Zuma, you are delusional

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma was back to his vintage self in the National Assembly on Thursday as he chastised opposition benches for demanding answers to South Africa’s recent downgrading.

The display of sheer arrogance and ignorance was in full swing as Zuma sought to deflect questions relating to his son Duduzane, who has featured prominently in allegations of state capture.

“I have not heard that his business has ever benefited from the government. I have never heard the son of the president may not be in business,” Zuma said.

What nonsense! No one has said, Mr President, that your son shouldn’t be a businessman. No one blames him for youth unemployment. The point is that there is substantial information that your son continues to amass wealth as a proxy in state capture, while many young people wallow in poverty. The issue is that your toxic relationship with the Guptas is insulting and erodes the values upon which any state is founded.

To dismiss all this as a campaign to besmirch your name and family is delusional. So is your view that the downgrading in April was a strange coincidence that had nothing to do with the midnight cabinet reshuffle.

South Africa will get out of this morass when leaders are held accountable. We take solace in the words of people like Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, who understand that those in power cannot rule “arbitrarily and whimsically”. We hope the Chief Justice’s ruling, that Speaker Baleka Mbete is allowed to rule on a secret ballot, will make our public representatives in Parliament realise that South Africa cannot continue like this. They must exercise the power vested in them to change the situation. Only then can the leaders realise that their positions are at the behest of the people.