If defending democracy means jail time for Zuma, so be it

There are two seemingly unrelated matters that are putting South Africa’s democracy to the test.

Besides creating an atmosphere of political uncertainty right now, these matters, if not dealt with properly, have the potential to leave a blot on South Africa’s constitutional democracy.

Former president Jacob Zuma’s self-created legal entanglements with the Zondo commission of inquiry and the Constitutional Court is the most visible of these matters.

What was a straightforward matter of the Zuma simply presenting himself to the commission to account for his role in state capture has now been twisted into a matter that pits the country’s legal system against an unquantified threat of an uprising of sorts should the former president land in jail.

Of course, Zuma has never come out and said civil unrest would follow his arrest, but his camouflage-clad self-appointed minions have.

They are the same minions who have threatened to bring the country to a standstill through a series of national shutdowns should the ANC go ahead and enforce its step-aside rule against secretary-general Ace Magashule.

Again, a threat of civil unrest is being used as a weapon, not only against opponents within the ruling party – as this is essentially a party matter – but the threat is being used against the country’s democracy.

There has always been an air of “I dare you” when it comes to certain individuals in South African politics – an air of defiance that says certain individuals are bigger than the constitution of the republic and any action that is taken against them using the laws of the country will have negative consequences for the country.

It is this air of defiance that gives people like Carl Niehaus the confidence to declare that “there’ll be an upheaval in this country if Zuma goes to jail”. Niehaus does not say who will be behind the upheaval, or why they would feel justified to cause one, but he uses that threat to seek protection for Zuma.

It is these kinds of thinly veiled threats that must never be allowed to take root, or South Africa’s democracy will be in trouble.

Like Zuma, Magashule has never made any threats about his “stepping aside” from his position in the ruling party, but his supporters in the radical economic transformation faction of the party have made threats to “block national roads and metro roads”, among other acts, to drive their point home.

Even worse is the fact that they are threatening to disrupt the everyday lives of South Africans for an internal ruling party matter. Zuma and Magashule’s issues are not entirely unrelated.

They both have their basis in state capture. The corruption charges that Magashule is facing come from the so-called asbestos project that happened when he was still the premier of the Free State at the height of Zuma’s presidency … the “wasted nine years”.

These are the years that the former president has been at odds with the Zondo commission about, using every legal trick in the book to avoid accounting for his role in what went wrong.

Both men have supporters threatening to unleash an upheaval of sorts because they are being made to face the consequences of their actions.

Their supporters are putting South Africa’s democracy in jeopardy to defend politicians against accusations that should be settled through the courts or their own organisation.

The best way to ensure that threats like these come to nothing is for the country to enforce what the constitution says. If defending democracy means jail time for the former president, so be it.

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