Blind loyalty clouds Mokonyane’s take on SA’s problems
A lot has been said about why President Jacob Zuma should go. Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgrading of the country to junk status has inspired the latest upsurge in the calls.
On Tuesday night, Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane boldly declared that the ANC’s national working committee (NWC) had agreed that Zuma would finish his terms as ANC president and president of the country. She characterised the S&P decision as political and not based on reflections about the economy and used the opportunity to rebut the president’s detractors.
First, Mokonyane clarified the chain of accountability in the country and the ANC. Zuma is only answerable to the ANC, which elected him leader of the party. When voters put their crosses next to Zuma’s face on the ballot, they were voting for him to be president of the country. Zuma is above all other deployees of the party, she said.
Second, the president should be allowed to exercise his prerogative to appoint whomever he wants to whatever ministerial position he wishes.
Why should a Trevor Manuel and a Pravin Gordhan be received any differently from a Malusi Gigaba? Gigaba is an ANC minister, the budget framework has not changed and it is still the ANC in power, she declared, puzzled.
The only conclusion Mokonyane could come to is that it is because Gigaba is blacker than these others. She seems to have selectively forgotten that there was once a Nhlanhla Nene.
This is disingenuous to say the least. It is not the mere fact of exercising his prerogative that caused Zuma’s reshuffle to be met with disapproval, but how he did it and reasons for it.
Third, Mokonyane argued that Zuma haters do not want to acknowledge his achievements. Here she noted particularly the adoption of the National Development Plan and the massive roll out of ARVs. She emphasised the irony that it is under an “uneducated president” that the education budget has increased exponentially.
Fourth, as has become popular among Zuma supporters, she warned of a Western agenda to undermine the ANC government because of Zuma’s commitment to transformation.
Sadly, Zuma’s actions in the last several days have undermined the transformation project. Those in the ANC top six who dared to differ with Zuma over the decision to fire Gordhan but who lacked the courage to stand by their conviction will rue this lost opportunity to save this country from the ANC and the ANC from itself.
Critical Take