(HERALD) Zuma: ‘The People’s President’
Zuma: ‘The People’s President’By Rev Ben Keah
THE president of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress is undoubtedly the best suited candidate for the national presidency.
This is in spite of the negative campaigns against him by rival political parties, institutions, many counts of corruption and personal attacks on his moral track record.
President Zuma has been quoted to have categorically said that "courts are not God." This is an absolute fact.
However, his detractors have had reservations with this statement and even used it to suggest that the ANC may change the constitution.
Hammurabi, the King of the Babylonians, had his code curved into a great stone pillar that was set up in the temple of god Marduk.
These detractors belong to a group who have turned the system of law into gods for the purpose of curtailing freedoms and enriching a few "learned friends".
They would not have the truth of who they are openly discussed in the public arena.
It is an open secret that most lawyers are tricksters. They use their knowledge of law to their own advantage.
They are happy to collude to fleece governments whenever they get the opportunity while others steal from their clients in blatant manipulation of the law they take an oath to protect.
Such an institution is obviously something else but not "God".
The modern court system is a creation of the people, is meant to serve the people. Unfortunately, courts are demanding a form of worship from the people. Only God ought to be worshipped.
The archaic and embarrassing court language which insists on judges being addressed by "your worship" indicates the doomed desire by the created to replace the Creator.
I am surprised that none of the leaders in our myriad of religious cults has come out in support of President Zuma on this matter.
When all is said and done, President Zuma is an ordinary politician doing ordinary political stuff but he knows who to worship — not himself and obviously not the Supreme Court.
Anybody who cares to think outside the box will soon realise that the State has largely failed, particularly in Africa.
Many factors have been advanced for this failure.
States, like the courts, have metamorphosed into corporate bodies with characteristics of living organisms that covet the position of God.
Governments have assumed unrestrained power and authority over individuals and indeed over life itself.
The concept of statesmanship is a perfect nursery for racial discrimination, xenophobia, economic protectionism and related ills.
It curtails freedom and opportunity for individual growth and development.
Last year’s xenophobic attacks in South Africa are still fresh on the minds of those among us who care to remember.
However, South Africa is not the only place where these ills have found a fertile ground. In the recent past, Kenyans of Somali decent have allegedly threatened to expel non-Kenyan Somalis from organisations and businesses in Kenya.
Statesmanship is a creation of the colonial masters effectively utilised by neo-colonialists and their proxy elite leaders. It makes people within the extemporised colonial boundaries think they are essentially different from their neighbours beyond the borders.
The natural reaction is either to think that the grass is greener yonder and thus venture there or to jealously protect what is within our borders.
President Zuma puts statesmanship in perspective. He is a Zulu and a South African. With the formation of nation States in Africa was introduced a negative spin on people groups.
Tribe became synonymous to barbaric and uncouth. The colonial master perfected the art of divide and rule.
They capitalised on the animosities that sometimes characterised tribal inclinations for supremacy and control of resources.
This colonial mastery must be rejected for the lie that it is. Unfortunately, many elite African rulers have used similar mastery to advance nepotism.
Read whatever you may in the National Prosecuting Authority’s decision to drop President Zuma’s corruption charges.
For many, it was long overdue.
Similar to the idea of the State discussed above, people care more that someone has stolen their car at gunpoint or their cow from the kraal, snatched their mobile phone or raped their daughter than they do about one who is alleged to steal millions from the State.
This unfortunate culture stems from the mali-ya-umma (State property) notion whereby what belongs to everybody belongs to nobody.
This is the plain truth but because it points to the failure of States in their present form, people pretend not to notice it.
Unfortunately, many governments in Africa still want more control in business, health, transport, infrastructure and virtually all other sectors.
On the contrary, what is needed is less of government and more of real individual involvement in wealth creation and development.
In addition, many people I have spoken to think that the charges against Zuma were politicised and it is only right that they were dropped.
The opposition parties capitalised on the charges to attack Zuma. These attacks, largely led by the Democratic Alliance with its "Stop Zuma" campaign, have been interpreted by some Zuma supporters as being racially motivated.
Moreover, in a country where a majority of the people are struggling under the burden of poverty, their instinctive desire is to survive.
Unfortunately, this struggle to survive sometimes takes desperate forms.
The use of food parcels to woo voters will not stop simply because opposition parties are crying foul.
This is made worse when blacks still feel that their white compatriots still control the economy at their disadvantage.
The disadvantaged majority view Zuma’s presidency as victory of one among their number.
President Zuma can and does dance.
Many people flock to the campaign rallies where he is scheduled to speak and greatly enjoy the entertainment.
Times are hard but times have also changed.
With the global economic meltdown, the last thing that people would want is a wound-up, zombie-like President in a tie reciting the doom and gloom of the times.
People who go to President Zuma’s rallies come away relaxed following the spontaneous Zulu gigs that characterise these rallies.
This is a president who is human — he feels and is not ashamed about it.
People are often not interested in presidents who are "high up somewhere". Instead, people are drawn to leaders who feel with them.
One can only hope that President Zuma is not turned into a zombie with the cosiness of political power consequently forgetting to address the issues of unemployment, quality education and insecurity.
A strong opposition is thus crucial to ensure checks and balances.
When South Africans go to the polls, like other democracies in the world, they do so to elect a President; not a pastor.
Some people have lambasted President Zuma on moral grounds.
Some are even on record to have said they would be ashamed to be represented by Zuma as the President of the nation.
Others say he is a project of the West.
Fortunately for President Zuma, he is like the adulterous woman caught in the act whose account is recorded in the Holy Script.
In the story, the Good Lord reveals the hypocrisy of the Pharisees — ordinarily clad like the modern judges.
He invites one who is free of misdemeanour to cast the first stone and as you may have guessed correctly, none was found without transgression.
Africa is awash with many who have ascended to the high offices in the name of God but have turned out to be greedy opportunists and manipulators.
Some anti-Zuma campaigners have castigated him for not making concrete promises to the electorate.
We must all beware of promises made by politicians.
It is an established fact that a government that is big enough to give you everything you ask for is big enough to take away everything you have.
In the 14th Century, Tamerlane of Tartar is said to have promised the city elders of Sivas in Turkey that not a drop of the defenders’ blood would be shed if they surrendered. They surrendered and he kept his word to the letter — four thousand Armenian soldiers who had led the city’s resistance were buried alive.
l Rev. Ben Keah is the Director of Programmes at the Africa Institute of Contemporary Missions and Research. This article originally appeared in The African Executive.
Labels: JACOB ZUMA, NEOCOLONIALISM
posted by MrK @ 4:52 AM
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