[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Stratfor hosts JZ

[Patrick Bond]

www.bday.co.za

10 December 2007
Zuma’s choice of hosts raises eyebrows
Wilson Johwa


Political Correspondent

QUESTIONS about the soundness of African National Congress (ANC) deputy 
president Jacob Zuma’s political judgment have arisen over a trip last 
week to the US, where he was hosted by a US-based private intelligence 
agency.

Strategic Forecasting Incorporated (Stratfor) arranged Zuma’s visit to 
the US, which formed part of an international tour that ended at the 
weekend.

Founded in 1996, the company is said to be highly influential. Through 
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), one of its major clients, it 
helped the Bush administration make a decision to invade Iraq in 2003.


Commentators expressed concern that in his bid to win friends and 
influence, Zuma may have allowed himself to be wooed by questionable 
characters — first in SA and now abroad.


As potentially the country’s next president “it makes a big difference 
on whose visit he’s on ”, said University of Johannesburg political 
analyst Adam Habib.


Zuma is ahead in the ANC’s succession race, the outcome of which will be 
determined at the ruling party’s national conference in Polokwane in a 
week’s time.


Habib said Zuma had to explain the US visit, which placed him “on the 
platform of an institution that may violate the very principles of the 
ANC” .



Zuma also went to India and the UK, where he was hosted by controversial 
millionaire businessman Paul Ekon .


Ekon, who has long maintained an association with the ANC — even 
claiming to have paid for President Thabo Mbeki’s 50th birthday party in 
1992 — was linked to allegations of gold smuggling before he left SA in 
the nineties.



Political analyst Chris Landsberg said blots on Zuma’s character would 
not be enough to prevent his election at Polokwane. But when the 
euphoria died down, “the question of political judgment” would be among 
the first issues South Africans raised.


“My concern is whether his political decisions will be thought through 
or whether he will change as the mood changes,” said Landsberg. Zuma’s 
backers in the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South 
African Communist Party expected a policy shift, while the ANC number 
two is assuring international investors of policy continuity.

“You can’t go both ways,” said Landsberg.


Steven Friedman of the Idasa think-tank said Zuma’s associations were a 
valid area of concern.

“I suppose the question he really has to answer is whether he is drawing 
an appropriate line on who he associates with and who he doesn’t. As a 
responsible leader you have to ask that question.”


It was Zuma’s friendship with convicted fraud Schabir Shaik that almost 
cost him his political career. He also failed to exercise restraint when 
he had unprotected sex with the daughter of a former comrade, in another 
case that damaged his moral standing.


Zuma is indebted to a long line of Durban business people who helped set 
up the Friends of Jacob Zuma trust fund, to raise money for his legal 
battles.


Others, such as Vivian Reddy and Don Mkhwanazi, helped finance his 
Nkandla homestead. Controversial ANC members such as former ANC chief 
whip Tony Yengeni feature prominently on Zuma’s list for the national 
executive committee.