By Tim Cocks
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Former South African President Jacob Zuma, who is a corruption trial, lashed out at his successor Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday, accusing him of betraying the ruling African National Congress (ANC) with his anti-corruption stance.
In an unprecedented attack, Zuma, whose decade of validity has been marked by corruption scandals still under investigation, accused Ramaphosa of discrediting the party, a sign that divisions are developing within the ANC ahead of its national executive committee convention this weekend.
Zuma himself faces multiple corruption investigations, adding a $2 billion arms deal trial before he took over the workplace in 2009, however, he stays away from a hard faction within the ANC. He denies all charges.
Ramaphosa ordered that reports of corruption in the government’s reaction to COVID-19 be investigated, adding the embezzlement of the budget for coVID-19 doctors’ protective equipment as well as food distribution.
Numerous scandals have worried young MEMBERS of the ANC who conspire with businesses in the family circle to defraud COVID-19 funding.
This week, Ramaphosa wrote a letter to ANC members that “their leaders are accused of corruption” and that the ANC “presents itself as the number one defendant.”
Zuma, who has given up launching particular public attacks against his successor, said in response:
Divisions within the ANC can ensure that Ramaphosa, whose presidency has been hampered by opposition from party factions since it was forcibly two years and part, advances the economic reforms needed to revive South Africa’s suffering economy.
Since taking hold after winning its opposed fight against the white minority regime in 1994, the FTA has been a broad coalition of teams whose disagreements prevent political action.
(Edited through David Holmes)