OPINION: ‘Putin’s hand in SA cabinet reshuffle’ represents betrayal of a whole nation

This past weekend’s Sunday Times front page lead story “Putin’s hand in cabinet reshuffle”, was highly disturbing.

Not in our darkest nightmare did we ever dream our country would find itself in a situation where a foreign government apparently dictates cabinet appointments.

I understand the romantic attachment some in our country may have to Russia, owing to that country’s assistance during the struggle for liberation, but the situation has reached ridiculous and treasonous proportions.

Must our country sacrifice its sovereignty because it received help back then? Must citizens be sold out completely – and in broad daylight – and then stripped of the resources that are left?

Many South Africans still harbour some sentimental attachment to the ANC. Guided by that strong attachment, they continue to point to certain individuals as being the biggest cause of what is wrong with the ruling party – not at the party itself.

This is clearly wishful thinking. If the ANC was not complicit in a succession of terrible acts of national betrayal, why then has it not done everything in its power to stop these national abuses and severely sanction those involved?

But this has not remotely been the response of the ANC. Instead, it has for years shielded its president while tossing upright members to the kerb and trying to trample them.

Now that the president has gone completely rogue, one has to ask the question of whether Jacob Zuma was actually ever under the control of the ANC in the first place.

Gwede Mantashe gave a glimpse of the attitude of the ANC to the ongoing implosion in a recent interview with Mail & Guardian journalist Jo-Mangaliso Mdlela, who asked him about the perception that the ANC removes good ministers while incompetent ones are left to wreak havoc untouched.

Mantashe, who has pretty much sealed his image as a man with a very forked tongue, said this among other things: “Our approach to these allegations is that this is the responsibility of the president and the government to intervene.

“And this goes for anybody deployed by the ANC to the government and other entities.”

Is the secretary-general of the ANC actually talking about the president who has breached South Africa’s constitution, which he is under oath to uphold?

Is the SG actually suggesting that the same ANC that has protected and shielded Zuma from being held accountable throughout his unfortunate leadership should be stepping back and leaving things completely in the hands of this errant president?

Is Mantashe implying that the whole country must sit patiently waiting for the man for whom the ANC had to order its MPs to override their consciences in the last parliamentary vote of no confidence?

Is he talking about a government that has systematically been disabled so that the Zuma-Gupta cartel can fleece the nation?

Does Mantashe seriously mean the ANC will do absolutely nothing, but wait while this so-called president does – who knows what next?

If so, Mantashe presents himself and the ANC as complicit in the betrayal of a nation, good-for- nothing more than intimidating its valiant members such as the former ANC MP Makhosi Khoza.

And with these latest allegations of direct interference by the Russians, is the best that the SG can offer in response to say he has read about it and will call a press conference?

Meanwhile, Zuma no longer hides his disdain for the ANC which has propped him up for most of his life and delivered him the presidency.

Yet his last cabinet reshuffle was done without consultation – or blessing from the ANC. Evidently, even those who viewed themselves as “close comrades” of Zuma were not told about the latest reshuffle.

What baffles me is why any of these deluded souls would even imagine that Zuma is capable of loyalty to anyone but himself. How many former “close comrades” like Blade Nzimande must be discarded by Zuma before people wake up?

The Sunday Times reported that Zuma’s latest cabinet reshuffle – after a visit by a high-level Russian delegation – was motivated by the Russians’ desire for “their” nuclear deal to go ahead. Seemingly they have been promised it by Zuma.

The magnitude of this treachery is beyond words. It is the betrayal of a whole nation by its president, staunchly supported by his party.

It does not get worse than this!

Meanwhile the FBI has begun to show interest in the crimes of the Zupta networks. So both the US and Russia have us in their sights, albeit for different reasons. Is this the beginning of another potentially ugly proxy fight between these two super powers right here, on our shores whilst the ANC stands by twiddling its thumbs?