Who will shut up machine-gun lips Zuma?
Mar. 9th, 2008 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mahnmutANC President Jacob Zuma, in the fine tradition of populism, has been saying different things to different people.
He has horse-whispered business into believing that he will maintain a conservative economic policy stance.
And he has persuaded the left-wing mavens who carried him to power in Polokwane that he will shift policy in the direction of far greater social welfare and the protection of labour.
Zuma has denied that there is any rift between himself and President Thabo Mbeki.
But he has also caricatured Mbeki as a lame duck who must take his direction from ANC headquarters at Luthuli House.
And, in court papers in Mauritius, where he is trying to stop damaging information from getting into a South African courtroom, he has out-and-out labelled Mbeki as a conniving, knife-wielding conspirator out to nail him.
Zuma faces two conundrums.
The first relates to policy: He needed the angry left to carry him to power, but now he needs key players in the economy at home and abroad to accept that he will not upset the policy applecart.
The second relates to the looming charges of corruption and fraud that he faces in court. He would like to appear Presidential, respecting the judicial process and confident that his name will be cleared.
But he is also in the fight of his political life. If a court finds him guilty, he will lose all but his most hard-line supporters and is unlikely to take power.
So he must do what he must do to weaken and undermine the case against him, even if this means “going partisan” and publicly attacking Mbeki.
Zuma’s communications people at Luthuli house are adamant that there is no effort to shut him up. If this is true, they should resign and hand this job over to people of stronger metal. Surely the ANC can see that Zuma’s weird utterances are dragging the country’s image down with him.
(By the way, a recent poll on a political blog in SA showed that 41% of the readers would prefer Cyril Ramaphosa to be the next president; followed by Tokyo Sexwale with 23%. Jacob Zuma comes a distant third with just 21%).
He has horse-whispered business into believing that he will maintain a conservative economic policy stance.
And he has persuaded the left-wing mavens who carried him to power in Polokwane that he will shift policy in the direction of far greater social welfare and the protection of labour.
Zuma has denied that there is any rift between himself and President Thabo Mbeki.
But he has also caricatured Mbeki as a lame duck who must take his direction from ANC headquarters at Luthuli House.
And, in court papers in Mauritius, where he is trying to stop damaging information from getting into a South African courtroom, he has out-and-out labelled Mbeki as a conniving, knife-wielding conspirator out to nail him.
Zuma faces two conundrums.
The first relates to policy: He needed the angry left to carry him to power, but now he needs key players in the economy at home and abroad to accept that he will not upset the policy applecart.
The second relates to the looming charges of corruption and fraud that he faces in court. He would like to appear Presidential, respecting the judicial process and confident that his name will be cleared.
But he is also in the fight of his political life. If a court finds him guilty, he will lose all but his most hard-line supporters and is unlikely to take power.
So he must do what he must do to weaken and undermine the case against him, even if this means “going partisan” and publicly attacking Mbeki.
Zuma’s communications people at Luthuli house are adamant that there is no effort to shut him up. If this is true, they should resign and hand this job over to people of stronger metal. Surely the ANC can see that Zuma’s weird utterances are dragging the country’s image down with him.
(By the way, a recent poll on a political blog in SA showed that 41% of the readers would prefer Cyril Ramaphosa to be the next president; followed by Tokyo Sexwale with 23%. Jacob Zuma comes a distant third with just 21%).
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A good read:
Date: 2008-03-10 10:54 am (UTC)