Publication: Sunday Sun Issued: Date: 2005-11-21 Reporter: Jon Qwelane Reporter: Reporter:

Bring on the Big Guns, Zuma

 

Publication 

Sunday Sun
Date 2005-11-21

Reporter

 Jon Qwelane

Web Link

www.thestar.co.za

 

The late, irreverent editor Johnny Johnson had a way of describing things, particularly the things he disliked.

For example, he was no great fan of the Sunday Times which in the 1970s he famously called The Sunday Slimes.

At another time he was a bit kinder, merely dismissing it as The Sunday Crimes.

Last week the scales dipped even further and the slimy side of that paper really came to the fore, with their deliberate smear against Jacob Zuma.

Zuma was attacked without mercy on the paper's front page, which accused him of rape. One wonders to what murky depths some people will sink to allow themselves to be used for such cheap and sordid gimmicks.

The fight is getting dirtier by the day, and poor Zuma is the political football of unscrupulous and thoroughly unprincipled cowards masquerading as opponents.

Already the "impartial" ANC executive committee has read the riot act to party deputy president Zuma in recent weeks, ordering him to rein in his followers after a recent Durban court appearance at which they swore at Thabo Mbeki's mother and publicly burned T-shirts bearing his images.

Zuma did as he was ordered, and last week he once more took it upon himself to order his supporters to behave.

Mbeki's turn

Now it should be Mbeki's turn. The NEC must order him to tell his supporters, particularly the lackeys in the so-called mainstream newspapers, to stop defaming Zuma by spreading outright lies about him.

I have long suspected that the campaign against Zuma is a huge political conspiracy, and I am still of that view.

There can be no doubt remaining now that those who do not want Zuma ascending to the presidency of the ANC, and therefore of the country, will stop at nothing to achieve their goal.

They include media hacks, who are ready pawns, willing to be used like putty by the power orchestrators. Now though, they have really struck rock-bottom.

Their "dirty tricks" campaign has assumed a new, highly personalised and absolutely defamatory level, and I believe only serious and decisive retaliation by JZ, through a heavy defamation suit, can stabilise the situation.

The rumour mills

But then again, therein lies the rub: if uMsholozi lets matters be, then the rumour mills start pumping and "there can be no smoke without fire".

If, on the other hand, he takes them to court, that will nicely fulfil the objectives of the "other camp" because the sustained legal fight will help to divert attention from the actual war they are losing, which is to shut out JZ completely.

Also, the popular fundraising drive to fight his corruption battle is having marvellous results - and his opponents want to blunt his ability to defend himself.

They know very well, too, that their real objective in spreading this defamatory nonsense is that it never really goes away - the longer the case drags on in court, the more frequent will be the repetition of the defamatory claims, making even a favourable outcome for Zuma a pyrrhic victory. That is why they are willing to take this gamble.

The "other camp" is now desperate: its corruption charge is proving to be, in the words of Bulelani Ngcuka, originator of the filth with his "prima facie but unwinnable case" against JZ, very unwinnable - just as Ngcuka and his Scorpions knew it would be.

They have spent millions in taxpayers' money and more than five years to pursue a mirage; now in desperation they are resorting to the catalogue of smears.

Redeeming his image

They're hoping he will be forced to spend time redeeming his very tattered image, and his support among his followers will diminish drastically. Who will want President Rapist? *1

They are now really scraping the bottom of the sordid barrel of their making. They hope that a spinoff of the "rape" allegation will finally force Zuma out of the vice-presidency of the ANC, denying him a crucial platform which he has been able to use most effectively up to now.

Once forced out of the post, he will be isolated, and his dreams of becoming the president of the ANC and the country will be gone forever.

At the same time as he is battling to restore his image, he will also have to concentrate on fighting the corruption case.

Denuded of his militant supporters, who go about "disrespectfully" braaing the bossman's image, Zuma will have very little vocal support among ordinary people. And among the white circles in this country, his name is already mud!

The dirty tricksters failed to ignite a fire of general confusion last week with the pathetic and weak "leak" to Business Day with the claim that JZ wanted to enter into a so-called plea bargain of sorts, implying he was admitting corruption, while all along he has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence.

Their little ploy failed, and a decision must then have been taken to go into overdrive with the disinformation campaign.

And so we woke up to Sunday and the banner headline "Zuma rape claim". The rationale was something like: "Spread the sordid stuff, and do it on a day when most newspaper readers are at home and relaxed, don't worry too much about the details. What is paramount here is to smear the hell out of him".

But it was a poorly researched "story", which even the "victim" denied, according to the Sunday Tribune and the Sunday Independent. My opinion is that JZ must take the newspaper to the cleaners, and hope we still have at least one decent and honest judge out there who has not been swayed by all the Machiavellian skulduggery against Zuma.

Mr Zuma you know where you stand and it's time you fought with your gloves off; call for umshini wami (my machine gun), and blast them full of holes!

This column first appeared in the Sunday Sun and on News24.

With acknowledgements to Jon Qwelane and Sunday Sun.


*1  Who indeed ?  

This is a really brilliant article, if one is a Zuma opponent.