South African President Jacob Zuma loves to dance.
He has certainly led the country and the governing
ANC a merry dance, playing footloose and fancy free with the country’s hard-won
constitution.
Fired by Thabo Mbeki from his role as deputy president in
2007 when facing corruption charges, Zuma’s legal quickstep saw him elected ANC
President, the prosecution against him dropped on a flimsy technicality and
Mbeki ousted as president, all preparing the way for Zuma to take the floor
after the 2009 election.
Steps were quickly taken to ensure that the institutions of
state danced to Zuma’s tune – the Scorpions investigative unit (which brought
the corruption charges against him) was disbanded, Zuma allies were placed into
key roles such as the head of the National Prosecuting Authority (which
promptly dropped all charges against him), government contracts were awarded to
Zuma-linked companies, his private homestead at Nkandla was enriched using
taxpayers money and privileges were granted to his friends in the Gupta family,
who even used a South African Air Force base to land their private plane for a
wedding.
Through scandals of corruption, maladministration and even
sex, Zuma sidestepped the blame and waltzed cheerfully onwards as if nothing
had happened.
Only two state institutions refused to get into step with the
twinkle-toed president: The Treasury and the Public Protector. Both have been in a long dance-off with Zuma
which was due to reach its crescendo this week in two high-profile court cases.
When Zuma appointed Advocate Thuli Madonsela to the ombudsman
role of Public Protector seven years ago, she was largely unheard of and not
thought to present much of a risk to his plans.
Nothing could have turned out further from the truth. Madonsela ruthlessly investigated cases
against Zuma brought to her and was not afraid to stand up to the machinery of
government in issuing her findings.
In one of the most publicised cases, her Secure in Comfort report revealed the spending of millions of rand
on building a swimming pool, amphitheatre, chicken coup, cattle kraal and
visitors’ centre at his private home in Nkandla – all billed to the taxpayer as
‘security upgrades’. She ordered that
Zuma should pay back a fitting proportion of the money, and so began a legal
battle as dramatic and passionate as an Argentine Tango.
In a landmark judgement, the Constitutional Court ruled that
Madonsela’s findings were binding, and that the President and parliament had
violated the constitution by not carrying out her remedial actions.
As Madonsela’s term of office drew to a close in October, she
found herself in another legal battle with Jacob Zuma. On her final day in the job, she was due to
release her findings into allegations of ‘state capture’ brought about when
Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas and MP Vytjie Mentor revealed that they
had been offered cabinet promotions by members of the Gupta family.
Just hours before Madonsela was due to release the report,
Zuma launched a court bid to interdict the report, claiming he did not have
enough time to respond to her findings.
The case will be heard on November 1st, with Madonsela’s
(Zuma-appointed) successor Busisiwe Mkwebane already saying she will not oppose
his bid to block the report. Minister
Des van Rooyen also made a bid to block it, withdrew it and reinstated it again
today. His favoured dance is clearly the
hokey-cokey – in, out, in out…
The following day, November 2nd, the Pretoria
Regional Court was due to hear charges of fraud brought against Finance
Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Gordhan was not Zuma’s choice for Finance Minister and is
somewhat of a thorn in the side. There
have long been tensions between the treasury and the presidency, as the former
tried to keep check on the excesses of the latter. This led to Zuma spontaneously firing
respected Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene in December last year, to replace him
with a more pliable dance partner in the form of Des van Rooyen.
The ANC leadership, however, smelt a rat as the value of the
rand plunged, and forced Zuma into replacing van Rooyen just three days later
with safe pair of hands Pravin Gordhan.
Since then, Zuma has had every organ of state looking for a way to
remove Gordhan from his position.
The best they came up with is an allegation that Gordhan
committed fraud during his time at the South African Revenue Service by
authorising the early retirement of a commissioner. The charges against Gordhan were clearly
politically motivated, and were withdrawn at the last moment by National
Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams who clearly finds the heat of
the dancefloor too much.
This week sees a political Paso Doble played out in the
courts. The rulings will determine
whether or not South Africa’s constitutional democracy and rule of law stand
firm.
Could this be Zuma’s last waltz? Or will he be allowed to continue his jolly
jig all the way to the bank?
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