Lest we forget — Zuma and his little helpers took South Africa on the path of destruction

On the rainy night of 18 December 2007, in a tent on the muddy field of the University of the North in Mankweng, Polokwane, Jacob Zuma was elected leader of the ANC with 60% of the vote. The images of that night capture him striding on to the stage and being joined by his opponent and President at the time, Thabo Mbeki, and the awkward hug between them. 

What lives on in fallible human memory is the noise. The sheer sound avalanche as 2,500 members of the party celebrated “their victory”.

I remember the moment, Nokia clasped to my right ear, trying to file a radio piece, being confronted by a woman with a drum, and the utter delight, the almost delirium on her face, radiant with ecstasy.

Many millions celebrated around South Africa that night.

Less than a year later, when Zuma, now the ANC leader, appeared in the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court in Pietermaritzburg, about half of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) were in the court to show their support.

Blade Nzimande, Kgalema Motlanthe, Gwede Mantashe, Zwelinzima Vavi (who coined the expression “Zunami” before Polokwane), Angie Motshekga and many others were present.

Outside the court, an immense crowd had gathered. Perhaps 5,000 people had spent the night there to show their support for Zuma. 

This was just a measure of the power the man had and how he was able to use the power of the ANC to further his agenda. 

No one else in recent times had held the position of ANC leader, deputy leader, chair and deputy secretary-general. No one else had the political ability to manage the situation so effectively.

And yet, Zuma damaged the ANC. Perhaps tragically, perhaps fatally, but certainly fundamentally.

Along with that, he damaged the entire country.

After he became leader of the ANC in 2007, he was able to use his political power to force the acting head of the NPA, Mokotedi Mpshe, to withdraw the corruption charges against him just in time for the 2009 elections, clearing the road for Zuma to become President in May that year.

Rape trial, Nkandla scandal and Guptas

The short, quiet period ended soon after it became public that he had fathered a child with Sonono Khoza in 2010, forcing the ANC to come to his defence once again. (Sonono was the daughter of Zuma’s friend Irwin Khoza.) This followed the awful mess of his rape trial.

He forced the entire nation to live through the Nkandla scandal, expecting the ANC in Parliament to always support him, even through the nonsense about a “fire pool”. The party obliged.

Through much of this time, he was not governing for the good of the ANC or the country.

He was governing for the good of himself and the Gupta family.

It was they who benefitted. To the tune of nearly R50-billion (that’s BILLION — Ed).

Along the way, Zuma went against his party in his Cabinet appointments.

He appointed Mosebenzi Zwane as mineral resources minister so he could get on a plane with the Guptas to help them in their negotiations with Glencore.

He removed Nhanhla Nene as finance minister and appointed Des van Rooyen, bringing SA’s financial system into serious trouble.

And, on April Fools’ Day 2017, he made wholesale and reckless changes to his Cabinet.

For so much of this time, many people in Cosatu, the SACP and the ANC itself did nothing.

Even when Fikile Mbalula, back in 2012, told the NEC the Guptas knew about Cabinet appointments before anyone else, no one did anything.

Anyone who dared to criticise Zuma, for his relationships with the Guptas, for his intergenerational sex, for his obvious misdeeds, was insulted, ignored or attacked.

It was only when the ANC itself was threatened, when Hlaudi Motsoeneng started to promise miracles, when society was forced to rise up, that his hold on the ANC started to break.

On 18 December 2017, 10 years to the day since he was elected at Polokwane, Zuma spoke for the last time as ANC leader.

When he sang about a machine gun, a weapon of death, the noise in the hall at Nasrec had the force of a hail of bullets — it was overwhelming, immense, incredible.

It was obvious, even then, that it would be the final time the ANC sang like that, moved like that and for many, felt like that.

It was always going to be different afterwards.

Just a few hours later, Nickolaus Bauer’s famous video captured Zuma’s face when Ramaphosa’s victory was announced.

But Zuma was not done with damaging his party.

No remorse

It was obvious he would have to relinquish the presidency. After Zuma dug in his heels, Parliament had to postpone the State of the Nation Address to allow the NEC to vote to remove him.

Even then, his departure speech, on Valentine’s Day 2018, was an angry, bitter and resentful affair. 

There was no glimmer of remorse or humility. Donald Trump-like, he only knew about the pain and humiliation HE felt.

Those in the ANC who hoped that, finally, Zuma would stop damaging their party have again been proved wrong.

After his supporters played a major role in the July 2021 riots that almost wrecked the country, he was still undeterred.

Now, he is leaving the party, again with no remorse and no humility, but insisting that he be allowed to remain, while openly campaigning for another party.

Zuma leaves behind an ANC changed forever, tragically, by his time in it.

It was all so avoidable.

In 2005, Zuma was found to have received a bribe from Schabir Shaik. As the Constitutional Court later put it, “The State had established, as a matter of fact, that both benefits flowed to Mr Shaik and the Nkobi companies as a result of Mr Zuma’s support for Mr Shaik and his companies…”

It was obvious then that Zuma was morally compromised.

This became even more obvious a year later, during his rape trial, in which he was acquitted of raping the daughter of a friend who had died. Zuma claimed that the sex had been consensual and that, knowing the complainant, Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, was HIV positive, he had a shower afterwards as a precautionary measure.  

Those who wouldn’t listen then are suffering the consequences of trying to steer a political party that has become irreparably damaged.

Even now, the party’s leaders have not learnt the lessons that Zuma offered.

In 2022, the ANC ordered its MPs to blindly halt the Phala Phala investigation in its tracks. Just this week, the party’s spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said they would not respond to the News24 reporting about Deputy President Paul Mashatile and that anyone with evidence against him must go to the police.

Zuma may now, finally, be leaving the ANC.

But part of him will forever live on within it — and keep causing damage to the party he said he loved forever and the country he swore to protect. DM