Mbeki: Constitutional crisis or leadership crisis?

Before I begin, may I just say that over my bank manager’s dead body will I be fielding questions on this one. Good luck to you, sir.

With the president’s return from the UN, the issue of the director of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Vusi Pikoli’s departure — allegedly for obtaining a warrant against police chief Jackie Selebi without first furnishing details to his political chiefs — may well reach a head.

Many are claiming that executive intervention, on behalf of Selebi, smacks of presidential expedience at the expense of our constitutional right to expect everyone and anyone to be subject to investigation and, where applicable, prosecution.

All well and good within a vacuum.

Reports this week suggest that Selebi may well be the president’s point man in the upcoming leadership conference in December. His arrest may well drive him into the opposition camp of Jacob Zuma.

Zuma is now being seen by many as the popular choice to succeed the president.

The Times of London believe that it’s a foregone conclusion.

The question of realpolitik arises: Where do our priorities lie? Is the Selebi issue and, pursuant thereto, the constitutionality of the president’s actions, more important than the future of the leadership of the ANC and thereby the next president of this country?

Like it or not, this is the call you have to make.

As the media, human rights groups and opposition politicians line up to express their dismay and disgust at the president’s conduct, they are in essence ensuring transition of power to Zuma.

If you are a Zuma supporter, then the issue of the Constitution must be front and centre. The more pressure you exert on our president to comply with it, the more he is forced to alienate parties who are crucial to him in the upcoming leadership challenge.

Moreover, if Zuma were to assume the presidency, the chances are he will reinstate many of those that the president banished. That is called rewarding the faithful who got you there.

In addition, he will not tolerate media interference in the way that the president does. If you doubt that, then regard his lawsuits against those who “attacked him” during his trial.

In power, he will not be suing the media. He will simply shackle them once and for all.

It is my humble submission that the vultures who are gathering to feed on the carcass of our president are going to find themselves the prey of an even larger and more dangerous predator, sooner rather than later.

Idealism is for wimps, as Bush found out when he tried to impose democracy in countries that did not cherish it or desire it. They simply voted in extremism.

Here we are going to have to realise that sometimes issues far greater than the rights of citizens in terms of their Constitution are at play.

If not, you may well be rewarded with a Constitution that is printed out, then turned over so that the new president can use it as scrap paper when writing out his orders.