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Udo W. Froese Africa The Other Side
SOUTH Africa’s public protector Thuli Madonsela, with the assistance of the corporate mainstream media is fixated to get president Jacob Zuma out of office.She seems to be gunning for him because he has no funds to pay R60million for Nkandla. He did commit himself and his family that they would pay back their share. If, for argument’s sake, Zuma had the funds to pay, he would also be condemned to be corrupt.
What is it that is played here?
The constitution should not be used as a smokescreen behind which everyone hides, keeping everything vague. The constitution is made up of all elements of governance. By now it should be clear, which section of this constitution government does not respect.
So, should only a rich person occupy the office of the president? This means that the poor indigenous majority has no access to that office. And the public protector is the gatekeeper, deciding who is fit for office. In other words, one must pay to get in. That has certainly little to do with democracy.
It is common knowledge that Zuma’s home is not income producing. Even an idiot knows the president’s salary. However, the arithmetic does not add up. What is the arithmetical effect of Thuli Madonsela’s order to a sitting president, whose source of funds is known, unless there is an implicit suggestion that he must sell his soul?
One cannot order a beggar to pay for instance one million rand, unless such person is a deceptive beggar. That order should apply to those who have the means. In other words, this situation could be reversed.
The only order applicable is that the investments not part of security should be uplifted and returned to government, or to Thuli Madonsela’s village, as they might need it. In other words, ‘take back your house, but leave my Nkandla with me’. Much government and private property has been destroyed. Much land has been devastatingly neglected, becoming barren and unproductive. How much investment has been vandalised?
The public protector’s entire report is pregnant with prescription. It is a transit to a destination they know already. In actual fact, it is a non-destination.
Yet, Thuli Madonsela and the corporate media want Jacob Zuma’s easy assistance to get him to that non-destination. He would, however, be an idiot to assist unelected people. Madonsela has balls. Let her show them now. Let her also show the hands in the shadow, which attempt to direct her course in order to oust the president. It seems that the president has the wrong zip code. Therefore, he is always on the “wrong side”. In fact, he was always to be confronted by the disease of fitting into a society that was never meant for a person like him, especially at the helm of a country.
The constitutional order requires supporting institutions. But, unequal people can never hope to get the protection equally from an order that is from the womb of inequality. Therefore, the need to make people accountable must be universally applicable.
The above implies that if the zeal of Zille should not start in 1994. It should have started with the construction and implementation of our unequal society. The truth with no reconciliation should be the new ideology.
It is not suggested that when the spy-tapes are listened to, that reconciliation is a choice. In fact, the truth has nothing to do with nation building. It is there to destroy somebody. Today, it is Jacob Zuma. Tomorrow, it is I — as long as they come from an unlikely place, like Nkandla. Yesterday, it was Verwoerd, Vorster, Botha and De Klerk and their international Western network of benefactors. In 1994, Zille, the journalist had no appetite to seek court orders, why those were not accountable that had decided to discriminate on a race basis which led to the massive loss of lives. Let us all come to the table and revisit the crime, if Jacob Zuma is investigated. All should go to court. Let us test the judges if they will judge to get someone out of office.
Udo W. Froese is a non-institutionalised, independent political and socio-economic analyst and columnist, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. His twitter handle: @theotherafrika. You can also follow him on his blog: theotherafrika.wordpress.com.
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