#JacobZuma to address supporters after court, has 'a lot of ground to cover'

Published May 20, 2019

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Johannesburg - While he was initially expected to use the hour-long lunchtime court breakout to address his supporters, former president Jacob Zuma would now address them when the proceedings end at 4 pm on Monday.

Relaying the message to hundreds of eagerly waiting supporters who are clad in gold ANC T-shirts, Super Zuma, a provincial executive member of the ANC in KZN, said Zuma changed his mind because "he wants to cover a lot of ground". 

Speaking in Zulu to the supporters camped at the Freedom park opposite the Pietermaritzburg High Court, Super said they started showing their support for the former president as early 2005 when he was briefly charged after he was fired as the country's deputy president by then-President Thabo Mbeki.

Taking an indirect swipe at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Super said there would always be judiciary chaos when prosecutors who are supposed to be independent, collude with politicians.

"Let me tell you this, we have to know that a country will have judiciary chaos when prosecutors start to collude with politicians," he said in an apparent reference to Zuma's legal team argument that the corruption case is tainted by political interference. 

He further told the supporters that Zuma is innocent until he is proven otherwise by courts, not public opinions as it is at the present moment.

Not to be left out, the lunchtime platform was used by the leader of the Black First land First, Andile Mgxitama, to lynch the ANC and its president, Cyril Ramaphosa and white people. He opened his vociferous address by announcing "bad news" that his party was not going to parliament, saying black people will not be represented and concluded by lynching Ramaphosa.

"South Africans have made a mistake by electing Ramaphosa president when killed people in Marikana for profits. He will beat you up as he sides with white people... You take a sellout and make him a president, you will regret it," he said.

Apparently angered by a humorous article penned by a weekend newspaper, the spokesperson of the Mkhonto Wesizwe Military Veterans Association, Carl Niehaus, went for the throat for the media industry, accused it of trying water down the achievements and the proud history of the military wing of the ANC. He said that was shameful and singled out some journalist, saying the veterans MK will take action against them.

Political Bureau

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