Asked about the disciplinary hearing of Jacob Zuma, one of his former allies, who enjoys the respect of Zuma, former Deputy President David Mabuza, responded by indicating that the process should be allowed to run its entire course. He hints that the evidence and counter evidence at the hearing will reveal the issues, and whatever the verdict, it will have to be faced and respected. This is a vintage ANC response when a leader conceals his/her proper stance. It is a closing-the-ranks response.
The
Mabuza response comes when former top six leaders of the ANC, who have not
left the organisation, were fully galvanised to show their support of what Zuma
calls a Ramaphosa ANC. The President and Secretary General who presided over
the historic epicentre of the current in-ANC turmoil, Thabo Mbeki and
Kgalema Motlhanthe, led the charge as the ANC's election juggernaut entered
its critical last push stages. Unlike Mabuza, who was measured in his response after a long and loud silence, Mbeki was unequivocal in declaring that Zuma "cannot campaign against the ANC and pretend it belongs to Ramaphosa. He [JZ] knows
very well it doesn't belong to Ramaphosa. It belongs to the people, membership,
it belongs to the country...there will be a rapture...we can't, there is no way
we can continue dealing with a person like that and continue to call him
comrade, he is not a comrade, NOT ANYMORE". Mbeki drew a solid
line, and Mabuza drew a dotted line. He confirmed that there is an appetite to
hear how the ANC has suddenly become a Ramaphosa ANC...
Since
the historic "I have concluded that the circumstances dictate that in the
interest of the honourable deputy president, the government, our young
democratic system and our country, it would be best to release the honourable
Jacob Zuma from his responsibilities as deputy president of the republic and
member of the cabinet" in June 2005, Zuma became a node around which the
battle for the creation of a post-apartheid establishment was and is still
fought. The many dimensions of RSA politics, the geopolitical battles of
interests beyond our borders, the interrogation of what is in our national
interest, the regrouping of ethno-nationalist interests, the interrogation of
the content of the CODESA settlement, the foregrounding of economic freedom in
our lifetime, and the unfortunate spectacle of state capture and corruption
found a fulcrum in him to pivot as the context of politics to date.
He became the irritant in a tent that was supposed to craft a consensus on consolidating the constitutional order into an economic order the CODESA-designed democratic order envisaged. Zuma became the fulcrum various factions in the ANC could use to tie themselves to the architects of the consensus process of building the establishment. The outcome is the existence of nodes of influence, or factions if you like, constituted by influential elements of the liberal order disguised in sub-grounded policy positions alien to what the ANC stood for.
The
cost of the Zuma-centred in-ANC battles started to show in the 2014 and 2016
National and Municipal elections performance when the urban voters started to make clinical
choices and ushered in an era of coalition government in RSA's major economic
nodal cities and towns. The 2014 and 2016 elections coincided with the CR17 and
NDZ17 campaigns that usurped the energies required to consolidate state power
at the expense of making in-ANC power more critical. For instance, the Gauteng
PEC's call in April 2016 that "the ANC has earned its leadership of
society through the struggles and sacrifices of its members and supporters over
generations. It is in that context that...Jacob Zuma should reflect deeply and do the right thing to resolve the unprecedented crisis that the ANC currently faces," which effectively asked him to resign, has impacted how Gauteng campaigned in the 2016 elections. Zuma was airbrushed in those elections as the face of the
ANC in Gauteng posters. The influential former Transvaal ANC urban machinery
which led the charge through the Gauteng PEC statement that "as the ANC,
we have to do a deeper introspection and take far-reaching decisions that will
repair the damage to our image and to continue to enjoy the confidence and
trust of our people", of which David Mabuza was a decisive component, succeeded in placing what the economist call "South Africa's best
bet", Cyril Ramaphosa, as a detour on the bumpy path that started in
Mangaung.
During
all these contests for the soul of the ANC, its leaders have been fighting
whilst working hard to show the unity of the brand. Only when the consequences
of actions against individuals started to be less about the collective that we see
replying affidavits to litigation spilling the beans on the true crisis of
leadership and unity in the ANC, the court cases that challenged in-ANC
elective conference outcomes exposed the administrative dysfunctions of the
ruling party, stating that it is a matter of time before its legitimacy to call
itself the governing party might be challenged in court. We have seen how the
IEC-MK Party case has been craftily used to reopen the Khamphepe judgement or allow
JZ to go for another term.
The David Mabuza response on the Zuma ANC disciplinary hearing might well be a warning that the replying affidavit to the charges might be the beginning of a ferocious succession battle in the ANC, especially with Cyril now being less of a factor given his terminal term as ANC President. The question is, are we seeing stirrings of a succession battle with JZ again in the picture and the ANC DC as the inaugural battleground. The case will be publicly heard and may well be taken for review in the courts of the land where the Zuma discontents, which have thus far been suppressed and 'sealed', will burst in the open. With only his legacy to save, this will be a potentially messy and impactful event for the ANC...!!!
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