Bordering on dictatorship
At the time of writing this column, the deputy president of the country was still in office. It is sad that, as a country, we have reached a point at which even the second most powerful leader in South Africa is uncertain of his future.
Even he had to declare in full view of the nation that he serves “at the pleasure of the president”. Under normal circumstances, that declaration wouldn’t be necessary because the president in charge would be leading in a rational manner, demonstrating at every turn that all his/her decisions are meant for the good of Project South Africa.
The president’s latest reshuffling of his Cabinet and the continued rumours and innuendos about the possibility of further axings and hiring of new members of the executive has demonstrated that we have long crossed over the line of rationality in how our country is governed.
Forget the shenanigans of a finance minister who served only four days before having to be replaced, rather look at the cases of ministers who six months ago were brought into the Cabinet because the country would benefit from “their youthful energy” and who now, without explanation, have been moved from their positions to others in the executive.
The scariest aspect of the reshuffle was not that it came out of the blue, it was that it confirmed two things.
Firstly, it plays right into the narrative that the final stage of state capture is the putting in place a nuclear deal which some experts have valued at over a trillion rands.
The moving of David Mahlobo from minister of intelligence to minister of energy does not help quieten down the rumour that the remote control for decision-making has been handed over to none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Such allegations would have been dismissed as ramblings of madmen had it not been that the same rumour mill has clearly demonstrated in the past that this is not in the realm of impossibility. Decision-making has been handed to individuals outside of government before.
The second aspect of this scary telenovela that is President Jacob Zuma’s incessant reshuffles is the removal of his erstwhile comrade and secretary-general of the South African Communist party Blade Nzimande from Cabinet.
The president has reached desperate levels that border on dictatorship. All the signs are he has closed out all those he should be taking counsel from when making important changes to government personnel.
But the removal of Blade marks the completion of an extraordinary circle: Zuma has now removed from his inner circle all the people who campaigned tirelessly for him to be president: Julius Malema, Zwelinzima Vavi, Nzimande, Mathews Phosa and Tokyo Sexwale. All of them are gone.
That’s what dictators do; remove all threats. Historical loyalty counts for nothing. It’s how useful you are at that point that matters.
History teaches us that dictators are always someone’s puppet. If it is indeed true that the tunes our president is dancing to are of the Russian variety then we are in more trouble than we thought.