Zuma on serving as president again: ‘Who am I not to comply?’

If it were up to former president Jacob Zuma, he would have stayed president of South Africa forever, he said on Saturday. 

But, he said, “it doesn't work that way”.

Zuma, who has raised his hand to serve as national party chair when the ANC goes to its elective conference in December, said “it was up to the people”.

Speaking to the media for the first time since the expiry of his 15-month prison sentence, Zuma was asked if he was available for another term in office.

“That depends on the people of South Africa. If it depended on me then I would have been president forever but it doesn’t work that way.”

Zuma, who has endorsed his former wife, Cogta minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as ANC president to replace Cyril Ramaphosa in December said: “I can’t guess (who will be the president in December or) how the ANC views him and they will take their decision. I cannot tell them what to do.”

He would not say whether he believed Ramaphosa deserved a second term.

“People generally say there is no money and things are bad in the country. They are saying that there is a problem in the country. Many people are saying that this president has failed, it’s not me.”

Zuma said there were things Ramaphosa had done that were not presidential and not right. “It’s the ANC conference that will deal with whether they want him back or not.”

In his view, Ramaphosa was not doing what he was sent to do by the ANC. “Here is a scandal found in his home. There is money, dollars, and he accepts that it’s his money. It’s never done. It’s never done and he is doing it as the president of the ANC. You can start from (Nelson Mandela) Madiba, nobody kept millions of dollars of money. It’s wrong.”

Asked how his relationship was with the current president, Zuma said Ramaphosa is his comrade. “I talk to all comrades and I have been with him in leadership. I haven’t talked to him in the past because he is very busy. He is the president and I am staying in Nkandla. I cannot disturb him when he is president, so I am in Nkandla.”

On whether he was available to serve as president and chair at the upcoming conference, he said: “In the ANC, it’s the members of the organisation that take a view about individuals.

“Nobody is debarred from that. Everybody can be nominated. I hear that I am being nominated by the branches and we have not sat in a meeting where I have said I am standing or not standing.

“I am told I am being nominated as president and deputy. These comrades must have good reason they are doing so and I have not said yes or no because they are doing their job.”

Zuma said branches had the right to nominate him for any position and “who am I to defy if the ANC takes a decision?”

He said the conference will decide on the new leadership. He said he will decline if the branches ask him to take on the top post because “it all depends on the ANC”.

On the question of his age, Zuma said: “ANC has no age. If you are an ANC cadre and the members say perform, there is no age.”

Regarding his health, Zuma said: “What’s wrong with my health? Looking at me, am I lying in hospital? You are asking a very funny and unusual question.”

On the step-aside rule, Zuma said he did not believe it was fair and that the ANC should respect the country’s constitution, “because you are innocent until proven guilty ... It is undermining the right of people to participate in the ANC.”

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