Zuma slams Madonsela, judges, ANC

Former president insists that the Concourt ‘majority judgment is bad in law’ and that he was jailed ‘unconstitutionally’

FORMER president Jacob Zuma has continued to criticise former public protector Thuli Madonsela and Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, placing the blame for his arrest in early July squarely on their shoulders.

An unrepentant Zuma addressed his supporters yesterday via a Facebook feed from Nkandla after failing to show up at his welcome-home rally and prayer which was staged at the People’s Park in Durban.

He insisted that the Constitutional Court “majority judgment is bad in law” and he was jailed “unconstitutionally”.

For his non-appearance in person at the well-attended rally, Zuma cited “known reasons” – his ill health which saw him released on medical parole on September 5, two months into a 15-month sentence for contempt of the Concourt.

Kicking off his speech, Zuma insisted that he was a prisoner of the democratic state where the black majority controls the levers of power, saying that his parole was similar to being jailed, albeit under different circumstances.

Despite that, he thanked his supporters for their undying support even after he was thrown into jail.

Still taking a swipe at the country’s judiciary, Zuma said a lot was wrong and that something must be done to fix it.

“It is this state that has imprisoned me without trial. Something has gone terribly wrong in our country.

“The main aspects of the unconstitutional debacle that ended with my current imprisonment has been repeating (for years).

“I remain a prisoner under very strict parole conditions,” he added.

Zuma said it had been wrong for Madonsela to take away his powers to appoint the chairperson of the state capture commission.

The position eventually went to Justice Zondo, whom Zuma singled out as one of the people behind his current woes and the reason why he was jailed.

Turning to the last minutes of his freedom before he was jailed, Zuma said his decision to surrender and start serving his jail sentence on July 7 was done to prevent “a dangerous war” that could have resulted in a loss of life affecting innocent people and his family members.

“The last days before the arrest, armed security forces descended on the King Cetshwayo District Municipality.

“Its declared intention was to execute my arrest, regardless of any potential loss of life.

“My comrades and supporters were demonstrating against what appeared to be a heavy-handed and unwarranted show of state violence to arrest me.

“To avoid a dangerous war, a situation which was looming and indeed to avoid the loss of lives of innocent citizens, including members of my family, I handed myself to be jailed at the Estcourt prison,” Zuma said.

Turning to internal ANC matters, Zuma took a veiled swipe at the party’s president Cyril Ramaphosa and the current leadership of the ANC.

He said some people mistook the behaviour of the current leaders of the ruling party for the party itself, yet that is not the case.

He said: “The ANC is us." “Some people often mistake the behaviour of the incumbent leadership to be the behaviour of the ANC. The ANC is rooted amongst the people, with members … others mistake misbehaving members for the ANC,” he said.

Zuma further pleaded with his supporters to back the ANC at the polls because if they shunned it, they would significantly weaken the party and fulfil the wishes of its enemies who want to see it a shadow of its former self.

Indirectly, Zuma told his supporters to stay within the party and continue to wage the fight from within for, if they left, they wouldn’t have the opportunity to effect the leadership changes they aspire to effect.

He warned that if they voted for independent candidates in the upcoming elections, they might find themselves unable to take part in the ANC 2022 elective conference, thus depriving them of an opportunity to make the changes they would like to see.

“We, therefore, must remain vigilant and defeat their imaginations, that is our duty, not to run from the ANC …

“If the leaders are not leading correctly, are not implementing the decisions that the membership takes, deal with that issue. Leaders are changed if there is a need to change them in order to maintain the organisation.”

The rally was also used by some religious guests to take veiled swipes at Ramaphosa, who is under fire from radical economic transformation (RET) proponents of the governing party.

As the rally got under way in the absence of Zuma, Professor Caeser Nongqunga, the chief apostle of the Twelve Apostles Christ in Church, told the supporters of Zuma that the former leader was a “chosen one” and he did not have to bribe people to be elected to power.

“I am talking about a man who was born a leader, elected by the people, chosen by God … I am not talking about a man who had to pay money to get elected,” Nongqunga said.

Speaking at the rally, former MK operative and retired Chief of Defence Intelligence, from 1998 to 2009, General Moamela Motau said Zuma had been persecuted. Despite this, he had an undying love for African people.

Among the high-profile figures who attended the rally were Ace Magashule, Supra Mahumapelo, Des van Rooyen, Zandile Gumede, Dudu Myeni, Duduzile Zuma and Ngrayi Ngwenya from Mpumalanga.