Cabal’s familiar, thuggish tactics may not be enough this time
THE ink had hardly dried on the Constitutional Court’s ruling on President Jacob Zuma when the ANC, led by the villain of the piece himself, set out not to obey or honour the decision, but to obfuscate, confuse and even pull the wool over our eyes.
It’s been a shameful, despicable episode.
The ruling on Thursday last week set off a series of meetings and devious manoeuvres by the ANC, which culminated in Tuesday’s defeat of an opposition attempt to impeach Zuma.
It’s a pyrrhic victory for the ANC. It proves once again that parliament has become nothing but a tool in the fanatical campaign to protect an erratic character.
The counterattack — that’s what it is — was conducted with near-military precision. Even the opposition’s motion to impeach Zuma was added to the armoury.
The so-called top six of the ANC met at a secret location on Friday to, among other things, create a ring of steel around Zuma and to set in motion a narrative that all sycophants along the food chain could mimic and carry out to the letter.
They spun a yarn that was simple and, to the uninitiated, enticing. The whole thing was a misunderstanding; Zuma would apologise. If we can forgive apartheid apparatchiks, surely we should be able to find it in our hearts to forgive him?
That was the gist of Zuma’s televised address, followed immediately by Gwede Mantashe’s interminable monologue.
The baton was then passed to Baleka Mbete, who announced on Sunday, almost with a flourish, that she had agreed to an opposition motion to debate Zuma’s impeachment.
The ANC’s national working committee meeting on Monday reinforced the message and took it to the general membership: Zuma was going nowhere and he was to be defended at all cost.
In all of these meetings, not once was Zuma asked to recuse himself from proceedings. He sat there directing the orchestra.
Word of Zuma’s address had led to heightened expectation that he was about to resign.
For a fleeting moment we imagined a world without Zuma. The nightmare was over and it was morning again. The thieving, the deceit and the nepotism would soon be gone. The rogues and the scoundrels manning the criminal justice system would be flushed out. Would the Guptas be safe without Zuma?
We should have known better. We were getting ahead of ourselves.
That Zuma didn’t fall on his sword is perhaps not the most disheartening thing. The nonresignation brought to mind PW Botha’s infamous Rubicon speech, which, in trying to preserve apartheid, merely helped to accelerate its demise. Zuma, too, may end up achieving a similar feat.
No, it is the blatant untruths that he told on that platform that stick in the craw. He showed total disregard for the office he holds.
He had consistently expressed his desire to pay, he said.
If that were so, why are we here? Why his scornful rejection of all entreaties to pay back the money? Why the Constitutional Court verdict, and why indeed is he standing there making dishonest and unconvincing apologies? Does he really think we’re so dumb as to believe such twaddle?
In carrying out the party edict in parliament, Mbete, straight from chairing ANC deliberations, sought to preside over a matter in which she is the guilty party. It was true to form.
Throughout this sorry episode, remember, they tried to secondguess the public protector’s report. Now they are out to undermine or defy the Constitutional Court.
They have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. It is business as usual. And they always conveniently take refuge in their numbers.
But Nkandla is not so much about whether Zuma should pay back the money as it is about principle and morality, right and wrong. It’s also about whether the government, guided by society’s norms and values, is able to serve the interests of its people and, if mistakes are made, is able to apologise honestly and profusely and, importantly, learn from those mistakes.
Zuma is obviously incapable of such an undertaking. Instead, he has almost turned the government into a criminal enterprise that exists solely for the benefit of himself and his inner circle. That Friday evening the country wanted to hear a genuine expression of remorse. All we got was legalese and obfuscation.
But this has touched a raw nerve. More than mere unhappiness is brewing. The country’s political tectonic plates are beginning to shift.
It’s tempting to quote at some length the speech by Oliver Cromwell, the English statesman, dismissing the Rump parliament. It’s so apposite it could have been written for Zuma’s “pack of mercenary wretches” who’ve sold the country “for a mess of pottage”:
“Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance . . . “In the name of God, go!” For now, Zuma may have won the battle. But will he win the war?