The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) in KwaZulu-Natal has vowed to rally behind former president Jacob Zuma when he appears in court on corruption charges.
Recently the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Shaun Abrahams announced the reinstatement of the charges against Zuma.
ANCYL provincial chairperson Kwazi Mshengu says they have started mobilising support for Zuma as he is presumed innocent until the court of law finds otherwise.
Mshengu says they are confident that courts will rise above the politics during the Zuma trial.
“We respect the decision of the NPA to reinstate the charges against president Jacob Zuma. We accept the fact that the prosecutorial power lies squarely with the NPA. They are the authority that decides whether to prosecute or not.”
“Almost 12 years down the line we see the revival of the charges and with the manner in which this case has been politicised as you would know that it was kept alive by opposition parties. We are confident that the courts will resist to be drawn into political football,” says Mshengu.
Mshengu goes on to say they are already in touch with other provinces to ensure that the former head of state gets the necessary support.
“We will be with him in the entire process. We are going to mobilise for him as we did almost 12 years ago. We are going to go all out to mobilise that people also come to support him during the days of the trial. As the ANCYL leadership not only in KZN but we have been in touch with other provinces including of the ANC saying they are willing to come on board. We may also see the repeat of the support that we had before he became the president of the ANC.”
He says Zuma’s participation in the next year’s national election campaign will not dent the image of the ANC since he is a member of the party in good standing.
“We don’t believe that his continued participation in the campaign will somehow dent the image of the ANC.”
“Zuma is a member of the ANC in good standing, he served the ANC as the president for 10 years. He has never been expelled in the ANC so he has that revolutionary responsibility to participate in every campaign of the ANC. In fact we are happy that Jacob Zuma is campaigning for the ANC, so we don’t see any harm in his continued participation in the campaign. In fact what we have seen in the previous campaigns, particularly during the voter registration, is the love that people still have for him.”
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