ICYMI: It is very clear that the ANC and South Africa is in crisis, despite the hopes originally engendered by Cyril Ramaphosa’s displacing Jacob Zuma as leader of the ANC and the country. There cannot be a ‘new dawn’ until there is a proper reckoning ...
Raymond Suttner is an emeritus professor at the University of South Africa. He served lengthy periods in prison and house arrest for underground and public anti-apartheid activities.
The Zuma era is not adequately comprehended by phrases like “nine wasted years” nor by estimations of the billions or trillions that were pillaged by State Capture and lesser corruption at a range of levels, crucial as these are as obstacles to ensuring a better life for all, now and in the future. But before one can break from that which was enabled and assisted over these years, one needs to articulate all its characteristics and not selectively choose those that are convenient to repudiate.
This was done to enable a sense of victimhood not in the complainant/survivor of rape. In fact, one of the most shoddy judgments of our time dismissed “Khwezi’s” evidence. The judge also allowed testimony of her “sexual history”, much of which represented abuse, and Zuma was acquitted. Many of these people thrived during the Zuma period and without any “self-criticism” continue to hold high office in government and the organisations of the allies.
The trial was consequently played out within a wider context consisting of political intrigue, or perceived intrigue, and cultural divisions. These cultural divisions, it must be stressed, were depicted as Zulu against Xhosa, or emphasis on Zulu identity. In reality, the contestation was over what version of Zulu or other culture should be hegemonic .
The principle of non-violence and respect for peace has little salience in South Africa today, in this the 60anniversary year of Chief Albert Luthuli receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, hardly noticed by the organisation that he led. It is well known that Ramaphosa came to office with a slender majority in the ANC national conference of 2017 and that may have set limits on what he could do even if one were to accept that he wanted to break fundamentally with Zumaism. As indicated, I do not accept that “deZumafication” is possible where its character is not delineated. That was the critique that many people provided over “deStalinisation” in the former USSR when it was reduced to a “personality cult”.
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