Ramaphosa seals a dirty deal for Zuma
LET’S leave President Jacob Zuma out of this for a moment and focus on the people around him. The ones who don’t seem to care that their grovelling makes them look undignified.
This week, a furore erupted around the president’s refusal to answer questions in the National Assembly, ostensibly because the opposition parties are disrespectful. Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said that as long as opposition parties disrespected Zuma, there would be no good relationship between the executive and parliament. Basically, he wagged his finger at the opposition and told them to behave, or else!
A listener to my radio show asked: “What is it about Zuma that makes intelligent, decent people say the dumbest things?” The answer may lie in his name, Gedleyihlekisa: one who harms or attacks you while laughing with you.
It was profoundly disappointing, watching Ramaphosa defend the indefensible. The irony was mortifying. Here was a man who is lauded as one of the architects of our constitution. A man who is praised for his cogent steering of a contentious and fragile transition to democracy, putting out flames, cajoling intemperate politicians while communicating the possibility of the rainbow nation to a weary and anxious citizenry.
His role in the crafting of our supreme law is a feather in his cap. Yet, in parliament this week, he elevated Zuma and the ANC’s mood above the constitution.
He justified the president’s absence and abdication of his constitutional duties. Ramaphosa effectively made the president’s fulfilment of his duties conditional.
Ramaphosa was also sly when he generalised and pointed the finger at the opposition. It is the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) that set the fireworks off. In fact, other opposition parties were disapproving of the EFF’s tactics. The second-biggest party, the DA, while supporting the EFF’s right to ask questions about Nkandla, lamented that quality question time was lost due to the manner in which those questions were asked.
Other opposition parties and citizens decried the lack of decorum and dignity in parliament. So Ramaphosa knows that Zuma is running away from the EFF in particular. You would think that a party that has won over 60% of the vote would have enough courage to face one that has won only 6% of the vote. You would think that after many decades around this treacherous block called politics, the ANC and Zuma would demonstrate enough fortitude to withstand the noise of the young politicians.
During the dark days of apartheid, the ANC had to be strategic and adroit as it led a formidable movement from foreign lands while some of its leaders languished in jail.
It had to survive the betrayal of collaborators, dissenting views and, of course, the ever-present threat of apartheid’s tentacles. Yet, in a free and democratic South Africa, it is running away because a group of mainly
Parliament’s business is not to nurse the wounded egos of prickly politicians
young politicians, without any parliamentary and governing experience, has demanded that Zuma “pay back the money”.
It is clear that the ANC has run out of ideas. It lacks the wisdom to counter the EFF’s boisterousness. But the EFF is not parliament. Parliament’s business is not to nurse the wounded egos of prickly politicians; it is the engine through which citizens’ aspirations are fulfilled. Or at least it should be.
What the ANC doesn’t realise is that it has inadvertently certified the EFF’s power.
This relatively small party is like a mosquito disturbing its slumber. If the EFF were of no consequence, Zuma would hold his head high and not let it change his agenda.
Whether the EFF broke the rules is irrelevant.
The pertinent question is, to whom must Zuma account? The EFF, the ANC or the nation? He has clearly chosen his ego and party over South Africa. Ramaphosa and the ANC were there to seal that dirty deal.