Editorial: When BS is no longer BS

Adriaan Basson, in his book Zuma Exposed, first used the word “bullshit” to describe the president’s and others’ obfuscatory or evasive utterances when it comes to the malfeasance of which they are accused. Our columnist Eusebius McKaiser uses the same word to describe the technique, used by both President Jacob Zuma and new United States President Donald Trump, of using as much confusion as possible to keep a cloud of dust, as it were, around them. Being honest would be counterproductive.

Zuma’s latest piece of poppycock, however, seems incapable of achieving the status of fully fledged bullshit. When he told the recent ANC lekgotla that the national treasury was blocking economic transformation, he was employing ideological terms that the ruling party has long used to camouflage the self-enrichment of the predatory elite. It’s not so much a matter of the old opposition, pointed out by so many critics of the ANC in government, between “talk left and walk right” as it is a matter of “talk left and grab as much as you can”.

We now know that, in Zuma’s mouth, “economic transformation” means self-enrichment and patronage for his supporters, so for him to say this of the treasury is an acknowledgement that it is standing in his way. We know when Zuma speaks of black empowerment, he means cronies such as the Guptas.

In his term so far as president, Zuma has done precisely zero for the majority of the people of South Africa – the ones in whose interests the governing party is supposed to be acting. There is not one piece of legislation introduced during the Zuma presidency that actually benefits the populace at large. By any measure of public benefits, they have declined under Zuma. Yet the ANC and Zuma continue to speak the language of liberation and upliftment, especially for the “poorest of the poor”, gradually draining it of all meaning.

So, you see, it’s not really bullshit. We can see the truth within it.