south africa

planet grootes
zuma was emphatic,
“malema is not in
charge, the anc is in
charge, the government
is in charge…we have
controlled malema all
the time and when we
thought he was getting
out of control we took
action”. it certainly
makes zuma look like
the macdaddy of our
politics that he could still
turn out to be.
As anyone who watched the Judicial Service
Commission hearing of Chief Justice Mogoeng
Mogoeng will know, your choice of chairman
matters. It’s about pushing and protecting. A
question about say, nationalisation, can turn
into your average “it’s not government policy”
sound bite, or into a real Malema-fest. In this
case it was Talk Radio 702’s Bruce Whitfield
who did most of the pushing (Stephen, seriously,
don’t you like, you know, work with him.
Haven’t you known him for years? Stop it! – Ed).
The SABC’s Peter Ndoro was with him, but
Whitfield lived up to his promise, that if Ndoro
played good cop, he’d be “the other guy”.
But Zuma is pretty good when his back
president zuma
is against the wall. Take the question about
whether he’s indecisive when acting against
corruption. Actually, “I have signed more
proclamations” to start investigations “than
anyone else, than at any other time”. It’s a good
point. You can sense the Mac Maharaj language
in the air. And it has the happy power of being
true. And, to be fair, Zuma has actually done
something on this issue, when often we haven’t
expected him to.
Then there’s Julius Malema. We all know that
the two can’t stand each other, that everyone
thinks Malema is really more powerful and,
of course, Zuma is, perhaps, using the ANC’s
disciplinary machinery to put a stop to all that.
Zuma was emphatic, “Malema is not in charge,
the ANC is in charge, the government is in
charge…we have controlled Malema all the time
and when we thought he was getting out of
control we took action”. It certainly makes Zuma
look like the MacDaddy of our politics that he
could still turn out to be. And there’s a cunning
twist to the usual answer on nationalisation.
Instead of just the “we’re still discussing it,
it’s not policy” line, there’s now the “we’re a
democracy, in a democracy we debate issues, and
if we close down this debate people will accuse
us of being an autocracy”. Nice one, Mac.
My perennial question, about the policy lock
in the ANC was put to the President as “why
does it take so long to formulate policy in South
Africa”. The answer was a paraphrase of – of all
people – Winston Churchill. “Democracy,” says
Zuma, “is time consuming, it is expensive. But
it is still the best system”. Indeed it is. But the
analysis paralysis in the ANC is not necessarily
the best thing for all of us. Anyway, that’s a
debate we’ll have again another day.
tuesDAY - 4 october 2011