Former president Jacob Zuma. (MARCO LONGARI/AFP via Getty Images)
On 14 June 2005, the then president, Thabo Mbeki, stood in front of parliament facing the glares of some of his most powerful detractors and announced that it would be best to relieve his deputy, Jacob Zuma, of his responsibilities. Mbeki fired Zuma after he was charged with corruption, fraud, racketeering and money laundering relating to the 1999 arms deal.
In his historic speech to more than 400 MPs, Mbeki, much like President Cyril Ramaphosa, made reference to the constitution, stating that it “enjoins the president in particular to uphold, defend and respect the constitution as the supreme law of the Republic and promote the unity of the nation and that which will advance the Republic”. Words that have become familiar, reiterated time and time again by the ANC national executive committee (NEC) led by Ramaphosa.
This moment in parliament in 2005 was a defining point in Zuma’s political career. He would later be propelled to the highest office on the back of his fierce and loyal allies in the ANC and its tripartite alliance.
Zuma did not come from obscurity. If anything, he was a force his home province of KwaZulu-Natal and in the ANC — bar for inquiries into abuses in the movements camps in Angola and Tanzania while he was head of the intelligence department.
If not for the “nine wasted years”, the capture of the state as a result of his inability to keep up with his lifestyle, Zuma would not have had to rely on the stoutness of his allies.
But the chips fall where they may. Zuma became the fourth democratically elected president in 2009. With him stood some of the ANC’s finest and greatest. These men and women paved the way for the Zuma presidency. It would not be unfair to say that these men and women led us to the path South Africa now finds itself on, a moment of looting, vandalism and destruction affecting the economy.
Where are they now?
In his 2005 criminal case in the Pietermaritzburg high court over the arms deal — and even during his rape trial — Zuma was flanked by a powerful clique in the ANC’s elite. These men and women, who came to be allies under the guise of “an enemy of my enemy is my friend”, hurled insults at Mbeki and even dared to threaten to kill in the name of Zuma.
Together, Zuma’s allies brought the weight of the ANC to the streets of Pietermaritzburg. In a show of strength. These images signalled a shift in the Mbeki presidency, which would lead to his humiliating recall in 2008.
Fast forward to 17 May 2021, Zuma has been found guilty of contempt of court. His defiance of the rule of law has led to the Constitutional Court sentencing him to 15 months. He had refused to give testimony to the inquiry into state capture, citing a conflict with the commission’s chairperson, Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. He has just hours to hand himself over to the police, failing which the police will arrest him.
His supporters in ANC regalia have been camping outside Nkandla, his home in KwaZulu-Natal to which a scandal is also attached. It’s a Sunday afternoon and he appears to greet them. The transformation in his ANC allies is palpable.
(John McCann/M&G)
Blade Nzimande
The South African Communist Party (SACP) leader is one of those who some say was a Zuma ally but who became his fiercest foe.
In 2005, Nzimande and his SACP despised the idea of Mbeki being president. The SACP had been sidelined by the Mbeki presidency. Decisions were made at the Union Buildings that the SACP regarded as palace politics. Speaking to the Mail & Guardian in 2009, Nzimande said: “There is an almost complete national consensus that Mbeki’s aloof and intolerant personality was a disaster … Thankfully we are now once more in a situation in which national dialogue and debate are possible.”
Zuma became the perfect opportunity for Nzimande to regain his dwindling influence in the ANC. With Zuma by his side, Nzimande —at least for the better part of Zuma’s first term in office — became a powerful figure “behind the man”. He is also said to have had an influence in the expulsion of Julius Malema, then the leader of the ANC Youth League.
The tables shifted. Nzimande lost favour with Zuma. The political bridge was burning and, in 2017, Zuma unceremoniously fired him as minister of higher education.
Nzimande’s firing would tilt the scales between the two men. The SACP threatened a mass resignation of its members from the cabinet. Shortly afterwards, it launched a campaign calling for Zuma’s removal.
Nzimande, who had criticised Mbeki, now calls him “one of the greatest intellectuals produced by our continent”.
Nzimande was nowhere in sight when Zuma was greeting his supporters at his Nkandla home on that historic Sunday afternoon before he finally handed himself over to the police three days later.
Gwede Mantashe
Often accused of “playing the game well”, Mantashe has managed to align himself with any incumbent likely to give him the best outcome in ANC conferences.
When Zuma was thrust into the media attention for his legal woes, Mantashe was well on his way to becoming the ANC’s secretary general. Then the chairperson of the SACP, Mantashe harboured some of Nzimande’s resentment towards the “aloof” Mbeki.
He became the secretary general on Zuma’s slate, defeating Mosiuoa Lekota, who, after Mbeki’s recall, formed a breakaway political party, the Congress of the People.
Mantashe was one figure whose rise to the ANC’s top leadership was cemented by Zuma’s presidency. He, like his SACP friends, stood hand in hand with Zuma in 2005.
As the ANC’s secretary general, Mantashe became Zuma’s de facto defender in the party. It was he who flew to parliament to warn its members that there would be consequences should they voted with the opposition in the many motions of no confidence in or against Zuma.
It was Mantashe who stood in front of a room full of international and local media in the late hours of a Friday in 2016. Just hours before, Zuma had apologised for failure to comply with public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report — an action the Constitutional Court found was inconsistent with the constitution.
It was Mantashe who had to defend Zuma when he fired the finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, in a midnight cabinet reshuffle, putting in his place the then unknown Des van Rooyen. This decision sent the rand spiralling.
Not much has changed, at least for publicity’s sake. In a recent Newzroom Afrika interview, Mantashe called this month’s sentencing of 79-year-old Zuma “harsh”.
But, politically, Zuma’s relationship with Mantashe had fallen apart. In his diagnostic report in the ANC’s 2017 policy conference, Mantashe faulted Zuma’s presidency as having led the governing party towards a decline in its voter support. Mantashe, now an ally of Ramaphosa, said there was a temptation in the governing party to regard the Gupta family’s influence over decisions of the state as an invasion of privacy and as tampering with personal relations.
Mantashe was not beside Zuma in Nkandla.
Baleka Mbete
If ever there was someone who protected Zuma — much like a military unit in the front lines,when it came to parliament — Mbete was that person.
During Zuma’s presidency, Mbete, the chairperson of the ANC and the speaker in parliament until 2019, was undoubtedly Zuma’s enabler. With the hope of becoming his chosen one to take over as the ANC’s first female president, Mbete protected Zuma, scandal after scandal.
In 2017, the Constitutional Court found that the legislature had failed to hold Zuma accountable regarding the Nkandla scandal. Mbete had been Zuma’s shield against the opposition, most notably, the Economic Freedom Fighters. She was the architect of the EFF’s forced removal by parliament’s security guards in defence of Zuma.
Although her role in the party has diminished since her failed attempt to become the ANC president, it’s safe to say that this ally has abandoned Zuma.
Julius Malema
Malema’s relationship with Zuma rivals all others. The former ANC Youth League leader led the campaign in the then influential body to alienate Mbeki on behalf of Zuma.
He was Zuma’s most ardent loyalist, famously known to have pledged to “die for Zuma”.
His future was carved in stone. With Zuma beside him, Malema was destined to one day become part of the ANC’s top six leaders, if not the president.
But this changed; the romance ended bitterly. Malema was expelled by the party’s disciplinary committee for sowing divisions and placing the party in disrepute. Ramaphosa was in charge of the committee that threw down the gauntlet. Zuma sat unmoved by his former ally’s dismissal.
Malema then formed the EFF, which made its mission the dethroning of Zuma. Malema, who once pledged to kill for Zuma was now calling him a constitutional delinquent.
But he shocked his supporters and his allies in the EFF when he recently visited his former hero in an attempt to convince him to attend the commission on state capture. The now bitter rivals were pictured having tea, with many in the ANC regarding Malema’s visit to Nkandla as opportunistic. His attempt to convince Zuma failed and the EFF leader has since remained relatively quiet about Zuma’s incarceration.
Lindiwe Sisulu
Sisulu has ambitions to become the ANC’s first female president. She has remained loyal to Zuma but some ANC insiders say that it is only because it is to her benefit. The offspring of ANC political royalty, Sisulu has failed to convince the women’s and youth leagues, and much of the ANC’s elite, that she is the right person for the top job.
Her alliance with the ANC’s suspended secretary general, Ace Magashule, is viewed as convenient. Sisulu has also been considered as a candidate for the radical economic faction in the ANC for next year’s party elective conference.
It was no surprise to see Sisulu embracing members of the disbanded uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA), who had been camping at Zuma’s Nkandla home in a vainglorious bid to try to prevent his arrest.
Sisulu needs all the help she can get to make it through the pearly gates of the Union Building.
Zwelinzima Vavi
Vavi led the charge in the labour union federation Cosatu against Mbeki. Cosatu and the SACP had long felt the frost of Mbeki’s policies.
In 1996, propelled by Mbeki and his like-minded comrades, the ANC ditched its Reconstruction and Development Programme policy for the Growth Employment and Redistribution; Gear would annoy what Mbeki termed the “leftist” alliance partners. Vavi and Nzimande favoured economic policies that pushed for redistribution and focused less on attracting foreign investment. It was this policy that catapulted a robust opposition against Mbeki in favour of Zuma.
But Vavi’s marriage to Zuma was short-lived. He was expelled from Cosatu after triggering a revolt by his insistence that the ANC deal head-on with corruption in its ranks.
Vavi later stated that he regretted standing behind Zuma.
Tony Yengeni
If ever there was a president’s man, Yengeni would take first prize. He stood beside Zuma as a co-accused in the arms deal. He is the only politician who went to prison, although only for four months of his four-year sentence.
Yengeni has been unrelenting in his defence of Zuma. He was one of only two NEC members who stood beside Zuma at Nkandla on that fateful Sunday afternoon.
Kebby Maphatsoe
The MKMVA and the women’s league are the two ANC structures that have defended Zuma over the years — to their own detriment .
Maphatsoe mobilised his MKMVA members in defence of Zuma during his trial in the high court in Pietermaritzburg. His members, under the stewardship of one Carl Niehaus with Maphastoe’s blessing, promised to defend Zuma and prevent his arrest.
The MKMVA’s rebellion against Ramaphosa, coupled with the association’s unwavering support of Zuma, has led to its official disbandment by the party.
Although Maphatsoe was not in attendance at Nkandla as the clock was ticking closer to Zuma’s incarceration, he is a loyal soldier of the so-called radical economic transformation faction in the ANC.
In several interviews Maphastoe has warned that a civil war would erupt should Zuma be imprisoned.
Bathabile Dlamini
In 2007, the women’s league president defended the body’s loyalty to Zuma when he appeared in court for rape. Dlamini led the charge from her base in KwaZulu-Natal, where she enjoyed significant support from the party’s structures. While secretary general of the women’s league she boldly told journalists: “Those who feel the league should not have nominated him because of the rape case want us to be part of a kangaroo court. The case went to court and everybody knows the outcome.” (Zuma was acquitted.)
Members of Dlamini’s women’s league held placards that threatened the life of the woman who accused Zuma of rape. It was the same women who said the accuser should feel lucky to have been raped by such a handsome man.
Dlamini enjoys the support of the majority of the provinces although her support of Zuma throughout the Ramaphosa presidency has been of little consequence.
In a letter written shortly after Zuma was taken to the Estcourt prison, she said his imprisonment is called extraordinary not because of anything he did, but because the laws were bent to achieve political ends against him.
“Many years from now … Zuma is going to remain a symbol of resistance against that injustice,” she said.
It is clear where Dlamini stands in relation to Zuma.
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