Dlamini-Zuma is just acting on her conscience and there is no need to demonise her

In a country where principled and courageous leadership, especially at political level, has become rare, we should be applauding local government minister Nkosazana DlaminiZuma, and not demonising her. I know that to a reader who is frustrated that he still can’t legally buy cigarettes, I sound like I have been smoking something more potent in the lockdown.

Don’t get me wrong. Even though I am not a smoker, I do think that the restrictions on the sale of cigarettes should be lifted.

I am not persuaded by the government’s reasons for going back on its word last month that the sale of cigarettes would be allowed at level 4 of the lockdown.

Reports over the last few days that the national coronavirus command council may now prohibit the sale of tobacco even at level 3, which is expected to kick in by June 1, have left many smokers seething.

Much of the anger is directed at Dlamini-Zuma, seen as a ringleader of an anti-tobacco lobby in the council and the cabinet.

This is because last month — in her capacity as the minister in charge of lockdown regulations as per the National Disaster Act — she happened to be the one to announce that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s pronouncement that smokes would be sold at level 4 was premature.

The anger against her exacerbated this week when it emerged that she had arrived at the council meeting armed with research papers to support her argument that allowing the sale of cigarettes now would be detrimental to the fight against Covid-19.

Since then there have been petitions calling for her to resign. On social media some have shared images portraying her as evil, even a devil.

Predictably, some commentators have read in her stance an attempt to undermine the president, whom she had unsuccessfully challenged for the ANC top leadership post in 2017.

Not even the evidence that the tobacco debate at the council is not neatly split along the 2017 lines would persuade them that this is no ANC proxy war.

Yet in her corner on the subject are the likes of police minister Bheki Cele and home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi, both of whom were vocal campaigners for the Ramaphosa camp.

Instead of ascribing fictitious motives to Dlamini-Zuma’s stance on the matter, we should be commending her consistency, even when it means risking popularity.

And it is not the first time she has done this.

As health minister in President Nelson Mandela’s government, she championed legislation that severely restricted public smoking and banned tobacco advertising.

It was an unpopular move at the time, but one that has, over time, proven to be for the greater good.

As foreign affairs minister in the 2000s, she could have followed many of her then colleagues in publicly defending her boss, then president Thabo Mbeki, on his views about the causal link between HIV and Aids.

As a medical doctor, her endorsement would have been a big boost for Mbeki and his then health minister Manto TshabalalaMsimang.

But Dlamini-Zuma, who held mainstream views on the issue, chose to lobby behind the scenes for a government approach to the fight against Aids that moved on the basis that HIV causes Aids.

In the run-up to the ANC’s 2007 national conference, where Jacob Zuma was to successfully challenge Mbeki for the ANC presidency, she was nominated on both election slates.

The Zuma faction wanted her as the party’s national chairperson while the Mbeki grouping put her name down for the deputy presidency.

She chose Mbeki slate

Like anyone who followed the race closely, she knew that the Zuma slate would emerge victorious at the conference and yet she declined nomination in favour of the Mbeki slate on the basis of the principle that women needed to be represented in the ANC presidency.

She lost.

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, there is no reason to doubt that she is again acting on the basis of her conscience when she tries to convince Ramaphosa and the council that cigarettes must not be sold.

She may be wrong, yes, but at least she is standing up for what she believes in.

It is up to those who disagree with her to prove her wrong with their arguments, instead of demonising her.

When we call her names and start petitions to have her fired, we are not only trampling on her democratic right to speak her mind, we are encouraging a culture of herd mentality in the executive.

We also run the risk of the executive trying to rally to her defence by hardening its attitude against those who rightly argue that there is no point in not lifting the ban on cigarettes.