The Great Turmoil

The Great Turmoil

Judge Nicholson ruled last week that the charge of the ANC President Jacob Zuma was irregular in that there were obvious signs of political interference. So far so good; it was clear that the National Prosecution Authority still had the option of bringing charges against Zuma, but not in the way it was done earlier.

Zuma supporters took this as meaning that their president now was beyond reproof and soon enough it was felt that the sitting President of the country, Thabo Mbeki, was the one who had interfered in the legal prosecution of Zuma. At the National Executive Committee of the ANC it was decided late last Saturday night to recall president Mbeki from his office.

Mbeki has handed in his resignation. Zuma then pleaded with the government ministers to stay on, seeing that the interim president to be sworn in would be there for a short while only, until elections next year. However it became clear yesterday that more than 16 ministers have resigned from their posts together with President Mbeki. Tomorrow, Thursday 25 September, P.K. Motlanthe will be elected as the new interim president of the country by the parliament in Cape Town.

What is this all about? Why this great turmoil? The truth is that there are too many uncertainties and meetings within the ANC generally take a long time with the result that information about decisions come out as too little too late. For example it is said that the decision late last Saturday to recall President Mbeki was sent to the press as an SMS message. The abnormal thing since last December is that the real leadership of the country has been within the party leadership of the ANC and not in the government and to this day this leadership has remained largely unknown, only once in a while popping up in a TV interview. This state of affairs is bound to change.

Expressed on a hopeful note, it is all about democracy. In fact the ruling party of the country is sorting out internal problems with democratic means or at least that is what we wish to believe. Therefore, the dominating question in my mind is this: are these new leaders, elected by the party democratically at Polokwane in December last year, democrats? Is Jacob Zuma a democrat in heart and soul? We will see. This larger question invites further, more detailed questions: Will they respect the judiciary? Once the new president and government are sworn in will the party ANC respect the fact that this president and government are to lead the country and not a political party?

At the end of the day, will the leadership resign willingly when their term is over (cf Mbeki who tried to get support for a third term thereby initiating a change of the constitution)? Finally will the new leadership respect the constitution?

Jacob Zuma is still something of an enigma to the country. We ask ourselves: is he guilty of wrongdoing in the arms deal? Who else are? Is Thabo Mbeki also implicated? Soon enough some kind of truth will come out and it will also for a president be very difficult in the long run to be living a lie.