Zuma sings: ‘Wasn’t me’

AWULETHE umshini wami became President Jacob Zuma’s signature tune as he rose to power. “Bring my machine,” is what the lyrics say, machine meaning machine gun. It was a fitting song for a man who fought many a battle to get to the top.

Now, in the twilight of his stint as president of the ANC and possibly the country, we believe that the song that most represents the president is Shaggy’s It wasn’t Me.

It was a song that saw the Jamaican-American singer rise to fame in 2000. It starts with a man going to his friend for help because he has just been caught by his girlfriend in a compromising position with another woman.

But, despite the evidence, his friend advises him to deny everything with the line: “It wasn’t me.”

It was this line that pretty much summed up the president’s responses to Parliament last week when he failed to respond to questions the way a president ought to.

The most cringeworthy was what the president said about Grace Mugabe being given diplomatic immunity after allegedly assaulting Gabriella Engels: “I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know the points of law, and I was not involved in this process. How it was done, I would be lying if I speculate,” he told the National Assembly. “So, I’m not going to give you an answer that is not there.”

A few moments later, he said: “I don’t know what happened and how the matter came to the point that it came (to). The actions were taken, the police were there, they dealt with the matter, then the issue of diplomatic immunity came about, and I can’t answer that detail. I can’t lie.”

The Grace Mugabe saga was widely reported and was there for everyone to take note of. Zuma’s answer was not one we would have expected from our president and a man who should be a father figure to young people such as Engels.

It left us wondering whether he had failed to understand the gravity of the situation or whether he was simply not in control of government.