Zuma, Zille and Dlamini need a heart-to-heart with real friends
Hearing truth would be good for the country
travelling mates will ever tell her that her slip is showing. Nor will Bathabile Dlamini’s hangers-on tell her to go home and get fully dressed for she is walking around naked.
President Zuma’s political doppelgangers will never tell him to consider the interests of his country first before he myopically thinks of his stomach.
With her breathtakingly insulting comments on colonialism, Zille has compromised the role of the opposition. When next she tries to raise a legitimate issue, it’s likely detractors will dismiss it as the fulminations of a political dinosaur.
Dlamini, in her capacity as president of the ANC Women’s League, has done a huge disservice to the image of the league as a bastion against abuse.
Sadly, the abuse of pensioners and the disabled – the most vulnerable members of society – at the hands of Dlamini’s department is anathema to the caring, nurturing image of the organisation she leads.
I wonder when last Zille, Dlamini or Zuma sat down with their true friends – not political acolytes or spouses – and asked them: what is happening in your life? And what is it that I am doing wrong or right that the mere mention of my name should invite such paroxysms of excitement? What should I fix, and why?
The riposte from supporters would be: there’s constant contestation in politics, and therefore an office-bearer cannot afford to be a sissy; she or he needs to develop a thick skin.
It might be so, but I do not think it is that simple. I think these three leaders, like many of us, need to take a break every now and then. We don’t need to wait for a crisis before we sit down with our true friends, to recharge our batteries, have a no-holds-barred interaction.
You will be amazed at the benefits this country might reap from such sessions.