Former president Jacob Zuma. Picture: Gallo
There are two kinds of lawyers in South Africa. You can distinguish them by whether they write constitution with a capital or lower case ‘C’. While they may have differing degrees of reverence to our foundational legal statute, they will all tell you of the importance of the document. Former president Jacob Zuma, however, does not appear to share the same view.
The ANC has had some interesting views of the constitution and has been incredibly creative at times to interpret it through the lens of the freedom charter, but they’ve never actively called for its dissemination. It’s one of quite a few things we seem to forget and which the ANC should be given tremendous credit for.
Amid several difficult public issues, it’s easy to toss an abstract set of ideals in favour of some godfather-like figure. ANC leaders have historically assumed that paternal role for the wider community and, again, to their credit, not gone out of their way to say they are bigger than the constitution. Yes, they’ve elevated their party but never their individual selves. Perhaps they were sincere about it or maybe they just wanted to keep true intentions under wraps.
The latter is certainly appearing to be the truth for Zuma since his new party, ripped out of the structures of the old one, is all about pulling down the constitution for his benefit. Not to be seen to do things half-measured, he’s had a go at the Constitutional Court too. Who cares if a bloc of those justices were his appointments and he had no issue with them at the time? That all seems to have changed.
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Zuma’s disdain towards the constitution is increasingly apparent and one can’t help but wonder whether this is new or has been lurking in the shadows for some time. I’d like to believe it’s a recent phenomenon but who am I kidding? It must have been lovely when it was the document that got him the power he wanted, but now that it’s working against him and gotten him two lekker klaps in the Constitutional Court, maybe he’s got a good reason to stop believing in the constitutional order.
Here we are talking about a person who recently ran the helm of the ANC and did it for some 10% of its total lifespan. It’s not unreasonable to be asking whether his sentiments regarding the constitution are in line with the party’s.
If the ANC is as anti-constitution as having had somebody like Zuma at the helm implies, it may be concerning to the masses, even those who believe in the movement. If not, then they should probably come out and say it along with an apology for raising a rogue leader who is putting our constitutional democracy at risk.
It’s never a prudent political move to apologise for your mistakes. At least, it’s not as prudent as not making the mistakes to begin with. We are, however, in a political time that is littered with mistakes and perhaps an apology for unleashing Msholozi on us might go a long way in showing some self-awareness.
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I know party funds are low during election time and Cyril Ramaphosa still wants to pretend to go somewhere to get his fix of local syndrome, but he can do better than pretending to be in Stockholm.
uBaba is wrecking Cupcake and the least that our president can do is confront him and say: “no more”. If Ramaphosa had the balls to throw a middle finger at the entire medical profession and insurance industry, where are the balls to disavow and apologise for a declared constitutional delinquent?
Movie director Michael Bay apologised for making Armageddon. Maybe somebody should apologise for giving us constitutional Armageddon 2 – Justice for What?.
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