Former deputy president Jacob Zuma has pledged not to withdraw legal action he has instituted against members of the media, according to a report on M&G Online.
Zuma is suing publishers, editors, reporters, cartoonist Zapiro and newspapers for their coverage and comment of his rape trial. The defamation claims run into hundreds of millions of rands, much of it directed at reporters and editors of Independent Newspapers.
Addressing the Cape Town Press Club on Tuesday, the African National Congress (ANC) deputy president said the media have no right to take the place of a judge and decide on one's guilt.
Zuma said what he has stated in this regard about the media is what he believes they have done.
A judge has looked at the facts before him and found Zuma not guilty, but some members of the media "continue to find me guilty". This is unfair, Zuma said.
Once a judge has pronounced on a case, the decision has to be respected and it cannot be dealt with again in the media, he said.
Zuma also repeated he is not campaigning for the country's highest job, and again denied any friction between himself and President Thabo Mbeki. "I am not campaigning to become president," he said.
Click here to read the full report, posted on M&G Online.ÂÂÂ
