‘Zuma never cared about RET’ – analyst

A leading political analyst has rubbished claims that former President Jacob Zuma was a champion of radical economic transformation in South Africa and that he had the interest of the poor at heart.

Political analyst Xolani Dube, head of the Xubera Institute for Research and Development, questioned Zuma’s alleged history of leading radical economic rtransformation, saying the facts showed the opposite.

He said instead the former president was comfortable with the ANC’s neo-liberal policies and that he failed to undo the apartheid economic establishment when he had all the time to do so as then MEC for economic affairs in KwaZulu-Natal and as deputy president and president of the country.

“As ordinary South Africans, we have to demystify the myth around some leaders in South Africa otherwise we would get caught up in lies and end up following individuals for no good reason. We need to conscientise people that their struggle wasn’t about individuals but about their freedom and that everybody was a freedom fighter, not only certain individuals,” Dube said.

He argued that many died for freedom, including many white people, and it was the families of those cadres who suffered the ultimate price at the hands of the apartheid authorities who should be hailed as heroes because today they had no fathers, mothers, siblings and relatives.

“We need to pay tribute to those who paid the ultimate price and not hero-worship individuals. We cannot hero-worship individuals like Zuma who are walking among us,” Dube said.

He also lambasted the Zuma supporters who included certain Umkhonto weDizwe Military Veterans’ Association members, led by the association’s national executive committee member Carl Niehaus, for putting a “badge of honour” on Zuma that he did not deserve.

“To a certain degree a person should accumulate a degree of immaculateness before he is called a hero. Those so-called radical economic transformation members who bestowed JZ  with the ‘badge of honour’ should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.

He criticised MKMVA for fighting for an individual instead of fighting for the organisation or the people.

“MK was not established to fight for an individual. It was established to fight for the people against the apartheid regime. The MKMVA is supposed to represent the interests of the veterans and not fight for individuals. We do not need MK anymore; otherwise if they should exist, we must ask who is their commander-in-chief, because Cyril Ramaphosa is not their chief commander,” he said.

Dube said if Zuma was intent on pursuing RET, he should have demonstrated much earlier.

“The facts are there to show that he never had a sense of interrupting the apartheid economic set-up. There is not a single person, never mind five people, who can claim to have been empowered by Zuma in KZN as someone who had the heart for radical transformation of the economy. Instead he promoted certain Indian business people who were close to him at the expense of blacks and many Indians who fought in the struggle but were never rogues,” Dube said.

The analyst alleged that instead of empowering black people in the spirit of radical transformation, Zuma sidelined businessman Mzi Khumalo and offered his ally and businessman Schabir Schaik, who became his financial adviser, a business deal.

“On the specific project of empowering people, he never did that. He never implemented radical economic transformation because he was comfortable with the apartheid economic system and the neo-liberal policies of the ANC,” Dube said.

He said Zuma only started fighting for radical economic transformation when he was forced to fight for his political survival.

“He never applied radical policies and never led a rebellion demanding land expropriation without compensation. Why did he not do that? There was no RET when he was president of the ANC, and it was only towards the end of his term of office that he began to talk about this. Even in Mangaung they spoke about the ‘Lula Moment’, which never happened,” Dube said.

He accused Zuma supporters of making unfounded allegations that Zuma was under attack by “white monopoly capital” because of his radical stance on economic transformation.

“Why are we being fooled by his so-called radicalism? His followers in the so-called ‘RET President Zuma Support Group’ are portraying Zuma as a Che Guevara of South Africa when he is not. The man had all the opportunities to pursue his policies. But his cardinal goal as president was to empower the Guptas,” he said.

Dube questioned why Zuma was always a common factor since 1994 as someone willing to bring the country down if anyone tried to touch him.

“His supporters claim that Zuma brought us this democracy, but there is no one from them saying that the same man is destroying this democracy,” he said.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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