Zuma vs Ramaphosa: ANC ‘will humbly engage’ former president, says Mbalula

The new African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says the party’s top brass will soon meet with the defiant former president Jacob Zuma over the public tiff between him and the incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Zuma gunned for Ramaphosa by launching a private prosecution bid against him a day before the party’s 55th December national conference got underway at Nasrec.

Addressing journalists on Tuesday, regarding the preparations for the party’s 111th birthday celebrations, Mbalula said Zuma was still a leader in the governing party and needed to be heard regarding his concerns.

ANC will sit down with Zuma

“We want the centre to hold, and we are interested to listen to former leaders and engage them. We are not going to leave JZ [Jacob Zuma] alone, he’s our leader.

“We will have to sit down with him and understand him, we know he has engaged with other leaders in the past and we know the sentiments he has expressed publicly, but we choose not to engage with him in the public domain,” Mbalula said.

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The former president alleged that Ramaphosa “was an accessory after the fact, in the crimes committed by among others, Advocate Billy Downer, namely breaching provisions of the NPA Act” for disclosing a court document containing Zuma’s medical information.

The said medical report was already a public document as it was attached by Zuma to his papers and disclosed in open court.

The Jacob Zuma Foundation added that Ramaphosa had been summoned to appear in court this month, to join NPA senior prosecutor Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan on the same charge.

Meeting not a PR stunt

However, Ramaphosa didn’t take Zuma’s onslaught lying down, as he promptly instructed his lawyers to oppose the court bid, labelling it as “completely spurious and unfounded”.

He further asked the court to excuse him from appearing on 19 January as directed by Zuma’s summons.

The envisaged meeting with Zuma, said Mbalula, was not a PR stunt, but in the interest of the ANC and the renewal and unity project.

“JZ came to the conference as a delegate and to us, he has a standing in the organisation, and we will afford him such as a leader. We are going to do that with utmost humility.”

Ramaphosa’s counter-court challenge didn’t deter Zuma from making public statements against his successor.

His re-election at Nasrec seemed to have fuelled the fire, with Zuma making it clear that he won’t back down. An ultimatum from Ramaphosa last month instructing him to withdraw the prosecution bid failed as Zuma remained defiant.

Through his spokesperson Mzwanele Jimmy Manyi, Zuma insisted that the ANC president has been criminally charged and should appear in court to answer.

When approached for comment on Mbalula’s remarks, Manyi said he does not speak on Zuma’s ANC matters.

“I do not comment on ANC-related matters, I deal only with the foundation. He [Zuma] speaks on such matters himself, I’ve never heard anyone comment on his behalf on ANC issues.”

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