Zuma leaves a party in disarray

ALL EYES will be on President Jacob Zuma today when he stands up at Nasrec to address delegates to the ANC’s 54th national elective conference. It will be his last conference as party president. By Wednesday, the continent’s oldest liberation movement is set to have new leadership. Zuma will continue to be president of the country.

He sees out his term as ANC president ruling over a deeply divided party. Never before has a president of the country been so under attack by other organs of state – in his personal capacity. Normally these are two separate issues, but because of a rare confluence of time and events, they are inextricably linked.

It is a fait accompli that Zuma’s time as president of the party is up and he will step down. The risk he faces is what happens to him when he no longer enjoys the political power to protect himself from his enemies, all looking to capitalise on his ongoing battles with the judiciary.

This week the judge president of the Gauteng High Court not only found against Zuma, but ruled he be held personally accountable for the legal costs of his unsuccessful action in the matter of former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s recommendations on state capture.

And then there’s still the 783 counts of corruption stemming from the Schabir Shaik case lying in a bottom drawer in the National Director of Public Prosecution’s desk and a new NDPP to appoint who Zuma may have no involvement in hiring.

However, Zuma is symptomatic of a greater dysfunction that permeates his party. This weekend delegates are faced with their greatest existential issue yet – how they decide will determine not just whether the ANC can contest the scheduled general elections in 2019 and win, but even if it will still exist by then.

We wish them well with their endeavours.