Daily Dispatch

A furnace for greatness not war

CHALLENGES to Jacob Zuma’s presidency have continued to accelerate at such a pace and from such a multiplicity of directions that it almost seems as if a grand battle plan is unfolding.

Not a day passes without at least one or more mega missile being fired in the direction of the presidency and/or his inner circle. The past 10 days have been characterised by:

The two biggest and most united civic protests since the end of apartheid, both notable for their peacefulness and unity despite the diverse range of ideologies and positions represented;

High profile ANC MPs quitting parliament one day after the next;

Former president Thabo Mbeki adding his voice to that of Joel Netshitenzhe and a long and weighty list of stalwarts plus three foundations – Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Ahmed Kathrada – in condemning the actions of the Zuma leadership;

Not-so-smallanyana skeletons tumbling out of the closet of Zuma factotum, the debtincurring Social Development Minister Bathebile Dlamini;

The matter of secrecy for the vote of no confidence in parliament being lifted out of the hands of the Speaker Baleka Mbeta and put into the domain of the Constitutional Court by UDM leader Bantu Holomisa;

Hawks head and another key Zuma ally, Berning Ntlemeza, finally and deservedly getting the boot thanks to the Helen Suzman Foundation’s relentless legal challenge of his fitness to hold the job;

Popo Molefe and the axed board of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa being reinstated by the Pretoria High Court. They were fired by the now axed transport minister Dipuo Peters as they probed billion rand deals that allegedly benefited the ANC and which occurred during the tenure of Sfiso Buthelezi as Prasa chair. Buthelezi is now the deputy minister of finance, replacing Mcebisi Jonas;

The non-Kebby-Maphatsoe-Gupta-cook variety of the Umkhonto weSizwe military veterans standing up and bellowing from Lilliesleaf farm against the abandonment of ANC principles. They also demanded the dissolution of the ANC national executive committee and all provincial structures;

The former director of national public prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana filing an affidavit in a civil case against Zuma involving Freedom Under Law and Corruption Watch, in which he claimed Zuma lied under oath when he removed Nxasana as National Prosecuting Authority head. This made way for yet another Zuma ally, Nomgcobo Jiba, to take charge of the NPA prior to the appointment of Shaun Abrahams; and finally,

Things getting so hot that even Bell Potinger, the disreputable UK-based propagandists and authors of the “white monopoly capital” slogan, ditched their clients, the Guptas.

The convergence of all of these elements would of course, be a battle plan far too intricate and extensive for creation by human hands – including those of “white capital” which the Zuma lobby seeks to suggest are behind the upheavals convulsing the country.

Ludicrous as these attempts by Zuma and his cohorts to deflect attention away from the business of state capture may be, they are however, adding to the combustibility of the present moment.

South Africa is within a crucible of change. As the temperature rises it is vital for us all to ensure that we allow this furnace to produce greatness within and among us, not war.