JZ must fight his inner demons
THIS past Saturday I visited the picturesque town of Hartenbos and while there I got a WhatsApp message that President Jacob Zuma was seen on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) as part of the horde of people who make up Alleluia Ministries International.
Alleluia is a Sandton-based congregation that is led by Alph Lukau – a Congolese clergyman who recently attracted controversy by charging single women up to R5 000 each to have their ring finger anointed for marriage.
Lukau, who also presided over President Zuma’s daughter Duduzile’s nuptials in her wedding to businessman Lonwabo Sambudla five years ago, promised that the women who attended his whole night service would meet their dream husbands within 90 days.
Zuma is generally open to divine intervention – whether it comes via jet-setting pastors or bone-throwing traditional healers.
In Lukau’s church Zuma encountered a lot of friendly faces whose rapturous applause was a welcome relief from the booing that he normally gets in parliament.
And instead of a disdainful finger wagged at him, he was met with outstretched hands that were raised to bless him.
Zuma was in good company but I would have wished that the church taught him the serenity prayer.
This is a balanced prayer that acknowledges God’s part in helping us solve difficult problems but without falling for the trap of complacency and fatalism.
In part, it says: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”
Zuma needs plenty of courage – not to fight his growing political enemies – but to fight the enemy from within. So far he has governed from a dark corner where he continues to loot and dish out patronage away from prying eyes.
It is time to pray him out of this corner.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa succinctly captured the issue of transparency when he said recently: “When the moment has arrived for you to be accountable and answer, don’t jika jika [dilly-dally].”
Ramaphosa said this while delivering the keynote address to about 600 delegates during the fifth expanded public works programme (EPWP) summit at St Georges Hotel in Irene.
The abortive attempt to interdict the release of the state capture report was vintage Zuma.
When he is called to account he obfuscates and plays the victim. He also sends an army of lawyers whose bill must be picked up by the taxpayer.
While addressing a victory rally in eDumbe, KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma threw down the gauntlet to his critics. “I have spent a lot of time in jail‚ you cannot threaten me with jail time. I am not scared of jail I have been there.”
But he conveniently forgot to add that his previous jail stint was because of the ANC’s commitment to fighting injustice and oppression. It was not because of a commitment to personal enrichment and narrow political interests.
The reality is that Zuma could not have continued on his destructive path and for this long without the backing of ANC MPs – those men and women who seem to have entered into a covenant to shield him from any type of accountability.
Most of these MPs were missing in action when they were needed to defend Pravin Gordhan in his battle with the discredited NPA head Shaun Abrahams.
Gordhan and his Treasury team stand as a bulwark between South Africa and complete state capture. It is their commitment to fiscal discipline that has hindered those wanting a free rein over state resources.
Before the motion of no-confidence debate, ANC stalwarts like Mavuso Msimang appealed to the ruling party MPs to vote with their conscience rather than allow themselves to be dictated to by Luthuli House.
But conscience – that inner voice that gives people a sense of right or wrong – does not seem to have too much value in politics.
Gordhan’s predecessor Nhlanhla Nene, who is now in a political wilderness, is a case in point.