Durban – Amid wrangling over former president Jacob Zuma’s well-being, his supporters are due to stage a get-well-soon prayer on Thursday.
The prayer is expected to be held under strict Covid-19 protocols. Organisers said only 100 people would be allowed to convene outside Zuma’s home in Nkandla in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
Among those who have confirmed their attendance at the prayer session is Bishop Vusi Dube, of the eThekwini community church in Durban.
Dube is one of the key organisers of Zuma supporters who always gather outside the Pietermaritzburg high court when Zuma is appearing.
“I know about the prayer and I am also attending the prayer, (so, yes) I have been invited to this prayer,” Dube said.
One of the organisers of the prayer, Thoko Cebekhulu, from the ANC in the Musa Dladla region (King Cetshwayo district municipality), said they represented the ANC region from where Zuma hailed. They would be praying for Zuma to get well and him to be freed from Estcourt prison where he is serving a 15 month sentence for contempt of the Constitutional Court.
“The prayer will be held outside the home (of Zuma) in Nkandla… We will be praying that since Zuma is not well and in an undesirable place (prison), he gets well and hopefully he gets released,” Cebekhulu said.
Meanwhile, the Jacob Zuma Foundation has slammed the circulation of the sick note from the military health services which outlines Zuma’s medical condition.
The foundation said it was a clear violation of Zuma’s privacy and it had instructed his legal team to act on that.
“It cannot be that private and state agencies, in the pursuit of profit and hatred, targeted at an individual, can be allowed to trample upon the most basic human rights of our Patron in the manner witnessed today.
“The hospital letter, which was circulated at a mass level, locally and internationally, is repeatedly marked as confidential.
“In any event, the rules of common decency dictate that such information be treated in a manner which observes the human dignity and privacy rights of any person or patient,” the foundation said.
