So, it is now official. Jacob Zuma has formally stepped down as President of South Africa, bringing the curtain down on his nine years of rule. It was an end that seemed to take weeks — each step along the path to closure agonised and taking time to complete, almost as if Zuma was hoping that somehow, somewhere, at some stage along the process, he might still be able to hold onto the leadership of the “Rainbow Nation”. It was not to be, and the political pressures on him made his departure from public life unavoidable. Inevitable? Yes, and all his own doing.
Zuma was a huge figure in the African National Congress (ANC), a fighter in the liberation struggle that saw the ANC transform from an illegal political movement in the apartheid regime of South Africa, to bush fighters drawing on Soviet aid, and finally to the corridors of power under the magnetic and inspired leadership of the former president, late Nelson Mandela. It was a political apprenticeship that gave Zuma powerful lessons in resilience and what it takes to survive as an armed rebel. Those are not necessarily qualities that easily translate into elected politics and good governance.
Throughout his nine years, Zuma has been embroiled and overseen a series of projects and business partnerships that did not sit well with the duties of his office nor the duties of his cabinet ministers and the sworn duty to serve all. Instead, Zuma has been dogged by influence-peddling allegations that resulted in tens of thousands of South Africans engaged in a series of demonstrations demanding his departure.
Governmental inquiries and official investigations all reached the same general conclusion — Zuma had played fast and loose with the laws that necessitate a division between the business of politics and the politics of business.
But what now for the nation that had the goodwill of the free world at its disposal when Mandela took the reins and offered a message of hope and potential? Yes, South Africa has economic potential, but its industries based on natural resources are jaded and in need of reinvigoration and modernisation. That will require a huge capital input and, under Zuma’s presidency, Pretoria’s national debt has ballooned to staggering levels. Its crime and unemployment rates need to be fixed, too. It will require an immense effort to bring the nation back on track. It will be a struggle on par with that already endured by the ANC — but it can happen again.
