Punch-drunk president’s annus horribilis

Defiant end to the year but fallout reaches unprecedented levels

Jonas’s bombshell claim that the Gupta family had offered him the job of finance minister: “I believe Comrade Jonas.”

Mthembu went on to become ANC chief whip and continued in this vein, voicing heartfelt support for Gordhan when National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams announced fraud charges against him on October 11. Later that month, Mthembu said the entire NEC should resign.

Three months earlier, the NEC had shielded Zuma after a post-mortem of the bruising August 3 local government elections. It accepted collective responsibility for losing control of three key metros, ignoring lone voices that said the party had suffered for not leaving Zuma to deal with the Nkandla abuse of state funds in isolation, but instead deploying Parliament to absolve him.

In April, the Constitutional Court found the president and the legislature had flouted the Constitution and ordered Zuma to obey former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s directive to pay for luxuries added to his rural home at state expense, in the final event a bill of R7.8 million.

The Economic Freedom Fighters, one of the applicants in the case, immediately followed up with unsubstantiated claims that Zuma and his ministers were helping the Gupta family smuggle cash out of the country.

By then Jonas’s revelation had prompted the DA and a group of Catholic priests to lodge a complaint with Madonsela to investigate whether Zuma had violated the Executive Ethics Code by allowing the Gupta brothers to dictate Cabinet appointments.

Zuma refused to answer Madonsela’s questions – a point she underscored by releasing both a transcript and, extraordinarily, an audio recording of their interview – and sought an interdict block- ing the release of the report. As with Nkandla, he reversed tack in court, and the North Gauteng High Court ordered the report to be released within hours. This ruling came some six months after the same court set aside the 2009 decision to withdraw 783 criminal charges against Zuma.

If her report was completed in a rush against the deadline of her term ending in November, Madonsela had the benefit of Treasury officials’ extensive scrutiny of Eskom’s coal contracts with the Gupta’s exploration business Tegeta.

In details that included the cellphone records of departing Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe, she found the utility, and Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, had gone to great lengths to advance Tegeta’s interests to the detriment of rival Glencore.

In September, Zwane had shocked Cabinet colleagues by claiming the collective had approved a sweeping judi- cial inquiry into four banks’ decision to close the Guptas’ accounts, extending to whether the National Treasury had abused its powers.

Some analysts read this as a sign that Zuma was helpless to intervene as the Gupta family ordered his ministers around, left only to hope that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa might cry halt. But his final appearance in Parliament for the year undermined this theory as the president, while saying he had reprimanded Zwane, backed an inquiry, telling MPs it was justified to probe the banks as their actions suggested collusion and could scare off foreign investors.

In the same question session, Zuma swatted away questions about the state capture report on the basis that it was sub judice as he was launching a court challenge, filed on December 3.

If Zuma ends the year in defiant mode with a minority mutiny contained, the fallout includes a special consultative party conference that will be held in July at the behest of ANC veterans who want him to step down.

Six months later the ANC will hold its 54th elective conference to choose its next leader.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has broken his silence on the infighting, warning of a government at war with itself, and on his future plans, declaring his candidacy last week.

The danger for Zuma is that the push-back against him in reaction to the unfolding story of patronage networks dictating state spending has eroded his power to determine who will succeed him at the helm of the ruling party. This may mean he is doomed to serve out his presidential term in perpetual unease even if he manages to dodge an early recall, the fate he visited on Thabo Mbeki. – ANA

PICTURES: EPA President Jacob Zuma has not had an easy year. He had some tough days both in and out of Parliament.