Zuma has probably set in motion his own endgame

If ever there was a graphic illustration that President Jacob Zuma has abrogated his guardianship of the South African nation, it was his midnight massacre of the former Cabinet. The nation should be appalled.

This was more than just the sacking of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcibisi Jonas, both demonstrably men of ability, integrity and sharing a common purpose in putting the country and its embattled citizenry first.

It was an embarrassing abandonment, applying what should surely be the prime consideration in appointing those of proven ability to fulfil the demands of public office. Instead, the president has seemingly overlooked past inadequacies and outright failures in concocting a coterie of cronies.

He has, in the latest manifestation of this aspect of his clannish character, lurched, chuckling, from crisis to crisis.

Demonstrably in his far-from-spotless leadership of the ruling ANC, Zuma, a street-smart politician, has lost the soul which has been at the essence of the organisation since it was first founded as a voice of, and for, the ordinary people, in 1912.

It is nothing less than a declaration of a looming internecine war, a war in which not even the arrogant autocratic aura Zuma has increasingly assumed surely cannot protect him.

In the wake of his late night announcement, the carnage is already evident in the instant decline of the rand – and the very real prospect of our currency being catapulted into the almost irreversible pit of junk status. Sadly, Zuma doesn’t give the feeling that he really cares.

Zuma has also seemed to forget that though the world watches developments in this country closely, we are in reality a fairly insignificant flyspeck on the southern tip of Africa, already overtaken by Nigeria as the continent’s most powerful economic nation. This decline is hell-bent to be accelerated, for the shocking fact remains that while we are fully entitled to our own place in the sun, it is grants, not sunshine, which sustains our poor.

Zuma has rolled the dice and set what could prove to be his own endgame in motion. Morally, this must surely be indefensible; Zuma has, as Sipho Pityana, who traces his thinking to Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement, so succinctly set out, fired the first salvo of what could be an epic encounter between opposing forces. “This not just a fight against corruption; this is a fight for sovereignty.”

Therein lies perhaps the biggest confrontation for Zuma as the chorus of dissenting voices continues to grow from a diverse number of political quarters and challenges waiting in parliament and the courts.

It is still too early to make even vaguely accurate assessments of how the factions will stack up or whether enough ANC members of parliament will have the collective will to go against their president in any proposed present or future vote of no confidence.

In the current flux though, this can change in a heartbeat, as the current shambolic state of affairs so loudly attests to. The bourgeoisie could easily change direction and be girding their loins to attack the Winter Palace.

But, in any eventuality, the sordid state of our governance will surely figure large in any ongoing debate. As Gordhan commented, “connect the dots … don’t look at individuals”.

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