Tafelberg Short: The Zuma Moment: And the road to Mangaung

By Aubrey Matshiqi

The battle for Mangaung will be lost and won on different fronts, as was the case at Polokwane. Astute political observer Aubrey Matshiqi takes a sharp look at the various players, from the intelligence community to the courts, the alliance and the media, as he casts his searchlight on the 'deep state', moral bankruptcy and bad leadership. A sobering, razor-sharp analysis of the uncomfortable 'Zuma moment'.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tafelberg
• Release date: Nov 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9780624057079

Book preview

Chapter 01

The birth of the Zuma Moment

Dotted-Line

On 14 June 2005, South African politics entered a new phase: the Jacob Zuma Moment. It is on this fateful day that tensions and divisions within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) started peaking. It is on this day that former president, Thabo Mbeki, not only sealed his political fate but also set in motion political events that will leave an indelible mark on the South African political landscape for many years to come.

A few days before, on 2 June 2005, Judge Hilary Squires read a judgment which, contrary to what many expected, would catapult Jacob Zuma to the presidency of the ANC and South Africa. How did a man and struggle hero who was destined to descend into the depths of political ignominy become one of the most important political forces in South African political history?

On 2 June 2005 Schabir Shaik, former financial adviser to Jacob Zuma, was convicted on charges of fraud and corruption. This will probably be remembered less because Zuma was the co-accused than for the fifteen-year sentence Judge Squires handed down. Both the fact that Zuma was the co-accused in the court of public opinion, and that the then National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) and head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Bulelani Ngcuka, made an unfortunate prima facie statement, laid a poor political platform for the corruption case against Zuma. They also laid a solid foundation for the destruction of Thabo Mbeki and Zuma’s ascendance to the throne.

If Zuma is unseated as president of the ANC in the ANC conference in Mangaung at the end of 2012, he may one day want to curse both Ngcuka and Mbeki for his fall from grace. Back in December 2007, however, he probably wanted to kiss them for setting in train a series of events that led to his installation as president of the ANC at the 2007 Polokwane conference and of the country in May 2009. The question is whether the Christmas present of December 2007 will turn into a poisoned chalice in December 2012.

Back in August 2003, it seemed reasonable to surmise that Zuma had a case to answer. But Ngcuka in his capacity as the NDPP told the media that although he had a prima facie case against Zuma, he would not prosecute because he did not believe the NPA had a winnable case. Did Ngcuka make a political or prosecutorial decision? And, which of the allegations against him and the former president, in the public and private domains, could have led to what ANC secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, sometimes refers to as the ‘Polokwane rebellion’?

In trying to make sense of the issues raised by this question, four things are worth noting.

First, rumour and gossip play an important role in shaping the political conduct, choices and decisions of members of the ruling party. When it comes to the social and political function of rumour and gossip in a party like the ANC, there are times when the political impact of a perception is more influential than whether the perception is grounded in truth or not. As we shall see later, the supporters of Zuma and Mbeki understood this very well.

Second, Mac Maharaj and Mo Shaik, who operated in the underground military and intelligence structures of the ANC when Zuma was head of ANC intelligence, believed Ngcuka’s prima