Jolly. Jovial. Man of the people. This is how presidential hopeful Jacob Zuma has been projecting himself to South Africans. Here and there reality interfered – rape trial, corruption charges – but Zuma kept up the singing and dancing.
When asked about policy issues, he would hide behind the usual “ANC collective” excuse: a mere individual can’t decide; the collective does the decision-making. When he did make statements (about economic policy and affirmative action), they were qualified or repudiated later by other ANC leaders.
These are the difficulties of an alliance built not on principles but on extreme aversion in Leader A (Thabo Mbeki) and support for Leader B (Zuma) because he shares that aversion. This is not to say the factions in the Zuma camp do not have principles. They do but these have been put on the backburner while they fight for dominance against each other and the new electoral threat, the Congress of the People.
Zuma owes each one of those people in his camp – each one who helped him to victory in Polokwane, who helped to smash the Scorpions, to put pressure on the judiciary, to get Parliament behind him, to mobilise economic resources behind him and so on. What will be left of Zuma when he has served each their pound of flesh?
Zuma has to deliver. What he has to offer is populism. Here I am not referring to democratic pressure which is regularly dismissed as populism by conservatives in this society. I am referring to his attempts to be all things to all people. A capitalist for the capitalists, a unionist for the workers, a traditionalist for certain reactionary Afrikaners, a patriarchal chauvinist to ethnic traditionalists.
Except that the last couple of incarnations may be the real thing. There have been a few danger signs along the way: his sexist statements during the rape trial, his warmongering signature song “Awuleth’ umshini wam”, the homophobic utterances. But since he has embarked on his election performances (which is what they are) we are getting a clearer picture of the real Zuma, our next president (if the ANC gets its way).
From right-wing fantasy flights (send pregnant teenagers and school dropouts to disciplinary camps) to attacks on the Constitution (the “human rights culture” should not stand in the way of the police, criminals get bail too easily, let’s discard the “innocent until proven guilty” principle. This principle may apparently be claimed by him and no one else.)
And there’s the hate speech – the constant references to his political enemies as “snakes” in a country where we have had several ethnically and racially motivated attacks just in this past year.
We should pay attention. This is the real Zuma and, given the support of the majority of factions in the ANC for him, this is the real ANC of the moment. Maybe we should not be too surprised. It is not far removed from the one that some warned about in the so-called ANC dissident literature of the 1980s when the ANC was in exile and Zuma was sharpening his political teeth.
Political scientist Tom Lodge wrote in 1991 in South African Review 6 (eds. G Moss and I Obery and published by Ravan Press) about two strands of writing on the ANC in exile. The academic writing of the time portrayed the ANC as an ideologically coherent, disciplined and rule-bound organisation built on moral integrity.
In stark contrast there was the “dissident literature” of the time where unnamed insiders and former participants in an Umkhonto weSizwe mutiny supplied information on the ANC to the publications Africa Confidential and Searchlight South Africa.
While the academic writing acknowledged that power in the exiled ANC was authoritarian in character, the dissident literature explained what that meant in practice.
According to these accounts, power in the ANC in exile was personal rather than bureaucratic. This translated into interdepartmental feuds among administrative heads – security vs military; military vs diplomatic and so on. Such feuds might have had strategic implications but they arose from people jockeying for political paramountcy. The administrative heads staffed their sections with protégés and, as a result “the organisation’s essential inner dynamics derive[d] from webs of personal loyalties”.
Leadership positions meant dispensing patronage through tight control over who got access to resources. The competition between leaders generated serious tensions which were sharpened by personal animosities and ethnic jealousies between Zulus and Xhosas, according to the dissident accounts.
Power was exercised arbitrarily, especially by Mbokhodo, the ANC’s security arm. (Mbokhodo means “the stone that crushes”.) And then: “authority [in the ANC] is corrupt, and this is manifest in venality, crime and sexual exploitation”, according to the dissidents.
While one should consider these accounts with some scepticism, given that they emanated from aggrieved persons, the picture that emerges sounds all too familiar when compared with the infighting and factionalist power-mongering inside the ANC over the past few years.
Guess who was the head of security in those years? Our one-and-only Zuma.
As an illustration of the dynamics, Lodge relays the chilling tale of Thami Zulu which was reported in the British media in 1991. Zulu was the head of Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) in Natal in the 1980s. The apartheid security police infiltrated the ANC in Swaziland, which led to the assassinations of leaders and arrests of guerrillas.
Acting over the heads of MK, Mbokhodo then detained Zulu and other activists from Natal. MK commander Joe Modise and MK head of staff Chris Hani tried on several occasions to secure Zulu’s release but failed. When Mbokhodo finally let him go in November 1989, he died five days later. The autopsy showed he had been poisoned with pesticide.
Then Lodge wrote: “Both The Guardian and Africa Confidential attributed Zulu’s fall to institutional animosity between Mbokhodo and Umkhonto and the personal rivalry of Jacob Zuma, then heading security, who had apparently resented both Zulu’s ascendancy and Umkhonto’s chief of staff Chris Hani, whose protégé Zulu had been.”
This tale raises several questions, among others whether the SACP would currently support Zuma if this had indeed happened, given the link with former SACP general secretary Chris Hani. It is also noticeable that in the ANC’s official communications on its website, little information exists about Mbokhodo. In Umrabulo 14 it is mentioned in connection with the setting up of the ANC’s notorious Quattro camp.
In the post-rainbow era we are finally grappling with the less savoury continuities from the past – including ideas and practices which are contrary to our foundational social contract, the Constitution.
As we have witnessed in the past few months, the ANC’s internal dynamics can destabilise the country. We cannot allow the content of our democracy to be determined by dangerous personalities engaged in power-mongering with no regard to the well-being of the people they are supposed to serve.
So after yet another predictable attempt at character assassination one has to wonder what Nelson Mandela have been smoking:
“Former president Nelson Mandela has praised Jacob Zuma, the new leader of the African National Congress (ANC), as a man who could unify the divided party.
In a message of congratulations, Mandela said: “Our experience of Comrade Zuma is of a person and leader who is inclusive in his approach, a unifier and one who values reconciliation and collective leadership.”
“We have no doubt that he will bring those well-known characteristics to his task of leading our organisation,” he was quoted as saying by the Saturday Star.
Mandela urged the divided ANC to rally behind Zuma.”
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2007-12-23-mandela-says-zuma-can-heal-the-anc
Or you have to ask why, in 1998 after being instrumental at bringing peace to Kwa-Zulu Natal he was awarded the Mandela Award for Outstanding Leadership in Washington DC, USA.
ozoneblue
How eould Mandela have known? He was in prison for 27 years and allowed no political literature. After prison, Mbeki was his aide and almost always with him. Mbeki and Zuma were co-consiprators in those days to keep out Ramaphosa and the UDM representatives.
Maybe Mandela knows now. I hope so.
I was listening to the After 8 debate today about the T&R Commission and this lady who is taking the NPA to court to sue her sister’s killers. Except their lawyer was also on the panel, and explained that the 2 men had admitted to kidnapping her sister and assaulting her, but let her go. They believed she had been killed by the ANC because they thought she had been turned by the police in prison. Which, of course, is the real reason the ANC does not want to prosecute – the defense will embarrass them, because the deaths in the ANC camps and the necklacings in the townships, have been buried.
I don’t believe Mandela would have given power to either Mbeki or Zuma, had he known all the facts.
Now is the time, the time is now…Let Zuma lead the country…
You are a bitter woman. I am not sure what point are you driving here, even Nelson Mandela did certain wrong things ion the past but this is absolutely damaging and you must be careful it might comeback to bite you lady. Please substantiate your claims.
ozoneblue
Joe Seremane’s brother was one of those who “disappeared” in the ANC camps and has never been accounted for – which is why he is a member of the DA!
These are interesting times in South African politics and I guess it is the right time for one to pursue his PhD in Contemporary South African Politics, a PhD because Masters Thesis can not fully cover the topic.
What is much interesting about this epoch is that ANC has ceased to be a political party but instead it has come to be A buddhist sect ( not sure where its a Therevada or Mahayana).
Some call him a unifier, some call him a political chameleon but I prefer to call him of political Buddah. With the ascendancy of this deity from the holy land of inkandla to the throne of the ‘holy’ African National Congress Church in Azania, we were told by members of his sect that a socialist nirvana is no longer a futile dream.
The post-polokwane ANC has come to be a Buddhist sect. this assertion is better explained by the following core ideas of buddhism.
1. “the basic tenets of buddhist teachings are straight forward and practical: nothing is fixed or permanent; actions have consequences ( Mbeki’s autoritarian tendencies ( actions) have caused him to be recalled ( consequences).
2. change is possible ( no one imagined that one day a current serving country president can be recalled or Shikota et al would back-slide from the the broad church.
3. Buddhism addresses itself to all people irrespective of race, nationality and gender ( thats exactly what Buddha-Zuma is doing.
4. Buddhists ( Malema-Vavi-Nzimande et al) recognize buddha ( Zuma) as an “awakened teacher who shared his insights to help the sentient beings ( working class) end their suffering by delivering them from the evils ( Mbeki-ites).
It remains unclear whether ANC as a buddhist sect will COPE with the pressure exerted by the ‘earthly’ and evil forces ( United Reformed Church in Azania lebd by bishop Shikota).
So whatever the internal squabbles of the ANC – one has to wonder what is happening to the party when an individual makes comments that are so removed to our countries policy and legal provisions.
I am waiting for our ANC leaders to recommit themselves to areas that Zuma has touched on that indicate some deviance from these provisions.
So will we hear Zuma saying anything on:
Supporting abortion rights and access to reproductive health services?
Supporting the provisions in the consitution relating to sexual orientation
Support for the 16 Days of No Violence Against women – articulating clearly what that might mean and how he wants to address Gender Based Violence
Some of us are waiting patiently, many have moved tired of waiting.
Of course JZ has shown himself to be a chameleon with his electioneering circus the past few weeks.
Somebody lock this principle-less populist and throw the key away !
You can say what ever about zuma.We don’t care but he is going to be our president.You can praise COPE, we don’t care. Zuma is the man of the people and an individual who want to enrich himself.I know the white people they don’t want him but we gonna vote for and make him the president.VIva Zuma Viva
Very good article, Christi. [Apparently M&G agree since it is printed twice, above!]
Dictators are known by the simple-minded and extreme measures they propose as solutions to complex problems. Zuma’s solution to every problem is the same: banish people. That was also Stalin’s solution. The comparison is not inappropriate; the similarities are there for all to observe.
The sad thing is that so many of our people have no historical context for the ‘liberator’ turned dictator beyond the borders of Africa and so they believe if you are black that is sufficient to qualify for high office. It is the betrayal of these people that all dictators thrive on.
You ask “whether the SACP would currently support Zuma if this had indeed happened, given the link with former SACP general secretary Chris Hani” … This is to imagine that the SACP has any kind of meaningful memory, institutional or personal, at the moment. It does not; Hani remains only as a vague icon or a stick to bash Mbeki with. The present SACP is ignorant of its own history and what it meant; it is simply an ideological husk.
In my opinion this article is overshadowed with lies, miscontrues, fabrications, witchhhaunting, possible briberies, discontents, maladies, divission, immoral, unwanted, unwelcome, nondirectional, ……yuh, i never thought i will end up without valgur language, thnks God, bless Africa.
We thought that Malema was COPE’s best advocate. We were wrong. COPE’s best asset is Zuma. Let him keep spouting drivel for as long as possible.
Christi
A really interesting point about the internecine rivalries between different wings of the ANC. This pattern goes way back in the organisation and people shouldn’t bemoan the ‘sudden personalisation’ of politics post-1994.
One thing, large sections of this article are repeated. Look at the paragraph beginning with “We should pay attention…”
Oh, okay, it’s fixed now. Gremlins.
Interesting this “unifier” tag that Zuma has been issued. Interesting, because the ANC have split because of him. Yes, because of Mbeki too, but also because of him.
Are all ANC detractors so naive and stupid?I mean,Christi,Jacob Zuma is the president of the ANC NOT South Africa!
Most people talk about JZ as if they are ANC members,and last time I checked the print media,I nearly mistaken JZ for South Africa,as people like Christi ink debate JZ while South African issues and other African matters are NOT mentioned let alone talked about in the papers.
Your hatred for the ANC is clouding your judgement,ANC belongs to ANC members,if you dislike it,like Lekota establish your own organization and please,do NOT mention JZ or ANC…Or is ANC so revolutionary that NO political debate without mentioning it members?
Debate something about the HISTORY of DA or COPE(so as ANC members we have something to say about these so-called opposition parties,I believe we exhausted the JZ)
Please,write about something other than JZ!He is an individual NOT a Republic of SA!
Surprising that no-one has responded to my concerns – that I have raised.
Does this mean that ANC leaders, ANC members rank and file, supporters of Comrade Zuma are not able to engage on substantial issues -
Tebogo, Ozone Blue, Say it better….what do you think of what Comrade JZ has been saying recently? regarding women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights? Do you still think these are consistent with the ANC Health Charter? RDP? Bill of Rights?
It would be really good if he/the ANC could say something good within the 16 Days of Activism? I wonder if this would happen?
lyndall
“Maybe Mandela knows now. I hope so.”
LOL> You are really funny.
Tebogo
“Your hatred for the ANC is clouding your judgement”
She is also quite sparse with the truth. “send pregnant teenagers and school dropouts to disciplinary camps” Simply can’t recall Zuma ever mentioning any “disciplinary camps” – sort of shaves a few inches off the credibility of the rest of her paranoid rant.
@ TEBOGO
“Jacob Zuma is the president of the ANC NOT South Africa!”
Could you explain that to CDE JZ and the ANC for they fail to differentiate between state and party!
“Most people talk about JZ as if they are ANC members,and last time I checked the print media,I nearly mistaken JZ for South Africa,as people like Christi ink debate JZ while South African issues and other African matters are NOT mentioned let alone talked about in the papers”
Who would have us blame for SA problems other than the ruling party which is currently led by JZ?
“Your hatred for the ANC is clouding your judgement,ANC belongs to ANC members,”
Shame are you still under that illusion, lol, wake up, the true ANC members are busy getting rich while you are busy defending them on Thoughtleader!
“do NOT mention JZ or ANC…Or is ANC so revolutionary that NO political debate without mentioning it members?”
Here we go again, what’s with the use of this term “revolutionary” by ANC people. Do you all understand what it means because the context in which you all use it seldom makes sense.
“Please,write about something other than JZ!He is an individual NOT a Republic of SA!”
Now this is a first, a loyal party supporter insisting that his leaders exploites not make headlines. Whats worng Tebza, is the truth getting to you, nxaa, i hate it when that happens don’t you? Tebza just a week ago YOUR ANC was bitching about not getting its fair share of media exposure.
Tebogo
In the real world people judge a country on what its president pronounces – which affects everything from the value of the rand to attracting foreign investment to whether or not his country goes bankrupt.
Great piece Christi. The history part of it is much appreciated. I will be waiting for a follow-up piece. Great stuff, keep it up!
Talking about them not getting their fair share of media exposure, is it me or are we getting to the Zanu-PF stage?
The ANC has been complaining about COPE getting too much media exposure. The only time I see, read or hear about COPE is when some stupid ANC louts disrupt one of their meetings.
Maybe the ANC does not want COPE in the media spotlight so that they can disrupt their meetings, and even kick them around and club them to death and then deny it afterwards, because there would not have been any media covering the event.
What would the ANC people say or do if anybody wearing a DA or COPE t-shirt attended one of their meetings, sing and dance generally just be around to annoy them?
Makes you think!
Well done Christi and keep up the good work.
You dont have to be a rocket scientist to see the remnants of that culture in how the current ANC is conducting itself.
As a blackman I will be particurlarly interested if you could a piece of study of how this mentor-protege relationship, the corrupt relationships that have been built and nurtured all those years in some savage exile permeates themselves in a modern, democratic and Constitutional South Africa of today.
Lastly would you kindly share the soucers and references please.
Good work
@ Neo T
“the true ANC members are busy getting rich while you are busy defending them on Thoughtleader!”
LOL,the “true members” of the ANC have left,as they claim that the recent ANC is deviating from the Freedom Charter.Both these “true members” were at the helm of Defence Ministry and thy also left our Republic with over 20 years debt buying sophisticated weapons and worse of all,Smuts Ngonyama,whom said they did NOT join the struggle to be poor also left!
“Here we go again, what’s with the use of this term “revolutionary” by ANC people. Do you all understand what it means because the context in which you all use it seldom makes sense”.
Lets rewind it back to post 1994 and the current “democratic” South Africa,which is widely accepted by the International Community in all sectors like sports,foreign investments and so on…was/is brought to you by the ANC(argue that!)
Post-1994:You couldn’t condemn “Jacob Zuma”(white version of him,of course) on ThoughtLeader!
REVOLUTION:Is better expressed in National Democratic Revolution document and Freedom Charter….we speak “revolutionary” agendas because we seek to offer/offered it to all South Africans.We as the ANC have HISTORY to tell about the REVOLUTION….
The ANC fed you democracy and today,because your so FREE you do NOT know what to do with yourself,you reckon there are “problems” to be blamed on the ruling party(Please stop behaving like Israelites during the Moses era)!
“Who would have us blame for SA problems other than the ruling party which is currently led by JZ?”
Did you say THANK YOU for all the positives the ruling party brought you,before you say “problems”(as if problems created in a period of over 50 years will be eradicated in 15 years!!!!)
Finally,our “problems” are caused by the legacy we have inherited,where denial to better resources is advanced by certain class of people(black or white).
Example,how many racists attacks have been experienced in our universities in 2008 alone?
Universities thats where people acquire skills to transform their lives and communities they live in.Our “problems” will be dealt with in time as they were created in TIME!
PATIENCE!
Well put, Christi. Debate at this level will enable us as South Africans to make a proper diagnosis of the ill’s we need rid ourselves of to direct our own destiny. Indeed, this hiding behind collective psyche by Mr Zuma is nothing but a shying away from what really matters. Of what use is a president if every utterance he makes has to have a collective basis? Judging by what the alliance bedfellows been saying about whether to change or not to change everything from economic policy, through reserve bank governer to the minister of finance. They have been shooting from all cylinders and shooting everything, including each other’s comments. Surely they all need to shut up until they are all sure what to talk about.
With the current local and global problems that we have to contend with as a country, we need to start thinking beyond the internal sqabbles of the ANC into ho best to respond to this everchanging environment we live in, and it is sad that service delivery is hampered because the ANC (to the exclusion of everyone else who’s not a member)is busy redeploying its members, changing the boards of directors, scraping for political solutions, while everyone has to contend with power cuts, dwindling food supplies, unemployment and so many real issues.
The ANC was good for as long as it lasted, but we have to transcend this
Canada
Read Christi’s book “White Power”. She was virulantly anti-Afrikaner and anti-white in her book. You would enjoy it.
Tebogo
Actually the ANC elite in exile and in the camps achieved nothing much. The UDM, the UN sanctions, the liberation of the Afrikaner, Christian Action in the West and many other factors were at play.
We are not the only African country where an exiled elite came rushing back, claimed responsibility for “victory”, said they were the leaders, established an elite, and stole their country blind.
“Except for former Limpopo premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi and new party spokesperson Carl Niehaus, no high-ranking ANC officials supported Zuma in court on Friday. His supporters were mainly made up of Free State and Northern Cape ANC leaders, including Ace Magashule and John Block.”
Is he becoming an embarrassment to the other the leaders. Why not the whole crowd of leaders they had in Pietermaritzburg?
Maybe the “King Chameleon” is losing his charm.
Dear Ayoba
You say “Zuma is the man of the people and an individual who wants to enrich himself” without a hint of irony as if self-enrichment were a good thing! Please read The Shackled Continent by Robert Guest and the chapter The Vampire State to see what you are enthusiastically supporting.
Like David Ansara, I’m fascinated by the trajectory of historic ANC rivalries. This was one of the most captivating aspects of Gevisser’s Mbeki biography. I would be delighted to see a flowchart of different allegiances from the 1950s, through the spectacular convergence of the exile/prison/underground factions in the 1990s, and now continuing in the post Mbeki era. Who’s got some spare time and plenty of scrap paper?