Recipe for a state of national disaster

OUR beloved nation is in a state.

This was evident from the 2017 State of the Nation address (Sona).

The nation had to endure the now all too familiar heckling, strong-arm tactics and violence.

New lows were introduced by the ruling party, which led the way with profanities aimed at the EFF and DA.

The public were able to watch how those paid from the public purse earn their money.

The EFF was ejected from Parliament by security staff, and some of their members had to receive medical attention. Malema complained that his reproductive apparatus was damaged in the fraças.

Of course, as an aspiring governing party, the EFF has to demonstrate that it can do more than thrive on mayhem.

The DA walked out because the “Constitution of this Republic makes it clear that the army and the police cannot enter this chamber”.

Even ANC loyalist Logie Naidoo conceded that the call by John Steenhuisen, DA chief whip, that a minute’s silence be observed in Parliament in memory of the 94 Esidimeni patients, “should have been observed on compassionate grounds”.

However, the power-drunk seldom listen to logic.

Predictably, all this meant nothing to the man at the centre of it all.

President Jacob Zuma “finally” read his speech primarily to the ANC caucus.

Of course, this could have been done in Luthuli House, with a huge savings to the fiscus, and no army.

Sona provides an opportunity to reflect on the past year and set the agenda for the next.

Some spin is inevitable, and is forgiven.

Zuma rambled on for an hour and a half, and was rewarded with a standing ovation.

A case of the mediocre complimenting and complementing the incompetent – a recipe for a state of national disaster.

As Michael North has argued, there are differences between a politician and a statesman: “A statesman leads… A politician follows the crowd… A politician debates the cost of a plan. The statesman questions the wisdom of the plan. A politician tells his constituents what he did for them. A statesman doesn’t worry about what he can do for his constituents, because he’s too busy trying to guarantee a future for his constituent’s grandchildren.”

Zuma cannot be regarded as a statesman.

His constituency is his family and tenderpreneur cronies. Zuma is a manipulative politician, who has survived several personal and political crises because the moral compass of the ANC has become skewed since he was elected president of the party and government.

He has survived because he has manipulated the levers of state institutions by appointing lackeys who are beholden to him.

There are two important sectors that Zuma does not control – the army and the Treasury.

The increasing number of soldiers used to “protect” Parliament (from 168 in 2013 to 441 in 2017), raises questions about the separation of powers between the legislator, the judiciary and the executive. According to the Constitutional Court: “For Parliament to properly exercise its oversight function over the executive, it must operate in an environment that guarantees members freedom of arrest, detention, prosecution or harassment of whatever nature.”

Assaults on the independence of the Treasury continue unabated, largely from the Gupta-Zuma allied forces.

Notwithstanding many attacks on his integrity, Pravin Gordhan hangs on to his position as finance minister and head of Treasury, by the skin of his teeth because of the backing of the moral minority in the ANC, which is rapidly waning.

Mondli Makhanya refers to a “state of indignity… in which the corrupt and amoral are mainstream and the upstanding are seen as disrupters”.

Zuma concluded his address by quoting Oliver Tambo: “Working together as fellow South Africans, we have it within our power to transform this country into the land of plenty for all, where the nightmare of apartheid will just be a faint memory of the past.”

In its 23rd consecutive year in power, the jury is out on the extent to which the government has worked to make apartheid history.

More people have access to basic services, but there is a vicious downward spiral in all aspects of basic services, and an exponential increase in corruption.

The poor are condemned to sub-standard education, health care and housing, while the elite go to private schools and hospitals.

According to the Zuma government, this is a form of “radical transformation”.

Not surprisingly, Professor Tinyiko Maluleke has argued that South Africa is in a “state of damnation”.

Brij Maharaj is a geography professor at UKZN. He writes in

his personal capacity.