Is Jacob Zuma a ‘sex bigot’ and a ‘vile buffoon’?

No South African president has courted as much controversy in recent times as Jacob Zuma has. None of his political groupies nor himself can contest the indubitable truth that he is the architect of his own bad publicity. This is a man who has consistently somersaulted from one blunder to another with unwavering regularity. First it was the rape trial where revelations of his sexual improprieties with a daughter of a friend were laid bare and shocked the moral conscience of the nation — and further, revealed a disturbing behaviour of the man who occupied the second highest office in the land. Engaging in unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman while as deputy president he was tasked with the responsibility of stemming the tide of HIV was a demonstration of a lack of judgement on his part, and raised questions about his fitness and worthiness to be entrusted with confidence to preserve the integrity of the office he held.

Ours is a maturing society guided by principles of justice and fairness as enshrined in the Constitution, and that demands of our leaders to provide the guidance and leadership necessary for harmonious co-existence between cultural and constitutional prerogatives. Given such reasonable expectation of our leaders, Jacob Zuma went on to display his homophobic disposition when he condemned same-sex marriages as “a disgrace to the nation and to God”.

At that time even his most vociferous cheerleaders in the ANCYL distanced themselves from such remarks. The then ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula said, “If it is true that he has articulated what we have come to read about, it is his own articulation and not the ANC position and we stand by the ANC position, [which is] non-sexism, non-discrimination and equality … Gay rights are human rights and that is what makes our Constitution the most progressive in the world.”

As he usually does after making a fool of himself, Jacob Zuma issued an apology, saying, “My remarks were made in the context of the traditional way of raising children. I commented in particular about the manner in which communities tend to neglect the boy children and over-emphasise the traditional upbringing of girl children.” He found a nonsensical defence in invoking the Zulu culture to substantiate his homophobia — thus undermining the very culture he sought to uphold.

Then there was a long “laundry-list” of corruption charges following the conviction of his financial advisor Schabir Shaik. It is difficult to comprehend what exactly Schabir was advising him on as it appeared from the proceedings at Shabir’s corruption trial that he acted as Zuma’s “loan shark” and benefactor, including paying for R10 car washes. The charges brought by the National Prosecuting Authority at the time revealed an exceedingly flawed character and integrity of the man who possessed some irrational ambition to be president.

When Judge Squires handed judgement in the case against Schabir, he explicitly stated that there existed a “mutually beneficial symbiosis” between Jacob Zuma and Schabir Shaik. The corruption charges may have been dropped under dubious circumstances against him; but there remains a minefield of questions around his integrity and judgement given the conviction of Schabir.

He is now president of the Republic of South Africa and has continued on the path of self-destruction by bringing the nation into disrepute. The latest revelation of his promiscuous behavior was a confirmation that we have a leader with a sexual problem who probably needs professional assistance. Like any person suffering from a particular obsessive behaviour, he denied his fetish for daughters of his friends as a problem and attempted to defend the indefensible by intimidating the outraged and appalled public that it was his cultural right to be “pomping” around.

His performance in office has left little to arouse a sense of patriotism among the rest of South Africans and the collective pride in the presidency; other than among his brainwashed political groupies. There are reports in the media that his ministers are complaining he is unable to give direction to Cabinet. We have a problem!

His rising political populism in recent times — characterised by endless showers of empty promises in an attempt to win our support and confidence — has only served to aggravate the frustrations of those who have been waiting for service delivery. The wave of service-delivery protests around the country is testimony to the waning patience of the citizenry and their discontentment with the failure and inefficiency of government to address their plight. Zuma has perfected the art of making endless but empty promises and betraying the reasonable expectations and hopes of the desperate populace. This is occurring while the cancer of corruption continues to spread across all structures of government.

If Zuma had an affinity to books he would have realised that chief among the root causes of the February Revolution of 1917 that led to the collapse of the Imperial Russia and the end of the Romanov dynasty were the inefficient political structure, the corrupt bureaucracy and overwhelmingly rural population. The people of Russia had experienced general dissatisfaction with the manner in which their government was being run. The indifference of Tsar Nicholas II had been nurturing the seed of discontent among the people of Russia and ultimately inspired their popular uprising. The tensions which had for so long been building up finally exploded into a revolution.

He is very much conscious to the truth that the people of this country mounted a protracted offensive against the apartheid regime in pursuit of their political and economic liberation — that the delightful promise of a better life inspired the revolt against the Afrikaner Nationalist rule and the people placed full trust upon the shoulders of those charged with the arduous task of leadership during the struggle for freedom.

He must be reminded that the virtue of patience may be widely distributed among us mortals, yet with varying limits. We, the people, have entrusted the government he leads with the responsibility of service and honouring the promise of providing a better life but it continues to betray the sacred the covenant between the people and their government. The pursuit of crass-materialism and self-enrichment has taken centre stage and diverted focus from the real socioeconomic priorities facing the nation at large.

There is shameless violation of the Constitution which enshrines the right of every citizen to access basic services. The continued indifference and lackadaisical approach by government to the plight of the poor, unemployed, homeless, landless and illiterate — including lack of strong and inspirational leadership — provide necessary ingredients for a rebellion by the people.

The ANC under his leadership has become an embodiment of corruption. There exists a litany of incidents of corruption and cover-ups of improprieties of high-ranking individuals in the ANC and government. Despite Zuma being of questionable morality, integrity and having lost all credibility as a result of untested allegations of corruption, racketeering and sexual misadventures, the National Assembly is harbouring Travelgate fraud convicts who serve as ANC MPs. This is a shocking state of affairs as these are men and women whose credibility should be unquestionable.

He is presiding over a government riddled with corruption relating to the tendering process and has inspired small time crooks to the lavishness of life, while the poor wait in vain for basic services to reach them. He appears of oblivious to the self-evident truth that this endemic corruption is the basis for civil conflict and a threat to national security.

His visit to the UK at invitation of the Queen Elizabeth II has drawn criticism from the British media, with some calling him a “sex bigot” and a “vile buffoon”. There seem to be an outcry around what is purported to be harsh treatment by the British media. The ANC is even threatening legal action against the British journalists.

Intimidation of those who speak hard truths should not be a culture we wish to entrench and uphold. In his pathetic attempt to respond to this criticism by the British media, Zuma opted to instead pull the race-card and said, “When the British came to our country they said everything we are doing was barbaric, was wrong, inferior in whatever way … I don’t know why they are continuing thinking that their culture is more superior than others.”

It is rather puzzling that Zuma would accuse the British public of racism for highlighting what a reasonable person would also conclude about him. The majority of sane South Africans — given his track-record — would also arrive at a similar conclusion that he is indeed a clown, and we have expressed our collective disgust at his appalling behaviour. He has become a national embarrassment and a joke and perhaps calling him a joke may be an insult to the craft of comedians, but that is the most appropriate observation one can make under the circumstance.

This perception of buffoonery is increasingly validated by his remarks during interviews where he is required as head of state to outline policy positions of government and expound on its programmes and progress made to date. One cannot help but snigger at some of his responses when interviewed. Before he embarked on his state visit to the UK, the Financial Times asked him, “What do you think the main achievements have been of your 10 months in government?” Among his waffling, he said, “I think we have established rural development, which is crucial.” When considering the R65-million “renovations” on his Nkandla homestead, then who are we to challenge his assertion that his government has done something about “rural development.”

Here, we’re sitting with a problem. What did South Africans do to deserve this?