Expect no censure from an ANC stacked with Zuma’s flunkies

WHAT people may find puzzling is how the ANC can be so unwilling to act against President Jacob Zuma over the Nkandla expenditure when it removed his predecessor from power with undue haste a few years ago on allegations that were at best tendentious and circumstantial.

Thabo Mbeki was bundled out of power by the Zuma-aligned ANC national executive committee after Judge Chris Nicholson found he had meddled in Zuma’s trial, a decision that was later derisively overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeal.

If the organisation could act against Mbeki on such flimsy evidence, how can it look the other way when it’s confronted by findings of serious wrongdoing by Zuma?

We have to go back to Polokwane seven years ago, when the baton changed hands and Zuma defeated Mbeki in one of the most acrimonious contests in the ANC’s history.

Zuma got more than just the gong of leadership. He inherited the party machinery and, with it, the government and all the instruments of power. They are now like putty in his hands, bending to his will.

Zuma had arrived in Polokwane bereft of any ideas or policy suggestions. They were not necessary. The conference was about settling scores. He was armed with nothing but a grievance, and seething with anger. It proved just as potent.

He believed that Mbeki had unfairly fired him from government and then set his dogs on him, so to speak. Even his rape charges were blamed on Mbeki’s machinations.

It was all fiction of course — he deserved the sack. But Mbeki had given his detractors plenty of ammunition. He had interfered in the prosecution of then-national police commissioner Jackie Selebi.

The subsequent suspension of the director of public prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli, was a more serious offence for Mbeki and deserved censure. That didn’t materialise.

A few years before, Mbeki had famously falsely accused three senior ANC members — Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa — of plotting a coup against him. The episode seriously dented Mbeki’s reputation. It also marked Zuma’s emergence as a serious player as people started looking around for an alternative.

As he marched to Polokwane in 2007, Sexwale and Phosa were right behind him, egging him on. They later became part of his inner cabinet, but have since fallen off the bus. Ramaphosa, back in harness, would hope to inherit the mantle if he played an obedient enough role as Zuma’s deputy.

The persecution syndrome resonated with enough people for Zuma to be handed what amounted to a blank cheque in Polokwane.

With Mbeki out of the way, Zuma’s sights were trained on institutions that he regarded as part of the lynch mob. The Scorpions were destroyed. The judiciary was put on notice that its independence was not sacrosanct. The media got the secrecy bill.

Zuma has achieved a stunning reversal of his fortunes in a short time. What also helped was the fact that he used to be in charge of deployment for the ANC. In other words, jobs for pals. He’s infiltrated all state and parastatal bodies with loyalists. The so-called security cluster now trying desperately to man the Nkandla ramparts are the same organs that not so long ago wanted to put him behind bars.

Zuma’s first conflict with Mbeki after Polokwane was over appointments to the SABC board. Now the corporation is headed by an individual who is clearly not qualified for the job, except for his fierce loyalty to Zuma. The practice is replicated throughout the government and the civil service.

What Zuma must find especially irritating about the Nkandla debacle is that it has been exposed by Thuli Madonsela, his appointee. She hasn’t acted like all the other flunkeys.

Madonsela understands the responsibilities of her office: to follow the facts and make findings without fear or favour. She’s demonstrated enormous probity and courage.

Zuma has also shown contempt for the law or judicial decisions. He has, for instance, yet to hand over the spy tapes as mandated by the courts. Such contempt runs like a thread throughout Madonsela’s report. He either ignores court findings or plays hide and seek.

But he wouldn’t survive a day if he were the only rotten egg. There are just too many people whose fates hang on his survival. It is therefore absurd for an organisation so blighted with corruption to even talk about transforming society. Such a transformation can only mean the corrosion of society’s moral fibre.

One thing that marks Zuma and his circle of friends is their shamelessness with regard to wrongdoing. They wear it like a badge of honour.

The party has become a tool he uses as he sees fit. So don’t expect the national executive committee meeting this weekend to give him even a slap on the wrist. It’s crawling with loyalists. They know which side their bread is buttered.

Some other scapegoat will be found or manufactured.