Zuma’s praise singers out of tune
ANC choir sticks to a number that is more about cult than it is about country, writes Thanduxolo Jika
THERE is a popular ANC song which some members of the organisation have been singing with passion since last year’s national general council.
“Sisebenzela uZuma thina asilali, asina valo... nqo nqo nqoo asina valo [We work for Zuma, we don’t sleep, we are fearless . . . knock knock knock we are fearless].”
The melody itself is such that no self-respecting and rhythm-loving African can resist its vibrancy.
It gets stuck in your head the entire day, so much so that you would be forgiven for involuntarily singing it.
With their arms open like believers, President Jacob Zuma’s loyalists sing the song with pride and vigour.
But, sadly, it seems as if some take the words of the song literally, which may indicate a shift of mentality to that of a cult.
Historically, struggle songs were about the ANC and rarely about a living leader.
Yes, there were songs about leaders like Nelson Mandela, but at the time Mandela was a rallying point for the struggle against apartheid. Zuma may have made Umshini wami his trademark, but the song was never about him.
Even the nostalgic comrades who sing the struggle song S’khokhele Tambo, s’khokhele Tambo s’buyele emakhaya (Tambo lead us home), know that they are singing about their struggle to return home and not their allegiance to the late ANC president Oliver Tambo.
The song Sisebenzela uZuma is an anthem for Zuma loyalists but is not accepted universally within the party — as was demonstrated in a short video that started doing the rounds soon after the ANC Youth League conference last year.
Ronald Lamola had just failed to win the nomination for the youth league presidency, and in the video we see Zuma followers singing “We are working for Zuma” with oomph and enthusiasm, while Lamola strikes a lonely figure on the other side of the room, trying to sing along but failing to convince.
Unlike the loyalists, he has no passion in his movement and his voice.
This is the same personality cult that, in 2007 in Polokwane, then ANC president Thabo Mbeki — who suffered a humiliating defeat by Zuma — warned party members against.
Some ANC cadres have internalised
NO 1 HIT SINGERS: Jacob Zuma on stage at an ANC birthday celebration in Cape Town. On his left is the disgraced ANC Western Cape leader, Marius Fransman Sisebenzela uZuma to such an extent that they are literally working for the president — and not for the 104-yearold organisation.
Like the cattle that Zuma looked after as a young boy in Nkandla, these party leaders and members move in the same direction, with the same rhythm to the song, being led — or misled — by Zuma.
This cult of personality is even playing itself out in parliament, where ANC MPs simply rubberstamp anything that has Zuma’s name on it, whether wrong or not.
They are quick to take the matter to a vote when they are challenged by the opposition, regardless of whether their argument is in the best interests of South Africans.
These MPs have been led by the same melody from one scandal to the next. None of them dare to correct the choirmaster, and warn him that the song is out of tune.
They sang to the same beat in defence of the Nkandla cattle kraal, the firepool, the visitors’ centre and the chicken run — the nonsecurity features that public protector Thuli Madonsela recommended Zuma pay for.
Their choirmaster reduced Madonsela’s findings to mere recommendations. Defiantly, Zuma appointed his apparatchiks to investigate his security upgrades.
Police Minister Nathi Nhleko had to arrange some dodgy documentary in a laughable bid to convince the public that a swimming pool was in fact a firepool and that a cattle kraal was a security feature.
All this in the name of the fertile imagination of Sisebenzela uZuma.
National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete used those reports to nullify Madonsela’s report.
It was at this point that it became clear that ANC MPs were indeed no longer working for the interests of their voters, or even for their party.
Some in the ANC caucus, and mostly veterans, say they did advise that Nkandla be referred for a judicial review. However, Zuma rejected such proposals, and insisted that he never asked for these upgrades.
The ANC national executive committee also advised Zuma to take Madonsela’s report for judicial review. The plea fell on deaf ears.
Shouldn’t the same NEC take steps against a leader who defied the highest structure in the organisation?
This defiance resulted in a damning Constitutional Court judgment last week, which served as confirmation that Zuma had failed to uphold the constitution that, as South Africa’s president, he was expected to defend.
Is that not bringing the party into disrepute?
Instead of motivating that steps be taken against Zuma, party MPs this week voted to save Zuma from a motion to remove him.
They not only voted against his impeachment, but have gone further to deliberately misinterpret the Constitutional Court judgment to say that acting “inconsistently” with the constitution doesn’t constitute a serious violation.
Just as they declare in their song, they fearlessly and unashamedly accepted Zuma’s claim of ignorance of the law and use it to defend him and proclaim his innocence. Even Julius Malema’s so-called “superior logic” failed to convince them otherwise.
But nqo nqo nqoo (knock knock knock) without any fear, the cadres carry on with this excuse to serve Zuma.
They have accepted his inexplicable excuse that he was given bad legal advice.
But ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe admitted that the party had advised Zuma to take the Nkandla matter on judicial review, but said he did not know what happened in parliament. Zuma seemingly defied them. He chose to second-guess Madonsela’s powers.
He repeatedly told the public he would not pay for things that he had not asked for.
Yet he now claims, in his irrelevant apology, that he had always been willing to pay. Despite all this, the ANC MPs continue singing to the same tune, even when Zuma’s actions could cost the party dearly in the local government elections in August.
Basebenzela uZuma (They are working for Zuma) . . . not the ANC, not the country.
They not only voted against his impeachment, but have deliberately misinterpreted the Constitutional Court judgment
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