September 19 to 25 2008

Zuma, free at last?

This is an open letter to all peace-loving South Africans. Fellow countrymen and women, finally the president of the ANC, Jacob Zuma, has had his day in court and the court has vindicated him. Zuma’s critics should be satisfied now. This was not a kangaroo court converging somewhere under the marula trees but the High Court in Pietermaritzburg.

Zuma understands the laws of the country. He was prepared to exhaust all avenues to clear his name and his way to the Union Buildings next year. Now the ANC can focus on electioneering; the ugly monkey on Zuma’s shoulders has been officially and legally removed.

I believe Zuma has God on his side. Under his leadership, we are heading for days of glory and prosperity and feasting. We should bury the past and walk into the brightest future. — Joseph Peter Kgomo, Philip Nel Park

Judge Chris Nicholson has delivered a very reasoned judgement, fair to both Zuma and those who would prosecute him. But of greater significance are the judge’s remarks on political interference with the judicial system. It is clear that our ministers of justice, present and previous, are either ignorant of their duty not to meddle or just too arrogant or dishonest to abide by such duties.

Likewise, our national directors of public prosecutions, present, previous, and the one before that too, seem unaware of their obligations to serve the independent judiciary rather than the government of the day. (Or, possibly, they know what these obligations are, but as ANC members they cannot go against the wishes of their party.)

This is scary because the implications go far beyond this single case. With the party yanking strings, it really doesn’t matter whether our judges are independent or not. Those with the right connections simply won’t be sent for trial.

Where do we go from here? The case of Jackie Selebi looms over us. Will the government, that is the party, allow the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to operate independently?

The whole thing tarnishes our justice system. It’s a temporary victory for Zuma but a stunning indictment of the ANC’s abuse of power. The minister of justice and the national director of public prosecutions should resign or be dismissed and replaced by people who can be trusted. —Ron McGregor, Mowbray

What is historic about Judge Nicholson’s judgement is that common sense was applied consistently to contradict the rulings of both the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court in this matter. These upper courts failed to see that the procedural injustice dispensed against Zuma was in conflict with the Constitution and that the state had no basis to charge him without affording him an opportunity to make representations.

The NPA never asked President Thabo Mbeki under oath to clarify the details of his alleged meeting in France with the arms dealer who won the contract. Instead the Scorpions conducted abnormal prosecuting duties guided by political interference to deal with Zuma as part of a secret agenda to disqualify him for ANC leadership. The court exposed this evil conspiracy.

What should immediately follow all this is a process to reinstate Zuma as deputy president. — Morgan Phaahla, Ekurhuleni

One cannot but feel a sense of betrayal by our media (print and electronic). One found it difficult to identify the possibility of the judgement going in Zuma’s favour, because every media report seemed intent on rubbishing his claims of political conspiracy. It’s about time our media started facilitating public discourse fairly. — Sambulo Mathebula, Pretoria

It is interesting to consider the consequences of Judge Nicholson’s ruling. Some see the bright side: this is a ruling against political interference in prosecutions and it demonstrates the independence of the judiciary.
Excellent. But will Zuma still come to trial? Will he allow a commission of inquiry into the arms deal? Will the judgement prevent political interference in future?

One interpretation of the judgement is that it is both a political and a legal solution. It’s a political solution because it uses a minor, optional, technicality in the re-charging process (no representation before being recharged) to override the major imperative to test the evidence of corruption against Zuma.

But the nation badly needs the trial. Zuma has been accused of corruption. He needs to be cleared or convicted. Do we have a corrupt future president or not? — Mark Turner, Hartbeespoort Dam

In June 2005, following Judge Hilary Squires’s judgement in the Shaik trial, President Mbeki convened a joint sitting of both houses of Parliament and announced: ”I studied this judgement not to make any determination whatsoever about its merits or demerits, about whether it was wholly or partially right or wrong … This task belongs to the higher courts …” But he concluded that ”circumstances dictate — it would be best to release the Hon Jacob Zuma from his responsibilities as Deputy President of the Republic and Member of the Cabinet.”

In the light of the Nicholson judgement, Mbeki should now exemplify what he asked his deputy to do in 2005 and resign. It took the president two weeks to read the Squires judgement and ”release” his deputy. It will probably take him two weeks to read the Nicholson judgement and ”release” himself from his duties. — Themba Phakathi, ANCYL member (eThekwini region)

The ANC must oust Mbeki. He will cost the ANC victory if he remains president, disregarding the inferences of Nicholson’s judgement. Elections are about seven months away and he must do the honourable thing and resign. He does not enjoy the political support of the alliance like Zuma does. — Nhlanhla Khumalo, Durban

The Nicholson judgement creates a double-edged sword. While Zuma’s allegations of a political conspiracy against him have to a certain degree been verified, a clear signal has been given by the judge to open up a can of worms.

There is no conceivable way we can proceed to the 2009 elections with Zuma seen as untainted. We cannot forget that Judge Squires implicated Zuma in the Shaik case, that Zuma stopped at nothing to prevent Mauritian authorities from issuing what is expected to be damning documentation against him and, more recently, the ”progressive” Judge Nicholson urged that there be a commission of inquiry into the arms deal.

To restore global confidence in our country and government, to create democratic public awareness and to clear months of obfuscation by the powers that be, the public urgently needs such a commission of inquiry. — Shane Brody

By using the South African legal system to dismiss charges against a powerful man on political grounds, respect for South Africa as a democracy has been downgraded all around the world. — Maria Dami, UK

To Blade, Gwede, Vavi and Mal Ema: zu Ma se … —Peter Slingsby, Lakeside

Leadership not synonymous with academic qualifications

A study commissioned by the South African Local Government Association (Salga) to determine how many councillors were new, gender representativeness in municipalities and the experience and education levels of our councillor corps has been turned into a launching pad to hurl insults at councillors. (”Our councillors: the champagne-glass-toting illiterates”, Thought Leader, September 16).

It is outrageous at best and slanderous at worst for Azad Essa even to construct a demeaning caricature of our councillors as ”champagne-glass-toting illiterates”. This stunt is based on falsehoods, even after Salga has done everything to correct them.

It is also disingenuous of him to quote selectively and then use the report to instigate a diatribe against councillors. The report does not reveal ”illiteracy or some sort of mental disability” in local government. These are some of the misrepresentations that some media peddled when the story first broke and for Essa to jump on to the bandwagon is horrendous to the extreme.

For the record, the study was conducted after the 2006 local government elections. It found that ”more than 60% of councillors in all provinces are first-term municipal political office bearers and there was more than 40% gender balance. Five percent of councillors only have primary-school qualifications, a significant number (45%) of councillors have varying levels of secondary-school qualifications and quite a large number (49%) of councillors have tertiary qualifications”.

The point is that academic qualification has never been a criterion for one to assume a leadership position in one’s community. It is also reductionist to equate leadership with academic qualifications. Leadership has a variety of elements that include being a visionary, influential, an inspiration and able to articulate the needs and aspirations of those you lead. Moreover, leadership is about connecting with your people and understanding the ”heartbeat” of one’s community.

Political leadership cannot be exercised only by those who possess formal academic skills, as this runs against the grain of our democratic dispensation. In order to ensure accessibility and customer-centricity, municipalities have policies to conduct their business in the languages mostly understood or popularly spoken in their area. Hence, translation and other support services are provided not only to councillors but also to communities.

Salga is the first to concede that there are service-delivery challenges, but it is rather mischievous to place all the blame at the door of academic deficiencies of a minute section of our councillor cadreship. Regardless, Salga has taken bold steps to sharpen the skills of not only councillors but officials as well. In partnership with the Department of Provincial and Local Government, the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority and other well-meaning patriots, we are continuing to implement a suite of comprehensive councillor education and training programmes.

To date, 10 498 000 councillors have undergone training in a variety of disciplines like adult basic education and training, leadership, and strategic planning. These place them at the cutting edge of municipal leadership. Assessed against the five-year local government strategic agenda, the performance of local government is showing general improvement in various areas:

• a 100% adoption rate of IDPs in municipalities — the first time this milestone has been reached;
• 83% of posts of chief financial officer are currently filled and efforts are being undertaken to increase this rate;
• 230 municipalities submitted their annual financial statements on time;
• the average collection rate of the six metropolitan municipalities stands at about 97%, while that of the rest of the municipalities range between 50% and 75%;
• between 1994 and 2007, the percentage of households with access to water has increased from 59% to 88,6%, the percentage of households with access to sanitation has increased from 48% to 73% and the percentage of households with access to electricity has increased to 80% for lighting, 67% for cooking and 59% for heating;
• of the 252 254 bucket toilets, 203 244 of them were eradicated and replaced with functional flush or other more hygienic toilets by December 2007; and
• 77% of all households have access to free basic water (FBW), while 4 028 457 of the 5,5-million indigent households have access to FBW and 3 805 485 have access to free basic electricity.

Salga is confident that the interventions that are being undertaken are going a long way in ensuring that councillors are in a better position to lead municipalities effectively. — Mogomotsi Mogodiri, Salga head of marketing and communications

Zaphero or villain?

Zapiro reportedly seeks to take legal action against Julius Malema for allegedly saying some supporters of ANC president Jacob Zuma would ”shoot and kill” the satirist. Zapiro depicted Malema as a conspirator in the ”rape” of the judiciary and Malema probably used the language he knows best, that is to ”shoot and kill” an opponent.

What is sickening and undermining of both our democracy and our judiciary, are people like Zapiro, who sarcastically use rape, knowing that this will engrave in the minds of readers the rape allegations of which Zuma was acquitted.

Zapiro must know that the media is not a platform just for minority views but also for those of the majority. Yet we have this bombardment undermining the constitutionally protected right to dignity.

I am mindful of the usual cries that when one challenges bile in the media we must contend with accusations of ”raping” the media. We should not allow the media or any analyst to blackmail us on the meaning of democracy and the importance of an independent judiciary. We cannot allow this sacrosanct platform to be hijacked by the likes of Zapiro. — Phillip Musekwa, Germiston

With a substantial part of the nation on tenterhooks ahead of one of the most pivotal court decisions due at the time, what on earth, short of messianism, propelled Zapiro and his editor to release the offensive cartoon for publication?

Arguably, Zapiro’s cartoon about Zuma is much like mocking the Holocaust, which is rightly and wisely proscribed in advanced democracies across Europe.

Someone needs to remind him that no right in the Constitution is absolute and that it can be limited by law. Unless Zapiro wants a law that will affect the media generally, it is advisable that he tone down his depictions. — Saber Ahmed Jazbhay, Durban

Hayi madoda, is this the democracy we fought for? This is too much freedom of expression. Values and integrity are our corners of ubuntu. What does Zapiro’s cartoon portray? Wouldn’t you say this is a crucifixion? Wouldn’t you say this undermines the decision reached by our honourable court in the Zuma rape trial? This strategy won’t obliterate Zuma’s prospects of ascending to the throne. He is almost there — it’s a matter of a technicality.

To Zapiro, I say: this cartoon reflects a political vendetta imposed by the South African media against JZ. — Mlandu Kona, Wits

Zapiro’s cartoons work well in South Africa. They are in-your-face symbolic metaphors, some of which are sometimes outright rude and vulgar. I remember the front of Bill Clinton’s plane, shaped like a giant penis; Mugabe peeing in a ballot box; embedded journalists making love on a tank; Ronald Suresh Roberts’s head stuck in Mbeki’s bum — but the shower on Zuma’s head just doesn’t do anything for me intellectually. As a cartoonist, you need to be subtle. — Yunus Shaik

Halalala, Zapiro! Your latest (September 12) is nothing short of brilliant. Sorry you get so much flak, but it’s a sign of your power. Please don’t give in or up. — Lisa Willson

Arguably the shortest letter you will ever receive, it’s just one word: ”Zaphero.” — Ed Couzens, Durban

Why respect religious beliefs?
Could Franz Krüger please explain his assertion that religious sensitivities are more deserving of respect than political? He makes this comment in relation to the Muhammad cartoons that caused outrage (”A licence to cheek”, September 12).

While it is quite acceptable to pour scorn on political, social and aesthetic sensitivities, religious beliefs need to be respected? Why should this be? Surely if people are confident enough of their religious beliefs, they should be able to shrug off even gross disrespect displayed by non-believers?

In reality, not: the ultra-sensitivity of the deeply religious smacks of equally deep doubt and fear. This is all as irrational as the religious beliefs themselves.

It seems that an all-knowing and all-powerful deity requires the assistance of weak and fallible humans to do his dirty work for him. — Bruce MacDonald

In brief

I found the Paralympics inspiring. Considering the difficulties under which these athletes compete and the personal adversity and challenges they encounter each day, it makes me feel humble. More than this is the camaraderie between all athletes, irrespective of race, colour or creed.

I therefore ask: are we not all disabled in one way or another? Do we not carry around the disabilities of hatred, envy, conceit and racism? We need to acknowledge our disabilities, put the past behind us, unite and go forward as one. — Des Squire, Killarney

Marital woes

The South African Communist Party only pretends to believe in democracy and the rule of law. It is trying to take over the ANC without firing a shot.

In 1917 the Communist Party was able to take over Russia because of the chaos at that time. When the SACP takes over government it will ban Cosatu and change the judiciary to fit its goals. Communist parties all over the world, when they took over government, banned labour unions. The marriage between the SACP and Cosatu is a marriage made in hell and will not last long. — Mike Trap

Spotted on a Hulett’s sugar sachet, an African proverb: ”From contentment with little comes happiness.” It would serve Tito Mboweni (and the rest of the avaricious people in high places) well to ponder on this while skimming the cream at the expense of the poor. — Sarah Hepburn, Cape Town

Isn’t it time we killed the politically correct terms ”chairperson” and ”spokesperson”? They sound hideous and are clumsy. Why not replace them with ”chair” and ”spokesman/woman”? These at least are good English and don’t mangle the language like their bastard cousins. — WL Mason, Johannesburg

I think the ANC is on the right track by deploying premiers who are not performing. They must also fire all underperforming personnel, they must prepare for the new era under leadership of president Jacob Zuma. — Tshepo Nkwe, Turfloop