ANC TO PROCEED WITH LEGAL ACTION IN SUPPORT OF PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA
The African National Congress (ANC) has been deeply disturbed by the manner in which our leader has been prosecuted. We will be standing side by side with our President, Jacob Zuma, through the challenges he faces. Comrades do not desert their fellow comrades in their hour of need.
The political mileage which some of our opponents are attempting to gain through this process will not divert the ANC, nor our President, from our historical role to work together to do more, and to transform South Africa into a home we can all be proud of.
While we have consistently argued and continue to believe that political meddling is at the heart of this case, we will pursue all legal avenues to ensure that our President who has endured 8 years of slander, slurs and vicious attacks, is vindicated. Tomorrow is no les than the 38th time that President Zuma is appearing in court.
The ANC is horrified by the perverse attitude of some critics who believe that Jacob Zuma should be presumed guilty until proven innocent. This position uses innuendo and caricature to tarnish the image of the President with the sole purpose of preventing his ascension to the high office of President of the Republic. This less than subtle attack on the ANC President's fundamental rights will not go unchallenged. We require that the Constitutional right that South Africans are "innocent until proven guilty" is vigorously defended.
The ANC therefore intends to apply to be admitted as an amicus curiae in the application for leave to appeal, which President Zuma has lodged with the Constitutional Court.
The basis of the application is that the ANC contends that it is not in the public interest that the prosecution should proceed. To this end the ANC will be relying on Section 38 (d) of the Constitution. The ANC is contending that Zuma's rights to a fair trial have been severely infringed.
The ANC has appointed a legal team led by senior council, Hilton Epstein, and envisages our application to be admitted as amicus curiae to be lodged by the 16th of February. The ANC intends to confine its submission to the question of representations as provided for in Section 179 (5) (d) of the Constitution.
In so far as the trial is being postponed to August, at which the application for a permanent stay prosecution will be heard, the ANC also intends to seek to be admitted in the proceedings as an amicus curiae, again on the basis that it is not in the public interest that the prosecution of President Zuma should proceed.
The ANC will ensure that the persistent violation of Jacob Zuma's rights is unearthed and all South Africans be made aware of the injustices he has now suffered for far too long.
Statement issued by Gwede Mantashe, African National Congress secretary general, February 4 2009
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