- ANC head of presidency Sibongile Besani has accused former president Jacob Zuma of being "disingenuous" for accusing his successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, of treason.
- Besani said Zuma knew Ramaphosa was a businessman when he appointed him as his deputy president.
- During a scathing attack on Ramaphosa over the weekend, Zuma said Ramaphosa neglected his duties as the president and that conducting private business was "treasonous".
ANC head of presidency Sibongile Besani has accused former president Jacob Zuma of being "disingenuous" for accusing his successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, of treason.
During a scathing attack, Zuma accused Ramaphosa on Saturday of being a "corrupt" and a "treasonous" businessman who "is busy hustling on the side".
"Let us not beat about the bush about the neglect of constitutional duty that comes with abusing the office of the president to conduct private business. I am assuming that what President Ramaphosa has said about the many dollars under his bed or furniture is true - that he conducts private business while serving as president of our country," Zuma said.
Speaking to News24 on Monday, Besani said: "[Former] president Zuma says Ramaphosa is corrupt; he (the former president) is being disingenuous, in the sense that he is the one who appointed President Ramaphosa as deputy president."
"At that point, the business interests of President Ramaphosa were known, and then, he (Ramaphosa) had to model them in such a way that they didn't create a conflict of interest. So for him (Zuma) to come and say Ramaphosa has committed treason is disingenuous."
Besani reiterated that Ramaphosa's business interests and how they were modelled were public knowledge within the ANC, "and declarations in line with the regulations have also been made".
Besani said:
The ANC head of presidency also defended Ramaphosa against sentiments uttered by his other predecessors, former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe.
Regarding utterances made by Mbeki, Besani said the former president "was expressing a view in a dialogue platform" and had the right to communicate his perspective.
Among other things, Mbeki said over the weekend that the ANC could not avoid discussing whether it would ask Ramaphosa to step aside if a panel appointed by Parliament found that he had an impeachable case to answer.
"Our president is under a lot of pressure. I am talking about President Ramaphosa... around this matter of Phala Phala farm. There are criminal investigations going on. Parliament has its own processes. The reserve bank has done what it wants to do... What relevance does that all have to the leadership of the ANC that will come out of Nasrec [at the elective conference] at the end of the year, or is it entirely irrelevant?" Mbeki said.
Besani said the ANC national executive committee (NEC) had, "in its wisdom", outlined when members should step aside, and this was meant to protect them from "trumped-up charges".
Besani said:
"What I heard with Kgalema [Motlanthe] is that he said people have a right to criticise the president, and you can't take that right away; there is nothing wrong with that."
The former presidents have since been condemned for their actions by the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. The party in those regions gave since come out in Ramaphosa's defence, calling on the party's elders to exercise restraint.
The two ANC structures also noted the importance of the principle of innocent until proven guilty.