Reduced to a mug by struggle puppies
FLASHSUNDAY
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s credibility crisis sank to unprecedented lows this week in a silly, but astonishingly effective attention-seeking stunt when the upstarts in overalls disrupted Parliament and demanded finality on Nkandla.
There is no schadenfreude here. It was sad to see the leader of a onceproud liberation movement humiliated in Parliament.
This is a man who was imprisoned for his role in a noble struggle, a man I have no doubt would have wanted to be remembered for making a difference instead of heading a scandal-ridden administration.
He sat there reduced to a mug by struggle puppies.
I watched bewildered as the spectacle unfolded on television. The red berets, discredited hypocrites though they may be, owned the stage and refused to leave when Speaker Baleka Mbete hissed and spat at them.
They glared at Zuma, unbowed, and chanted: “pay back the money, pay back the money.”
It was a chorus that rang in my ears for hours after watching the news because in its simplicity it gave voice to what South Africans want.
The TV camera panned to Zuma, who gawked awkward and immobile.
The elder statesmen of the House looked on bemused.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi couldn’t suppress a curious grin. Bantu Holomisa smiled as if to say “you’re getting your comeuppance, mate”.
Other members applauded. Imperious Mbete’s shrill rebuke and contemptuous waves made her look like an angry madam who couldn’t dismiss the help, no matter how much she despised them.
The rest of the MPs, from the ruling ANC and the opposition looked on ineffectual and rather irrelevant.
Where to from here, you have to wonder?
Julius Malema and his gang dominated the front pages of the newspapers the next day. One paper described it as the most inglorious greg.arde@
inl.co.za moment in Parliament since the advent of democracy. “Unprecedented chaos,” said another.
Riot police were called in and an “angry” ANC, predictably, promised the “continued provocation” could lead to violence.
And all of this because young Julius said in the most childish, but devastatingly effective way, that he wasn’t satisfied with Zuma’s response to Parliament over Nkandla.
“When are you paying the money because the public protector has instructed you to pay the money? We want the date,” the Economic Freedom Front demanded.
An ANC MP, ridiculously, called a point of order.
“This thing of point of order is what you (Zuma) hide behind, because every time a report is brought you say point of order,” Malema replied and, in doing so, made me a reluctant admirer of the EFF.
The public protector found the president and his family unduly benefited from the R246 million upgrades at his Nkandla residence and recommended that he pay back a portion of the money.
In Parliament Malema accused Zuma of skirting the issue.
Naturally, the president doesn’t have an answer and, inevitably, Parliament was suspended.
An IFP MP summed it up: “The 25 of them chased all 375 of us out.”
Afterwards Malema told journalists Parliament’s job was to hold the executive to account – and indeed it is.
The EFF won’t let Zuma off the hook over Nkandla, which is great.
The muddying around Nkandla is foolish. The reason Zuma sits shtum and pained is because he can neither wish Nkandla away nor explain it.
It’s reflective of a culture that has poisoned the ANC and might eventually kill it.
And the ANC says it cannot contain the anger of its members. Really, what does it propose to do? Will the ruling party take up arms?
I wonder what the many honest ANC comrades make of this folly?
Think about it: every day around our beautiful country fantastic people are involved in incredible endeavours, some life and death struggles, to build South Africa.
Doctors and nurses, firemen, engineers, bus drivers: people in all manner of industry try to make a good go of it.
Contrast that effort with the Presidency under Zuma that has come to be defined by Nkandla: this man isn’t worthy of leading this country; nor does he represent our hopes and aspirations.