Ebrahim Moosa – Opinion | 09 Rajab 1437/07 April 2017

President Jacob Zuma’s controversial cabinet reshuffle of last week has sparked a range of activist measures and further polarised sentiment within the ruling party and wider South Africa.

It is noteworthy that, whilst the criticism of Zuma has been vociferous – even from factions who previously allowed the President free reign, there is a lively caucus of commentators who have cheered Zuma’s action of replacing the finance minister in particular, as a victory against white monopoly capital and a decisive milestone in the quest for radical economic transformation.

The critique that is to follow is meant as no defence of the banks – many of whom have actively connived to undermine the value of the Rand and potentially owe the South African fiscus billions, nor is it meant to glorify ratings agencies who have previously engineered global crises by providing false gradings. But I find it myopic to view Zuma’s latest power play in isolation, elevating him to the pedestal of a messianic economic emancipator, whilst ignoring the litany of other questionable and unethical practices that have become a personal hallmark during, and even prior to his presidency.

“I don’t have a short-term memory as others do,” said former COSATU secretary general Zwelenzima Vavi commenting on Talk Radio 702 on the morning of Zuma’s reshuffle.

“This is a long journey that we have been witnessing, we have analysed and we have told the people way back when we saw the signs deepening in 2010. We warned South Africa that the steps that were being taken by the cliques inside the ANC were taking us only in one direction: a capitalist, kleptocratic order, ruled by the powerful predatory elite for crony-capitalists that they are friends with, to the destruction of our country and to the destruction of the hopes of every worker and person who was hoping that the ANC will herald a better life for all the people of South Africa.

“We are now deep into that line and these are just some of the highlights of this.”

Vavi the proceeded to deliver a blow by blow list of the misdemeanours of the Zuma presidency, paraphrased below:

• The first thing President Zuma did when he took office was to remove 3 senior MK operatives in the intelligence and replace them with Apartheid intelligence operatives
• Secondly, he got rid of the Scorpions. (Vavi says COSATU and himself helped Zuma there because they “naively” believed this to be the right thing to do)
• The Hawks stepped in to fill this vacuum. Yet, even with its head being a celebrated MK commander from the Western Cape, Anwa Dramat, when the commander “did not play the game,” Dramat was discharged of his duties by Zuma and given a R3-million golden handshake, to be replaced by former Apartheid Bantustan policeman Bernie Ntlemeza
• He took out a capable advocate at the NPA, Advocate Nxasana and with a R17-million golden handshake replaced him with Shaun Abrahams
• He put in a social worker as the head of the police and Marikana happened
• He has now put in a very compromised dubious character in the form of the current acting police commissioner, Khomotso Phahlane
• He has planted his family and Gupta-appointees across all the State-owned enterprises from the SABC which was run by a fellow with a Standard 7, to family links at SAA, the destruction of Eskom, billions leaving Transnet to build jobs in China leading to closures and dismissals of workers in Nigel

“It is a full destruction,” Vavi concluded. “And now, they have been given a full unfettered access to the treasury”.

The trade unionist opined that slogans of ‘radical economic transformation’ by the current ruling elite be taken with a pinch of salt based on their track record.

“Look at Gigaba’s record when he was Minister of Public Enterprises, was that radical economic transformation? Look at him in Home Affairs outsourcing to the Gupta families. Radical economic transformation? Nonsense! These are people who are misleading themselves. They know very well that is no such issue on the agenda. What is on the agenda is looting!”

Despite the current rhetoric, Vavi believes that the Zuma government has all along been an active participant in propping up neo-liberalism, which should equally be considered as yet another of the blights of the ANC’s tenure in power.

“All of them are guilty of implementing neo-liberal programmes, austerity measures – Gordhan included, which have led to 9 million people unemployed, and Gigaba is not going to do anything about that. He is not going to bring back exchange controls. He is not going to stop the slide, where this government is reducing the tax to corporates to the extent that it was almost 50% in 1994, and today it is sitting around 28%. He is not going to do anything about free education or decolonized public education systems. He is going to do nothing except to give tenders, outsource to the Guptas and the people who are lining their pockets”.

In a Facebook post, author and political analyst Ebrahim Harvey challenged the notion that opposition to the belligerence of Zuma at this point by progressive forces be seen to be a rousing endorsement of Pravin Gordhan and all that he represents.

“Let us not mince words here; Gordhan, like all his predecessors, have pursued economic and social policies which were much more in the interests of the capitalist class than that of the historical constituency of the ANC, the black working class.

“…But what is at stake now in the efforts to remove Gordhan is another set of interests, which requires the broadest coalition of forces of civil society and the widest cross-section of progressive class forces which is meant to defeat the machination of the Zuma clique. It is not to make our peace with capitalism and Gordhan’s distinctly neo-liberal policies, but to stop the Guptas and others who want to generalise the looting of the state and its many institutions, which has already reached dizzying heights under Zuma. That it could get worse if Gordhan is removed lies at the heart of the purpose of the occupation of the Treasury.

“Things could get even worse for the black working class if Gordhan is successfully removed,” Harvey predicted.