Excise the rot. It’s a primary precept of disaster communications. When your model has been broken, you take away these executives related to the disaster and present that you’ve got new management. There may be no affiliation with the previous.
Jacob Zuma was accountable for the ANC and of the nation throughout the most damaging interval post-apartheid. Under his watch, the fiscus was looted, state owned entities had been eviscerated and the corrupt ran riot. It was enormously damaging for model ANC and for model South Africa.
The very notion that he could possibly be elevating his hand as soon as once more to be an workplace bearer of the get together is so laughable that I’m satisfied he’s doing it as a joke. He can’t genuinely imagine that he could possibly be deployed to the high six of the organisation after the harm wrought throughout his tenure.
In a midnight assertion tweeted by his daughter, Zuma made out that he could be a fairly good chairperson for the ANC.
“I have indicated that I will be guided by the branches of the ANC and that I will not refuse such a call should they deem it necessary for me to serve the organisation again at that level or any other,” he stated.
He additionally fancies that his ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, would make an honest President.
“The candidate that we supported in 2017 [Dlamini-Zuma] at the 54th national conference remains the most capable of leading the ANC, given her track record in the movement and government, leadership capabilities and qualities, and her understanding and knowledge of the ANC amongst others,” read Zuma’s statement.
I can see the headlines already – elderly pensioner seeks sheltered employment.
Even Gwede Mantashe, once a firm friend and supporter of Zuma, described the move as “the biggest joke”.
“That’s the largest joke of the yr. At 81 years previous, JZ contesting for chair is the largest joke I’ve heard all yr,” Mantashe was quoted as saying at the Cosatu conference.
If it’s not a joke, then surely it is a desperate attempt to cling to power. News24 even reported a few weeks ago that his own allies attempted to dissuade him from the idea of contesting for office. Zuma is a wily old strategist. We have learnt repeatedly not to underestimate his ability to survive. But even this seems far-fetched.
Aside from proving himself entirely incapable of leading, he is also supposedly at death’s door.
His own advocate Dali Mpofu SC told the Supreme Court of Appeal that it has been established “beyond any doubt” that Zuma is suffering from a terminal illness. That is precisely the reason why he qualified for medical parole. Mpofu even urged the court to accept as “jurisdictional fact” that he was suffering from a terminal disease.
Why would an organisation desperate to renew itself even consider for a moment electing a chairperson that is facing imminent demise, ready to shuffle off this mortal coil? Unless of course he is not quite as sick as described and is fit and healthy to serve as deployed. What a farce. It’s a catch-22 really.
Or perhaps Zuma and the Radical Economic Transformation faction of the ANC can see their future ahead as the NPA starts to round up the enablers of state capture and prosecute them in the courts. If only they could get their hands on the levers of power again and put a halt to those wretched prosecutions! Fire Shamila immediately! Scrap the Scorpions again!
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo found that the ANC had “permitted, supported and enabled corruption and state seize.” Zondo’s findings on Zuma particularly had been damning. The ex-President was accused of placing a cease to a Hawks investigation into former spy boss Arthur Fraser which conveniently allowed for him to be appointed as DG of Correctional Services just for Zuma to be miraculously launched on medical parole.
It’s a well-established recreation plan – put us in cost so we will defend ourselves.
The drawback for the Nkandla crew is that the ANC has no alternative however to resume itself if it stands any likelihood of profitable management of the nation in 2024. It has to excise the rot and distance itself, so far as potential, from these related to the disaster and harm of the state seize interval.
It wants leaders who’re untainted. Hence the transfer by the “ANC Generation Next” motion inside the organisation. ANC Generation Next, in line with its web site, argues that the ANC finds itself at a watershed second, requiring pressing and tangible renewal.
“Central to the renewal has been the injection of the next generation of leaders into key positions within the leadership of the ANC, who brought with them new ideas and approaches that have led to the ANC being the tip of the spear in the fight for the liberation of South Africans.”
It’s pushing for Justice Minister Ronald Lamola in the Deputy President place. In an interview with Clement Manyathela on 702 this week, Lamola stated the ANC wants generational combine with youthful members in management positions.
“There must be a balance, we are not saying the older generation must be out… there is a need for some of them [but] they cannot be the dominant number because they are no longer imparting knowledge, they are now the majority,” stated Lamola.
Aside from the push from the youth towards Zuma, his personal stronghold of KwaZulu Natal has snubbed him as a possible candidate.
The province on Tuesday introduced that its supporting former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize as President and Limpopo ANC President Stan Mathabatha, a Ramaphosa ally, as nationwide chairperson.
Zuma, a frail, terminally unwell octogenarian, too sick to do the time for the crime, however nicely sufficient to litigate towards media freedom, has one way or the other discovered it inside himself to foyer for a senior official position operating the ruling get together. You can hear his trademark laugh echoing by means of the hills of Nkandla.
Mandy Wiener is a journalist and creator and hosts The Midday Report on 702 and CapeTalk.