Now I know why I was feeling the gloom this morning. Big Friendly has just walked in with this morning’s Mail & Guardian and it looks like an absolute certainty that the NPA are dropping all charges against zoom zoom Zuma for corruption, despite the facts and evidence against him. Let’s stop pretending that there is a stitch of justice, accountability and consequence here. The message is loud and clear; you can be a crook and a president. Great stuff NPA. Great stuff ANC. Great stuff SA. Sies.
Tag: Zuma (Page 1 of 2)
Zuma – a done deal
A political potjie
I know it’s too early in the morning, and I should be writing my latest industrial theatre script, but after scanning iol and having coffee, I have just turned to Big Friendly and told him that I am ready to move anywhere in the world but stay here.
Two articles in particular got me feeling like the ‘frog in the pot’ again. One was about the chaos that erupted at the University of Zululand because of battles between ANC and IFP supporters, and the other was about a COPE member who found herself in court because she had a sticker on her car saying “I am a Sadtu member and I vote for Cope”.
These two stories completely embody why the possibility of a true democracy is still a fantasy here in SA. We are pretending to be in a democracy. People still intimidate each other, people still believe they have a right to determine how people vote and for whom, and people still resort to violence if they don’t like what somebody else does or says.
Now Matthews Phosa has jumped on the Afrikaaner bandwagon with zoom zoom Zuma, who recently declared Afrikaaners to be the only rightful white South Africans. It’s hard enough for me to swallow the fact that zoom zoom Zuma is going to be president. I am fundamentally depressed and anxious about that. But now it’s everything else that comes with a looming election that will be ‘sort of’ free and ‘mostly ish’ fair. Sies.
I love it!
I needed something to cheer me up and I got exactly what I wanted. A lekker krekker of a 2020 and the Proteas winning in the end. I love 2020. It’s short, furious, reckless, personality cricket (except for the dancing bunnies after boundaries, better than those Standard bank Kaboom girls, but still). Last night’s personalities were Aussie David Hussey, who slam dunked 88 off 44 balls and then took two wickets for 21, and Albie Morkel who did a few huge sixes for SA. It was Mark Boucher who won the game though. The old terrier hung on with his teeth and saved the night.
It was a bit scary when one of the big lights blew after the Aussies had bowled just three balls to the Proteas. I could see there was an electrical problem at the ground; the cameras had been jumping and frame flickering all night. All the stadia in SA have to be tiptop for the….IPL!!!
I can’t wait. I loved last year’s 2020 competition and this year it’s going to be played here. It is so cool. Yay.
This has at least shifted my gloom about what is happening here politically. I had one of those Oprah lightbulb moments yesterday. I realised (probably years after everybody else) that zoom zoom Zuma is not going to go to court. I realised that something somewhere was going to change to make that a reality regardless of the law of the land or the constitution or the NPA or anything. I guess I always knew that. But it’s the fact that people are literally ok to put a crook into the seat of the presidency of this country that made me miserable. I mean, the reality is that we are going to have a president and we can’t believe a word he says. And he is going to be ‘chosen’ in a democratic way. People are going to vote for the guy. It’s too depressing to contemplate.
I seriously hope there is an IPL match scheduled for voting day. That’s what I’ll be watching.
An election in the dark ages
I am feeling more and more uneasy. Every day somebody else takes to the pulpit as part of the election campaign and I think this is one of the most dangerous things to happen here in South Africa. Not only do we have the simmering of tribal, ethnic and, let’s face it, racial divides, but now we have the ‘I’m more religious than you’ competition amongst the leaders of the parties. Bear in mind that this is not any religion. It is really only Christianity that seems to be the appropriate ethical entry pass to this new world of politics.
Now I need to be very clear here. I am not criticising the church, or Christianity itself. I am the first to admit that these institutions do amazing, vital, if sometimes terribly misguided work (I can’t get the image of the Pope warning Africans against using condoms out of my head!). But when the line between politics and religion is blurred, we are left in awkward, dangerous, often conservative and frightening territory.
The problem is enormous and complicated. The implications are far reaching. And unfortunately, it has everything to do with what the church and politicians have in common; power, money, influence and a moral whip. Sometimes the abuse of this is totally absurd. Allan Boesak is a religious and political absurdity. Rev Dandala of COPE seems to have tumbled from religion into politics, purely as a mechanism for COPE to climb on some moral ‘high ground’.
But, for me, it is Zuma who is the out of control religious nightmare, who manages to have dubious sex with an HIV positive woman who is not one of his (is it) five wives, who faces charges of corruption, who sings about needing somebody to bring him a machine gun, and then stands before the Rhema church congregation on a Sunday to sermonise. Is it just me? Is this beyond belief? How can anyone anywhere take this seriously?
More than the absolute absurdity of the situation I had the uneasy feeling that I have seen this before, and recently. Finally I was able to put my finger on it. These people are trying to pretend to be Obama! I have always found the conservatism of Christian American politics creepy, and now that it has been adopted by our own politicians in the most ill fitting mantle, it has gone from creepy to dangerous.
Believe it ‘cos it’s true
I’m sure I wrote about my heartburn caused by the fact that the dreaded Carl Niehaus had returned to ANC politics after the Mbeki topple over. He just smelled really creepy. So it came as no surprise to me when Big Friendly walked in seconds ago with today’s Mail & Guardian and the headline reads "Tearful Niehaus admits fraud". I haven’t even read the article, but all I can say, to the man who waxed lyrical about Zoom Zoom Zuma’s high class morals, is phanzi, you crook!
Main Moegoes
I haven’t read Hogarth’s Mampara of the week yet in the Sunday Slimes, but it doesn’t get worse than…Zoom Zoom Zuma, who had this to say at an NEC meeting dealing with…could you believe…the leaking of the scandal that our stand-in prezzie is having TWO extra-marital affairs? Hai bo! Zuma pledged support to Motlanthe, saying:
“His private life has nothing to do with the way he runs the country or how he executes his tasks as the ANC deputy president.”
He has got to be joking, right? I am for the first time in many years entirely. completely and utterly speechless. WTF?