ANC’s quest hasn’t changed and it won’t anytime soon

For weeks now, former president Jacob Zuma’s stated intention to defy a Constitutional Court order to appear before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture has dominated the news.

The situation is fraught because this is an untested democracy. And Zuma and cronies are hacking at its roots.

Some rag-tag members of uMkhonto we Sizwe have sworn to protect Zuma with their lives if an arrest is attempted. There have also been skilfully amplified expressions of support for Zuma from some ANC branches.

The impasse coincides with a tightening of the legal net around ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, who on Friday appeared in court on corruption charges.

ALSO READ: Magashule snubs supporters after court appearance

The same radical economic transformation supporters who back Zuma are out to support Magashule. They claim the charges are a political set-up and have “nothing to do with the law”.

They want an “immediate investigation” into the “compromised” and “captured” judiciary.

These intimations of resistance create space for SA’s most dangerous political opportunist, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema.

They chime perfectly with his ambitions to discredit a judicial system that threatens him and his corrupt party.

Malema this week warned judges were “not special” and sectors of society would “rise against them” if they abused their powers.

The EFF has influence way beyond its sparse electoral support. Desperate as the ANC is to restore the EFF to the fold, it has done everything possible to placate them.

But appeasement only wins breathing space. A contest looms.

READ MORE: ‘Justice must prevail, no matter who is involved’, says Lamola on corruption

To open the batting, Ramaphosa has sent in Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, who spoke against “spurious attacks” on the judiciary.

“The constitution and the rule of law are sacrosanct components of our democracy and people must respect these principles. To allow anything else will lead to anarchy and open the floodgates easily to a counter-revolution.”

It’s an interesting turn of phrase, for not only is SA an untested democracy, it’s an uneasy one.

The words “revolution” and “counter-revolution” are important in the ANC lexicon.

Last week, ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte appeared to suggest the constitution is counter-revolutionary.

The thrust was how commission chair Raymond Zondo was challenging the very basis of the ANC’s existence – that its representatives are accountable first to the party and only afterwards to the constitution.

Duarte half-heartedly apologised to Zondo, but she gives a glimpse of how a number of ANC leaders see the constitution: an inconvenient impediment to the ANC’s revolutionary quest.

ALSO READ: ANC NEC adopts ‘step aside’ guidelines that could see Ace Magashule forced to step down

And while Lamola is correct Zuma’s and Malema’s failure to respect the constitution and the rule of law could destroy our democracy, we should doubt his sincerity.

Zuma’s and his mob’s belief the former president is being politically railroaded is, in essence, correct.

The ANC has, for almost three decades, placed party interests above national interests, skirting the law to protect the thieves and
thugs in the tripartite alliance.

It was not until it dawned that state capture could see the party voted out that those ANC leaders who had tolerated corruption – like Ramaphosa – decided some high-profile examples had to be made.

William Saunderson-Meyer.

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