Disrespectful how ex-ANC leaders change their tune

Yonela Diko

Frankly, I think we must just de-construct this Zuma hatred that always finds flight with everything Jacob Zuma says. It is a disingenuous knee-jerk response that seeks to hide enduring Zuma hatred under objective pretence.

To understand Zuma’s statements, one has to appreciate the events of the week that culminated in the president of the ANC making those statements. The week opened up with former secretary-general of the ANC, comrade Kgalema Motlanthe, expressing his views on BDLive on the state of the alliance and other topics. This was followed by the current secretary-general Gwede Mantashe’s response to not only comrade Motlanthe’s criticism, but the recurring trend of former ANC leaders choosing the platform of the media to express what they feel should be corrected in the ANC.

Quoting secretary-general Gwede Mantashe in his response article: “Their bona fides (the former-leaders-turned critics) are presented as being for ‘the sake of the country’, and not to protect their ‘tea’ – in this case being individual or group interests, or to build a power base or fuel personal ambition.”

So, here you have former leaders who, when questioned why they can’t exhaust all the current internal structures of the ANC with their great concerns or when asked why they can’t adopt the international standards that encourage an unwritten code of silence by former leaders in order not to stifle or be seen to be missing their spot under the sun, they claim that such criticism is done for the sake of “the country”, and not to destroy the party they once led.

It’s almost a natural entry point for the president of the party to say, “but for you as a former leader, the party must come first, or at least, protect the party that you believe made this country what it is today, unless, of course, you believe that only with you at the helm is this party capable of fulfilling its almost divine position in the country”.

You, therefore, have leaders who, when they were in the party, they used to espouse the statements like: “If the party wants me to do this or go there, I will do so because I am a loyal member of the ANC.” But now that they are outside, they will do what the country requires, not what the party wants. How revelatory.

Ultimately, with an overwhelming mandate from the country’s population, over the past five election cycles, what the people want is what the ANC wants. But the chamber of white applause and the assimilating new minority, with their illusions of speaking for some imaginary majority – always ready to slice and dice the president’s views – wants today to squander the president’s statements to reaffirm their enduring prejudice against a man who, despite his lack of education, his humble starting position, rose to become president of the republic.

Show the president some respect, if not courtesy, to apply your brain on his statements; he is smarter than you think.

l Diko is the ANC Western Cape media liaison officer