It has become increasingly difficult to discern the layer cake of delusion under which the ANC operates, a fugue state made more discombobulating by Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe on Monday afternoon. During a Luthuli House press conference, he provided a highly sanitised summation of last (long) weekend’s National Executive Committee hoedown, which took place at the St George Hotel, Irene. He described it as sort of a collegiate group hug, in which – finally! – “the negative narrative around Jacob Zuma [was] closed”.
(Zuma himself euphemised that it was a “good discussion”. He probably slept, in another, happier dream within a dream, through the bad parts.)
But “the negative narrative” around Jacob Zuma is big business in this country, so the Secretary-General will perhaps forgive us if we continue to keep it going. After all, it was widely reported that a rebel faction, spearheaded by Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom, forced a “good discussion” regarding Zuma’s fitness to continue in his office as congress president. This was a very big deal: reports declared that as many as 34 members of the NEC were willing to fight for Team #ZumaMustFall, while the president’s 30 toughest henchslaves remained firmly behind him, and another eight were wandering this land on walkabout.
Without question, this NEC meeting was a vicious, all-out punch-up – nothing less than a fight to the death for the life of the president. (Indeed, sources claim that former national police commissioner Bheki Cele and former police minister Nathi Mthwetwa almost came to blows. Our money is firmly on Cele in this regard.) Zuma and his entire faction are battling to protect the lavish rewards that attend the loyalty they display to their benefactors — we’re thinking here of the Gupta Family — who must be taken care of in kind if the spigot of cash is to remain open.
On the other side of the ring, a technocratic cabal, who possess no clear vision for South Africa other than that it should vaguely resemble a cross between Germany, Norway and Narnia, also understood how high were the stakes: rile an old stick fighter like Zuma, and he would surely hit back with demotions, firings, and the airing of countless smolanyana skeletons.
And yet, according to Mantashe, Dreamer-in-Chief, it was nothing more than a “normal” ANC NEC meeting.
Believe it or not, there were several sentient South African humans who believed that this might represent the end of Zuma’s tenure. Well, they are now forced to chalk this one up to a win for Team #ZumaMustStay. But the wounds sustained by the president will fester. He cannot trust ANC Members of Parliament not to vote along with the opposition in an upcoming no confidence motion, called for by the Economic Freedom Fighters; nor can he place all of his trust in the likes of the new Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, to protect him from the work of the old Public Protector, whose State of Capture report screams around his head like an errant ICBM.
He can certainly purge from Cabinet those who have proved disloyal — indeed, this is demanded of any politician who has sustained and survived such a direct attack. But he knows (which is not to say that he cares) that the country cannot bear any more political instability. With regard to the ratings agencies, Mantashe said, “We are not working for the ratings agencies. They must rate us.”
And rate us they will. Last week in Parliament, Zuma – with either exceptional guile or monumental stupidity – pointed out that even France has recently sustained a downgrade. France, of course, has never suffered the humiliation (and genuine economic agony) of being downgraded to anywhere near junk status. To Zuma, details have never served any particular importance. This is the guy that, according to Mantashe, we’re stuck with until 2019.
Meanwhile, the ANC continues to craft dreams within dreams within dreams, seeding our collective consciousness with their flim-flam. And yet, here we are – wide awake and screaming our heads off. No one in the country believed a word Gwede Mantashe and his deputy, Jesse Duarte, said at their press conference. We knew it was nonsense. And they also knew that we knew. And they didn’t care.
As the real world comes tumbling down around Zuma and Co, and as the people they promised to serve brace themselves for much, much more very real economic pain, they’re snoring their way to Neverland, ensconced in the comfort of their motorcades, blue-lighting it all the way to another dream, within another dream. The rest of us stumble on our way to another nightmare, within another nightmare. Ireneception indeed. DM