Sometime in 2003 I wrote that the reporting of the issues around Deputy President Jacob Zuma was a veritable political soapie to beat all the soapies on TV. But this was a real life soapie, which damaged several institutions including the media. At least one editor and a senior reporter lost their jobs.
The end of the Hefer Commission and its anti-climactic findings into the allegations that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was a former apartheid spy, who was paying back his erstwhile masters by maliciously prosecuting former anti apartheid icons, seemed to put an end to the first series. Judge Hefer found that there was no evidence to support the allegations, but laid the foundations for a possible second series by saying that leaks in the Zuma and Maharaj investigations appeared to have come from within the Scorpions and that “things were not as they should be”.
No sooner was the carefully scripted election drama over than the second series, which is currently running, made its debut. Again memorable sound bites came out of the “twin actors” Ngcuka and former Justice Minister Penuell Maduna, whose political career suffered collateral damage in the first series. Ngcuka’s memorable line on Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana line went: “Ag, shame, poor Mushwana. I feel sorry for him.” Not to be outdone, Maduna said of Mushwana: “He is the saddest intellectual case of all that I have seen.”
The reason for these so-called “intemperate” and “unfortunate” outbursts was the release by Mushwana of a report concerning a complaint laid by Zuma. The complaint was that Ngcuka had violated Zuma’s constitutional rights by declaring at a press conference that there was a prima facie case of corruption against him, but that the evidence was insufficient for a conviction.
Mushwana’s report recommended action by the legislature against Ngcuka, which adds parliament to the cast of actors in this drama. Of course the print media, in particular the weekend papers, repeated Mushwana’s threats and sound bites and speculated on how parliament would deal with the matter. So far parliament has had no major role, but it now takes centre stage. There are promises of sound bites to come as the opposition gears up to take on the ANC, which recently humbled it in the elections.
The processing of the report allows the opposition and the media to return to a favourite topic, one that did not appear to have influenced the voters: corruption in the arms deal. This, it is claimed, is the real issue in the allegations against Zuma. The report has also resuscitated media speculation in this political soapie about succession in the ANC, and who the next president is going to be.
As media speculation feeds upon speculation in political and social circles, the whole issue is said to be about factions in the ANC vigorously jostling to succeed Mbeki. According to this line of thought, Ngcuka is a hatchet man for the faction against Zuma and could be acting on the tacit go-ahead of Mbeki, who does not want Zuma to succeed him! By the same token, Mushwana is said to be the Zuma faction’s hatchet man, hence Ngcuka and Maduna’s ballistic reaction and threats to “smash his report to smithereens”.
As they say, “watch this space”, or maybe, “don’t go away, Zuma soapie returns after the commercial break”.
Is any of this plausible? That might not be the correct question. Speculation on power politics is the mother of conspiracy theories. Add the media and stir, and you get your political soapie running as a series across all media platforms: TV, print, radio, rumour, gossip and the internet.
Professor Tawana Kupe is Head of Media Studies at Wits University