Former President Jacob Zuma has argued that the courts are not the appropriate forum to address whether former minister Derek was an apartheid spy or not.
The African National Congress (ANC) should address the matter, he argued in court papers filed at the Durban High Court on Wednesday.
Hanekom’s anxiety about his professed role in the anti-apartheid struggle, whether or not this role was duplicitous and whether he was an apartheid plant within ANC structures, is misplaced in these proceedings.
Former President Jacob Zuma
He went on to say it’s a matter best left to the ANC and to “Hanekom’s own conscience.”
Zuma is opposing a defamation lawsuit against him by Hanekom, who claims that Zuma suggested he was an apartheid spy in a tweet he posted in July.
In the tweet, Zuma referred to Hanekom as “a known enemy agent.”
Zuma made the claim soon after Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema claimed Hanekom met them in 2017 to discuss Zuma’s removal from office.
Hanekom moved to court to seek an apology, retraction, and R500,000 in damages from Zuma over the claim.
However, the former president insists that his “enemy agent” comment only referred to how Hanekom “connived with enemies and opposition parties” to remove him as president.
As my tweet demonstrates, my removal as head of state was part of a broader plan by those opposed to the wishes and objectives of the party that deployed me as head of state.
Former President Jacob Zuma
Zuma further claimed that Hanekom’s lawsuit is meant to gag him from making more revelations on alleged apartheid spies at the state capture inquiry.
It is at the inquiry that Zuma first made allegations of apartheid spies infiltrating the ANC.
He mentioned former ministers Ngoako Ramatlhodi and Siphiwe Nyanda as being alleged apartheid spies.
The two are reportedly considering suing Zuma for defamation as well.