Former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s populist grandstanding outside the court in Durban this week has angered President Thabo Mbeki and prompted a stony Cabinet statement.
”We wish to caution against actions that have the effect of breaking our country’s laws, undermining the work of security agencies, and denigrating the offices of institutions of our democracy, including the Presidency,” said the Cabinet, less than 24 hours after Zuma appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court.
The fight with his deputy has weakened Mbeki, and the burning of a T-shirt bearing his image outside the court by his own party’s supporters is likely to put him on the offensive.
Immediately after his court appearance, Zuma compared his impending trial with his experiences under apartheid, thereby projecting the courts as illegitimate and untransformed institutions.
Speaking in isiZulu, he said he would at a later stage reveal the details of the campaign against him as well as its leaders. The message resonated with his supporters, one of whom threatened that if Zuma did not become president, ”this country will burn”.
Zuma sang freedom songs outside court with the crowd of 4 000, in defiance of the peace agreement with Mbeki at last month’s make or break national executive committee (NEC) meeting.
A member of Mbeki’s inner circle, who spoke to the Mail & Guardian on condition of anonymity, said Zuma was in breach of the NEC agreement’s key principles — support for the rule of law, protection of state institutions from political attack and promoting the fight against corruption. He also promised to keep his supporters in check.
The agreement provides that ”leaders should always lead by example, as custodians of the values and best practices of the movement. Especially in difficult times, leaders should be the best examples of principled and disciplined conduct. We urge that no one should use the name of the president or deputy president to mobilise for or against either.”
Zuma was clearly emboldened this week by proceedings at the Khampepe commission, where some of the country’s security chiefs took aim at the Scorpions.
Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula and director general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Billy Masetlha, all Mbeki loyalists, appear to have been inadvertently drawn into Zuma’s camp in their turf battles with the Scorpions. So, while the Scorpions may win the legal contest, they may already have lost the political battle.
Despite the Cabinet statement, Mbeki cuts an increasingly lonely figure, isolated in his party but for a coterie of NEC supporters.
The trial and the Cabinet statement again revealed a ruling party hopelessly divided. The behaviour of its members outside the court, the ANC said later, ”demonstrates a lack of respect for the membership of the ANC who elected a President who enjoys enormous respect for serving the organisation, the country and the continent with utmost dignity and dedication”.
Evidence that Mbeki’s iron-fisted discipline over the ANC is fraying was first evident at the party’s national general council in June, where six of nine provinces forced his national working committee to backtrack on a plan to strip Zuma of party authority.
Matters have deteriorated since. A plan by Mbeki’s lieutenants to relay his position on corruption and to explain the process and logic of Zuma’s removal as national deputy president to the grassroots has been slow to take off. In KwaZulu-Natal, ANC spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said only two out of 11 regions had been covered.
The drive to reinforce Mbeki’s leadership in KwaZulu-Natal is fraught with difficulties. KwaZulu-Natal ANC leader S’bu Ndebele is supposed to lead the drive to unite the ANC, but this week the crowd at the Zuma trial booed and threw missiles when Ndebele tried to speak to them.
In Gauteng, Nomvula Mokonyane was told off by Ekurhuleni ANC supporters when she went there in support of the president. It was ”too late” to go to the grassroots, they told her.
Local leaders also point out that mayors of the country’s big metros, viewed as Mbeki’s appointments, are also suffering, with few local election nominations coming from ANC branches for them.
Zuma is popular principally as a rallying-point for opponents of Mbeki’s leadership style. ”Any decision Mbeki makes now is perceived with suspicion,” said an NEC member. ”We realise that we gave the president too much power and he abused it.”