President Jacob Zuma\u2019s institutional destruction has now reached critical mass.<\/p>\n
There are several antecedents for the current crisis, all of them drawing on the political economy of the wider Zuma circle, which is ultimately what appears to drive the president\u2019s decision-making.<\/p>\n
The pattern was laid down in the evidence adduced by the\u00a0Schabir\u00a0Shaik trial. Zuma lives beyond his means and then barters his influence for\u00a0support from business and family cronies who try to make money by trading on\u00a0his name, his influence,\u00a0his overt or hinted support.<\/p>\n
All this takes place under the fig\u00a0leaf of transformation, of creating black industrialists, or whatever the current convenient catchphrase.<\/p>\n
Zuma is nothing if not ambitious \u2013 as are the people who feed off him and feed him in return.<\/p>\n
Zuma long ago left behind Shaik and his minority stake in an arms deal subcontractor, which was used to fund Zuma\u2019s first relatively modest (though still unaffordable) Nkandla upgrade.<\/p>\n
Now he rubs shoulders with the Guptas, who have their sights on mining, energy and\u00a0transport interests at a national level. His cohorts, such as nephew Khulubuse, have crisscrossed Africa in his wake, sliding through the doors he has opened.<\/p>\n
As the deals and people Zuma has pushed have grown in importance, their potential impact on the economy or on state-run enterprises has\u00a0gradually\u00a0brought him\u00a0into conflict with those whose task it\u00a0is to manage those assets in the best interests of the nation.<\/p>\n
Nowhere is this clearer than at SAA. Zuma\u2019s friend Dudu Myeni has worked her way through an astonishing series of ministers, executives and bailouts.<\/p>\n
Nene\u2019s attempt to discipline Myeni is clearly the trigger that caused Zuma to act now. In\u00a0fact the new SAA board, which might have ditched Myeni,\u00a0was due to be announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n
But the president\u2019s nuclear ambition is the radioactive element in the room.<\/p>\n
There is good reason to believe that Nene\u2019s predecessor, Pravin Gordhan, was axed because he refused to accede to Zuma\u2019s demands over nuclear procurement \u2013 and over another unaffordable megadeal to have state-owned PetroSA buy Engen.<\/p>\n
There are also grounds to believe that Tina Joemat-Pettersson\u2019s predecessor at energy \u2013 Ben Martins \u2013 was axed because he was too slow to respond to our Russian allies’ nuclear overtures.<\/p>\n
Now the geopolitical situation has changed: Russia has other problems and the Chinese chequebook is open for business, including a nuclear deal.<\/p>\n
But the\u00a0treasury has been dragging the nuke dream back to earth. Despite Zuma\u2019s promises to launch a tender process by the end of the year, Nene only set aside R200-million for medium-term technical studies and planning.<\/p>\n
It is understood that financial assessments procured and proffered by the\u00a0treasury have stressed the dangerously high risk and cost of nuclear, despite efforts by Zuma\u2019s nuclear chorus to sing a song of affordability.<\/p>\n
On this, too, Nene was holding the line. So he had to go.<\/p>\n
The coming economic crisis, which we outline elsewhere, is built on a political crisis in the ruling party and ultimately for the nation.<\/p>\n
In sacking Nene, Zuma has demonstrated brutally clearly that he does not care about the common good, about the national interest, only about his own survival and the survival of his personal and quasi-feudal project.<\/p>\n
This is clear for anyone to see in the way he has dealt with the National Prosecuting Authority, with the South African Revenue Service, with the public protector, with SAA, with Eskom, with the SABC, with communications policy and now, with the treasury.<\/p>\n
It is even, sadly, evident in the way he has dealt with women.<\/p>\n
Yet no\u00a0one in the ANC will stand up to him.<\/p>\n
A party built on bravery and sacrifice is now mired in cowardice and avarice. Not a single MP or minister has resigned or even condemned Zuma\u2019s shocking recklessness.<\/p>\n
Zuma has betrayed his oath of office and is set to entrench in power a clique for whom the solemn constitutional commitment is\u00a0simply a display of cynicism.<\/p>\n
If the ANC won\u2019t stop him, the country must.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In sacking Nhlanhla Nene, Jacob Zuma has demonstrated that he does not care about the common good, only about his own survival, argues Sam Sole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30763,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4190\/revisions\/30763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}