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South Africa: 'Standstill' Promised Ahead of Trial
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
25 July 2008
Posted to the web 25 July 2008
Amy Musgrave
Johannesburg
PLANS to show support for African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma during his corruption trial next month are underway, with threats to march on the Constitutional Court and bring the location of his trial - Pietermaritzburg - to a standstill.
Young Communist League (YCL) secretary Buti Manamela told reporters yesterday that South Africans from all walks of life would gather in Pietermaritzburg to show their support for Zuma. "Pietermaritzburg will come to a standstill, that is a given. We will be there from the night vigil on Sunday night to Tuesday," he said.
The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) , YCL, Congress of South African Students, Student Union for Christian Action, South African Students' Congress, Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans' Association and the ANC Women's League met this week to decide how best to show their support.
Zuma's legal team will try to get the court to set aside a decision by the acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe to charge him. The charges relate to racketeering, money laundering, corruption and fraud.
The organisations said they would march on the Constitutional Court to register their objection about the extent to which some senior judges "have compromised themselves and the c onstitution".
The Constitutional Court has recently been dragged into the controversy surrounding Zuma's trial. Cape Judge President John Hlophe was accused of approaching some of the Constitutional Court's judges improperly while they were deliberating cases involving Zuma. Hlophe has laid a counter complaint, claiming the court abused his rights by making its complaint against him public.
ANCYL president Julius Malema said the Hlophe matter was proof the Constitutional Court had decided to rule against Zuma. "They have ruled against him and now they want moral justification," he said.
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Supporters were being mobilised across SA and not only in Pietermaritzburg, Malema said.
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