Gayton McKenzie: Zweli Mkhize attempted to poison Jacob Zuma

'This calls upon me to now set the record straight and be clear that it was Zweli Mkhize who was accused of recommending the food to President Zuma.'

Zweli Mkhize. Picture: Twitter/ @MYANC

Gayton McKenzie, the author of ‘Kill Zuma by Any Means Necessary’, has reacted to a letter written by a faction of the MKMVA claiming ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa attempted to poison President Jacob Zuma.

In a letter addressed to ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, the ‘Concerned Umkhonto weSizwe veterans’ wrote: “We also demand that the leadership of the ANC who were there when poisoned liver was placed before the president, Jacob Zuma, be revealed to the membership of the ANC and the nation. How can the organisation’s top leaders sit on such information?”

“Where did the liver come from, who prepared it and who wanted the president to eat it and die. Without the leadership telling us, we conclude it is Cyril Ramaphosa,” the faction of the MKMVA said.

MKMVA spokesperson Carl Niehaus has said the members of this faction were not speaking for the organisation.

McKenzie has since responded to the assertions in a statement published on AfricaNews24-7, as well as his own Twitter account.

“My sources have confirmed that there was a plot to kill President Jacob Zuma. The plot involved feeding Zuma a piece of liver, or according to another version, a plate of vegetables,” McKenzie stated and disclosed the culprit was Dr Zweli Mkhize.

“The liver or the vegetables had been poisoned and brought to the table from outside of Luthuli House to be served to the president.

“I at no point said that Ramaphosa recommended the food in question to President Zuma. In the book, it is only stated that it was a member of the top six who suggested the president should try the food,” McKenzie clarified.

“By not naming the person, I realise now that I created needless speculation, and everyone has simply concluded the person was Ramaphosa. This calls upon me to now set the record straight and be clear that it was the then treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize, who was accused of recommending the food to President Zuma.

“The president confronted him about it afterwards, whereupon I understand Mkhize claimed not to remember anything about the incident. Hopefully, this clarification will set the record straight. Future editions of the book will also feature an edit to ensure this unintended confusion is removed,” the statement reads.

Taher Mather, Dr Mkhize’s spokesperson, was unable to get a comment from the former premier of KwaZulu-Natal, as he is currently in Cape Town.

Mather explained that by the time Pule Mabe, new ANC spokesperson, announced the postponement of the special NEC meeting scheduled for today to February 17 and 18, Mkhize and most other NEC members had already flown to Cape Town in preparation of the gathering of the party’ decision-making structure in between conferences.

Former Prasa chief executive Lucky Montana implicated Mkhize in state capture corruption during his submission to the parliamentary inquiry into Eskom maladministration. City Press reported that in a letter Mkhize sent to Zukiswa Rantho, chairperson of the public enterprises committee, he said he was exploring his legal recourse on the allegations.