Former president Jacob Zuma. Picture: Supplied
Edward Zuma loves his father to bits – nothing wrong with that. But when the son of embattled former president Jacob Zuma makes a rallying cry that law enforcement officers will have to kill him before arresting his dad, he is asking for trouble.
Edward has also urged his father’s supporters – the likes of uMkhonto we Sizwe Veterans’ Association and the radical economic transformation brigade – to converge on the family’s Nkandla homestead and mount the biggest protest against Zuma’s sentencing to 15 months for contempt of court.
Showing a middle finger to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, Zuma Jnr’s call flies in the face of stringent and necessary regulations prohibiting mass gatherings.
Zuma opted for an expensive option of defiance instead of testifying before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, where he has been implicated by several witnesses in what has led to the collapse of most state-owned enterprises (SOEs) – with his friends, the infamous Gupta family, having siphoned billions of rands of taxpayers’ money.
While some may think Zuma’s defiance of the law and his impending exchange of expensive suits to a prison garb will earn him martyrdom, they better think again.
The cost and impact of state capture in South Africa is running deep after the Zuma presidency – marked by a plunder of state coffers with immunity.
With some SOEs struggling to pay employees’ salaries, most have not fully recovered from when Zuma’s close associates landed plum public service jobs without any qualifications.
In delivering the majority landmark judgment, acting Chief Justice Sisi Khampepe was very scathing.
She said: “His conduct demonstrates a deliberate choice to – instead of furnishing this court with mitigating factors – once again air his views through inflammatory statements intended to undermine this court’s authority and portray himself as a victim of the law.”
Among the most refreshing comments following the Constitutional Court sentence was a reaction from Zuma’s former comrade and staunch ally Mac Maharaj.
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Maharaj, who played the role of Zuma’s spokesperson during his presidency, has described the judgment as marking the end of a chapter of corruption and abuse of power.
Said Maharaj: “Our democracy has been coming under attack. All three arms of the state have been coming under attack by elements who have been involved in corruption and the ConCourt has taken a firm decision.
“The evidence is overwhelming that, under [Zuma’s] administration, corruption developed to where it became endemic in our system. No one above the law.”
While pro-Zuma supporters are gearing up for a big show of force in Nkandla, the focus is now on law enforcement agencies – particularly Police Minister Bheki Cele – to enforce the Constitutional Court judgment by unleashing his officers to put behind bars the man at the centre of defiance for the law.
There’s no more room for Zuma to hide.
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