The ANC has responded to a column written in the Beeld newspaper about the ‘lack of leadership’ of Jacob Zuma.

The article stirred up quite a response, and the ANC caught wind of the article which pulls no punches.

Now the ANC has taken the same attitude and responded accordingly, calling out the the Beeld editor, Adriaan Basson’s, “blatant lies”.

The article demonstrates an obsession by Basson in waging a determined, desperate and futile campaign to get rid of President Zuma.

In his quest to continue to discredit President Zuma, Basson is even prepared to resort to blatant lies. He speaks that “he (Zuma) should have known better when a palace arose out of nothing around him”. It is a known fact and concured by the Public Protector that the President did not use state funds for the building of his residence. President Zuma initiated and paid for the building of his residence, as is usually the norm in these instances, even before he was elected head of state and government of this country.

Basson’s reference to “the poor police minister, Nkosinathi Nhleko” is not only patronising and condescending but demonstrates a contempt for duly appointed democratically elected officials in the exercise of their natural duties. And this is the crux of the matter. While the ANC is unambiguously committed to the Freedom of expression, Basson demonstrably treats democracy as disposable when he manufactures three options to “get rid of Zuma before 2019.”

He even manages to speak of “an amnesty that will indemnify *President Zuma from prosecution” if he resigns and disappears from the political scene. Basson proceeds as though we are dealing with the criminal regime of apartheid past. If Basson cannot tell the difference between his Bothas from his Zumas, that is fortunately not a widely shared disability in our country.