Murray Williams and Staff Reporters
4 January 2008
Cape Town — The ANC's newly elected secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, has confirmed that the latest criminal charges against party president Jacob Zuma will be studied in detail by the party's new national executive committee (NEC).
The move comes as Zuma's homestead at Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal is bracing for another festivity his impending marriage to Nompumelelo Ntuli, the mother of two of his children.
The North Coast ranch has been a hive of activity in the past few weeks, following Zuma's election to the party's top post at Polokwane in Limpopo last month.
If the wedding does take place, MaNtuli will become Zuma's fourth wife and it has been speculated that she could become First Lady if Zuma becomes president in 2009.
"This is a family affair and involves the arrival of MaNtuli as a bride to the home," said a member of the family.
MaNtuli, 33, is from KwaMaphumulo near Stanger. She has two children with Zuma five-year-old Thandisiwe and Sinqobile, who turns one next month.
Zuma will preside over his first NEC meeting on Monday and Mantashe said party officials would be meeting today to define the agenda for the meeting.
"We'll be looking into the charges against the (ANC) president as one of the issues around the ANC as an organisation. For example, when we say 'we support the president', what does that mean?"
While an important issue, it was not the only issue on the agenda, Mantashe said. An immediate priority was to elect the NEC's national working committee.
Meanwhile, many of the 218 people named on the state's witness list for Zuma's fraud and corruption trial in August were unaware yesterday that they might have to testify.
Apart from high-profile names like ID leader Patricia de Lille, former Scopa head Gavin Woods and former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein, the list also contains numerous non-political figures.
Jane McKenzie, an accountant at the Vineyard Hotel and Spa in Newlands, was mortified.
"I wouldn't be happy to testify I was only asked (by investigators) whether (Shabir) Shaik stayed here," she said.
Several schools also feature in the indictment document.
They include Herschel girls school, where Mary-Anne Posthumous of the bursar's office refused to comment.
At Pretoria Boys High, financial manager Llewellyn Shepperson said he had been visited by investigators "about 18 months ago" and had supplied them with an affidavit.
"I don't feel good about it at all. I had hoped that it had all gone away," he said.
Wynberg dental surgeon Reza van der Ross was not available for comment and nor was Louis Lee du Plessis from the accounts department at the Twelve Apostles Hotel.
Other possible local witnesses include people from the International School of Cape Town in Wynberg, Westerford school, Dr Davies Pathologists in Thornton, Greenwoods Chartered Accountants in the Absa building on the Heerengracht and Ella Govender, described as the household manager of the Presidency at Highstead on the Groote Schuur Estate.
The bulk of these names represent institutions which received money, allegedly on Zuma's behalf by Shabir Shaik or his company, Kobitech.
Even the City of Cape Town was a recipient of the allegedly suspect cash, being paid in traffic fines for a Toyota Tazz.
Zuma faces 16 charges in total: one count of racketeering, two counts of corruption, one count of money laundering and 12 counts of fraud.
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