Jacob Zuma: Four weddings and an indictment

While Kenyans were praying for peace yesterday, their leaders continued to squabble over the spoils of the elections.

Probably just some form of “post”-destructuralism I must have missed. Mind you, if you think they’re slightly misguided, how about Bobby “Who’s Fuelling Whom” Mugabe who announced his brand-new elephant biltong over the weekend?

Local conservationists are predicting they won’t have an animal left within five years — Bob really does bring new meaning to the term “scorched earth”. His military is destroying anything that might be useful to the “enemy” — that is, the people of Zimbabwe — when they finally rid themselves of this regime.

Down south, of course, we celebrated Jacob Zuma’s fourth wedding to Nompumelelo Ntuli with a traditional Zulu ceremony held in KwaZulu-Natal; hopefully a source of joy and blessing to all concerned.

Which brings us to today’s meeting of the ANC and the selection of the national working committee, dealing with the Zuma indictment and discussing methods of implementing resolutions taken at the Polokwane conference.

It affords the ANC the opportunity of sending a signal to all South Africans that:

the party is bigger than the petty squabble;

the rupture can be mended;

the factions can, in the interim, co-exist peacefully; and

the country is the central concern of the party.

The way to achieve this is by selecting a NWC that achieves a balance between the old and the new. This will go some way to reaching out and offering an olive branch to the “old guard”.

Just as important is reaching an understanding on how the issue of the indictment is going to be handled by the ANC as a whole. It’s no good telling the country that the independence of the judiciary will be respected if the conduct of the members shows anything but that.

There has to be a structure in place to deal with this issue — something recognised by both factions and which no member may second-guess. That structure must be revealed and explained to South Africans today so that a small measure of certainty may be introduced into what is a source of grave concern.

If the ANC can achieve some sort of balance on the NWC, together with a common purpose in its approach to the indictment, then the rift at Polokwane will be well on the way to mending itself.

Crucially, this must be clearly set out in the January 8 statement, because the direction it proposes that policy should take for the coming year will be analysed locally and abroad; assessed to see whether the patient is indeed on the road to recovery.

Isn’t it ironic that we are the only country in Africa with two centres of power, causing untold friction and electricity at party meetings, yet with a power company that can’t stop itself from shedding power at every opportunity? Must be a lesson in there somewhere.

And don’t let me catch any of your mothers writing letters to our newspapers — Ferial has enough aggravation with her journalists without having to put up with that.

Make us proud!