South Africa’s former North West Premier, Supra Mahumapelo says the court cases against former President Jacob Zuma have contributed to a decline in the African National Congress’s (ANC) support during last year’s municipal election.
He is among some ANC members who are at the Pietermaritzburg High Court to support Zuma.
The hearing is currently under way.
The former President has files an application for leave to appeal last year’s court judgement that dismissed his application for the recusal of prosecutor Advocate Billy Downer.
Mahumapelo says some ANC supporters decided not to vote in protest.
He says, “There are people within the ANC and within the society who are very angry with the manner in which Zuma is being treated, particularly when he was arrested and put in jail before having a trial. When we were doing door to door working with the people so it is true that there are members and supporters who were not happy and said they were not going to vote others we were able to convince them to go and vote and he himself went out and said people must go and vote but there are some who did not heed that call.”
Zuma applies for leave to appeal:
The Zuma Foundation indicated that they may challenge the ruling on the matter pertaining to Advocate Downer’s alleged leaking of information regarding Zuma’s health to the media.
Zuma is accused of receiving an annual bribe of R500 000 from French arms company Thales in exchange for using his political position to stop investigations into the controversial multi-billion rand arms deal of the 1990s.
The bribe was allegedly facilitated by Zuma’s convicted former financial advisor, Schabir Shaik.
Thales pleaded not guilty to racketeering and money laundering charges.
