Durban - The ANC Women’s League in KwaZulu-Natal called on President Jacob Zuma to hang in there, saying many people faced challenges, and this too would pass.
The league said they had faith that the president would emerge from this situation as he had outfoxed difficult situations in the past.
It has also accused church leaders of being hypocrites, not behaving like Christians, and has stopped just short of calling on the clergy to mind its own business.
Read: ANC women call on Zuma to hang in there
This was in response to the clergy’s calls to reject Zuma’s apology after the recent Consitutional Court ruling, with some calling for his removal from office.
Provincial treasurer Barbara Thompson, speaking at an early birthday celebration for Zuma hosted by the league at the ANC provincial offices on Monday - at which Zuma was not present - said the league was concerned about utterances by church leaders.
It has been a difficult time for Zuma, who turns 74 on Tuesday. Since he was found by the Constitutional Court to have failed to uphold the constitution, he has faced growing calls to stand down.
Civil society, churches included, have been among the loudest.
Thompson said church leaders were compromising religion with their calls and if they continued on that path, there would be no point to religion, and they might as well close shop.
Her remarks appear to be part of a push-back campaign against voices critical of the president.
“We have been noticing with alarm that many church leaders have been saying that they reject the apology by President Zuma. These people go to church and pray, “Our Father”; there is a part about forgiveness.
“The pastors - I am not sure whether they represent the views of their congregants - have been going out there saying they will not be forgiving President Zuma,” she said.
“We all accept that Nkandla was a project that went wrong, and President Zuma as our first citizen takes responsibility. But for the churches to go out there and say they are not accepting the apology is dangerous.
Thompson said some of the church leaders at the forefront of the calls against Zuma were “known” to the ANC.
She said the behaviour of churches coming together looked conspiratorial.
“They are coming together, it should not be like that.”
KwaZulu-Natal ANC deputy chairman Willies Mchunu, also MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, said the decisions taken by the party’s national executive committee and national working committee to stand by Zuma were correct.
Attempts to speak to the SA Council of Churches on Monday were unsuccessful.
The Moses Mabhida region also affirmed its support for the president on Monday, saying there was nothing in the judgment that warranted his removal.
Secretary Mzi Zuma (no known relation) said they had studied it and found “there is no point that talks to the president as unfit to run the country or having breached his oath of office; only the counter-revolutionary forces are fabricating this absurd notion and consequently misleading the nation”.
“The president humbled himself by apologising.
“We at Moses Mabhida region accept his apology without reservations,” said Zuma.
The Mercury