The sanctity of Parliament is the latest victim of the “Zuma-tsunami’s” trail of destruction, says Max du Preez.
Only the governing ANC with its big majority is in a position to step in and lower the dangerously high political temperature in the country.
But how will it do that if its leader was the main cause of the crisis?
President Jacob Zuma’s middle name is Gedleyihlekisa.
According to writer Fred Khumalo, it means “one who smiles in your face while causing you harm”.
When Zuma appears on television or on public occasions, we only see the smile, and sometimes hear the giggle.
At least he’s a warm, engaging man, some of us say when we see him. His ruthless side has only been witnessed first-hand by his opponents in the tripartite alliance and by officials of the National Prosecuting Authority, the intelligence services and the police.
But on Thursday the whole nation experienced this dark, brutal side when armed riot police in full body armour violently invaded our highest legislative body where our elected representatives meet to speak for us, the citizens.
It appears last week’s flagrant violation of the Constitution and of our democracy flowed from an order Zuma made to his party’s national executive committee (NEC) in September: the ANC in Parliament should crush the opposition and stop being “accommodating”. The NEC then ordered its MPs to “defend” Zuma at all costs.
The ANC MPs who declare that they were shocked when the police stormed into Parliament should be challenged.
How did they miss the fact that a unit of the riot squad was suddenly given a room in the National Assembly building to gather before being called to action?
Did they not notice the colonel and brigadier stationed right outside the Assembly’s door on Thursday? Did it register with them that the police were not called into the House by the Speaker or her stand-in, but by a public servant?
The EFF MP who refused to obey the orders of the presiding officer broke the rules and acted provocatively.
The solution was obvious when she refused to leave: suspend the sitting of the National Assembly, allow MPs and staff to leave and switch off the lights.
That would render the sacred democratic space of the Assembly into just another building and transgressors can then be dealt with.
The opposition parties’ effective filibustering wasn’t spoiling tactics for the sake of spoiling.
It was in protest against the ANC’s shameless whitewashing of Zuma’s involvement in the R246 million Nkandla scandal.
The ANC’s Nkandla report blatantly disregarded the judgment of Western Cape High Court Judge Ashton Schippers of a few weeks ago in which he stated that the findings and remedial actions proposed by the public protector were not mere recommendations “which an organ of state may accept or reject”.
The public protector is the creation of our Constitution. The Special Investigating Unit, whose report on the matter the ANC regarded as more important, was created through legislation and reports to the president.
As happened in the Guptas/Waterkloof Air Base and other scandals, Zuma has again surrounded himself with a bodyguard of lies and blames all wrongdoing on hapless civil servants. (Eleven Public Works officials facing disciplinary hearings because of the Nkandla project say they fear for their lives…)
The troubling events in Parliament came just a few days after the ANC’s biggest shock in decades: the breaking up of Cosatu, with the expelled National Union of Metalworkers (the biggest union in the country) indicating that it was preparing for a political movement that would take the ANC on.
The expulsion carried the blessing of Zuma himself and was lobbied for by his staunchest ally, the SACP.
Numsa is the third to break away from the ANC since Zuma became its president, the others being Cope and the EFF, and in every case he was the main reason for the split.
Cosatu’s Zwelinzima Vavi was correct during the euphoria of Zuma’s replacement of Thabo Mbeki to talk about the “Zuma-tsunami”, but for the wrong reasons. What a trail of destruction this tsunami has left behind it.
The chaos in Parliament will continue if there’s no intervention – today’s debates could also become explosive.
The EFF especially is going for the jugular and will thrive on more confrontation. It is bound to push too far and there’s a risk of paralysing Parliament, which would be counterproductive and play into the hands of the ANC acolytes.
Isn’t it time for Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to stand up and be counted? Time to act presidential if his boss won’t?
He ought to be able to count on the support of ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe – he’ll be held co-responsible for the Zuma mess if he doesn’t. Please, no more guns in Parliament. Ever.
* Max du Preez is an author and columnist.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.