When the opposition parties took to the election trail during 2008 and 2009 one of the focal points of their campaign was the fact that Jacob Zuma, now president, was beholden to the left wing of the ANC, Cosatu and the SACP, among others, for rescuing his political career. In simple terms they believed that he would be nothing more than a puppet with debts being collected on a daily basis by those who had ensured his presidency.
Those fears may well have been exacerbated by the waves of strikes that occurred shortly after his inauguration which Zuma manfully road out and attributed to the fact that it was that time of year when labour and employers finalised wage negotiations.
Then the media and the country began to be aware of the fact that the president and the ANC were sticking to their economic guns in the face of enormous pressure from Cosatu and the SACP to give ground on the Reserve Bank and inflation targeting.
This manifested itself slowly at first before reaching a climax at the SACP conference in Polokwane.
Rather than being the puppet that he was described as, Zuma and the ANC NEC let it be known that they were not going to be dictated to and that they would not stand by and accept open defiance. This while graciously going to great lengths to reassure the alliance that they remain valued partners.
ANCYL President Julius Malema and Zuma also reaffirmed that the ANC is the centre of power and that is the way the alliance operates.
The same is happening in the area of local government.
At the 98th anniversary celebrations in Kimberley, the president once again referred to the question of service delivery and confirmed that “we are of the view that municipal employees should not hold leadership positions in political parties”, which was tantamount to political blasphemy as far as the trade unions and left wing are concerned.
Moreover Zuma promised to “tighten our deployment procedures to ensure that we deploy comrades with political integrity and professional competence”.
In essence the deployment of cadres will not owe allegiance to the unions but rather the ANC.
Of course the fact of the matter is that public servants should not owe allegiance to anyone other than their jobs and shouldn’t be deployed at all, that, however, is for another day.
What it shows is that in terms of service delivery the president and ANC are now looking to clean house in so far as the public service is concerned and if this does not fit in with the left then the needs of the many must trump those of the few.
Once again the description of Zuma as a puppet is proving to be totally inappropriate.
The South African Municipal Workers’ Union believe that this is a disaster which needs be taken up with the leadership of the ANC which is ironic because without first being mandated by the NEC, Zuma would never have suggested it.
It will of course become a sticking point shortly with the unions dead set on flexing their political muscle in the face of the threat to their standing within municipalities. However if the last round was anything to go by they will achieve far more by approaching the ANC and ironing out their differences in private than by open defiance.
amazing what one realises when one sticks solely to the facts and actual events, as opposed to ignorant conjecture.
but hey, prepare for the inevitable bile deluge in 4,3,2,1….
Zuma is not a puppet?
So you keep saying, Traps, but that doesn’t make it so any more than repeated flushing rids us of parasites like Mugabe and his “MK” and Zanu henchmen or parasites like Malema & Co.
Face it, Traps, Malema or Vavi or Blade say jump and Zuma asks how high. Everything Malema has raised from the firing of Maroga to Chuene’s duplicity to Malema’s and the YL’s absurd insistence on nationalising the mines has caused Zuma to change course or equivocate! He’s like a bloody windmill; he changes direction depending on who sends the greatest concentration of hot air his way. Stacking the ConCourt committee with toadies, naming Mo Shaik as head of Spies Are Us, keeping the door open for Maroga to come back to Eskom–all sound like irrational choices that can only be explained as favours owed or bribes to prevent his corruption charges and the whole arms debacle from ever seeing the light again. Zuma not a puppet? Kermit the Frog is a better candidate for that title.
Zuma is owned by the highest bidder of the day. The financing of Nkandla being a prime example…Where does someone who has to ask his ‘friend’ Shabir to pay for his kids’ uniforms or tuition suddenly get the means to build himself a ‘compound’? Things aren’t so because we want them to be so, Traps, ANC propaganda notwithstanding.
I admit that I am one of those who fully expected Zuma to be a puppet and to use his powers as president to hand out favours to all those who rescued his political career on a daily basis. Of course, he is doing everything that he can to ensure that there is no further investigation of the arms deal and everything associated with it, particularly the allegations against himself. But apart from that he is trying quite hard to fight corruption and really govern the country well and in the best interests of the majority of the population.
I was wrong and I am delighted about that.
However, there is no doubt that our government is still flawed and that all countries are governed best when the party in power faces a real possibility that they may loose an election to the opposition. And so I continue to support the opposition, and would rather highlight what Zuma has done wrong rather than what he has done right. So now while I quietly acknowledge Zuma’s positive stance against municipal incompetents, I am preparing to scream and shout about a pardon for Shaik!
At this point in our fragile history,I certainly would not put money on Mr Zuma, the Puppet Master, relinquishing his presidency after 2 terms.
It makes no difference whether he’s a puppet or not, he’s got nothing tangible to show for the time he’s been in office. Just hot air and no action – what’s the bet that Zuma will meet with SAMWU and they will reach an understanding, smiles all round, everybody jolly and it will be back to (yawn) business as usual.
Traps, I totally agree with you on this one. The ANC is the governing party and Zuma will lead this country according to the ANC Manifesto.
So he’s not a puppet of the left, he’s a puppet of global capital, with China pulling more and more strings.
“Zuma and the ANC NEC let it be known that they were not going to be dictated to and that they would not stand by and accept open defiance.”
Really?? When did Zuma say this?
Imo Zuma has proved to be a fence-sitter so far … only when he jumps off (on issues like the unions, Zimbabwe, corruption among his cronies etc) will we know whether he’s puppet or not.
Meanwhile, Michael Trapido, you have solidly earned yourself the title of Zuma’s Puppet.
Zuma is the man !
In this line of business you must repeat the truth enough times until the people believe you (GW Bush).
Repeat this as often as you can Traps you might (probably already have) end up believe it but the truth is far from it.
Perception and reality are what our beloved President knows very well how to manipulate, his apologisers merely add substance and content to his ploys.
Keep up the fight Traps, forward whenever backwards ever (pun intended).
Lets just call him Pinochio since his promises are nothing but bullshit lies.
As in the original story, a gullible and naive Pinochio is easily gulled into bad deeds by the cat (COSATU) and the fox (SACP).
All he wants is to be a real boy.
Zuma and is cronies are kakistocrats incapable of running a democracy along western concepts. The “democracy” in their hands is run along African concepts, which incidentally differ diametrically from the western concepts.
dude… did u not see how we got conned into giving the cosatu elite (people who have jobs and regular salaries) massive pay increases… with no contractual obligations to provide increased production output, or better quality products and services… and did u think that that wasnt orchestrated… ???
if that’s so… have u also been conned into investing into a pyramid scheme that claims to be manufacturing aluminium windows for spaceships going to mars?