Not even the angels in heaven can save the ANC in the Western Cape, according to Cope party member Allan Boesak.

And he gave this message to ANC leader Jacob Zuma himself, Boesak told journalists on Thursday.

He said he had a meeting with Zuma in November last year, following a number of preliminary approaches on whether he would consider throwing his weight behind the party in the coming election.

However, Boesak said, he had been adamant that he would not campaign for the ANC, and had never considered that he would be the party's candidate for premier in the province.

"In fact, I quoted Bible verse at Mr Zuma when that was raised.

"There's a portion in the Bible where Jesus talks about people who are so hopelessly out of it that even an angel from heaven will not be able, he says, to convince them to do the right thing," Boesak said.

"I used that analogy to say that the ANC has so thoroughly, thoroughly lost the trust of the people in the Western Cape, that I did not think that even an angel from heaven would be able to reverse that situation."

Zuma himself should be no stranger to biblical texts.

He was made an honorary pastor at a meeting of independent charismatic churches in KwaZulu-Natal in 2007.