The calls for honest ANC leadership is growing, with former Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka joining the chorus. But South Africans have heard it all before, and it’s the actions that follow such events that will be of more interest. The media has done its bit, while National Treasury has also joined the party – with close eyes on SAA, Denel and Eskom. Close allies of the ANC are also starting to voice their concerns, in particular the SACP, but everyone knows the change has to come from within the party. Donwald Pressly asks if this all points to an end to ‘cookie jar’ politics? Here’s what he had to say… – Stuart Lowman
By Donwald Pressly*
One-by-one ANC, SACP and former national leaders are joining the line calling for the return of honest leadership in South Africa – and the elephant in the political sauna room is President Jacob Zuma.
The SA Communist Party, at the weekend, has called for a consultative conference – rather than an elective one – of the governing ANC to avoid “factionalism”. SACP secretary general Blade Nzimande says such a forum would provide the right atmosphere for a debate about the tripartite alliance’s future. But the ANC Youth League has called for an early elective conference with the clear intention of changing the national leadership as soon as possible.
There is little doubt that momentum is building in the ANC to provide an exit strategy for President Zuma. While there is nothing official at this stage, former Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka – the very woman who replaced Zuma as deputy president when he was fired by President Thabo Mbeki in 2005 – has called for the return of honest leadership. Former treasurer general Matthews Phosa says cookie jar politics in the movement needs to stop.
At the Cape Town Press Club last week former Western Cape ANC leader and ex-Premier of the province Ebrahim Rasool – who now teaches at Georgetown University in Washington DC – called for a return to core values in the ANC. He, in particular, was concerned that the ANC had stripped itself of its minority support from Indians, whites and coloureds and had become a black “African” party. Rasool was making a political point while the others who have spoken out about the apparently directionless ANC, were making economic points.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has spoken out, albeit obliquely, against Zuma – by backing the embattled finance minister. Of course, Zuma himself says he backs his finance minister but could not prevent the Hawks from carrying out an investigation (of a SARS so-called ‘rogue unit’ established while Gordhan was the head of the service). Zuma, of course, could just fire his finance minister – but he is caught in a political logjam which even he is not powerful enough to dislodge.
Shorting the Rand with prior knowledge of disruption
Deputy SACP secretary general Jeremy Cronin was reported on Politicsweb in May that the Guptas were part of a wider “(state capture) ecology, but arguably they constitute the most brazen and the most immediately threatening to our national sovereignty”. He went on: “We all remember what happened in early December, a cabinet shuffle and three finance ministers in quick succession. “This reportedly knocked R500 billion of the rand’s value… but was there more at play?” he asked, noting that just ahead of “this tumultuous” December week “somebody (presumably with foresight) … took a multi-billion Rand bet against the currency”. This procedure of purchasing dollars with borrowed Rands and then selling the dollars back into Rands when it crashed, may well have happened again in the last week when the Hawks announced that Gordhan had to knock on their door.
Cronin has very craftily got to the nub of state capture as it has become known under President Zuma’s reign. Cronin also pointed out that Zuma has tried to downplay the problem. He quoted Zuma as saying:
“If you talk about state capture, you’re misleading people. You’re taking a small issue and making it a big issue. Is the judiciary captured? Is the legislature captured?”
Over the weekend after the SACP central executive committee, Cronin was quoted as saying – on Cape Talk – that SACP members of cabinet and executive would “rather be fired” than defend looting. But he he was careful to argue that the SACP should not be part of the factional battle over removing Zuma. The party had made a mistake before getting involved in the issue when Zuma removed Mbeki:
“We have our own particular roles and we support the ANC collective… but if we must intervene robustly as a faction, we must (if we were to) intervene … as a faction, we would be undermining the nature of the alliance and also not doing ourselves a favour in the end.”
That probably means that the SACP actually now supports the removal – at least at some point – of Zuma, but it isn’t going to say it. It is significant because the SACP backed Zuma’s toppling of Mbeki in 2007. What the SACP is being outspoken about is the Guptas. Cronin said:
“We think they are likely to be selling it (their South African holdings) back to themselves via an investment vehicle they’ve set up overseas.”
Meanwhile, the logjam continues to bog down the ANC. A still pretty powerful Zuma still looks like he is able to call the political shots for a while longer – he has lots of friends in the ANC NEC – but the restlessness of the rank-and-file and the louder articulation of dissent is growing. It is still not clear, however, that we have reached a tipping point.
- Donwald Pressly, Cape Messenger editor. You can follow him @DonwaldPressly.
