President Jacob Zuma during Cosatu's May Day celebrations.
The Mail & Guardian reports this week that the ANC is standing by its man, despite widespread public calls for President Jacob Zuma to step down after two damning court judgments against him in less than two months.
We’ve seen this discrepancy before. Is this another case of the middle class failure to read the mood within the ANC branches when it comes to Zuma? In a developed country, the man from Nkandla would be history by now. But not in South Africa, where fewer than one million ANC members still dictate the future of close to 50-million people in the country. Although millions of South Africans continue to vote for the ANC because of its struggle history, only a few are afforded the opportunity to choose the country’s top leader.
But it’s not simply a class issue. The difference between the views of many of those in the public and Zuma’s backers largely comes down to one thing: the politics of the stomach. It is no secret that many in the ANC are dependent on Zuma’s political survival for their own, as well as, in some cases, continued access to state resources.
See Is Zuma Accused No 1 or merely Suspect No 1?
See Mantashe disses election backlash
That’s why Zuma remains at the helm of both the ANC and the government after so many scandals. Since he was elected ANC president in Polokwane in 2007 and the country’s president in 2009, Zuma has ensured he surrounds himself with people who are loyal to him. He deals harshly with anyone who crosses him — ask Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema, who was expelled from the ANC after he criticised Zuma; ask former Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, who was expelled from the labour federation for the same reason. The expulsions of Malema and Vavi neutralised both the ANC Youth League and Cosatu, which had previously been critical of Zuma.
The ANC’s national executive committee, the party’s decision-making body between conferences, is supposed to hold Zuma accountable. But many of its members are in Zuma’s Cabinet and are finding it difficult to differ with him openly, even when he’s clearly wrong. Zuma has also neutralised the South African Communist Party by putting key members of its central committee in his Cabinet. Although in private many senior ANC leaders, including those in the SACP and Cosatu, have expressed frustration with Zuma’s conduct, only a few have publicly criticised him.
It’s not just top alliance leaders, either. The ANC president has made sure the provincial and regional structures of the ANC are populated with people loyal to him. Hence, decisions taken at the top level are rubber-stamped when taken to lower structures. An example is the national working committee’s decision to accept his apology about Nkandla after the Constitutional Court judgment.
The fact is: the public can take umbrage at Zuma as much they like, but for as long as he has the ANC leadership beholden to him, our cries are ineffectual.