SOWETO, SOUTH AFRICA APRIL 12: President Jacob Zuma, his wife Thobeka Madiba-Zuma, Jessie Duarte and ANCWL president Bathabile Dlamini during Zumas 75th birthday celebrations at Kliptown on April 12, 2017 in Soweto, South Africa. While giving a speech, Zuma said he would step down if the ANC asked him to do so. (Photo by Gallo Images / Sowetan / Sandile Ndlovu)
ANCWL defends Zuma, berates media for reporting on his alleged “Dubai palace”
The Woman’s League doing what it does best: defending Jacob Zuma.
SOWETO, SOUTH AFRICA APRIL 12: President Jacob Zuma, his wife Thobeka Madiba-Zuma, Jessie Duarte and ANCWL president Bathabile Dlamini during Zumas 75th birthday celebrations at Kliptown on April 12, 2017 in Soweto, South Africa. While giving a speech, Zuma said he would step down if the ANC asked him to do so. (Photo by Gallo Images / Sowetan / Sandile Ndlovu)
Following reports that the infamous Gupta family had helped el presidente get hold of his own Dubai mansion – with batty Bob Mugabe as his neighbour nogal – the ANC Woman’s League released a statement in the president’s defence.
Related: ANC Women’s League roasted for only acknowledging Kwezi after her death
Now, you might think that with all the challenges facing women in South Africa the Woman’s League would be actively working to improve the lives of the people they’re charged with representing, but you’d be wrong.
Read: ANCWL slams media for “smear campaign” against minister who bankrupted her dept.
Since Jacob Zuma got hold of the ANC presidency and gradually replaced good leaders with his own cabal, the Woman’s League – much like the Youth League – has become little more than a soapbox for the pro-Zuma faction within the ruling party.
Anyway, eNCA reports that, in a statement released on Sunday, the League slams the Sunday Times’ article, “Zuma’s Dubai palace,” as “malicious.”
“On the 8th of May 2016, a year and few days from today, the City Press newspaper issued a headline titled ‘The Guptas R445m mansion’. A year later, on the 4th of June 2017, the Sunday Times published its own front page article titled ‘Zuma’s Dubai Palace’,” the Woman’s League’s statement reads.
“The Sunday Times makes the similar allegations that the same plot L35 in the same area in Dubai belongs to and is owned by the ANC President, Cde Jacob G. Zuma. This blatant fabrication is done despite the Presidency issuing a statement and setting the record straight.”
“The Sunday Times has not shown any proof on their deliberate fabrication aimed increasing sales and misleading the public on their article. We challenge the Sunday Times to present proof in form of a title deed that indeed the property they are writing about belongs to the President.”
“It is our firm view as ANCWL that some media houses try desperately to report subjectively and rely on gossip and unproven facts. This style of reporting to us is not shocking but just proves our long-held view that media freedom in South Africa is abused to suit a particular agenda and to malign the integrity of ANC leaders, in this instance, the President of the ANC.”
