Zuma puts a cork in Juju

THE ANC and police have pulled out all the stops - including staging roadblocks on major routes leading to Mangaung - in a bid to ensure that the party's momentous centenary celebrations are incident-free amid claims that a section of youth league members wanted to embarrass President Jacob Zuma.

Zuma is scheduled to address more than 100000 party supporters and 6000 VIP guests - who include 46 heads of state - at a rally in Mangaung in the Free State today, to celebrate the ruling party's 100th anniversary.

Roadblocks were mounted on major roads leading to the Free State. Buses carrying supporters were searched following rumours about Limpopo youths carrying stones with which to pelt the president. No stones were found.

SAPS spokeswoman Brig-adier Nonkululeko Mbatha said: "We are receiving intelligence and we are able to act pro-actively. We are leaving no avenue open [to disruption]."

In a move seen as an attempt by party leaders to shield Zuma from possible embarrassment in front of international guests, the ANC announced earlier this week that only the president would be allowed to address the crowds today.

Zuma's detractors have alleged that this was an attempt by the leadership to ensure that suspended youth league leader Julius Malema does not get an opportunity to greet the crowd.

But ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe rejected that interpretation of the change in programme from recent years.

He said throughout most of its history the ANC had not let its leagues and alliance partners, Cosatu and the SA Communist Party, speak on such occasions. The practice of doing so began after a new party leadership, under Zuma, was elected in 2007, he said.

"This thing of creating space for the youth league is a post-Polokwane practice. You're having a centenary, usually the president speaks at 12, but now he will speak at 5pm. To think that we can run that programme as if we are running last year's January 8 statement ... you are expecting too much from us.

"[The reason] why historically the youth league has not spoken is because the statement presented by the president is the statement of the NEC, where the leagues are represented," Mantashe said.

The celebrations come at a time when the ANC is embroiled in a bitter battle between Zuma and Malema's youth league, which wants the president replaced by his deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, at the party's national conference in December this year.

At "mini-rallies" addressed by Malema this week as part of the build-up to today's festivities, Malema called on his supporters to be on their best behaviour when Zuma speaks. He did, however, warn that hostilities would resume in weeks to come.

The decision to let only Zuma speak has angered some ANC leaders who believe that former president Thabo Mbeki, as one of the former party leaders who is still alive, should have been allowed to address the gathering.

Members of the ANC's centenary steering committee were at odds this week over Mbeki's role during the event. It was eventually decided he would be limited to the small role of lighting a torch at midnight and handing it over to Zuma today.

Zuma hosted a gala dinner last night attended by the heads of state invited to the centenary celebrations.

The event was held in a giant white marquee at the University of Free State's Vista campus, with Home Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and ANC NEC member Cyril Ramaphosa as MCs.

Mbeki walked in beside former Ghanaian president Jerry Rawlings. Rwandan president Paul Kagame, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo and other leaders also attended.

The event went well into the night with 21 heads of state expected to speak.

Mozambican president Armando Guebuza urged the people of Southern Africa to "join hands" in creating a society without discrimination. He was followed by Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, who had the gathering in stitches when he said that, as a young man, he had thought all South Africans "were Zulus" after he first heard Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika at school in 1955.

Zuma's address will capture the ANC's rich history and, said his aides, reveal a new vision to professionalise the ANC.

Among the heads of state who arrived yesterday were President Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar, President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique and President Michael Sata of Zambia. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe was too ill to travel and was replaced by Deputy President Joyce Mujuru. The heads of state are accommodated at the exclusive Woodland Hills Estate in the town.

Preparations for the celebrations were not without hiccups. Zuma and Motlanthe failed to show up at side events where they were meant to officiate.

Motlanthe's office said the ANC's steering committee had failed to inform it that it had billed the deputy president to officially open an ANC golf challenge on Friday. Motlanthe was on holiday in Cuba and returned on Thursday. His spokesman, Thabo Masebe, said Motlanthe was too tired to travel before the weekend.

An official at the Presidency said the steering committee had not confirmed with Zuma's office his availability to address a rally in Thaba 'Nchu.