The vultures seem to be circling over the office of Jacob Zuma, the President of South Africa. Almost since coming to office, he has faced a series of growing concerns over his mixing of business dealings with his political affairs — one that has led to a near paralysis in Pretoria and its affairs of the state.
The problems are now well and truly overwhelming for the president and the publication of a report by South Africa’s former public prosecutor last Wednesday makes for alarming reading, particularly given the carefully chosen words and phrases used by Thuli Madonsela. Reading between the lines — Zuma has a very cosy and beneficial relationship with members of the wealthy Gupta family in South Africa. While the report stopped short of saying that financial crimes had been committed, it did detail allegations between Zuma, the Guptas, two cabinet ministers and executives at state-owned companies. The three Indian-origin Gupta brothers — Ajay, Atul and Rajesh — used their influence to affect cabinet appointments, to allegedly influence business deals in their favour.
What’s important is that Madonsela recommended that the whole affair be investigated fully by a judge.
Zuma has long denied any wrongdoing and has said that while there was a relationship with the Guptas, it never ventured towards influence-peddling, corruption or wrongful financial dealings.
For the past two decades, the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) has enjoyed unparalleled success in elections and its monopoly on power has largely been assured because of the pack of a clear and viable alternative for voters. That electoral dynasty has created an atmosphere of entitlement, where power is a right for its senior leadership, and with power comes entitlement.
The most recent municipal polls, however, dealt a heavy blow to the ANC, with it losing control of several key municipalities and cities. Those electoral results should have been viewed by Zuma and ANC party officials as the tide turning and that the party legacy of Nelson Mandela should not be taken for granted. In the past weeks, tens of thousands of South Africans have taken to the streets to demand the removal of Zuma over his alleged corrupt swag bag activities. This most recent report will do nothing to quell those demonstrations. Zuma will do well to read the political writing on the wall. He would also do well to remember that he also faces the possibility of a further 783 corruption charges, that were dropped before he took office, coming back to bite him. Something is bound to stick.
