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Freedom Day: SA is at a crossroads

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OPINION by Imraan Buccus

This April 27th sees South Africa at a crossroads. The vehicles gathering at the intersection want to drive the country in entirely opposite directions. Quite how we arrived at his point is not difficult to unravel.

Where once the ANC had a singular vision and mission, led by a unifying president and a national executive committee which held the welfare of the nation in trust, we now have an ANC owned by special interests.  A dominant view in the public mind is that those special interests are geared towards lining their own pockets.  Few come across as trustworthy.

There is Jacob Zuma mortally wounded to within an inch of his political life by a judgement of the Constitutional Court but caring not one jot. There are the pretenders to the throne worming their way from some corners darker than others. Cyril Ramaphosa, the billionaire trade unionist half joins the race as the interminable ditherer.  Jeff Radebe, once a able Zuma courtier fancies his chances but has no real or imagined base from which to campaign. The acerbic Baleka Mbete feels herself frequently wronged and overlooked even though she has done yeoman duty in keeping the baying hordes from breaching the palace gates.  Then there is the political aristocrat, Lindiwe Sisulu with her own populist brand mounting a whispered campaign that might propel her as a compromise woman candidate for the minor placings.

So far the favourite appears the less than likeable Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma whose campaign is unable to muster so much as a car. Whatever the spurious threat to her personal safety there is absolutely nothing in policy or legislation that justifies her being  driven to campaign rallies by the presidential protection unit. If she is scared of anything, she should barricade herself in her house and hire private security like millions of other ordinary South Africans of which she now is one.  The fact that she now claims entitlements from the public purse is an awful sign of things yet to come were she to succeed in making her way to the Union Buildings.

One curved ball being bowled to her by her lead praise singer, her former husband, is that he has succeeded in eroding the confidence of the country and compromised the country so badly that the prize of the ANC presidency might be a pyrrhic victory. This view holds that the ANC is now in rapid decline and that while it will remain a significant political player, it will certainly not be ruling until the return of the messiah.

That assessment is the saddest indictment of a noble movement which contested with some of the most violent forces over its century long history only to be underdone from within. South Africans mark this freedom day more divided than ever before.

Even the ailing Archbishop Desmond Tutu who worked to weld the country together during the harsh apartheid onslaught has thrown his support behind marches against Zuma on Freedom Day. Zuma like Donald Trump might look out of his palace window and see hundreds of thousands marching against him, shrug his shoulders and say to himself that tomorrow they will be gone. That might be true.  On the other than that might not be true.

At this very moment there is extreme pressure building on the streets of Venezuela.   Just weeks ago citizens marching in the streets of South Korea succeeded in bringing down a president.  At this delicate stage of the development of our democracy that kind of exit for Zuma could do us more harm than good.  Zuma must leave office on dignified terms. Those terms must be determined by the national executive committee.

One argument that it could muster is that the two centres of power could be untenable for the country. The ANC has previously advanced the argument that its choice of president should also be president of the country. That would be a face saving gesture for all concerned.

As things stand that might be the only chance for his former wife to legitimately ride with the presidential protection unit. Come Freedom Day 2019 and it is looking increasing likely that black, green and gold will not be the chosen colour scheme in the Union Buildings.

Imraan Buccus is senior research associate at ASRI, research fellow in the School of Social Sciences at UKZN and academic director of a university study abroad program on political transformation.

[Source: Daily Mail]
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