Johannesburg - ANC members are welcome to help former president Jacob Zuma pay off his rising legal fees, the party's spokesperson says.
Zuma's legal fees are estimated to run into millions of rand and on Thursday the High Court in Pretoria closed the tap on the State paying for his legal bill.
The court said the decision for the State to pay for Zuma's legal fees, connected to his corruption charges, was illegal. It has also ordered that state should tally up how much the State had spent on Zuma's legal fees as the former president had to repay that money to the State.
Acting ANC spokesperson Dakota Legote told SABC's Morning Live on Friday that any member of the party willing to help the former president pay off his legal fees is welcome to do so.
"We welcome the ruling of the court and hope it will go a long way in shaping our constitutional democracy. Members of the ANC either through donations or other forms they can assist our former president both as the former leader of the ANC and state president. I do not foresee any problem," said Dakota.
This may be seen as a surprising stance by the party which had barred its members from wearing party regalia while attending Zuma's court proceedings.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said while speaking on the same programme, that the ANC's decision to support Zuma in paying his legal bill shows that the party is a "criminal syndicate". The DA had brought the case to the High Court.
"If you are going to ask ANC members to support a criminal activity this proves my point that this is a criminal organisation. I hope they pay the money (R20 million) to the people of South Africa. They have 90 days to do it and I look forward to it," said Maimane.