It may be hard to believe but there is a silver lining to the shameful scenes at last week’s state of the nation address (Sona). It is this: the days of the presidency of the empty suit that is Jacob Zuma are numbered. The country has turned against him. He has turned against the country. He has now entered his final march to Nkandla.
Zuma walked into the chamber last Thursday having already turned popular sentiment against his presidency. Thousands of police personnel were deployed in the people’s parliament. Soldiers in full uniform walked up and down the red carpet after he requested a doubling of SA National Defence Force personnel for no apparent reason.
Further, one cannot help but be cynical about Zuma’s land consciousness when his Minister of Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti is reported by the Sunday Times to have influenced the sale of a R97-million farm to an ANC crony. The farm fell into disrepair immediately after Nkwinti’s crony took over.
That is the type of rot that underlies Zuma’s new-found enthusiasm for “radical economic transformation”. His policies are not about the people. They are about looting the fiscus for friends and family.
It won’t last though, and Zuma knows this very well. Over the next few months, watch as more of these types of deals are done.
The truth is that this year’s Sona had nothing new to offer a country begging for good news and implementable plans. Zuma has run out of ideas. His comrades in the parliamentary benches know that he is taking them towards a cliff, and many will now be working to get rid of him.
This was Zuma’s last Sona as leader of the ANC. Next year he will not be able to make up policy on the hop as he has been doing lately. He will have to listen to the ANC and, given that his machinations to get his former wife Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to take over are taking strain, he may have to listen to a president who is not too enamoured of him. That man may be Cyril Ramaphosa, who is now reportedly so disgusted by his comrade that they barely speak to each other.
What happens in January next year?
The new ANC national executive committee will meet to prepare their January 8 statement and, after that, will hold an NEC lekgotla to give direction to the cabinet.
Everyone in the room at that NEC meeting will be painfully aware that a national general election will be due in 18 months from the time of their meeting. Do they want Zuma to still be president as the ANC campaigns? Who in that room will want to be the person trying to justify Zuma’s legion of scandals?
Someone will raise their hand. Another will raise theirs in support. The new ANC secretary will do a tally. It may be curtains for Zuma, removed by his own comrades.
If his comrades don’t rid themselves of Zuma next year, the Gauteng province and perhaps two others will fall into the hands of the opposition at the 2019 elections.
It will be curtains for the ANC.
Sona heralds Zuma’s final, desperate march to Nkandla
Zuma walked into the chamber last Thursday having already turned popular sentiment against his presidency. Thousands of police personnel were deployed in the people’s parliament. Soldiers in full uniform walked up and down the red carpet after he requested a doubling of SA National Defence Force personnel for no apparent reason.
Further, one cannot help but be cynical about Zuma’s land consciousness when his Minister of Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti is reported by the Sunday Times to have influenced the sale of a R97-million farm to an ANC crony. The farm fell into disrepair immediately after Nkwinti’s crony took over.
That is the type of rot that underlies Zuma’s new-found enthusiasm for “radical economic transformation”. His policies are not about the people. They are about looting the fiscus for friends and family.
It won’t last though, and Zuma knows this very well. Over the next few months, watch as more of these types of deals are done.
The truth is that this year’s Sona had nothing new to offer a country begging for good news and implementable plans. Zuma has run out of ideas. His comrades in the parliamentary benches know that he is taking them towards a cliff, and many will now be working to get rid of him.
This was Zuma’s last Sona as leader of the ANC. Next year he will not be able to make up policy on the hop as he has been doing lately. He will have to listen to the ANC and, given that his machinations to get his former wife Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to take over are taking strain, he may have to listen to a president who is not too enamoured of him. That man may be Cyril Ramaphosa, who is now reportedly so disgusted by his comrade that they barely speak to each other.
What happens in January next year?
The new ANC national executive committee will meet to prepare their January 8 statement and, after that, will hold an NEC lekgotla to give direction to the cabinet.
Everyone in the room at that NEC meeting will be painfully aware that a national general election will be due in 18 months from the time of their meeting. Do they want Zuma to still be president as the ANC campaigns? Who in that room will want to be the person trying to justify Zuma’s legion of scandals?
Someone will raise their hand. Another will raise theirs in support. The new ANC secretary will do a tally. It may be curtains for Zuma, removed by his own comrades.
If his comrades don’t rid themselves of Zuma next year, the Gauteng province and perhaps two others will fall into the hands of the opposition at the 2019 elections.
It will be curtains for the ANC.
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