Riyaz Patel
Jacob Zuma says Derek Hanekom’s defamation case against him, instituted after Zuma tweeted that Hanekom was a “known enemy agent,” is an ANC matter and not a legal one, Business Day reports.
ANC veteran and NEC member Hanekom is suing the former president for R500 000, saying Zuma’s spy claim is without evidence and “highly defamatory.”
Zuma filed papers in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban Wednesday in which he reportedly said: “Hanekom’s anxiety about his professed role in the anti-apartheid struggle, whether or not this role was duplicitous and whether he was an apartheid plant within ANC structures, is misplaced in these proceedings.”
Zuma then states that “it is a matter best left to the African National Congress and how it seeks to deal with those within its ranks that may have sold out their own comrades. It is also a matter best left to Hanekom’s own conscience.”
The tweet that spurred Hanekom’s defamation suit came on July 25 after EFF leader Julius Malema alleged that Hanekom conspired with his party to oust Zuma via a motion of no confidence in the National Assembly.
Zuma’s supporters say they will turn out in force to support the former president when the case is heard in court on Friday.
“I think it’s about time that he (Hanekom) feels and realises the black power. We are going to be there in our numbers to support [former] president Zuma,”said Nkosentsha Shezi, the chairperson of the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) Champions.
Hanekom served in Zuma’s Cabinet in various positions, the last being tourism minister, despite being outspoken against the former president and openly voicing concerns over state capture.
Hanekom contends that “the statement was intended by Mr Zuma, and understood by those who read it, to mean that I was an apartheid spy and part of a plan to infiltrate the ANC and assassinate Mr Zuma’s character. This is the sting of the statement and highly defamatory of me.
“Mr Zuma has no evidence to support his allegations. And yet, he refused to remove the statement from his Twitter account.”
But Zuma reportedly hit back, stating: “As my tweet demonstrates, my removal as head of state was part of a broader plan by those opposed to the wishes and objectives of the party that deployed me as head of state.”
In July, Zuma shocked the country when he told the public inquiry into state capture that former SANDF Chief Siphiwe Nyanda and ANC NEC member Ngoako Ramatlhodi were apartheid-era spies.
Both men hit back, with Ramatlhodi challenging Zuma to a lie detector test and Nyanda saying he would consider cross-examining Zuma at the state capture commission.
Zuma reportedly claims, Business Day reports, that Hanekom’s defamation action against him is nothing but an attempt to “prevent me from testifying truthfully and fully before the Zondo commission.”
Mac Maharaj, who served as Zuma’s presidential spokesperson, has publicly backed Hanekom and Nyanda.
