What more will it take to spark the ANC top structure into the now inevitable move of dumping their deeply compromised leader Jacob Zuma? The old school strategy of first gathering information and then consulting widely is proving painful. And the longer the process, the greater the reputational damage.
Yesterday on Biznews we published an astonishingly blunt letter from the Catholic church, which joined other religious bodies calling for Zuma’s resignation. It didn’t spare the ruling party, accusing a fat ANC of “feeding on its own people like ticks on a cow…feeding on its own propaganda, it thinks that it is invulnerable, even at times godlike.”
On Wednesday, a heavyweight group of ANC-supporting elders joined the chorus, issuing a Zuma-must-resign call from outside the Constitutional Court. Former Cosatu head Zwelinzima Vavi showed a wonderful turn of phrase: “I’ve likened this crisis to a ship in the deepest ocean, in the darkest hour, clouds and storms all over. And unfortunately the captains of the ship have lost their compass and are all blindfolded.”
Not just blindfolded. As we saw in Parliament during the Zuma impeachment debate, cabinet members are literally sleeping on the job.