A week in politics can feel like an eternity. Something democracy-loving South Africans discovered over the past seven days. The mood has swung from despair to elation before coming back to earth with a bump once more at yesterday’s ANC Press Conference where President Jacob Zuma’s well documented blunder was publicly proclaimed as “bold and courageous”.
The urgings by ANC stalwarts like Ben Turok, Barbara Hogan and Adam Habib that Zuma be recalled has fallen on deaf ears. For the moment anyway. The country faces another important moment today as citizens gather to express their displeasure with their unpopular President, primarily in Pretoria, Cape Town and Johannesburg. Zuma currently ranks even lower than Eskom in public opinion polls.. That’s like a Liverpool supporter liking something even less than he does Everton.
And still his cronies in the ANC close ranks behind the man from Nkandla. Loyalty is an admirable quality. But not when it is taken beyond rational limits.
