The Big Read: Zuma can afford to giggle



The main question about President Jacob Zuma's tenure since 2009 has not been how far or how high he would take us as a nation. It was not about how he would build on the work of former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. We knew that he would not even come close to their standards.The main question about the Zuma presidency has been how much damage he will have inflicted on the ANC and South Africa by the time he leaves.The farcical events that unfolded from 7pm on Friday, when he failed to take responsibility for his actions, tell us exactly how much damage Zuma has wrought, and opens up a frightening window onto just how much damage he is still capable of inflicting in the time he has left in office.Considering that he has possibly a full three years in the Union Buildings, the damage could be huge.Zuma will have destroyed the country and its economy by 2019, when he is forced by the constitution to step down at the end of his second term.A man who has been found by a full bench of the Constitutional Court to have failed to uphold his oath of office is in charge of your country.So why has the ANC not kicked him out? Friday's events tell us why. Zuma has not just cowed our institutions of democracy but has managed to go deep into the heart of power: He has compromised the ANC, the party of Mandela and Oliver Tambo, to ensure that he is untouchable.He knows that, when all is said and done, only the ANC has the power to remove him from office.A cunning political player, he has stuffed the party's top six leadership, the national working committee and the national executive committee with spineless cronies who are beholden to him.When these lickspittles have to choose between the country and Zuma, between their own once glorious movement and the man from Nkandla, between the constitution of the republic and him, their choice is clear: Zuma.That is why you had ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe saying on Friday things he did not believe. He had no choice. His party has been hijacked by the man he helped put in power.Since he first took the oath of office, in 2009, Zuma has been doing everything in his power to bring our institutions of democracy and accountability to heel.He started with the swift, illegal and brutal disbanding of the Scorpions crime-fighting unit and its replacement with the Hawks, a body that now investigates the likes of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and is headed by a Zuma lackey who lied under oath.That was followed by myriad other moves to ensure that no one can hold Zuma accountable.When his own spy chiefs warned against his relationship with the Guptas, Zuma fired them all and installed a series of spineless yes-men to the intelligence agencies and the State Security Ministry.Despite attempts to destroy the public protector and capture the judiciary, he has largely failed to capture all the people and all the institutions.The Constitutional Court's judgment on Thursday was one of the most wonderful endorsements of our constitution and democracy.It will go down in history, together with the dignified and brave actions of Madonsela over the past five years, as one of the proudest moments of our 22-year-old democracy.But this is precious little compared to where we could be. Zuma has sold our democracy to the Gupta family by giving them sway in cabinet appointments and state-owned enterprises.He has destroyed the capabilities of our security agencies by appointing cronies to top jobs.He has poisoned the political environment and is wrecking the economy.So why is he in power? It is because his greatest coup has been to capture the ANC.There is no doubt that, on Friday, Mantashe and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa - the chairman of the body that wrote the constitution - asked him to resign.He probably laughed at them because he knew that he has packed all the ANC bodies that can recall him with his own cronies.He knows that, of all the bodies that he has attempted to steal, it is the ANC that he had to lock down. He has.Now, when the chips are down, he sleeps well at night knowing that he has three years in office to loot and wreck as he has been doing.If Zuma does not go, by the time he leaves in 2019, the ANC will be a shadow of its former self.South Africa will be the same.After all, as the man has said, it is Zuma and his family first, the ANC second and the country last. That is what Friday's events told us in stark terms.