President Zuma has been to the Rubicon many times, but never successfully crossed the river because he’s prone to distractions, writes Dennis Pather.
Here's a political riddle to stimulate your idle mind on a Sunday: Julius Caesar crossed it, PW Botha got cold feet and Jacob Zuma merely dipped in his toes.
Full marks to those who said the Rubicon, that shallow river in northern Italy which Caesar famously crossed on January 10, 49BC. When the Roman dictator made the crossing, he realised he had passed the point of no return and uttered that unforgettable line: “The die is cast.”
Well, 2000 years later, apartheid dictator PW Botha also found himself standing on the edge of the legendary river. It was August 15, 1985 - a time when a growing number of National Party supporters believed apartheid could no longer be sustained.
PW’s prepared speech was expected to herald the historic dismantling of hardline apartheid, the release of Nelson Mandela from Robben Island, the reintegration of the bantustan states into South Africa and the beginning of a new constitutional path for the country.
But when PW stepped on to the bank and gazed at the water, his Dutch courage failed him. Turning his back on the Rubicon, he launched into the swart gevaar rhetoric he had been rendering for years.
President Zuma has been to the Rubicon many times, but never successfully crossed the river because, I suppose, he’s prone to distractions.
Few will forget the day when, on his way to the river, he bumped into the Guptas who, the story goes, talked him into procuring tons of precious river sand from the Rubicon to sell to tenderpreneurs building cheap RDP houses. Or the time he abruptly postponed his planned crossing so he could splurge millions in taxpayer funds on upgrading his private homestead in Nkandla.
Zuma had an opportunity to cross the Rubicon last Sunday - his party’s 105th anniversary - but fluffed it, offering no more than promises and platitudes that lead nowhere. What South Africa needs now is a plan that will strengthen our economy, foster better relations between communities, accelerate service delivery, create more jobs, and put the interests of the people first.
People are now asking: Is Zuma ready to cross the Rubicon and commit himself to a course of action that will bring peace, prosperity and equality to the land? Or does he plan to wait until Jesus returns and benefit from a crash course on walking on water?