agents within the African National Congress, joined hands in a carefully choreographed campaign.

We all remember the ‘Save South Africa’ campaign marches - funded among others by George Soros’s Open Society Foundation - which brought the most incongruent groups and thousands of whites together, to march for the removal of a black President.

President Zuma was forced, despite the well-known objections that he raised about the narrow defininition of ‘state capture’, and the short time frame that only concentrated on his tenure as President, to appoint the current Commission of Inquiry into State Capture. In a totally illegal move, Madonsela, insisted in her ‘The State of Capture Report’ that President Zuma’s presidential constitutional right to appoint the Chairs of all commisions of inquiry should be revoked, on the basis of the excuse that the President will be conflicted, because he will be the subject of investigation by the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture. Interestingly enough in advancing this argument Madonsela inadvertantly revealed the real purpose of the Commission, namely to target President Zuma. We will return later in this media statement to that admission, in the light of her more recent statements a few days ago, confirming the same.

For now the point that we are making is that there is nowhere in law a precondition set that when the President may also be the subject of an investigation by a commission of inquiry, that the President’s powers to appoint the chair can be revoked. President Zuma, quiet correctly challenged this attack on his lawful right as President to also appoint the Chair of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

Sadly, once again - as was the case when the arms deal charges were unconstitutionally reinstated - our courts, became an instrument of White Monopoly Capital and their Western neo-imperialist allies, rejected his appeal and removed President Zuma’s constitutional right to appoint the Chair. That so-called ‘right’ was in an extraordinary court ruling given to the Chief Justice.

Unacceptable, and unconstitutional, as this situation already was, the appointment process of the Chair became further compromised by the Chief Justice first informing President Zuma that he had decided to appoint Mr. Justice Desai as the Chair, and then within 24 hours changed his mind and appointed the Deputy Chief Justice, Mr. Raymond Zondo. The question arises, what happened overnight during that 24 hour period that suddenly made Justice Desai unacceptable as Chair of the Commission. Who intervened and why? The most critical questions are: WHY was Mr. Justice Zondo suddenly preferred and more acceptable than Judge Desai, who is known as a no-nonsense and fair judge who doesn’t allow himself to be influenced. WHO intervened, and HOW, to change the Chief Justice’s mind, and to effect the last minute appointment of Mr. Justice Zondo?

The manner in which Mr. Justice Zondo subsequently conducted the business of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, make these critical questions all the more relevant. His biasedness towards, and constant targetting of President Zuma, is blatantly clear. The manner in which he called public press conferences to attack President Zuma when he was unable to attend a hearing of the Commission because of illness, while he treated Mr. Pravin Gordhan with the utmost deference and respect when he also did not attend a hearing, was shocking and shameful.

Even more so the cavalier manner in which he dismissed President Zuma’s very serious application for his recusal on the grounds that he is demonstrably biased against President Zuma. In the process Justice Zondo, by tabling a written reply in response to President Zuma’s submission concerning family relations between them, and other conflicts of interest, turned himself into a material witness in matter in which he was also the judge. What a fundamental conflict, what an utter aberration!

President Zuma was absolutely correct to take the matter on appeal, but before his appeal could be heard Justice Zondo rushed the matter to the Constitutional Court, and most extraordinarily the Constitutional Court ignored the fact their was an appeal concerning Judge Zondo’s refusal to recuse himself, and ruled that President Zuma must appear before judge Zondo. The Constitutional Court went even further to state that President Zuma may not invoke his right to remain silent, and must answer all questions posed to him.

A basic tenet of our Constitution is the principle that every citizen has the right to remain silent, and not to incriminate him or herself. This right is not negotiable, and may never be compromised. If this right is compromised, our whole legal system is compromised, and indeed every one of us as citizens become vulnerable to political manipulation.

It is shocking that the Constitutional Court, as our apex court, in the pursuit of President Zuma issued a judgement that compromised this fundamental principle. The Constitutional Court as the apex court, is the ultimate authority for setting legal precedents and establishing case law.

Thus the judgement against President Zuma does not only set an extremely dangerous and general precedent by taking his fundamental right away from him alone, but it also establishes an even more dangerous and general precedent by taking this fundamental right away from all of us. Now any citizen can, in fact, be told that one does not have the right to remain silent. A basic constitutional right of every citizen has been compromised in a fundamental way. As citizens we have the right to be disappointed, and to have expected much better from the honorable judges on the bench of our highest court.

For the third time already in this media statement (and that is by no means an exhaustive list of such examples), we have now pointed out that our courts in their pathological pursuit of President Zuma - in alliance with White Monopoly Capital and Western neo-colonial interests - acted unlawfully, and undermined the provisions of our Constitution.

We fully understand President Zuma’s deep sense of being victimised, and his outrage at the injustices that are being committed against him. As such we whole heartedly agree with the reasons that President Zuma advanced why he would not attend the hearing of the Zondo Commission today, which he issued on the 1st of February 2021, entitled: “STATEMENT ON CONSTITUTIONAL COURT DECISION COMPELLING ME TO APPEAR BEFORE THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO ALLEGATIONS OF STATE CAPTURE”.

President Zuma is absolutely correct to oppose this unconstitutional ruling. As one of those leaders who played a central role in the liberation of our country, and bringing about our constitutional democracy, he is indeed duty bound to resist this insidious undermining of our Constitution. We fully support President Zuma for his courage, and the highly principled position that he has taken, and we stand behind him in the execution of this decision.

QINA NXAMALALA SIMI NAWE 100%!

We agree with President Zuma that he is duty bound in terms of his own conscience not to deviate from the decision that he had taken that he will not to attend the Zondo Commission, because he cannot be party to allowing our Constitution from being undermined, and ultimately destroyed.

As members of the Gauteng RET President Zuma Support Group, who are active members of the ANC, we will make it our duty - together with all other progressive forces that we are aligned with - to explain to the members of the ANC in our branches, and also the broad masses of people throughout our country, that there is not only one side to the story (as most of the main stream media are trying to attack and miss represent the reasons for President Zuma’s decision), but that strong ethical and revolutionary principles inform them.

In addressing these pressing issues concerning the ever increasing persecution of President Zuma, we as members of the African National Congress who are deeply committed to the ANC’s ofÞcial economic policy programme of Radical Economic Transformation (RET), cannot do anything else but interpret this situation in the context of the terribly divided and factional state of the African National Congress, and the ANC’s failure to give decisive leadership. As a result there is a dismal failure to impliment the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) economic policy Resolutions that were adopted at the 54th National Conference of the ANC.

We concur with the media statement that MKMVA, one of our strongest partners in the pursuit of Radical Economic Transformation issued yesterday. In their statement MKMVA, said the following (and we quote):

ÒIt is noted with frustration and concern that black, and especially African, businises are increasingly on the back foot, and are not getting support from our government, despite the fact that the ANC is the governing party. Black executives are also not supported, and are constantly under attack and being undermined. All of this is happening while white businesses are all the time being empowered, and are laughing all the way to the bank.

The legitimate fight against corruption has been turned into an aberration, where it seems that only blacks are deemed to be corrupt and relentlessly pursued for every misdemeanour, while white monopoly capital is hardly pursued, and treated with kid gloves. Sadly, it seems that we have become our own worst enemies, turning on our own and devouring ourselves, while those who colonised us, stolen our land, bankrolled apartheid and committed some of the worst crimes against humanity, are still walking free on the streets of our motherland.”

As deeply concerned members of the ANC we ask ourselves how it is possible that this is happening, and the only conclusion that we can come to is that there are those among the ANC leadership who have to such an extent made common cause with White Monopoly Capital that it is no longer in their interest to champion the cause of black, especially African, liberation and economic empowerment. This is a very serious situation that we can no longer allow to continue.

The matter of the targetting and purging of those comrades who continue to be committed to the official ANC economic programme of Radical Economic Transformation also cannot be ignored. Many of us are wrongly accused of being factional, or a ‘separate grouping’, and victimised and purged.

President Zuma is the highest profile, and most serious victim of such un-comradely behaviour, and we are fully ready to protect him, but we are also committed to defend all other comrades who are similarly targetted.

We have noted with revolutionary approval that MKMVA has also raised this critical issue in their media statement, and we concur with them that we will not allow truly committed revolutionaries to be purged. Without them the ANC will never be able to fulfil its revolutionary task. We certainly can no longer allow these kinds of attacks to continue unchallenged.

It is this context that we must return to the targetting of President Zuma as the real reason for the establishment of the Zondo Commission. In a recent interview on the SABC News Channel, advocate Madonsela openly admitted that the Zondo Commission was specifically established to target President Zuma, and to make him responsible for ‘state capture’. It is clear from what Madonsela said, that without targeting President Zuma, there is no Zondo Commission.

However, while President Zuma is undeniably the major target of the Zondo Commission, others who have committed themselves to the radical economic transformation of our country are also targetted, either by dragging them infront of the ZondoCommision or arraigning them in other politically motivated trials.

The most prominent of these is the so-called ‘political oversight’ trial of the Secretary General of the ANC, comrade Ace Magashule.

Understanding this context very well, the Gauteng RET President Zuma Support Group will also fully support comrade Ace Magashule at his next court appearance in Mangaung,coming Friday on the 19th of February 2021. It also goes without saying that we will in full force be on the 23rd of February in Pietermaritzburg when President Zuma has to appear again in the ongoing saga of the so-called ‘arms deal’ case against him.

In doing so we declare that:

ZUMA IS US, AND WE ARE ZUMA! We similarly say:

ACE IS US, AND WE ARE ACE!

It is time to throw the gauntlet down. In the revolutionary struggle language of our Movement, to pick up the spear! We will certainly not allow President Zuma to be arrested. Nor will we allow comrade Ace Magashule to be forced to step aside as our Secretary General.

All these developments have now gone far too far. Enough is enough! We will not rest, or leave any stone unturned, until these counter revolutionary actions, and attacks, are brought to a final end.

Now it is us - as truly committed and revolutionary loyal members of the ANC - who are drawing a firm and deep line in the sand.

HERETO, AND NO FURTHER!

Issued by the Gauteng RET President Zuma Support Group, 15 February 2021