Breaking up in the bank and heartbreak hotel in China
There has to be more appropriate ways to remove head of state
How does somebody break up with you in a bank, bathong, asked a friend of mine recently when she told me of the latest instalment of an episode in her heartbreak hotel.
I must say I admire her lust for life and her strong belief that one should rather be unlucky in love than be alone. My friend is one of those types who fall in love with the idea of being in love but, from her half-full glass perspective, says she is not afraid to expose herself out there in her quest to find the one.
Unfortunately for her, she also meets a lot of con artists and fly-bynights in the dating game.
Her latest disaster, John, dumped her in a bank queue in full view of other customers. I always thought John was a tad unstable, but my friend preferred to describe him as eccentric to explain his various curious In September 2008, Thabo Mbeki was removed from office as president, through a recall. It was a fairly smooth process, facilitated in great measure by the discipline of Mbeki.
Once his organisation instructed him to resign, he obeyed without any resistance. He did not want to endanger the order and stability of the country.
The constitution stipulates how a president is elected by parliament and how he could be removed by the same parliament, namely through a motion of no confidence or impeachment.
The former is easier in the sense that parliamentarians simply have to lose confidence in the president, while in the latter case, parliament votes to remove the president if he or she violates the constitution of the land or laws, is guilty of misconduct or is unable to perform the duties of a president.
Mbeki was not guilty of any actions. The two were having a heated lovers’ argument as they waited for John to make a transaction at the local bank when he turned around and coldly told her; “I’m really not sure I want you in my life anymore so I suggest we break up right now.”
So infantile was his action that for a couple of minutes my friend says she was stunned into silence at the callous manner he suggested a break-up. The worst part was the two of them having to drive back home in the same car in total silence filled with tension. This is not the worst break-up story I have heard and my friends and I agree that if he is man enough to start it, any man owes you an explanation in a private space when they decide to call it quits.
It is even beyond cruel for a man to break up with you in a foreign city. I know several stories of men who of these defects or infractions and the reasons for his removal were dodgy, to say the least. Nevertheless, he gracefully stepped aside.
He could have refused to resign, citing the illegality of the demand and asking the courts to adjudicate. His political party would not have been assured of a majority of members of parliament voting him out. That could have resulted in a serious crisis.
Recall is a well-understood concept in the lexicon of many progressive political parties, so much so that some enshrine it in their constitutions. While this might be so, the concept is unknown to the constitution.
So, although removing a sitting president through recall might be politically in order, it is, at worst, constitutionally illegal and, at best, awkward. It is not the best way to remove a sitting president from office.
Some of us had thought that once the dust had settled after the recall of Mbeki 10 years ago, we would find a way of doing it in a more appropriate fashion. That was not done.
The issue reared its ugly head again earlier this month when the governing party used the recall principle to remove Jacob Zuma from the presidency. It was as inelegant as it was embarrassing. It caused a political tremor that could have been avoided.
Unlike Mbeki, Zuma tried his best to resist the recall. If he was not asking for an extension of his stay for a few months, he was asking for reasons for his recall.
He wanted to know what it have invited their girlfriends to their home towns only for them to break up when the woman found out he also had a local girl in the picture.
It was much worse for a friend of mine who was invited to China by a guy she was planning to marry. He had gone there for a year on a lucrative expat package and we were all in awe of their developing love story that seemed to defy the challenges of distance. That is, until he sent her a ticket to visit him for the holiday of a lifetime in China we were all envious of.
Unbeknown to my friend, he had already shacked up with a local Chinese girl. The boil was burst when the Chinese girl knocked madly on their door one night. Apparently the scumbag had invited my friend at the time his pregnant Chinese girl was going to her home town for the holidays. Her spies obviously told her the is that he had done that required his political party to take such a drastic and humiliating step against him.
He went on national television and rambled on about the unfairness of the actions. His long monologue was probably also geared at mobilising his supporters into action.
Although most of us would provide moral and ethical reasons as long as an arm why it was no longer appropriate for him to remain in office, constitutionally and legally, he did have a leg to stand on.
It was particularly so because his political party, which was recalling him, had supported and protected him for years of his misrule.
It was only when his party abandoned negotiations with him and initiated a process to remove him through a motion of no confidence in parliament that he relented, even then at the eleventh hour.
In the process, he and the governing party turned an internal party political process into a national mini-crisis that saw the State of the Nation Address postponed for the first time.
There are many of us who believe we should not go on like this. We might have to appoint a committee of parliamentarians to look at ways of harmonising a recall with the constitution, or request the Constitutional Court to guide us in this matter.
Let Zuma be the last head of state in our country to be removed from office in this rather inelegant, clumsy and awkward manner.
Zuma’s removal was inelegant as it was embarrassing
cheat was playing house with his African visitor which made the Chinese girl cut her trip short to confront him with her family.
At least my friend did not get any karate chops from the girl and her relatives, but it took years for her to get over being dumped in a foreign city where she did not know anyone.
Faced with a delegation of uncles, who I suspect included angry karateka, after opening the door to face the music, the man broke it off with my friend and told her he was unfortunately planning to marry the Chinese girl. My friend had to be dispatched to a hotel for the night as her flight back home was the next day.
I think it would have been more decent if he had even broken up with her via WhatsApp.