Winnie's plan calls for 'free' Zuma
13 December 2007, 06:08
By Angela Quintal, Sibusiso Ngalwa and Siyabonga Mkhwanazi
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela wants President Thabo Mbeki to cut a deal to ensure he is re-elected ANC president, on condition that his rival, Jacob Zuma, is not charged and succeeds him as head of state in 2009.
The ANC stalwart, who at the weekend offered to become mediator, has written to party secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe to outline her six-point compromise plan and to facilitate separate meetings with Mbeki and Zuma.
The plan is one of several doing the informal rounds, mostly by those aligned to Mbeki.
This includes a new compromise list from some of Mbeki's main allies identifying Mathews Phosa as treasurer, Motlanthe as national chairperson, Joel Netshitenzhe as secretary-general and Baleka Mbete as his deputy, and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as deputy president, with the top post being contested between Mbeki and Zuma.
But the Zuma camp, confident that he has the support of the majority of provincial delegates, as well as the ANC Youth and Women's Leagues, appears in no mood for a truce.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Sexwale - Zuma's newest best friend - has formally opted out of the chairmanship race.
Mbete will be nominated from the floor for chairperson, while MK stalwart and North West Speaker Thandi Modise will be nominated as deputy secretary-general by the Zuma camp, a Zuma ally said.
However, despite a general thumbs-down from the Zuma and Mbeki camp to her plan, Madikizela-Mandela is pressing ahead regardless.
She wants the ANC's national executive committee to endorse the plan at its meeting ahead of this weekend's Polokwane conference.
The plan would put Mbeki and other NEC members such as Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla in an invidious position, opening them up to accusations of political interference and even obstructing the ends of justice should the National Prosecuting Authority be poised to charge Zuma, as is widely speculated.
Madikizela-Mandela is the third senior ANC leader in a fortnight to write to Motlanthe expressing concern about the poisoned atmosphere that has characterised the party's succession battle.
In a letter dated December 11, Madikizela-Mandela writes that unless the current patterns of self-promotion and unhealthy personalised contestation were arrested and reversed, "our movement will present unprecedented opportunities for the local and global right-wing forces to infiltrate our movement, creating and exacerbating divisions for the sole purpose of weakening it".
The former ANC Women's League president decried the existence of two divisive factional lists - belonging to the Zuma and Mbeki camps - saying that what was needed was an ANC list to "provoke consensus".
Madikizela-Mandela warned that, given the current climate, any losing faction could be expected to launch a range of debilitating legal challenges by mobilising "a circus of colourful allegations relating to such matters as accreditation, vote-rigging, any assortment of irregularities".
Madikizela-Mandela proposed a six-point plan that includes:
Motlanthe said on Wednesday night the letter had arrived too late to be tabled at Monday's special NEC meeting, nor would there be an opportunity to formally table the letter at the conference.
Mluleki George, the chief campaigner for Mbeki's re-election for a third term as party president, said he found Madikizela-Mandela's proposal that criminal charges against Zuma should be solved by the ANC as "going too far" and that the matter should be cleared in court.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on December 13, 2007
Pretoria
