Zuma drama a mindless distraction
The ANC has officially expelled its erstwhile leader Jacob Zuma.
Following a disciplinary hearing held virtually last week, which Zuma chose not to attend, the party’s national disciplinary committee found him guilty of bringing the organisation into disrepute for starting a rival political party to campaign against the ANC.
He has 21 days from the date of the announcement to appeal, the ANC said yesterday, no doubt a procedural box-ticking exercise on its part.
Zuma had claimed to be a member of the ANC, while campaigning as a leader of the opposition MK Party.
Only he and his supporters understand the logic of this.
Speaking on the ANC’s decision, secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said: “We don’t know why you have a party and then you argue for your membership when you have taken a conscious decision to leave the ANC. You have impugned the integrity of the ANC; you have done everything – you brought us below 50% and we are grappling with that now – we are dealing with the consequences of Jacob Zuma’s actions.”
Nonetheless, MK Party leaders and supporters are again on news channels, crying foul over what they claim is unfair treatment of their leader. The ANC has dismissed him unfairly, they claim. As a result, he is considering his legal options on how to respond.
Right on brand, they have positioned Zuma as a victim of an illegitimate process designed to, yet again, tarnish his good name because he, and only he, is a true knight that can lead a revolution to better the lives of black people in SA. To be clear, dear reader, these are leaders of a political party, angry at another party, for dismissing their leader as a member of that party due to his custodianship of his current party.
Politics by their nature can be ridiculous but it is fair to say this ranks high up on a scale of the hilarious, mind-numbingly tedious. It is a manifestation of Zuma’s never-ending need to be the focal point of SA’s public discourse – no matter how bizarre his actions.
Apart from its brief comic relief from SA’s daily hardship, it should be ignored as a mindless distraction.