Analysts slam move to make Duduzane Zuma SA’s next big thing in politics

In a bizarre apparent conspiracy, supporters of Jacob Zuma are said to be planning a Zuma dynasty.

They want to elevate his son Duduzane to become the president of the ANC Youth League – and subsequently of the ANC and the country.

The younger Zuma has, in recent weeks, been seen launching a charm offensive, which included an announcement that he would pay an undisclosed amount of money toward the debts of students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, as well as playing a diplomatic role in calling for calm amid the protests at the institution.

However, experts believe this is a futile exercise bound to fail.

After they failed to have Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to succeed her former husband at Nasrec in December 2017, the Zuma faction is on a mission to ensure that Duduzane Zuma is groomed as a future political leader in the ANC. Already a campaign is under way to introduce him to the public.

Recently, he addressed ANC gatherings organised by the faction. The faction had been disappointed by their hope, Dlamini-Zuma, whom they brought forward to replace her former husband. But despite having reluctantly agreed to join the ANC presidential race at Nasrec in 2017, Dlamini-Zuma showed no interest in faction politics and instead is now focusing on her job as minister of local government and traditional affairs.

Now, the group believe that Duduzane Zuma, with no experience and even less political credibility except his father’s name, will do what Dlamini-Zuma could not do. The plot has apparently been meticulously laid out, but analysts believe it is half-baked and will all end up on the scrapheap. 

Political analyst Zamikhaya Maseti said trying to elevate Duduzane Zuma was “sheer opportunism” and an “act of desperation” by forces aligned to the radical economic transformation movement, while another analyst, Dr Ralph Mathekga, said it was a desperate and futile exercise.

“The idea of propelling Duduzane is a futile exercise, it’s a desperate attempt to hold on to the dwindling Zuma influence in the ANC,” Mathekga said.

A family dynasty is not new in Africa – the late Democratic Republic of Congo president Laurent Kabila was succeeded by his son Joseph Kabila, while President Faure Gnassingbe of Togo immediately took over from his father Gnassingbe Eyadema in a dynasty that lasted for almost 50 years.

Duduzane Zuma’s elevation even to the position of ANCYL president means that he will jump a long line of all the other current and previous leaders of party structures, such as branches, regions and even provinces to sit at the top without ever rising through the ranks or leading any community activities.

Long before his name came up, ANCYL leaders had been gearing up for the race and some even threw their names in the hat as candidates for the top positions of president, deputy president and secretary-general.

The lobbying had long started before and after the league’s national executive committee was disbanded and replaced with a national youth task team by Luthuli House.

This meant that Duduzane Zuma’s sudden appearance and anointment to the top could spark friction. But in an attempt to keep the Zuma legacy alive, his supporters have decided that his father’s name is enough to qualify him as their choice for leadership, even becoming the future ANC president.

He will definitely have to climb a tall mountain. Observers believe trying to promote the son to replace the father could be a futile exercise.

They say much as Zuma became the worst president, he did not jump to the top, but worked for leadership through the structures until he reached the top.

Mathekga said: “It would be difficult for the ANC to go to the elections with Duduzane as the leader of the party. Bringing a Zuma to the fore is daring. It would anger many people because, as they say, the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons up to the third and fourth generations.”

Critics say Duduzane Zuma would come with a blemished image due to his links with the Gupta family.

Maseti said in the ANC there were no political dynasties. He said Angola tried to create a dynasty with the daughter of the former president Eduardo Dos Santos, but it failed dismally.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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