[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Zuma's zigzags (or elite confusion)?

[Patrick Bond]

(For headlines, this is revealing: BD on Monday has an olive branch; and 
the IOL leads on Tuesday with 'Zuma's Attack on Mbeki')

10 December 2007
Zuma extends olive branch to Mbeki camp
Wilson Johwa and Karima Brown


AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) leadership hopeful Jacob Zuma yesterday 
attempted to cut a presidential figure and rise above the bitter 
politicking in the run-up to the party’s conference, offering an olive 
branch to his critics and promising his support to any eventual victor.

Amid calls from his political backers to not seek “revenge” in the event 
that he wins the ANC race against President Thabo Mbeki, Zuma told a 
South African Communist Party rally at Bekkersdal, on the West Rand, 
that the ANC must unite behind its new leadership.

“I have accepted nomination knowing that the result could be anything, 
and I am ready to accept any outcome. When we come back from Limpopo we 
will be united behind that leader. That is our duty, that is our task.”

Zuma’s comments come amid an intense fight-back campaign from Mbeki’s 
backers, led mainly by cabinet ministers, following Zuma’s early lead in 
the ANC’s provincial nominations. His remarks also set the scene for a 
meeting today of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), its last 
gathering before a new NEC is elected.

The succession race has rent the party down the middle as factions 
aligned to the two men slug it out. Whoever becomes the ANC’s next 
president will have the task of uniting a divided ruling party after the 
dust has settled.

While Zuma proffered an olive branch to his detractors, he did not miss 
an opportunity to launch a veiled attack on Mbeki, warning of an 
“accumulation of power at state house”.

“This is an example I have been giving to people. After independence, 
liberation movements in Africa cease to be known and people only know 
the name of the leader,” Zuma said.

He condemned alleged attempts to influence the outcome through patronage 
and cash. “Let us not make the ANC a mercenary organisation that buys 
people. It may help individuals but not the ANC,” he said.

Weekend news reports said a cabinet minister was among those who sought 
to use cash and other inducements to influence voting delegates.

Zuma also lambasted ANC leaders who questioned the nominations process 
in branches, saying that democracy in the ANC “cannot be subverted”. He 
came out against those who “use gender to achieve certain political 
agendas”. This follows the ANC Women’s League’s decision to nominate him 
for president instead of Mbeki, who has promoted women in the 
government. Zuma, who has been out of the country, yesterday broke his 
silence amid accusations from Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota that he 
had been less than candid about his troubles with the law.

Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary 
Zwelinzima Vavi, who flanked Zuma at the rally, endorsed Zuma’s 
conciliatory sentiments, saying “there will be no vengeance, we want a 
single ANC”. However, Vavi took on Zuma’s critics, saying state 
resources were being used against the ANC deputy president to prevent 
him from becoming the party’s new leader.

Zuma’s backers in the tripartite alliance accuse cabinet ministers of 
wanting to hold on to their jobs as their main reason for endorsing an 
Mbeki third term as ANC president.

“Look at the number of shares the chairman (Mosiuoa Lekota) of the ANC 
has. That’s why he is so angry. Look at their bank accounts. We are 
talking about the very rich and privileged. We are talking about 
legendary womanisers who want 50-50 (gender parity) in the hope that 
other things can happen. Women’s empowerment means empowerment of 
themselves,” Vavi said.

He likened attempts to buy votes to the strategy of the former National 
Party, which in its dying days tried to buy black support.

“They slaughtered cattle and we ate it but still voted ANC. Our message 
is take the money and buy bread for your children but vote with your 
conscience,” Vavi said.

He said Cosatu wanted to close the chapter of divisions in the alliance.

“We want change in the ANC. We are going to Limpopo to bury the politics 
of elites,” he said.

Vavi said Zuma’s leadership of the ANC would “usher in space for 
engagement”.

He outlined why Cosatu backed Zuma instead Mbeki.

“You (Zuma) will listen to us, you won’t write us a letter every Friday. 
What kind of leadership is that? You will not label us ultraleft, 
infantile or racist when we disagree with you,” Vavi said.


***

Could Mbeki be charged? And other questions
10 December 2007, 12:34
with Moshoeshoe Monare

'Polokwane will be bruising affair'
Ask an expert about Polokwane 2007
By Renee Moodie

If Jacob Zuma becomes president of the African National Congress, could 
President Thabo Mbeki be charged for his part in the arms deal?

That's one of the intriguing questions posed in an online chat forum 
about the Polokwane 2007 conference to be held later this week (December 
15 to 20).

The chat, between readers and Moshoeshoe Monare (the Independent News 
and Media Deputy Group Political Editor), was hosted by IOL.

The question, posed by a reader using the nickname modise, could only be 
answered by saying there is no indictment, and no one knows.

Other questions, though, were more easily dealt with. They included:

fatman asked: why is it that the most important race in ANC politics 
only has two "athletes" , i find it ironic that the biggest political 
organisation can only stage two candidates?
Moshoeshoe: I wrote in the Sunday Independent about the same thing, that 
members are to blame for narrowing their choices to two men whose 
personality clashes triggered division

IOL533: do you think we all (non- ANC Members) white and blacks 
(specifically black professionals) are to blame for our lack of interest 
in active politics ... we could have been active branch members and 
pushed for "better" candidates
Moshoeshoe: hi 533, again, this Sunday I used WB Yeats to say the best 
lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity. 
that's my opinion

IOL415: Do you think Zuma will plan a revenge to all those who he 
believe did him wrong? (including Mbeki)
Moshoeshoe: I don't think so. I spoke to him on several occasions, 
including private discussions, he is not the vindictive but remember the 
corruption and rape case hurt him badly. He believes, wrongly or 
rightly, that they want to finish him off. He may, my personal view, 
want to make changes but not revenge.

luntu: What do you think of Winnie's intervention, given the reported 
sour relationship between her and President Mbeki?
Moshoeshoe: luntu. My understanding is that Winnie and Mbeki had kissed 
and made up. I read her intervention as guaranteeing Mbeki a third term 
because she says they must be retained as they are.

Tebogo: Hi, why do think President Mbeki opted to run for presidency of 
the ANC instead of supporting the Woman for ANC presidency.
Moshoeshoe: Hi Tebogo, during our interview with him, my reading was 
that he wanted to preserve his legacy and the woman presidency backtrack 
I think was due to the fact he thinks none is strong enough to beat Zuma

Rez: Do you think that the SA presidency race will ever be more like the 
American presidency race? Where the citizens vote for a leader instead 
of taking the leader of the winning party?
Moshoeshoe: I prefer the US system but I don't think it will change.

Tinky: Mbeki is not a people person - JZ has the common touch. 
Unfortunately, it might turn out to be too common...
Moshoeshoe: Tinky I think humans are different in personality and we may 
need to adjust to different leaders. Manadela was different from Mbeki 
so is Zuma from Mandela

Vulcan: question: Will Shabir Shaik get exonerated pending Zuma's 
succeeding Mbeki?
Moshoeshoe: Vulcan, I don't think so because he was convicted by the 
court of law and lost appeals.

Mshoe: How is the Cosatu going to benefit if Msholozi win the Race?
Moshoeshoe: Gege I think the Zuma presidency will be pro left in talk 
and centrist in walk. Cosatu will be benefit by being close to the 
presidency.

***

The Mercury
Abuse of state power highlighted

Zuma's attack on Mbeki
December 11, 2007 Edition 2

Wendy Jasson da Costa

With five days to go to the ANC's national conference, Jacob Zuma went 
for the jugular, laying bare all the shortcomings of President Thabo 
Mbeki's administration.

In a thinly veiled attack on his rival for the ANC president's position, 
Zuma used an International Human Rights Day lecture at Wits University 
yesterday to highlight crime, education, poverty, abuse of women and 
children, and the one probably closest to his heart - abuse of state power.

In a hall filled to capacity, mainly by his supporters, the ANC deputy 
president said it was important for South Africans to uphold the 
constitution and ensure that state organs operated under the democratic 
principles enshrined in it.

"These principles must not be abused in any way by anyone," said Zuma.

His followers have always argued that organs of state have been abused 
to target him, specifically in relation to his on-off fraud and 
corruption charges.

Zuma said yesterday that there should never be a time when abuse of 
authority and state power was tolerated or excused.

"In the same vein, our citizens need to maintain careful watch to ensure 
the separation of powers, so that the executive can never exercise undue 
influence over the judiciary and parliament."

One of the many criticisms against Mbeki was that the executive held too 
much power, while members of the ANC, SA Communist Party and Cosatu had 
accused Mbeki of taking decisions without consulting them.

Zuma said the constitution and the universal declaration of human rights 
was essential because history showed that some humans had the 
"indeterminate and insatiable tendency to undermine and deprive the 
rights of others".

Taking a dig at Mbeki's policy of "quiet diplomacy" towards Zimbabwe, 
Zuma said it was tragic that there were world leaders who witnessed 
repression and pretended that it was not happening, or was exaggerated.

"When history eventually deals with the dictators, those who stood by 
and watched the deterioration of nations should bear the consequences," 
said Zuma. On poverty, he said there were "pockets of grinding poverty" 
that existed just metres away from "opulence", that went unnoticed by 
the rich.

Zuma's speech also dealt with the issues of crime and HIV/Aids. He said 
many lived in fear of violent crime and hid behind security barriers, 
but that fear was not the "natural state" of a free people.

Zuma also accused the country's laws of being "user friendly" towards 
criminals. "In a country where we don't have (the) death penalty, then 
the laws must bite."

To loud applause, Zuma said that if education was recognised as a basic 
human right, it should be free for all and not something that should be 
bought. He also said HIV should be treated as a national emergency.




rez: If Zuma should win - what do you think will his most positive 
contribution?
Moshoeshoe: Rez he has a way of making people to feel they are 
important. and that feeling has been lost in the ANC for a long time.