Zuma is, alas, not an aberration

23rd February 2018

By: Rebecca Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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Well, Jacob Zuma is no longer President of the Republic of South Africa, following his “recall” (in effect, order to resign) by his political party, the African National Congress (ANC). The raid on the Johannesburg home of his close associates, the Gupta brothers, on the morning of February 14 (the St Valentine’s Day Mop Up?) clearly demonstrated how dramatically political power had leached away from Zuma in his last days in office.

Zuma was the fourth President of a fully democratic South Africa, others being, in chronological order, Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe. Of these four, two – Mbeki and Zuma – were forced out of office prematurely. Half of the country’s democratic Presidents so far could not serve out their terms. Actually, it is much worse than this: as Motlanthe was explicitly an interim President, who held office for only about seven-and-a-half months, he can, I would argue, be disregarded for the purposes of this argument. Taking Motlanthe out of the discussion means that 66% of South Africa’s Presidents so far have failed to conclude their mandates. That suggests something in very wrong in South Africa’s political system and/or within the ANC.

Of course, both Mbeki and Zuma were bad Presidents who did much harm to the country. A recent appearance of nostalgia for Mbeki is quite shocking. As President, he was arrogant, self-righteous, opinionated, and, worst of all, callous. His weird and fundamentally irrational rejection of the findings of scientific research into HIV/Aids and his refusal to implement policies that would have greatly, if not massively, reduced its spread among South Africa’s population, inflicted huge suffering and resulted in many unnecessary deaths. Given a choice between admitting he was wrong, or letting the people suffer, he did not hesitate: he let the people suffer.

Mbeki did not distinguish himself in fighting corruption. One thinks of the senior ANC MPs who were effectively let off with slaps on the wrist in the ‘Travelgate’ Parliamentary travel expenses scandal; only six of the 79 MPs implicated were ever prosecuted. Then there was the lack of action over the Oilgate scandal (see below). The impression was created that only ANC members who were seen as lacking in loyalty to Mbeki (such as, in the end, Zuma) would be pursued for corruption and that loyalty to Mbeki was more important than competence or intelligence.

It was Mbeki who sought to undermine the Constitution in practice while upholding it in theory by appointing total medio- crities to key posts. It was, after all, under Mbeki appointee Lawrence Mushwana that the Office of the Public Protector reached its nadir. (In 2005, it was reported that State-owned oil company PetroSA had diverted State money, through a private company, to the ANC, in a scandal inevitably dubbed Oilgate; Mushwana refused to investigate key aspects of the scandal and issued a report that stated there was no evidence of any wrongdoing – a report that was subsequently – in 2009 – heavily criticised and set aside by the Pretoria High Court, a judgment that was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2011.)

Nearly everything Zuma did was built on foundations laid by Mbeki. His lack of action on corruption, his subverting of institutions that were meant to have independence or autonomy from the executive – none of this was new, in principle. The difference was just in scale. And the scaling up seems to have included getting financial benefits for Zuma’s friends and family.

At least Zuma reversed Mbeki’s HIV/Aids policies and massively reduced the suffering of those infected with the virus, something that should not be forgotten. Indeed, international experiences suggest that, with the right policies, South Africa should recover from the damage inflicted by Zuma quite rapidly. Mbeki’s HIV/Aids policy did significant demographic damage to the country, which will have knock-on effects for generations. And, infamously, Mbeki also did real damage to Zimbabwe by effectively giving cover to that country’s then President, Robert Mugabe, to subvert Zimbabwe’s democracy and maintain himself in power, despite losing the elections in 2008. Mbeki’s so-called “quiet diplomacy” with Zimbabwe effectively shielded Mugabe’s regime from international pressure.

However, what is really scary is how close Zuma, building on Mbeki’s model, came to de facto eviscerating the country’s key institutions, while main- taining them de jure. He was stymied by the strong ethical code of most of the country’s lawyers, which kept the courts independent (whenever Zuma appointed a lawyer to a judgeship, that person gave their full loyalty to the law and the Constitution, and showed no loyalty to the President who had appointed them). And by Thuli Madonsela, Public Protector from 2009 to 2016, whose appointment was probably the single biggest blunder of Zuma’s Presidency. Without the courts and Madonsela, civil society and opposition party protests would have achieved little.

There are several critically important issues arising from these experiences. The ANC has to look very carefully at how it selects its leaders. Since Mandela, its record has been dismal. But the country as a whole has to focus its attention on just why and how it was so easy for two Presidents to subvert key national institutions. There is clearly something very wrong with the system, and that has to be looked at, even if it requires amendments to the Constitution. No country can seriously rely on the appearance of dames (female knights) in shining armour as a strategy to protect its constitutional integrity.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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