Former president Jacob Zuma’s recent hospitalisation has unleashed a tsunami of online lionisation for the man from Nkandla.
Puh-leeze. Zuma was an out-of-his-depth and absent deputy president under Thabo Mbeki. He was a disastrous president of South Africa. His tenure introduced the large-scale corruption, economic lethargy and political myopia we see today. Zuma and his ANC comrades shut down the Scorpions, opening the door to the corruption we are hearing about at the Madlanga commission. His administration invented and normalised state capture.
Zuma’s presidency was the epitome of chaos. It was common to arrive for a meeting with him to find tens of his supporters from KwaZulu-Natal waiting to see “uBaba”. I’ve seen the chieftainess at my mother’s village in Tzaneen run her constituency with more order, more consideration and more professionalism than the disorganised mess that characterised the Union Buildings between 2009 and 2018.
It’s important to remember that chaos — deliberate and otherwise — and how it contributed to South Africa’s swift slide into an ineffective, chaotic and visionless entity. It is crucial because, no matter what happens with Zuma’s health challenges, he will have a significant impact on the November 4 election and municipal governance after that. The Zuma legacy will be one of chaos, decay and perhaps even violence.
Apathy and acrimony
The first thing to consider is that three weeks away from the polls, there is very little electioneering really going on. Sure, there are rallies and postering and door-to-door visits by earnest-sounding politicians, but this is pro forma stuff. Voters are not motivated. They are not enthused by issues and candidates. Even in Joburg, where Africa’s economic engine is decaying at an alarming rate, residents display an astonishing level of equanimity.
In the 2021 local government elections, 40.6-million South Africans were eligible to vote. Only 12.1-million did so. Voter turnout has been on the decline since 1994. November 4 is unlikely to mark a major turnaround.
However, one issue that has exercised voters this year is the anti-migrant agitation led by March and March, and the political party that has benefited most is clearly Zuma’s MK Party. Others have climbed on the populist anti-foreigner bandwagon, but the weight of March and March is in KZN, where MK is strongest. These mobilised citizens are not the people President Cyril Ramaphosa is visiting in their homes. These are people going out in the streets, intimidating foreign nationals, looting foreign-owned shops and getting up to all sorts of mayhem. They are already mobilised, and they will turn up on November 4. Advantage Zuma and MK.
That means eThekwini and a few other municipalities in KZN may well fall into the chaotic control of MK, as one poll is already projecting.
A many-headed monster
If Zuma were to be sidelined for health or other reasons, his party would be in the hands of unelected, inexperienced people who may not command the respect of all their constituents. Neither Tony Yengeni (second deputy president) nor Duduzane Zuma (first deputy president) has been in their position for long. Duduzane was roped in three months ago, while Yengeni was handpicked by Zuma in October last year. The party has had eight secretaries-general since 2024. It is essentially a Zuma cult.
Out of this chaos can only come more chaos. Having failed to set up structures to ensure some level of continuity and stability when he goes, Zuma may now leave us a party that holds sway in key cities and towns in KZN but is essentially rudderless and open to the vicissitudes of chaotic leadership contests. In Soweto and Ekurhuleni, areas where MK’s popularity must not be underestimated, this fractious group could be a kingmaker.
The second element of the connection between Zuma and March and March is the possibility of violence. Zuma was the fuse for the devastating July 2021 violence. March and March was at the centre of the recent flare-ups of mob action in Durban and Soweto. It is not far-fetched to see the combination of the two triggering further trouble.
All this is to remind you, dear reader, that Zuma, who brought South Africa despair in 2009, is not finished with us yet.
