South Africa made us proud last week by throwing Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma under the bus. Finally. After putting his countrymen and women through so much stress in the dying days of his presidency, the redoubtable party organiser eventually kicked the dust when the African National Congress gave him the boot.
Power, the aphrodisiac; the cocaine of authority, the N-bomb, the Krokodil, the Grey Death, the oxycodone, and heroin of life. The delusional wielder of power flashes a permanent grin at the world like a cunning hyena until the world rises up as one to say, enough!
It was tragic that a man who joined the ANC in 1959 and served in various capacities through the years till he assumed the ultimate prize in 2009 would end up in disgrace as he did. He had served 10 years in jail during the liberation struggle and helped in no small way to establish the ANC at the grassroots. The mistake he made was thinking that his rich past of service to the cause of liberation entitled him to blur the line between state and personal coffers.
There was a tinge of irony in Zuma’s disgraceful end. After his dismissal from office as Deputy President to Mbeki (1999-2005), he rallied his forces to defeat Mbeki at the party elections in 2009 and forced the President to step down on the advice of the party. The same party was to give Zuma hemlock to save South Africa from further shame in 2018. Karma?
Zuma played the cards adroitly to the very end. It is doubtful if he would ever have agreed to resign if not for the vote of no confidence waiting to bury him in parliament. The permanent grin for which he had become famous to the chagrin of my South African friends was wiped out; in its place was a stone face uglier than his statue in Owerri. (What ‘noble’ qualities informed the decision by Governor Okorocha to mount a statue of Zuma in Owerri? Birds of the same feather?)
It was fitting that Fate chose Valentine’s Day to give South Africans and the rest of us who wish that country well the gift of a new beginning. In the run-up to the denouement there was a hint that Zuma was prepared to play dirty, splashing dung at past heroes and other notables. His guardian angel must have whispered to him, “When you’re in a ditch, stop digging”.
South Africans are going to miss his dancing and chanting of Lethu Mshini Wami (“Bring me my machine gun!”) with which he often mesmerised the ANC crowd.
The litany of corruption cases aside, Zuma internationalised his level of depraved ignorance in his defence of the famous rape charge against him. A 31-year-old woman, daughter of one of Zuma’s comrades-at-arms, alleged that Zuma had raped her. Zuma said the liaison was consensual. He admitted that he didn’t use a condom despite knowing that the woman was HIV positive. He said he took a shower immediately afterwards to prevent the disease.
The laughter in the court had hardly died down when ace cartoonists picked up the matter. Jonathan Shapiro, the South African cartoonist known as Zapiro, created a standard Zuma character with a peanut head and shower. That image has stuck.
Corruption wrestled Zuma to the floor because he failed to nip it in the bud. Indeed he was an acolyte of the cankerworm. His opaque dealings with the Gupta family (Two years ago, Atul Gupta was named the seventh-wealthiest person in South Africa, with an estimated net worth of R10.7 billion, that is $773.47 million), sharply divided ANC’s supporters who were torn between sympathy for a comrade and loyalty to the nation.
President Cyril Ramaphosa now has the task to translate the dream of the majority of South Africans for a better life to reality. Daunting as it appears, Ramaphosa has what it takes to achieve success. He has been through the ANC mill; he is rich; he is streetwise. If he can create jobs by tackling the warts that stifle the economy and boldly marshal a plan to make access to education painless for the disadvantaged blacks, he would have started well.
Thank you, South Africa, for saving Africa the continued shame of a Zuma presidency. Coming after the well choreographed dethronement of Uncle Bob Mugabe and happening around the same time as the resignation of Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn amidst protracted anti-government protests, this is good news.
All through the turmoil, there was no recourse to tribal or religious sentiments! Africa is making a statement to whom it may concern: We can tackle our own problems with our internal structures and don’t need meddling of outsiders no matter how well meaning.
