The ANC is under attack’ – Zandile Gumede

Former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede has told her supporters that the African National Congress (ANC) is under attack and that the only ones who can free the party are its branches.

Gumede spoke outside the Durban Special Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday, 10 September 2020, where her corruption case was postponed to 10 December.

She, along with 16 others face charges of corruption linked to a suspicious R430 million waste collection tender during her tenure as mayor.

The case postponement is one of several since Gumede was arrested back in 2019 – which the former mayor has taken issue with. She and her supporters have long maintained she is being charged because she is a female leader.

“May God keep us, may we survive from Covid-19 until the truth comes out so that even the next generation knows that if you work for the people’s party (the ANC) with honesty, capitalists will persecute you,” Gumede said in Zulu.

The State requested the postponement, saying that while it had enough evidence to start a criminal case, it sought a postponement as a forensic audit still needed to be finalised.

Senior state prosecutor Ashika Lucken said going through the lengthy report would take as much as three months.

“I am advised that the estimated length of the audit report, together with the annexures and supporting documents, will be about 350,000 pages,” Lucken said.

“I have consulted investigators, we are looking at three months for the completion of the audit report. Discovery and the indictments would then be the next step taken once this is completed”