While King Zuma slumbers, palace aides are stirring

THE ANC is now in open war with itself. But this is not a bad thing. Finally, Luthuli House is not afraid to show it has awoken to the excesses of the Zuma administration.

A glance inside the palace gates from the increasingly frustrated city streets paints a quizzical picture. The king appears increasingly cut off in the west wing, appearing not to hear the shouts from the throne room below.

President Jacob Zuma addressed the Black Business Council on Tuesday night, seemingly completely unaware of the ferocity of the student protests threatening the existence of the country’s universities, or the incessant battles in state institutions around him, or the increasing frustration by the labour unions over job losses and retrenchments.

Perhaps he does not see what is happening on the ground, which is why his message has not changed for a decade: there is a good story to tell, stop being negative. It is perhaps fortunate that Zuma always sees the glass as half-full, but the problem is he appears not to see at all.

At a critical juncture ahead of another key ANC national executive committee (NEC) meeting, in which the party is expected to act, the ANC is again at loggerheads with its deployees in government. The amendments to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica) is a case in point.

Zuma is sitting on it after an application from the Decolonisation Foundation, led by his ardent backer, Mzwanele Manyi, and opposition to it, reportedly from the Gupta family.

However, the amendments were approved by the Cabinet and Parliament, and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe is among the leaders who have come out to urge the president to sign the bill into law.

He joins former finance minister Trevor Manuel, Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in the call.

But Zuma insists Manyi has raised the constitutionality of the bill and his concerns, therefore, have to be examined. No, it is unlikely that Zuma has learnt anything from the Constitutional Court ruling on Nkandla; it’s simply expedience: pay heed to the Constitution when it suits.

Zuma’s supporters are increasingly dismissive of the document and the institutions involved in its creation, including the Treasury.

It is increasingly evident that the ANC — or its dominant faction, including the president — is not the same movement that ushered in a democratic dispensation in 1994. It is unrecognisable. The second is the saga of controversy-prone former SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

The public broadcaster has historically been a highly contested space, but under its current leadership, it has slipped beyond legitimate contestation to downright lunacy.

ANC parliamentary leader Jackson Mthembu on Wednesday described the latest SABC board shenanigans as a “serious embarrassment”.

The board is set to appear before Parliament’s portfolio committee on communications next week to explain how it appointed matric-less, wonderman and miracle-maker Hlaudi as a group executive of corporate affairs after the court battle that eventually set aside his appointment as chief operating officer.

Mthembu had harsh words for the board: “There are wrong things that have happened arising out of the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment … the shenanigans continue unabated, even after the judgment.”

Mthembu went further, recommending a parliamentary inquiry into the board’s fitness to hold office. He described the board’s decision as unlawful and called on it to overturn the decision.

Staggering, given the proximity of Motsoeneng and Communications Minister Faith Muthambi to the president. It is perhaps a sign that some in the ANC are daring the king to alight from his chambers.

Then there is the curious case of Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, who unfortunately or very fortunately is not a member of the party’s NEC. He will likely come up in discussions after his announcement of a resolution on an inquiry into banks shutting Gupta family accounts and a shift of banking regulation from the Reserve Bank to the Treasury.

This too was roundly condemned by the ANC and even the Presidency. However, the latter, with powers to act against an errant minister, has not done so yet.

The ANC has awoken from its long, Zuma-induced slumber, but it may be too late as his faction continues to hold sway in the NEC.

But even the much-vaunted “premier league” — the ANC chairs of Mpumalanga, the Free State and the North West — securing Zuma’s succession plans and his post-presidential comforts, are wobbling.

After a report in the Sunday Independent about the league’s attempt to remove Limpopo chairman Stan Mathabatha, the ANC in the North West denounced the “premier league”, saying its chairman, Supra Mahumapelo, had never been part of this group and was not moving to oust the Limpopo leader. Insiders have long argued that this group is divided, particularly over its slate in the 2017 leadership battle.

With a cloud over the power of the president and his henchmen, only a reshuffle of the Cabinet or an equally dramatic move will reveal who is really in control.

Back in 2013, former president Kgalema Motlanthe told the Financial Times’s Andrew England that the political situation in SA had to get worse before it got better. Perhaps this is where we are headed.

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Marrian is political editor.