Political rhetoric or real warning?

No Zuma, no country!

That's a chilling warning issued on Sunday to the rest of the country by the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans' Association (MKMVA).

The threat came on the eve of Zuma's appearance in the Pietermaritzburg high court on Monday, where his legal team is to ask for their client's prosecution on fraud, corruption, money-laundering and tax-evasion charges to be dropped.

The MKMVA made it clear that a legal defeat for ANC president Jacob Zuma "will not be tolerated".

"We want to make this message very clear. We are not going to allow this country - or any other country - to destroy the ANC or its leader, comrade Jacob Zuma. We are going to make sure that Zuma becomes the next president of this country, no matter what. No Zuma, no country," the organisation's deputy national secretary, Ramatuku Maphutha, told Independent Newspapers on Sunday.

Maphutha said "platoons of MK soldiers" - who he said would number over 1 000 - would be "deployed" across the country, including Pietermaritzburg, to send a clear signal of support for Zuma and "to make sure the judge does not make an arrogant decision".

He said though the "soldiers" would not be carrying conventional weapons, they would be armed with their "military politics".

He said some of the "soldiers" would be identifiable by their MKMVA affiliation badges, but others would be "in the trenches awaiting orders" and would be ready to "challenge the system" if called upon to do so.

He did not say what such a "challenge" would entail.

After years of relative obscurity, the MKMVA has risen to some prominence on the back of their outspoken support for Zuma in the run-up to the ANC's watershed Polokwane conference.

On Friday the organisation announced that it would be collecting one million signatures to hand over to the National Prosecuting Authority to signal the "public outcry" over Zuma's prosecution.

But the latest threat is reminiscent of the notoriously violent role that veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle have played in contemporary politics in that country.

The so-called Zanu-PF war veterans have become something of a second army for Robert Mugabe, who has unleashed this non-statutory force on those who oppose him or his controversial land reform policies.

Maphutha also waded in on the latest corruption allegations contained in weekend newspaper reports.

He questioned the timing of the Sunday Times allegation that Zuma received R2-million of a R30-million kick-back allegedly paid to President Thabo Mbeki by the German shipbuilding company that won the contract to supply submarines worth more than R6-billion to the SA Navy.

"They (the Sunday Times) should not be bringing this stuff and making these allegations now. It is aimed at discrediting the ANC president as he goes to court," he said.

Asked if he thought the allegations should at least be investigated, Maphutha said: "No. Why? This thing has been done by the enemies of Zuma.

"They (the allegations) should just be dismissed. We cannot allow it."

The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) also ratcheted up its rhetoric ahead of Zuma's appearance, slamming his prosecution as a "grave political injustice" and saying "no stone must be left unturned in his defence".

The league on Sunday also repeated its demand for Mbeki to be recalled by the ANC and for early elections to be held in South Africa.

This position was this weekend officially adopted at the first meeting of the league's new national executive committee, which was elected at its second conference last month.

This, after the first conference in Bloemfontein was abandoned when the conference deteriorated into a water-bottle missile fight infamously characterised by the display of naked buttocks and mock coffins as various camps openly ridiculed and humiliated opposing candidates.

The new leadership, which includes eight newly-elected members of the national working committee (NWC), re-affirmed its support for Zuma, insisting that he "will be the face of the ANC election campaign" and that he "will become the country's next president".

"(The NEC) expressed its utter distaste at the continued manipulation of important institutions of our democracy by individuals who are determined to advance their agenda, which seeks to destroy the ANC president and the ANC itself," the league said in a statement.

Newly-elected league spokesperson, Maropene Ntuli - who is also mayor of Siyanda District Municipality - said the league "remains confident that justice will prevail and our courts will rise above partisan political agendas in dealing with the (Zuma) matter".

The league called on its members to join pickets outside the Pietermaritzburg high court or the courts in their respective provinces to demonstrate their support for Zuma "in these trying times".