Publication: Mail and Guardian Issued: Date: 2005-08-26 Reporter: Sam Sole Reporter:

The Mice Must Roar

 

Publication 

Mail and Guardian
Date

2005-08-26

Reporter

Sam Sole

Web Link

www.mg.co.za

 

‘Be careful what you wish for; you might get it.” The old adage has never seemed more apt in the light of the ironies thrown up by the Jacob Zuma saga.

It is trite to observe that Zuma, who once asked for nothing more than his day in court, is now looking less happy about the state’s legitimate attempt to make his day a tough one by building the strongest case possible.

And, as the Sunday Times pointed out last week, his rather sneering remarks in a court application against the Scorpions a couple of years ago now have an uncomfortable ring. Then Zuma criticised claims that the Scorpions had not included him in their 2001 raids of his friend Schabir Shaik out of “deference” for his office: “Such deference was clearly misplaced,” he opined in his affidavit, “The respondents are under a constitutional duty to act without fear, favour or prejudice.”

Last week, when the Scorpions did just that, Zuma’s supporters squealed very loudly indeed.

But the cautionary adage has relevance beyond the obvious.

Liberal observers, myself included, have often thought it might be no bad thing were the African National Congress to split into its broad constituent parts.

They have generally assumed that the bulk of support would remain around a “sensible” centrist rump, with a smaller democratic-socialist left wing hiving off to offer both a more viable opposition and genuine policy alternatives.

Now that the Zuma crisis has generated what amounts to a knock-down fight within the ANC-SACP-Cosatu alliance, we have an opportunity to see what this “normalisation” of our politics might look like. And it’s not pretty.

Far from offering any genuine debate about policy, real contestation for power appears to have shifted the centre of political gravity towards populist demagoguery and the personality politics of “Zuma versus Mbeki”.

Behind Zuma has emerged what is increasingly looking like the “coalition of the irrational”, in political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi’s memorable phrase.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) leadership, which enthusiastically fanned the blaze of support for Zuma as part of the left’s battle with Mbeki, last week found themselves burned when their own structures pushed through resolutions making impossible and strategically stupid demands on President Mbeki.

As Matshiqi has pointed out, the call for Mbeki to reinstate Zuma as national deputy president and to flout the Constitution by intervening to stop the Zuma prosecution is simply going to alienate Zuma’s more rational backers -- particularly in the black elite -- from whom he needs to draw support if he is to fund his legal defence, never mind succeed in his bid for the presidency.

And this may not be the last time that Cosatu is burned. Amid the frantic campaign for Zuma to be president, Cosatu and his other left backers might do well to examine the consequences of such a wish being granted.

While Zuma now has become more of a symbol of the battle for the soul of the ANC than anything else -- a talisman for the movement’s venerable collectivist heritage -- once he is president he will cease to be a symbol and begin to exercise power.

The profound absence of discernable Zuma policy positions on anything, let alone a recognisable record of support for traditional left positions, should give us all pause.

And if Zuma succeeds to the presidency, Cosatu may yet find that the various carpetbaggers the Zuma campaign has attracted over the years are ahead in the queue when it comes to calling in political and financial debts.

Zuma does have a track record as a peace-maker and consensus builder, but his personal instincts tend towards the conservative and traditional.

Personally, I have been willing to allow some indulgence to the argument that Zuma is no more flawed than the rest of our political leadership (including our current President) and have looked to his behaviour for signs that he might deserve the groundswell of support he is enjoying.

Zuma’s axing as deputy president paradoxically freed him from the discipline of Cabinet deference and gave him the chance to be more presidential. Thus far, he has failed to occupy this space.

Cosatu’s call for his trial to be stopped was met with humble thanks, without the addition of even a gentle caveat that this would be unconstitutional.

On Zimbabwe, an opportunity where critical comments would not have placed him at odds with his left backers, there has been silence -- even in the face of that highly contentious loan and Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s silly comments about having much to learn about land reform from our starving neighbour.

Is this perhaps because Zimbabwe, land, and the emotive racial rhetoric that goes with them, are among the populist cards that Mbeki has yet to play -- and Zuma dare not concede them yet? I hope not.

If the battle of the ANC elephants reveals nothing else, it is that leadership in our fractious but precious country is too important to be left to leaders. It’s time for us all to reclaim the politics of community. It’s time for the mice to roar. *1

With acknowledgements to Sam Sole and the Mail & Guardian.

*1  Like a lion or like an elephant?