Zuma’s purge echoes Putin’s

THE actions of President Jacob Zuma 36 hours ago have shattered South Africa. For those trying to make sense of his Night of the Long Knives, it is simple: our president has implemented a plan to bleed South Africa totally dry – but he is not acting alone. How so?

In sacking Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas, Zuma has booted out the Treasury’s effective, ethical gatekeepers.

In firing Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom, Zuma has sent a blunt message to the rest of the Cabinet that he will brook no dissent.

Hanekom was the senior ANC member who dared, in the aftermath of the revelations of state capture by Jonas and former public protector Thuli Madonsela, to challenge Zuma’s fitness to lead the ANC.

What Zuma effected on Thursday night was not merely Cabinet reshuffle. It was a purge – the sort engineered by dictators the world over.

With Malusi Gigaba, a known Gupta crony with no financial background, and Sfiso Buthelezi, Zuma’s one time KwaZulu-Natal adviser, at the helm of Finance, the long attempted capture of the Treasury is complete. The question is by whom. Zuma no longer represents the interests of the ANC or the people of South Africa. The plummeting currency and billions lost on the markets tells us that.

So does former president Thabo Mbeki in demanding an explanation from Zuma. So does Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in his vocal opposition to Zuma’s action.

And so does the ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe who could not be clearer: “We were given a list that was complete and... I felt like this list had been developed somewhere else and it’s given to us to legitimise it... I’m very uncomfortable because areas where ministers do not perform have not been touched. Ministers have been moved and the majority of them were good performing ministers.”

Yesterday Jonas spoke of patterns of diverting state resources to serve private interests. Gordhan, recounting how their work had been subjected to a “horrific attack” over the past 16 months, warned “if decisions are being elsewhere we should all be very afraid”.

In essence, South Africa’s status as a constitutional democracy and a sovereign state is put in question.

It would seem entirely possible that overnight we have entered a murky realm where control is effected by a ruthless rogue on behalf of faceless outsiders.

One has to ask whether Zuma now represents the interests of transnational criminal networks or, with all eyes on the nuclear deal, someone like Vladimir Putin, himself the orchestrator of “The Great Purge”.

By some odd coincidence, Putin last year began accelerating a process of axing old associates and appointing younger rookies to senior posts, thereby showering a corrupt elite with state resources. He also steadily bolstered Russia’s security apparatus.

Analysts expect that purge to go on.