Tirade for Zuma dynasty
THUTHUKILE Zuma’s Facebook post attacking ANC head of communications Khusela Sangoni and ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe reflects the fissures in the ANC and in its national executive committee led by her father President Jacob Zuma.
Her utterances can only be seen as part of the increasingly factional politics within the ANC which sees leader pitted against leader and structure pitted against structure.
The Gauteng ANC has made no secret of its dissatisfaction with Zuma’s leadership. Therefore, when the ANC Youth League in Gauteng called for the premier of the province and secretary general in the ANC provincial executive committee David Makhura to resign, the league was attacking Zuma’s “enemies” and thereby emphatically stating its support for him.
Naturally, Thuthukile is against those who are against her father and for those who are for her father. Blood is thicker than water.
Thuthukile’s rant came after Sangoni issued a press statement sanctioned by Mantashe following last week’s NEC meeting, condemning the actions of the youth league which had also pressed charges against former health MEC Qedani Mahlangu.
The youth league’s actions were described as divisive and insensitive, bringing the ANC into disrepute and diminishing public confidence in the party.
Thuthukile’s rant embodies the sentiment that is in all likelihood shared by other family members, as well as supporters and defenders of Zuma.
They all interpreted the ANC statement condemning the youth league as an act of factionalism where Sangoni and Mantashe chose to stand with Makhura and the Gauteng ANC – the “enemies” of her father – rather than endorse the youth league’s stance.
At a time when the succession battle is heating up, with the Zumas attempting to realise their dynastic aspirations, it is not surprising that Thuthukile failed to separate matters of procedure in the ANC from matters of personalities and factions. Her familial loyalty has clouded her mind to the extent that she launched a misguided attack on office bearers who were carrying out their constitutional duties.
Thuthukile’s attempt to discredit Sangoni and Mantashe betrays her father’s and her families’ preoccupation with retaining power not only in the party but in the government. It betrays their dependency on the privileges, perks and excesses that access to and control of the state grants them and how desperate they are not to lose these privileges.
Zuma is apparently backing his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to succeed him. But this has nothing to do with furthering the interests of the ANC or the country, despite Dlamini-Zuma’s own political gravitas. It has everything to do with furthering the interests of the Zumas.