Is Zuma Fit to Govern? Lets Take the Debate Somewhere Else Shall We?

By Fazila Farouk

Date posted: 19 September 2008
View this article online here: http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/168.1

The media are having an absolute field day with the Jacob Zuma case and their reporting is set to get even more frenzied with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) having appealed Judge Nicholson’s ruling.

It’s going to be nothing less than the carnival we’ve already witnessed, complete with tasteless caricatures. Brace yourselves for another round of less than subtle references to the shower-headed Zuma’s rape case. With Zapiro firmly entrenching the media’s unquestionable right to freedom of speech, the sky is the limit.

It’s not too hard to see which way the scales tip when our media, the guardians of our democracy, balance their fourth estate function with the demands of their bottom line. In media-speak, freedom of speech has become a metaphor for "lets dig up as much dirt as we can". They know that scandals about "sex and money" sell newspapers.

Unsurprisingly, Zuma's lascivious encounter with a young lady that has now fled to The Netherlands, as well as the allegedly greased handshakes he accepted in the arms deal, made him ripe for the media's picking.

Not that the South African public don’t deserve to be led by a President with impeccable credentials. But then again, is George Bush fit to be president of America? And just what is Robert Mugabe still doing in his old job?

Even its inventors, the ancient Greeks knew that democracy was about power and politics - a dirty game where smarmy egoists rise quickly.

A game, where the stage is set for an absurd theatre of risk, revenge and counter-revenge.

This is precisely how the Zuma-Mbkei-NPA saga has played itself out in mainstream discourse – very entertaining indeed, but hardly burrowing into the substance of our democracy.

In the aftermath of the NPA’s decision, this is also how the high drama will continue to be portrayed by our media, serving little purpose beyond feeding the fears of privileged South Africans in the throes of making the tortuous decision about whether to stay or flee to Australia.

We need to stop deluding ourselves; idealists with integrity do not ascend in politics. Barack Obama is finding out all about this right now as he watches his dream for the American presidency fade away.

But getting back to Zuma, The ANC has closed ranks around him. There’s more than a good chance that regardless of the NPA's appeal, Zuma is all set to cruise into the cushiest office in the Union Buildings.

So lets take the debate about our democracy and Zuma’s ability to govern somewhere else. Lets start asking him questions about whether he is going to deliver real freedom to our people. Many South Africans are still waiting for this miracle to manifest itself in their lives.

Is Zuma’s so-called grassroots support base likely to be sacrificed at the altar of capitalism, once he becomes president of the country?

He certainly seems to be doing a splendid job allaying the concerns of neo-liberal corporate types, even promising FIFA president Sett Blatt that the 2010 soccer world cup will be untouched by political instability.

No doubt this means that he’ll be sitting on his hands while - to paraphrase Eddie Cottle commenting on the impact of 2010 - ordinary citizens continue be driven out of the cities, criminalized and crowded out due to urban gentrification that is reinforcing and exacerbating the racial and spatial landscape of apartheid South Africa.

Zuma certainly hasn’t said anything about making any drastic changes to the economy, which Jean Triegaardt contends is on a growth path that has its roots in the apartheid era - where the owners of capital and employees with skills were ensured high earnings - and which continues to foster high levels of inequality in income distribution in present-day South Africa.

Let’s ask Zuma what he is going to do about South Africa holding the dubious honour of having the highest number of people in any one country in the world infected by HIV. That’s five and a half million South Africans, of which 55 percent are women.

Lets ask Zuma, the polygamist, lots of questions about women and women’s emancipation. Lets ask him about women that are virtually imprisoned and impoverished by tribal laws, which conflict with their constitutional right to socio-economic security.

Lets ask Zuma about our responsibilities as citizens of the globe and our country’s contribution to stemming global warming. What is he planning to do about the fact that South Africa has only invested a paltry 300 hundred million American dollars in renewable energy, while globally that figure stands at 38 billion American dollars.

There’s so much more we could be examining and debating with our president in waiting: land reform, informal settlement upgrade, improving healthcare and education for the poor, promoting a socially just economy, building a transparent and accountable system of governance, to name but a few topics.

Just for the record, I too believe that corruption is the cancer of all societies and must be rooted out. But Zuma’s trial by the media has just reached an intolerable level of triteness. It’s time to let the courts determine his guilt or innocence.

Our role as concerned citizens of one the most unequal societies in the world should be to hold Zuma and the ANC accountable for the promises they made to the people of this country when they came into power in 1994.

Lets just ask them if they’re planning to revive the RDP.

Farouk is executive director of the South African Civil Society Information Service.

Read more articles by Fazila Farouk.

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