MINISTER of Justice and Constitutional Development Jeff Radebe yesterday dismissed as appalling suggestions that he was part of a group that wants to oust President Jacob Zuma.

"I found it appalling that I have been associated with an alleged plot to oust ANC president Jacob Zuma in 2012. I am neither aware of any such plot nor do I know of any group whose mission it is to work towards ousting Zuma at the next ANC conference.

"... This created an impression that effort was made by the newspaper to solicit my views when it was for all practical purposes clear that any comment I made would not be reflected in the story.

"I have not been to any meeting, secret or not, in Estcourt on January 23. I consider these allegations spurious and malicious," Radebe said.

The ANC has also questioned the timing of the report.

ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said the timing of the disclosure of the so-called plot - at a time when senior members of the crime intelligence unit were facing criminal charges and the ANC was facing elections - raised many questions.

He said chief among these was whether there was a pattern emerging of attempts from certain quarters and the media to portray an ANC that was at war with itself.

"In this regard we want to state categorically that the ANC national leadership, all its provinces and branches, are united behind the leadership of Comrade Jacob Zuma.

"No attempt to sow division within the ANC leadership and ANC broadly will ever work. We have defeated these tendencies in the past and we will not fail to defeat them now," Mthembu said.

This followed a report by the Sunday Independent, which named alleged conspirators plotting Zuma's removal as president of the ANC.