Durban - Supporters of incarcerated former president Jacob Zuma are patiently pressing on with their campaign to free him from jail, with the latest upcoming protest march taking the heated political battle to Luthuli house, the national headquarters of the ruling party in central Johannesburg.
The Luthuli house bound march is billed for Friday morning and the spokesperson of the organisers Mxolisi Ngobese said it would be a two-pronged march and they would not give up until Zuma is freed from Estcourt prison in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, where he is serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court.
The march comes as the country waits for the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) to hand down a ruling after Zuma approached it – crying foul that he was jailed without a trial, as required by the Constitution, and asked it to rescind its ruling.
Ngobese said their march follows a letter they wrote to Ramaphosa, on July 21 this year, demanding – among other things – that he should free Zuma from prison, fire all the ministers in the security cluster and act on the Phoenix killings that left more than 20 people dead.
"Our march on Friday will be about two issues – we demand that the ANC and Ramaphosa release former president Zuma from jail and we will never back down on that call until we have been heard and Zuma is back home. Zuma is one of us and we have to fight for him, as you also know that you don't abandon a fellow traveller during his hour of need," Ngobese told Independent Media.
The national spokesperson of the ANC Pule Mabe did not respond when asked by Independent Media whether they are aware of the march Ngobese and other Zuma supporters intend to direct at Luthuli House on Friday.
Although they are not organising any major rallies to make their demands, Nkosentsha Shezi, the national chairperson of RET (Radical Economic Transformation) Champion, said that they still demand the release of Zuma from prison. Shezi also lashed out at the ConCourt for delaying in handing down its ruling in the remission case brought by Zuma, saying the delay was unnecessary.
"We still stand by calls to free Zuma and we also demand it. The people should continue, within the framework of the law, to make the call and demand that Zuma is released from jail," Shezi said.
Another faceless march is expected to be staged on Wednesday, in Richards Bay, on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal. A leader from the Musa Dladla region, who is sympathetic to Zuma, said the reason why no one wanted to talk about it was that they don't want the police to pin it on someone and arrest that person as a "ringleader".
sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za
Political Bureau