There should be no rejoicing over the guilty judgement in the trial of businessman Schabir Shaik, despite its vindication of South Africa’s prosecutorial and judicial systems. Deputy President Jacob Zuma may not have been in the dock, but the judgement indirectly indicts him in such a devastating way that it is hard to see how his political career can survive it. There are elements of Shakespearean tragedy in the Zuma saga — a man with many positive attributes, a peacemaker, unifier and non-racialist with the common touch, essentially undone by the fatal flaw of living beyond his means and yielding to the lure of easy money.
Zuma’s many supporters on the left of the ruling alliance, and in provinces like KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, will have come to terms with the implications of the ruling and the flaws in the deputy president’s make-up that it so ruthlessly exposes. South Africa simply cannot face the rest of the world with a president — or a deputy president for that matter — found by a court of law to have had a generally corrupt relationship with a businessman convicted of fraud and graft in a lengthy and internationally reported trial.
Even if Zuma himself is not tried and convicted — and a trial is now more likely — Judge Hillary Squires has found that Shaik solicited a R500 000 bribe from French arms company Thomson CSF on his behalf, and that Zuma must have known about the bribe. The matter has moved beyond the subject of newspaper reports to a formal judicial finding.
How could Zuma rub shoulders with other heads of state, and operate with confidence and authority in international forums, with this in his background? Powerful adversaries in the ruling party may well have plotted his downfall, but that is no longer the issue. The trial has indelibly tainted him.
This leaves the question of what happens next. We believe Zuma should not wait for President Thabo Mbeki to remove him from the Cabinet, nor for the ANC’s mid-term policy summit — the national general council — to announce that he is withdrawing from the race for the presidency.
Putting his own hopes and ambitions second to the national interest, he should resist the temptation to continue riding the wave of his undoubted popular support. Zuma’s many supporters, including those of the left, should bow to the inevitable.
Rather than resisting the judgement and presenting it either as the fruit of conspiracy or apartheid justice — which it clearly is not — the leaders of the labour movement and the South African Communist Party should explain to their followers that there is no option now but for Zuma to step from the political stage.
The ANC, the party from which the next president will in all likelihood be chosen, has a reservoir of other talent to draw from as it considers the succession debate. For Zuma and his party to withdraw his claim to presidential succession would symbolise powerfully that the anti-corruption system does work.
In an interview at the beginning of the Shaik trial, Zuma’s confidant Mo Shaik revealed that Zuma was tired of the rumours and often thought of retiring to Nkandla to become a simple fisherman. The time is right to do so now. Zuma would have been a good president; he cannot be one now.
Thank you!
What a birthday present! On the eve of its 20th birthday, the Mail & Guardian was gagged, something we did not expect would ever happen in a constitutional democracy.
Last week’s newspaper with its blacked-out text and gagged ribbon on the front made for a fractured and incomplete newspaper; we hope never to publish in such pain again.
The points against the interdict have been well made: there is no place for pre-publication gagging in a democracy; where there is public money involved, the public interest is manifest; the right to privacy is an important one but it should not be used to mask malfeasance.
We will raise all these points when we return to court to argue against the troubling judgement handed down last Thursday by Judge Vas Soni.
The outpouring of support from our readers has been heart-warming and overwhelming. From outrage to solidarity, our readers have expressed their concern in various ways. Some have offered money, others have offered services; one reader even came in early last Friday morning to help out with the delayed deliveries! Thank you!
All we can ask for is that you keep reading; all we can promise is that we will continue to report without fear or favour.
The court cases related to the Oilgate stories are expensive; the news-paper faces defamation claims of R4-million from Imvume Management, the African National Congress and its secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe. In addition, we are now faced with the challenge of attempting to get last week’s judgement overturned; we do believe it is a setback for media freedom.