Prediction of Zuma’s survival proved right

IN THE wee hours of the morning of August 8, I tweeted the following message on Aubrey Masango’s Radio 702 show, which he retweeted: “President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma has 9 lives like a cat, he’s going to survive the 8th motion of no confidence.”

Before Sakina Kamwendo’s SAfm radio show ended, just a few minutes before 9am, I tweeted the same message.

In the afternoon the vote tally proved I was correct. All the analysts did not think the motion could fail. Karima Brown said it was clear the ANC was divided.

I responded on Twitter and asked her what she would have said if the motion of no-confidence had succeeded?

The motion failed, but she says the ANC is divided simply because there are ANC MPs who voted in favour of that failed motion.

There is no political party that has no divisions; it is not only the ANC.

The failure of the motion of no-confidence in President Zuma shattered the expectations of many analysts, commentators, spin doctors, talking heads and pundits.

They have not learned that their wishes do not necessarily represent reality, nor can their wishes translate into reality.

When I told some people the motion was unlikely to succeed, they said I like President Zuma. Do I have to hate him? If I hated him, I would not be able to come up with an objective assessment of the outcomes of the no-confidence motion.

Some of these analysts pinned their hopes on what EFF leader Julius Malema thumb-sucked – that on Wednesday, Jacob Zuma would not be president of the country, the same thing he said about former President Thabo Mbeki.

Malema continued to say they had secured enough ANC MPs’ votes to carry through the motion of no-confidence.

One thing that was lacking in these analyses was the fact that all the opposition parties that came together to oust the ANC through a no-confidence motion, including the ANC itself, are capitalist parties. There is no difference between them and the ANC. So what was the fuss all about?

There was the lumpen element that blocked the streets of Soweto and Kagiso in the name of that failed motion.

I have always maintained that the problems of the ANC cannot be pinned on Jacob Zuma but the entire organisation, and that Zuma’s predecessors were as corrupt as the incumbent.

Zuma’s predecessors presided over many scandals, including the rotten-to-the-core arms deal.

The people of this country deserve better, and the PAC has the answers to this country’s problems, as articulated by its founding president, Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe. Kagiso