'We won't attack Zuma publicly'

This is despite the uMkhonto weSizwe party leader saying that Western Sahara should be a province of Morocco, contrary to South Africa's support for the Polisario Front's struggle to become an independent state

- Lunga Mzangwe

The Polisario Front has said it will not speak ill of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party leader Jacob Zuma's sudden decision to support the continuation of Morocco's occupation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara).

“We as Polisario will never make public comments about comrade Jacob Zuma because of his age and because he has been friends with us for the last 50 years. Unless we meet and hear from him directly, we will never make Morocco happy by speaking badly or negatively about him,” the former ambassador to South Africa and Western Sahara’s foreign affairs minister, Mohamed Yeslem Beisat, told the Mail & Guardian.

“In his 83 years of life, 60-plus of his years have been spent defending freedom and pan-Africanism. We will never believe that in his final years he would act contradictorily to what he has stood for all these decades.”

In a show of support for the North African country’s control over the disputed territory between Morocco and Western Sahara, Zuma and a delegation from the MK party last week met Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita in Rabat.

On Sunday, ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula accused Zuma of abusing the South African flag and misleading the international community.

The flag was seen alongside that of Morocco during Zuma’s meeting with that country’s officials.

During his tenure as South Africa’s president and leader of the ANC, Zuma advocated for the independence of the Sahrawi people. The ANC views Morocco’s claim over Western Sahara as colonialism and supports United Nations efforts to organise a referendum for self-determination.