Death means little to Zuma & company

It is becoming clear that one of the most astute – cunning is more accurate – moves Jacob Zuma made in the days before he vacated the presidency in early 2018 was to leave a poison pill for his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, to swallow.

And that was the promise by Zuma that the state would provide free tertiary education. At the time, he would have known very well that the government did not have enough money to make good on that promise.

But, in making it, he would have painted himself as the “good guy”, knowing full well that when Ramaphosa was unable to deliver on it, the new president would be viewed as the “bad guy”.

Zuma and those around him in the radical economic transformation (RET) clique who looted the country blind during the years of state capture, undoubtedly would have foreseen that student and parent anger on the issue would sooner or later boil over into violence.

Yet, a little collateral damage – like father-of-three Mthokozisi Ntumba (allegedly gunned down by police in Braamfontein as they pursued protesters) – is clearly not an issue for that faction.

Zuma and his cohorts have delivered helping upon helping of pie-in-the-sky to their devoted supporters, who seem unable to grasp the realities of modern-day South Africa.

Those realities are that the country is broke and too many people are being admitted to universities who shouldn’t be there in the first place … and who then fail.

Apart from anything else, the political posturing contributes to the growing divide between the haves and the have-nots.

It also obscures the educational reality that we should be channelling many prospective varsity students into trades, where they can help build the country. As in everything in the state capture saga, the little guy (or woman) loses out again.

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