Juju is hellbent on settling some old personal and political scores with his former ally and boss, writes Elvis Masoga.
There is no denying that the country’s president is impressively incompetent and largely susceptible to irrational decision-making.
Many of the country’s recent macro-economic fumbles and financial conundrums were precipitated by President Jacob Zuma. His countless presidential scandals and systemic blunders have now become the comical stuff of legend.
Just last week, a politically non-partisan colleague startled my delicate imagination when he professed: “During the noble presidencies of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, many of our fellow citizens lived with an inspiring sense of great hope and prosperity. But today under President Zuma, many South Africans are languishing in the trappings of despair, hopelessness and adversity. Zuma has awakened us to the real nightmare of hardships that we never felt in the times of Mandela and Mbeki.”
Most probably many South Africans will share this view. But in spite of his litany of scandals and transgressions, Zuma is still our state president. There is no applicable law or rule that prohibits him. Under the intoxicating influence of juvenile mischief, the EFF have decided to stop recognising Zuma as state president. What are the red berets smoking nowadays?
It is clear that Julius Malema and his EFF sidekicks do not comprehend the principalities of legality and constitutionalism. In terms of constitutional law, a person cannot just decide to ignore or disregard an applicable constitutional reality.
The prevailing constitutional reality is that Jacob Zuma is still the country’s president and as citizens, we must afford the Office of the President the decorum and dignity it deserves. Zuma will one day vacate the presidency, but the integrity and decorum of that office will remain and prevail.
The EFF and Malema have reduced Parliament to a kindergarten playground for anarchic juvenile adventures. Juju is hellbent on settling some old personal and political scores with his former ally and boss, blaming Zuma for his devastating expulsion from the ANC in 2012.
Undeniably, Juju was expelled from the ruling party just because he was no longer aligned to the Zuma camp in the ANC.
In 2008, while still excessively loyal to Zuma, Malema publicly declared that “we are prepared to take up arms and kill in defence of President Zuma”. But owing to his then loyalty to Msholozi, Juju was never subjected to any disciplinary tribunal for that inciteful statement.
It is disconcerting to observe that the heightening hostility between these two men is polluting our broader democratic dispensation. In pursuit of vindictive vengeance, Malema and his EFF fighters have vowed to prevent Zuma from addressing Parliament at all costs. Late last year Juju declared that “we will physically grab and drag Zuma out of Parliament if it comes to push and shovel (sic)”.
To date, the red berets have physically disrupted President Zuma’s State of The Nation address (Sona). The parliamentary television channel has become the most watched television series in the country, and probably in Africa, courtesy of the EFF.
My 14-year-old cousin recently confessed that he likes watching the first part of SONA on TV. It is usually characterised by a movie-like warfare between the fighting red berets and the parliamentary protection officers. Regrettably, our constitutional democracy has degenerated to that ignominious shameful point.
Why should anyone try to bar or prevent a president from addressing the nation through Parliament? If need be, EFF leaders must employ legal and constitutional means to secure the removal of their arch nemesis from office as president. It is foolish and childish to decide to stop recognising Zuma as state president.
I fully concur with and support Zuma’s assertion that some MPs have turned Parliament into a lawless shebeen. During the last SONA last month, EFF MPs acted like drunkards.
While responding to a gripping debate on SONA in Parliament, President Zuma cautioned: “The majority of Members of Parliament understand the serious responsibility they have been entrusted with, and conduct themselves in a manner that gives hope to South Africans. But some MPs have decided to treat this dignified House (Parliament) like something worse than a beer hall. The (anarchic) conduct we saw in this House (during SONA) traumatised millions of South Africans.”
The EFF’s persistent disruption of Zuma’s presentations in Parliament will never achieve any meaningful long-term political accolades. Politics is a complex discourse that is defined by give-and-take engagements and interactions. A winner-takes-all mentality is not healthy for any constitutional democratic establishment.
A fatal weakness inherent in the EFF is that “we must listen and pay attention only to a person we happen to agree with”. Their wishful political thinking will never negate the constitutional truth that Zuma is still an incumbent state president.
The DA is highly sceptical of Zuma’s leadership but they nonetheless respect the fact that he is the country’s president.
Unfortunately, Malema’s EFF is not yet conversant with the principles of constitutionalism and exemplary leadership. Misguided anarchy, juvenile belligerence and childish adventurism will seal the fate of the EFF and eventually dig its early political grave. Perhaps only time and posterity will tell!
Politics of demagogy and publicity populism are no longer relevant and beneficial in the unfolding 21th century political discourse. Eventually and very soon, the EFF will falter and drown in its own bottomless pond of anarchy.
Malema and the other EFF national leaders must draw inspirational lessons from the Limpopo EFF provincial secretary, Jossey Buthane. Buthane has proved himself capable of making a distinction between anarchy and militancy.
From 2014 to date, the Limpopo EFF, led by the militant Buthane, has never wreaked havoc during the State of the Province Address. He has successfully taught his fellow fighters to master the art of militancy, and not anarchy. Unfortunately, the EFF national leaders are still trapped in the hollow dungeons of the 20th century totalitarianism politics.
Malema and his nemesis Zuma are the perfect living architects of their own imminent political downfall. At the end of the punishing warfare between these two self-serving demagogues, there would be no winners, only disgraced fanatical losers.
Ironically, Juju and JZ are the perfect living embodiments of each other’s extreme qualities and excesses. Their mutual hatred of each other is incidentally proportionate to their hidden passionate admiration for each other.
* Masoga is a political analyst.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.