OPINION: No man’s pawn in political chess game

The attack on deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa by the ANC Youth League this week may have been unprecedented but it was not unexpected. In fact, it took longer to come than is usually the case. But more on that point later.

The youth league’s secretary general Njabulo Nzuza seemed particularly unhappy about Ramaphosa’s public backing of finance minister Pravin Gordhan – who is facing frivolous charges of theft and fraud – especially since Ramaphosa failure to do the same for President Jacob Zuma over the Nkandla issue.

“One is very disappointed with the deputy president… We have a problem with him, issues of confidence and double standards.

It is clear from the government ministers and senior ANC leaders who have come out in support of Gordhan that the ANC is again on the verge of a crippling succession battle.

History is repeating itself. A provincial or regional structure will be disbanded, political opponents – those seen as hostile to the dominant faction’s views – will be suspended, and before you know it another breakaway will be in the offing.

But this can be avoided. Frankly, if there is one person who can rescue the ANC from its precipice, it is Dlamini-Zuma. One does not need to be a political mandarin to realise the premier league does not support her because they are advocates of gender equality or because they believe she is the most capable leader in the ANC leadership collective.

This is more about the politics of control and manipulation. In her they believe they have someone who will keep Zuma out of jail – even if the fraud and corruption charges are reinstated against him. That way, they believe, they – as untouchable political fixers – will retain some control over the party and ultimately the state.

An anecdote is often told in political circles about how the then president Thabo Mbeki, after firing Zuma as deputy president in June 2005, offered the post to Dlamini-Zuma. But she turned it down as she believed accepting it would split her family. Phumzile

Mlambo-Ngcuka was given the post.

Dlamini-Zuma is no political lightweight, nor is she a fool. She is probably well aware of the strategy of the premier league, although in politics, power and the lure of high office can be almost irresistible.

A Johannesburg daily newspaper this week misogynistically sought to diminish Dlamini-Zuma this week, describing her as “Zuma’s ex”.

That reference sought to reduce her to a non-entity – as though she owed her development in politics to Zuma.

But she is so much more than “Zuma’s ex”. Very few will forget that she met Zuma while exiled in Swaziland, having skipped the country as had many other freedom fighters of yesteryear.

She showed herself ready to take an unpopular decision in Polokwane in 2007 when she rejected advances by the Zuma grouping to stand as national chair on their slate, opting instead to side with her then boss, Mbeki.

Dlamini-Zuma is more than capable of showing everyone once again that she is no pawn in a political chess game. To avert another destructive succession battle and halt the ongoing political instability, which I believe has manifested itself in the uncontrollable student protests, she could take a similarly singular decision.

In these trying times our country needs stable leadership to steer us out of the political quagmire we are in. If that means Dlamini-Zuma must join forces with Ramaphosa for the sake of unity, then so be it.