Cape Town - The Presidency on Friday strongly rejected a press report that President Jacob Zuma “secretly received money from the late Libya’s president Muammar Gaddafi and that Zuma feared his administration could be toppled”.
The Presidency made the statement in response to allegations by the Mail & Guardian newspaper on Friday that Zuma “was in Gaddafi’s pocket” and received funding from him.
The report said this information was conveyed to Hillary Clinton when she was US Secretary of State in 2011 by a close confidant, based on Western intelligence sources.
Private emails sent and received by Clinton were released as part of a convoluted legal and political fight, according to the report.
One email however, written by a top advisor to Clinton, painted Zuma in a negative light, saying he could not be trusted and was biased when it came to dealing with the rebels in the North African country, the report alleged.
“The Presidency refutes and rejects this malicious and irresponsible gossip and fabrication perpetuated by this newspaper,” presidential spokesperson Bongani Majola said.
Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for more than 40 years, was killed in his hometown of Sirte in 2011.
Xinhua