Former president Jacob Zuma's appearance before the Zondo commission of inquiry is dividing the ANC in real-time.

The Minister of Intelligence Ayanda Dlodlo has told Daily Maverick that she will not deal with the allegations of an intelligence-led conspiracy made by former president Jacob Zuma at the Zondo Commission of inquiry on Monday.

"The Minister says the Commission must be allowed to do and finalise its work without undue interference," said Dlodlo's spokesperson Mava Scott. He added: "The Minister will act, if required, at an appropriate time when the business of the Commission has been concluded."

Zuma's strategy of deflection by opening his testimony with bombshell allegations of a three-decade-long grand conspiracy against him and that the ANC was and is infiltrated by Western and apartheid spies failed. The evidence leader Paul Pretorius quickly moved testimony on to questioning the former head of state on the testimony of the nine witnesses who have appeared before the Commission and made serious allegations of State Capture implicating Zuma.

Zuma's spy allegations divide ANC

But Zuma's statement has done its damage. It has divided the ANC. On the one hand, a group led by the party's secretary-general Ace Magashule is pushing for Zuma's...