'Propagand media' spreading lies about Zuma - ex-political prisoner group

11 April 2016

Cape Town – People have the right to criticise the president, but are being fed misinformation, the Ex-Political Prisoners' Association (EPPA) claimed on Monday.

"Yes, we have the right to say to a leader, 'you are misbehaving' or 'you are not doing good," EPPA deputy national secretary Mpho Masemola said.

The "propaganda media" were, however, feeding people lies about President Jacob Zuma and vilifying him publicly.

Masemola criticised ANC stalwarts Ahmed Kathrada, Cheryl Carolus and Trevor Manuel, and the SA Council of Churches.

All have spoken out against Zuma after the Constitutional Court found that he had failed to uphold the Constitution when he ignored the public protector’s remedial action about the money spent on so-called security upgrades to his private Nkandla home."Factional counter-revolutionary elements", possibly funded by the CIA or the British MI6, were behind the call to remove Zuma and sow confusion in the country, Masemola said earlier.

"But we are saying we will defend the revolution which we fought and served prison sentences for," he vowed.

"We are seeing the emergence of factional counter-revolutionary elements who are calling themselves different names and who are launching a scathing and vitriolic attack against Zuma.

"These factions want to sow seeds of confusion like the Arab Spring in the Middle East. We can’t afford [that] here in SA. Look at Syria, look at Iraq. They are trying to create those conditions."Only the ANC, and not a faction of right wing elements calling themselves concerned citizens, would decide when and how to remove the president, he said.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.