Publication: Cape Argus Issued: Date: 2005-11-19 Reporter: Chiara Carter

Spin Doctors, Magnates, Rivals and Skeletons

 

Publication 

Cape Argus

Date

2005-11-19

Reporter

 Chiara Carter

Web Link

www.capeargus.co.za

 

Succession tussle : many are watching former deputy president Jacob Zuma's trial with personal interest

Sex, lies, plots and spies. South Africa's ding-dong ANC succession tussle has it all. Last weekend's rape allegation is but the latest development in the ongoing murky drama of power struggle and intrigue.

At the epicentre stands Jacob Zuma, who is facing a corruption trial but, as ANC deputy president and rallying point for a disparate collection of anti-President Thabo Mbeki forces, remains in the running to succeed him.

Waiting in the wings and lurking in the shadows are a host of jostling forces - spin doctors, business magnates and potential rivals for the presidency, and some say even some skeletons that are yet to be revealed.

Succession has for the most part been a somewhat intrigue-ridden and even bloody affair in the ANC through the decades, but this time around the stakes are higher and the machinations are playing out in public.

Zuma and his supporters argue the former deputy president is the victim of a political plot and it is this that has led to his being first probed and now tried for corruption relating to the multi-billion-rand controversial arms deal with the blessing of the very president who years back warned against those who would be fishers of corrupt men.

There are some who say Zuma was being undermined well before the arms deal investigation began.

Indeed senior ANC leaders have heard Zuma claim he has felt victimised for the better part of 15 years, a claim that apparently raised eyebrows at a recent National Working Committee meeting.

Part of this sense of being marginalised has to do with Zuma being deployed after 1994 in KwaZulu-Natal rather than taking up a post in Nelson Mandela's cabinet.

Interestingly, in the run-up to 1994, far from being a candidate of choice for radicals or the left, Zuma was branded a sellout for not supporting militant action against Inkatha of the kind favoured by, for example, fiery midlands leader Harry Gwala.

There is also a good deal of history coming to the fore. Many of the linkages and tensions that delineate the broad church of the ANC can be traced back to the liberation struggle era, whether it is intelligence versus military, cabal versus Africanist.

However, so complex is the intertwining history of various ANC leaders and cadres, and so fluid the power blocs, that more than one figure regarded as being in the Mbeki or Zuma camp later pops up on the other side of the fence.

Adding to the sense that whatever the rights and wrongs of the criminal allegations against Zuma, a political conspiracy cannot be ruled out, is a sense of deja vu about much of what is playing out.

Remember the fate that befell other presidential aspirants and political opponents through the years. And the many, many claims of plots, smears and even little forays in the direction of sex scandal.

Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale, Mathews Phosa, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Bantu Holomisa all in one way or another were felled as rivals.

The ANC's recent history has been punctuated by whiffs of scandal - drug money, arms, diamond deals, accusations of womanising, not to mention labelling opponents spies and the like.

And of course there are those who claim Mbeki and his supporters have also been the victims of conspiracy.

The most elaborate of these claims was contained in a dossier that surfaced at the time of the Hefer commission, itself born out of the weird intrigues of the ANC hierarchy.

The dossier reeled off a list of powerful politicians and bureaucrats who it claimed were aiming to take over the country.

Its author was never identified, although one Bheki Jacobs *1, the ANC intelligence operative who years back played a major role in exposing the arms deal corruption claims and who from time to time proffered intelligence to the presidency, was not only blamed but also arrested in bizarre circumstances, only to be later released.

Now, Jacobs is something of a bete noire *2 for former intelligence boss Mo Shaik, who is a strong Zuma supporter and was the accuser of Bulelani Ngcuka.

And so it goes. To get a handle on this endless spiral of smoke and mirrors, claims and counter-claims is something of a challenge.

All of these less than salubrious intrigues take place against a background of patronage and wealth accumulation that has lead some to refer to the liberation movement as ANC inc.

And whether it is Mzi Khumalo or Brett Kebble, there are claims of business funding not only the party but factions. And meanwhile corruption itself has become something of a weapon of war.

Zuma's supporters would certainly hold this is the case in the history of the arms deal investigation, where certain names fell off the map while others were tarnished and never cleared.

The extent to which the factionalisation has entered the state structures has been apparent from the row over the NPA and its future, and the tensions that recently erupted in the National Intelligence Agency.

While lurid headlines are the order of the day and Zuma and his supporters engage in a fight for his political life, the names of other possible contenders for the presidency have begun to circulate behind the scenes. But right now all are keeping their heads down. And who could blame them?

With acknowledgements to Chiara Carter and Cape Argus.


*1  Bheki Jacobs was not the author - there were a number of different source authors of different aspects, wordprocessed into one whole of many themes, comprehensible mainly to those inclined towards the exclusive use of UPPER CAPITALS, Courier font, Priority Urgent telexes of Top Secret Classification .


*2  2  `bête noire is a phrase assimilated from the French , literally meaning "black beast".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%AAte_noire

There is only one group of people justified in calling Bheki Jacobs a "black beast" and that's the French , literally the French Arms Dealers, or is Mo now one of them?

1  bête noire

Noun an object of extreme dislike

http://www.bartleby.com/62/01/B0150100.html

Bheki Jacobs is actually a very pleasant and likeable person who has a great liking for The President, although not quite as great a liking for The Minister in The Office of the President.

But we don't want El (Il) Presidente from lashing out with racist accusations or accusations of racism in response to references to beastly black objects of dislike - it's just a term assimilated in The English from his friends, The French.

Bête Noire is also the name for a rich flourless chocolate cake *3, but me thinks Mo was on a another train of thought entirely.


*3  Ingredients
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, 8 oz unsweetened chocolate, simple syrup [1/2 C water plus 1 1/3 C sugar], 1/2 lb butter, 5 beaten eggs.

Method
Chop chocolate in food processor, drizzle in syrup, add butter one tablespoon at a time, add eggs slowly. Cook in 350 degree F oven in a 9-inch round pan (lined with parchment) for 25-30 minutes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%AAte_noire

Enjoy.

[Please excuse the use of Imperial Units. I know illegal in The Republic, but I'd hate Commissioner Selebi's private jet to have to fly down to collect me in the Cape when there is unfinished business in Forest Town.

[If anyone take offence, I'll make amends by republishing with official SI units sanctioned by the Système Internationale (avec l'abréviation internationale SI) pour le système pratique d'unités de mesure]