Same lemon, slight twist

OBVIOUSLY, President Jacob Zuma should be removed from office if he can be replaced by someone capable of reversing the harm he has done. Sadly, Zuma's successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, has caused most of the harm in Zuma's name, so this is no reason to remove Zuma.

One may argue that a president should resign if he faces criminal charges. This, however, sets a dangerous precedent – it means anyone with power over the criminal justice system can get rid of a president merely by trumping up charges. Therefore, this is not a good reason, even though Zuma is almost certainly guilty of soliciting and accepting bribes. That means there is no good reason to remove Zuma from power.

Nevertheless a reason – that it will be good for the ANC to remove Zuma from power – is usually cited by people who appear to believe the SA electorate comprises brain-damaged morons with no long-term memories, who will instantly forget Zuma existed and will believe the ANC was created only the day after Zuma was removed.

The world does not work like that. Therefore this argument is false. Also, removing a sitting president necessarily undermines the stability of government, and doing this merely for party political propaganda is an odious abuse of power.

Another reason is that Ramaphosa supporters realised in December 2017, they did not command enough support at the ANC national conference, and so did a deal with the Zuma supporters, under which Ramaphosa became ANC president. But the election for the national executive committee was split with half the winners being Ramaphosa supporters and the other half Zuma supporters.

This is why the Ramaphosa supporters who howled for Zuma's removal before conference suddenly began talking about the dangers of Zuma's removal after conference.

Now Ramaphosa supporters want to renege on the deal and remove Zuma. Probably this will also mean purging the NEC of Zuma supporters, meaning more jobs and power for Ramaphosa supporters. Given that many of these people are corrupt and incompetent, this cannot be a good thing. In any event, the process is dishonest, greedy and anti-democratic, exactly the problems with the Zuma regime – which was my first point.

Why the media, NGOs, judiciary and opposition parties are all demanding recall, and why Ramaphosa's supporters are going along with these enemies of the ANC and all they stand for, is a matter for speculation. However, the situation is clear – and most unpleasant, even for those of us who’ve opposed Zuma since he swaggered onto the national stage. — Mathew Blatchford, Alice