What is happening within the African National Congress? In December 2007 Jacob Zuma defeated Thabo Mbeki 60 per cent to 40 per cent for the leadership of the ANC. The controlling committees and boards of the ANC were all taken over by the supporters of Jacob Zuma. There were many cabinet ministers who were no longer members of the authorising committees of the party. Thabo Mbeki was a member only because, like Nelson Mandela, he was a former president of the party. Almost as a sign of magnanimity of the Zuma winners, it was agreed that Thabo Mbeki would be allowed to remain until the end of his term as president of the country. After the December change of guards, provincial premiers who had not supported Jacob Zuma were sacked and replaced by those who had supported Zuma. There was some flippant comment by one of the brothers of Shubi Shaik to the effect that they (the new ANC) would consider keeping Trevor Manuel as Finance Minister, come next year after they would have won the elections. Well, as we say, the place where we lay the ambush, the war skirted it, and so much has changed! Which is why there was local panic when the name of Trevor Manuel was included in the list of Mbeki’s ministers ready to follow him into resignation after the ANC decided to recall him. A special bulletin had to be released to the effect that Trevor Manuel would be staying on under the leadership of the new group headed by Jacob Zuma. But we run ahead of the narrative.
In 2005 Jacob Zuma had been relieved of his position as deputy president of the country by Thabo Mbeki when a judge sentenced Zuma’s financial adviser to 15 years imprisonment for corruption in his relationship with Jacob Zuma. Although Zuma had not been on trial at the court his name came up again and again as the complement of the bribery duo. Sacking him from the presidency was to give him opportunity to clear his name. But Zuma and his supporters insisted that there was a political conspiracy, headed by Thabo Mbeki, to prevent Zuma from becoming first the president of the ANC and then president of South Africa. Zuma’s lawyers pursued this line of argument until finally the judge in Petermaritzburg said in a judgement throwing out the charges against Zuma that Zuma was right to insist that he was a target of political conspiracy. Using this as their evidence, the new leaders of the ANC decided to recall Thabo Mbeki from his position as president. This flew in the face of the previous undertaking that Mbeki would be allowed to finish his term as president.
Why is it then that Jacob Zuma was not sworn in as president to replace Thabo Mbeki? The easy answer given by the ANC is that Zuma could not be sworn in as president of South Africa because he was not a member of parliament. A few months before, Kgalema Monthlante, deputy president of the ANC, had been sworn in as a member of parliament and brought into the cabinet to oversee the transition from Mbeki to Zuma. It is also to be noted that Monthlante had been something of a bridge between the two groups during the bruising fight for the presidency of the ANC between Mbeki and Zuma. And there is talk already that Monthlante might end up not being just the warmer up of Zuma’s presidential throne but become the occupier in his own right.
Jacob Zuma could not be sworn in immediately as president of South Africa because the threat of being re-re-charged for corruption, bribery, money laundering and a number of other offences still hangs over his head. Other than this, there have been comments freely available in the public domain that he is not fit to be president of the country. One of the important voices to have advised Zuma to discontinue his pursuit of being president of South Africa is Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Tutu has now publicly said that he would not vote next year if the ANC is still led by Jacob Zuma. It should be said at the same time that Tutu did advise Mbeki from contesting the position of president of the ANC for a third term before the December election in which he lost to Zuma. The Archbishop had advised both of them to step aside and let the ANC take a fresh look at its possibilities with other leaders. When Mbeki was recalled after the ruling in Petermaritzburg, a number of cabinet ministers, deputy ministers and provincial premiers decided to follow him out of government. Some have now decided that they want out of the party. Mousioua “Terror” Lakota, former defence minister, has now filed what he calls divorce papers against the ANC. Why divorce? Why not just break away?
From time to time during the long saga of “charge-me don’t-charge-me” that is the Jacob Zuma story, Zuma has always dropped the hint that if he was charged for offences in the line of the arms deal, he would not go down alone. Also, sometime in July the Sunday Times alleged that Thabo Mbeki obtained a bribe of 30,000 rand or dollars of which he gave 2,000 to Jacob Zuma and 28,000 to the ANC. The presidency of Thabo Mbeki never denied the story. What is important here is the fact that the ANC has been the major beneficiary of the corruption that surrounds the arms deal. For now the corruption consequent on the arms deal unites the ANC, both old and new, or rather Classic and Lite. Many individuals and many organisations and now the judge sitting in Petermaritzburg have asked that a judicial inquiry be set up to examine the arms deal and the continuing accusation of massive corruption. Both ANC Classic and ANC Lite have refused to even think of it. Will the ANC break up? Again, as we say, Kokumo (this child will never die) and his mother are fooling themselves. There is no one who will not die. The ANC will break up. The question is will it break up before the judicial exposure of the corruption around the arms deal? Or after such a judicial inquiry? Or during such an inquiry? Aimasiko lon’daamu eda!
– Professor Kole Omotoso is author of JUST BEFORE DAWN.
Comment