During my days as a criminal stealing cars, we would occasionally steal them for our own use. Most cars were stolen by order – a client would order a car, and even specify the colour and year model.
We would go around and scout for such a car, and whenever the opportunity arose, we would pounce. Delivery of the vehicle would mostly depend on us finding the perfect vehicle.
Doing so within a specified time frame was never guaranteed, but sometimes we had to give a guarantee and go all out to make it happen.
If the order was from some big mafia-type bank robbers who we knew did their work – or should I say thievery – within strict time frames, then we had to put in way more effort.
We were aware that such clients paid very well, way above the normal rates. We would not go to sleep without fulfilling that order, and on rare occasions where we couldn’t find the vehicle or vehicles they wanted according to their specifications, we would be up again the next day before sunrise to ensure we got it right.
The way the opposition parties have been going all out to remove President Jacob Zuma has reminded me of how frantic we would be in trying to satisfy our orders in those days. We would make it happen, no matter the effort, no matter the cost, and no matter the difficulty.
The opposition are only interested in removing the president from power, and not his party.
But in their obsession with Zuma, we have seen poverty alleviation, crime fighting and housing allocation in the metros where these parties govern take a backseat so that they can concentrate on the removal of this one man.
We have seen the #ZumaMustFall campaign and others like it launched in full force, but they have failed flatly on the streets.
It moved inside Parliament, where it was defeated again, and just as some of us thought this madness would end, the DA announced it now wants to collapse Parliament completely in its mission to remove Jacob Zuma.
But Jacob Zuma is a man left with mere months of his ANC presidency, and a year and a half of his national presidency if the ANC does not recall him.
What is the rush?
Why should everything take a backseat to assist this mission to remove this man?
Valuable court time is being used to deal with this and it’s really hard to blame the opposition alone, if members of the ANC, perhaps current and former ministers too, have joined this call in this well-funded campaign.
I know everything about funding campaigns, especially how expensive it is – I have funded many political campaigns.
Which makes me wonder, who has ordered the removal of this legitimately elected president? Who is this client who cannot wait for a few months? What’s the rush? Is this client maybe wanting to exploit South Africa, hence the haste for the order of the removal of the First Citizen?
This client has even roped in journalists – and not just any journalists, seasoned ones.
We are now faced with yet another attempt, one that is dangerous and extremely risky.
If you collapse Parliament, you invite all kinds of problems – problems too ghastly and numerous to list here in such a young democracy, serving a nation that is so eager to register its displeasure through fire and the blocking of roads.
I have no doubt that whoever ordered the removal of JZ has got very deep pockets. I hope they are also deep thinkers, the kind of thinkers who can be persuaded that their order is too tall a task.
So please, comrades, speak to your handlers to allow us to return our focus to the things that matter. Soon, Msholozi will be back at Nkandla farming.
I know it’s hard because some of you have probably taken deposits and even full payment for this order before it could be delivered.
I can hear many already saying there is no handler, and I should provide evidence, but comrades, the evidence is in the invoices.
Who is paying for all these buses, lawyers, food, T-shirts, newspaper adverts, advocates, advisers, sound and stages, flights, etc?
Just as you have been pleading with the nation to support you, go and plead with your handler to maybe look for another make or colour, because offering this man from Nkandla’s head on a silver platter is too difficult and comes at too high a cost to us all.
* McKenzie is the leader of The Patriotic Front.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.