This newspaper reported three weeks ago that Bruce Koloane – the fall guy who fooled everyone into believing he was our vice president – invoked President Jacob Zuma’s name to secure the contentious landing of the infamous Gupta jet.
When junior staffers asked him what was going on, he said in e-mails seen by this newspaper that “it has been approved by the Presidency”.
Is he a name-dropper of note or did he think he would be a director-general one day by doing the president’s best friends a favour?
He is facing the public guillotine, with the Minister of (in)Justice Jeff Radebe having prosecuted and judged him through the court of public opinion by saying: “The aircraft in question was cleared for landing and the correct clearance procedures were followed, but based on false pretences as a result of the manipulation of the process by the Gupta family, individuals in the Indian High Commission, chief of state protocol, ambassador V B Koloane and the officer commanding movement control at the base, Lieutenant-Colonel C Anderson, who shared a common purpose and acted in concert.”
I thought Radebe, who holds a masters degree in law, told the nation a fair disciplinary process was pending against Koloane.
However, whether Koloane was name-dropping or not, his behaviour typifies a sub-culture adopted by some in the ruling party that conflates personal and party interests with that of the state. It starts with simple things.
For example, an above-the-law attitude is displayed by party security guards in President and Commissioner streets – where the ANC headquarters and provincial offices are respectively situated.
The guards – mostly assisted by national and metro police – close the public streets to allow cadres to park recklessly in President Street.
Opposite Walter Sisulu House, the ANC’s provincial headquarters, cars with ANC stickers are parked dangerously along a narrow bus lane. No tickets are issued by metro cops, the same merciless people who instil terror in the hearts of ordinary motorists.
The moral of this is that for the metro officers, the ANC security guards and the cadres, the traffic laws of this country do not apply to party members and leaders.
Koloane might have gained this impression if he indeed acted on his own instinct.
Another example: Zuma’s lawyer has thus far refused to obey a court order to hand over the controversial spy tapes. That order was made more than a year ago.
This means the highest office in the land is disobeying a court order. What message does such an attitude send to guys such as Bruce? The cadres – whose careers and business are dependent on patronage and approval from the deployment committee – may wrongly believe that a good comrade assumes the character and attitude of leadership, irrespective of the content of that character.
Their virtues have nothing to do with the ideals of great leaders who came before them, but with what the current leaders want.
These are the guys who will toyi-toyi at rape and corruption trials of leaders, not questioning the reputational damage of such trials on the image of the organisation or the message communicated to ordinary members.
To them, leadership means unaccounted power.