Durban - As support for former president Jacob Zuma grows, his supporters are set to announce their full support plans on Wednesday in Johannesburg.
Calling themselves “ANC JZ Supporters” and they said the support for the ex-president is a “make or break to save the soul of the African National Congress from the jaws of the White Monopoly Capital and its agents.”
One of the organisers, Martha Sambo, said while they would like to reveal more, it will be announced on Wednesday as one of their planned initiatives will be filling up the benches of the Pietermaritzburg High Court on May 6 when the warrant of arrest issued for Zuma, due to his non-attendance at court, will kick in - if he does not show up at court.
“We will go to support him in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on May 6. Now on Wednesday, we have a press conference to support Msholozi after the treatment he got from the judiciary,” Sambo said.
While the support for Zuma appears to be aimed at the broader public, the organisers of the press conference seem to be mainly targeting ANC members and members of the alliance partners of the ruling party.
An invitation issued for the press conference reads: “Please note that all ANC members, ANC voters, alliance structures, ANC supporters and ANC sympathisers should attend in their numbers.”
On Sunday City Press reported that loyalists consisting of sections of the ANC women and youth leagues, the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) and some provincial structures were planning a fightback against what they regarded as the “persecution” of Zuma.
The Sunday paper further reported that groups calling themselves the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) forces met in Kliptown in Soweto to draft a plan of action to support the former president.
“Various ANC-aligned organisations were represented at the 70-strong gathering, which was characterised by anger towards both the judiciary and Zuma’s perceived persecutors,” the paper reported.
The group seems to be complementing the work of RET Forces in KZN. The forces met last week and announced their support for Zuma on Wednesday. The leader of the forces in KZN, Nkosentsha Shezi told Independent Media on Monday that the Johannesburg gathering was a similar effort as theirs, albeit at a national level.
“We are working together with those forces to organise a march to Luthuli House to lodge a grievance regarding the way Msholozi is being treated. We are not saying the ANC must intervene in the functioning of the judiciary as we know it is an independent body , but we have an issue with judges who abuse their powers to undermine Zuma,” Shezi said.
Shezi added that their battle plan included writing to the Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and the Judiciary Service Commission to complain about the behavior of Judge Dhaya Pillay who issued the warrant of arrest.
The support for Zuma is not only coming from political formations and concerned members of the public, it is also coming from his own Zuma clan of Mpendle in the KZN Midlands.
The clan’s traditional leader, Inkosi Simphiwe Zuma, said they “will support Zuma to the very end.”
He said unlike during February appearance where only two senior Zuma clan members showed up, they will also show up in court on May 6 when the case resumes.
“We will always meet as a clan (over supporting Zuma). We will always support him and we will do so until the very end,” he said.