Zuma vs Ramaphosa was never about ANC presidency - Manyi

JOHANNESBURG - Mzwanele Manyi said that former President Jacob Zuma’s refusal to back down in his fight to privately private prosecute President Cyril Ramaphosa, shows the case was never about the race for the African National Congress (ANC) presidency.

Hours before the ANC’s 55th national elective conference kicked off in December 2022, Zuma served Ramaphosa with a summons to appear in court for private prosecution.

In 2023, the High Court set the case aside as unlawful and unconstitutional. 

It found, among others, that it was an abuse of process and instituted with the ulterior motive of preventing Ramaphosa from running for re-election as party president at the conference.

Almost two years after the summons was served, Zuma continues fighting tooth and nail to get Ramaphosa in the dock.

READ:

-Zuma vs Ramaphosa: Delays in proceedings not on Zuma - Manyi

-Zuma fails in second bid to overturn setting aside of private prosecution against Ramaphosa

He is still trying to appeal the ruling invalidating the private prosecution, with his counsel, advocate Dali Mpofu having revealed that they were now headed to the Constitutional Court when the matter came before the High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

Speaking on the sidelines of Tuesday’s proceedings, Manyi, the spokesperson for the Jacob Zuma Foundation, said that had Ramaphosa’s candidacy for the ANC presidency been the motivation for the case, the former president would have "run out of steam" by now.

"He would have found a reason to have stopped this because his mission would have been undermined as it were. The fact that he is still going at it, it just shows that it’s got absolutely nothing to do with that.

"In fact, if anything, it’s confirmation that that rumour, that line of thinking, that narrative, there was a misguided narrative, it was an opportunistic narrative to help the accused from evading his day in court."

The criminal proceedings are set to return to court in February 2025.