Former President Jacob Zuma has come out swinging against President Cyril Ramaphosa’s letter on corruption, saying the letter was a public relations exercise to save his skin.
Zuma, who wrote the letter from his Nkandla homestead, said Ramaphosa’s assertion that the ANC was Accused No 1 in corruption was not helpful and served to destroy the organisation.
“Mr president, this statement you make is not helpful to the ANC, in my respectful view. For all intents and purposes, it can only serve to destroy the ANC., particularly if the head of the ANC pleads guilty on behalf of the ANC, and calls the ANC Accused no 1. Your actions are unprecedented in this regard,” he said.
“Mr president you are indeed the first president of the ANC to stand in public and accuse the ANC of criminality and that the ANC must be Accused No1 as accusations of corruption mount. You are indeed the first ANC president, since its formation in 1912, to stand in public to accuse the ANC as an organisation and to say the ANC must bury its head in shame,” he added.
Zuma, who stands accused of corruption and being at the centre of state capture, said it was unforgivable for Ramaphosa to label the rank and file of the ANC as criminals for the crimes that “you and those with you serve with in the state are accused of”.
He said the majority of the thousands of ANC members were poor and not corrupt. Zuma added that Ramaphosa’s letter gave credence to the suspicion that he sought to help those in the ANC involved in the attempts to destroy the party in order to hand it over to be the tool of “White Monopoly Capital”.
Zuma said it has become Ramaphosa’s hallmark to divert accusations from himself rather than clear his name.
“Mr president, you currently stand accused of having received R1 billion in donations from White Monopoly Capital just to win an internal contest. The ANC has repeatedly decried this phenomenon as something foreign to its culture, policies and constitution,” he said.
“Worse still, and as a matter of fact, and with some unsurprising help from the judgement of the North Gauteng High Court, you have sealed the records reflecting your generous donars in order for the public and ordinary members you lead never to know the identities of those who funded your campaign of our glorious movement and consequently ascend to the highest office in our land,” he added.
