PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma was found "guilty" on "moral" and not legal grounds, raising questions about whether there was a "preconceived idea" that he be guilty "regardless of the facts", African National Congress (ANC) head of elections Malusi Gigaba said on Thursday.
In an interview, Mr Gigaba said issues like the Nkandla saga had affected the ANC’s campaign on a "communication level", particularly in public debates, but not on the "ground" where voters were preoccupied with issues of basic service delivery.
With 12 days to go before the elections, political parties are in overdrive to secure votes. Mr Gigaba is the latest senior ANC official and cabinet minister to question Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on Mr Zuma’s homestead at Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal.
His comments come after Mr Zuma suggested at a campaign rally in Mpumalanga on Wednesday that he did not accept Ms Madonsela’s findings. He said he was "still looking" for the undue benefit her report indicated he received.
The Nkandla issue has contributed to former ANC and alliance leaders calling on voters to register their protest by spoiling their ballot papers or "voting tactically" for a smaller party.
"What we do take issue with then, is the argument which says because you couldn’t find the president guilty legally, now you enter the moral terrain and go find him guilty there," said Mr Gigaba.
Ms Madonsela found that Mr Zuma and his family unduly benefited from upgrades to Nkandla.
The ANC had been prepared to face questions about Nkandla and about Gauteng highway e-tolls in its election campaign.
"When you do the door-to-door campaign those issues are not being discussed," said Mr Gigaba, accusing opposition parties, which have pounced on both issues, of trying to harness public anger about them to "distract the debate" in the country from their lack of vision for the country. The ANC would not defend "wrongdoing" on Nkandla, he said.
The party began fashioning its message about Nkandla towards the end of last year, before Ms Madonsela’s report was leaked to the Mail & Guardian. Since then it has emphasised the interministerial report which exonerated Mr Zuma. Once the public protector’s report was released, this report was used to counterbalance her findings.
Mr Gigaba, who is number three on the ANC’s list of candidates for Parliament, took over as head of elections late into its campaign. He admits this posed a challenge, but he said the ANC’s volunteer workers had already started interacting with voters across the country.
Another challenge had been funding its advertising campaigns, transport for volunteers, posters, billboards and T-shirts. Mr Gigaba would not give an exact figure, but said the campaign had cost millions or tens of millions of rand.
He conceded that Congress of South African Trade Unions infighting — including the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s (Numsa’s) decision not to campaign for the ANC — had affected the party’s campaign.
Some previously active unions were "not even participating".
" I think the ANC must at one point respect the democratic processes of Cosatu and respect the leadership of Cosatu as our comrades and equals, but at the same time we had to provide leadership," Mr Gigaba said about the ANC’s recent intervention in the battle.
While most opposition parties claim they will make significant inroads into the ANC’s share of the vote at the polls, Mr Gigaba said voter apathy was the biggest threat to the ANC.
"Absolutely, that’s what we recognise in large measure. We face that at two levels, members of the ANC who feel that the ANC has this in the bag, so even if I don’t vote others will … and secondly the other level of the threat comes from disgruntled, unhappy, disaffected ANC supporters both strong and weak who say I support the ANC, I won’t vote for anyone else because I am angry about this particular issue and therefore I will not go to vote," said Mr Gigaba. "We now targeting all those. We are talking to them, driving them out."
While the Democratic Alliance (DA) wants to win Gauteng this election or at least bring the ANC vote below 50% and force a coalition, Mr Gigaba believes the ANC "has Gauteng in the bag". He feels it will go toe--to-toe with the DA in the Western Cape, where the DA is confident of a win. The ANC’s performance in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Free State could be critical to offsetting disappointments in other provinces. In the 2009 polls the ANC’s share of the vote decreased in all provinces except KwaZulu Natal.
ANC head of elections Malusi Gigaba. Picture: BUSINESS DAY
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma was found "guilty" on "moral" and not legal grounds, raising questions about whether there was a "preconceived idea" that he be guilty "regardless of the facts", African National Congress (ANC) head of elections Malusi Gigaba said on Thursday.
In an interview, Mr Gigaba said issues like the Nkandla saga had affected the ANC’s campaign on a "communication level", particularly in public debates, but not on the "ground" where voters were preoccupied with issues of basic service delivery.
With 12 days to go before the elections, political parties are in overdrive to secure votes. Mr Gigaba is the latest senior ANC official and cabinet minister to question Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on Mr Zuma’s homestead at Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal.
His comments come after Mr Zuma suggested at a campaign rally in Mpumalanga on Wednesday that he did not accept Ms Madonsela’s findings. He said he was "still looking" for the undue benefit her report indicated he received.
The Nkandla issue has contributed to former ANC and alliance leaders calling on voters to register their protest by spoiling their ballot papers or "voting tactically" for a smaller party.
"What we do take issue with then, is the argument which says because you couldn’t find the president guilty legally, now you enter the moral terrain and go find him guilty there," said Mr Gigaba.
Ms Madonsela found that Mr Zuma and his family unduly benefited from upgrades to Nkandla.
The ANC had been prepared to face questions about Nkandla and about Gauteng highway e-tolls in its election campaign.
"When you do the door-to-door campaign those issues are not being discussed," said Mr Gigaba, accusing opposition parties, which have pounced on both issues, of trying to harness public anger about them to "distract the debate" in the country from their lack of vision for the country. The ANC would not defend "wrongdoing" on Nkandla, he said.
The party began fashioning its message about Nkandla towards the end of last year, before Ms Madonsela’s report was leaked to the Mail & Guardian. Since then it has emphasised the interministerial report which exonerated Mr Zuma. Once the public protector’s report was released, this report was used to counterbalance her findings.
Mr Gigaba, who is number three on the ANC’s list of candidates for Parliament, took over as head of elections late into its campaign. He admits this posed a challenge, but he said the ANC’s volunteer workers had already started interacting with voters across the country.
Another challenge had been funding its advertising campaigns, transport for volunteers, posters, billboards and T-shirts. Mr Gigaba would not give an exact figure, but said the campaign had cost millions or tens of millions of rand.
He conceded that Congress of South African Trade Unions infighting — including the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s (Numsa’s) decision not to campaign for the ANC — had affected the party’s campaign.
Some previously active unions were "not even participating".
" I think the ANC must at one point respect the democratic processes of Cosatu and respect the leadership of Cosatu as our comrades and equals, but at the same time we had to provide leadership," Mr Gigaba said about the ANC’s recent intervention in the battle.
While most opposition parties claim they will make significant inroads into the ANC’s share of the vote at the polls, Mr Gigaba said voter apathy was the biggest threat to the ANC.
"Absolutely, that’s what we recognise in large measure. We face that at two levels, members of the ANC who feel that the ANC has this in the bag, so even if I don’t vote others will … and secondly the other level of the threat comes from disgruntled, unhappy, disaffected ANC supporters both strong and weak who say I support the ANC, I won’t vote for anyone else because I am angry about this particular issue and therefore I will not go to vote," said Mr Gigaba. "We now targeting all those. We are talking to them, driving them out."
While the Democratic Alliance (DA) wants to win Gauteng this election or at least bring the ANC vote below 50% and force a coalition, Mr Gigaba believes the ANC "has Gauteng in the bag". He feels it will go toe--to-toe with the DA in the Western Cape, where the DA is confident of a win. The ANC’s performance in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Free State could be critical to offsetting disappointments in other provinces. In the 2009 polls the ANC’s share of the vote decreased in all provinces except KwaZulu Natal.
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