At the ANC’s 53rd national conference in December 2012, Jacob Zuma was re-elected president of the ruling party. Most of the 4,075 delegates voted for the slate put forward by the KwaZulu-Natal wing of the party.
After Kgalema Motlanthe, then deputy president of SA, broke with the man he had supported in 2007, Zuma chose Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC deputy president and pledged to implement the National Development Plan, which the new number two had championed.
What followed was a studied neglect of the plan and a series of ever-more serious scandals, few of them having been resolved up to now.
Dodgy deals
Zuma cultivated scores of business people, who receive lucrative contracts from state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and then pass money on to Zuma or his affiliates. This tendency began with his relationship to Schabir Shaik, who paid a discounted price for his corrupt relation to Zuma, who managed to avert his famous day in court, which has not yet come.
Zuma has been associated with other dodgy characters: he received money and favours from Ajay Sooklal, a fixer for arms company Thales; he received R1m a month from Roy Moodley, whose son boasted that his father was the most powerful man in SA; and he was funded by Vivian Reddy and Thoshan Panday, among others.
At a January 2013 banquet, where mining mogul Patrice Motsepe paid R600,000 to sit at Zuma’s table, Zuma announced: "Supporting the ANC means you’re investing very well in your business." Reddy was soon awarded a R1.25bn contract to supply electricity meters to Johannesburg’s City Power after a competing bid for half the cost was rejected.
Some of these deals had drastic consequences. When 13 South African Defence Force (SADF) soldiers were killed in the Central African Republic (CAR) in March 2013, reports voiced suspicions that the army was being used to defend the interests of private businesses linked to prominent politicians. Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse Zuma was one of those who clinched mineral rights to a lake of oil on the border of CAR and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Ministers passed blame for the deaths from one to another, none of them daring to say it was Zuma who was ultimately responsible.
Of course, the dodgiest of them all was the Gupta family, who were not content to secure deals, but the very state itself.
Even before his presidency, Zuma saw no wrong in using the state to secure his own and his family’s interests. Unable to distinguish between public and private interest, he eventually collapsed the public interest in favour of his own.
All in the family
Even before his presidency, Zuma saw no wrong in using the state to secure his own and his family’s interests. Unable to distinguish between public and private interest, he eventually collapsed the public interest in favour of his own.
In July 2014, Zuma’s daughter Thuthukile was appointed to a R1m-a-year position as chief of staff in the office of Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Siyabonga Cwele. The position was never advertised.
In June 2015, another daughter, TV producer Gugu Zuma-Ncube, was given a bailout by the City of Durban so she could continue producing Uzalo, a Zulu-language soapie. In other family matters, Zuma accused his wife of poisoning him.
Unlike other presidents, Zuma’s family members have become household names, with everyone reading reports about the financial affairs of his nephew Khulubuse, his son Edward, who was involved in tobacco trafficking according to Jacques Pauw, and various sons-in-law.
But the biggest beneficiary was Zuma’s son Duduzane, who linked up with the Guptas to plunder Eskom and other SOEs. Duduzane was given a stake in nine Gupta companies, including Tegeta Exploration and Resources, Mabengela and Oakbay.
Appointments and ‘dis-appointments’
Zuma used state power to make crucial appointments to SOEs, state institutions, such as the police and security agencies, among others. If he didn’t directly appoint people he got his lackeys to install loyalists. He fired functionaries directly or by remote control to install his puppets.
He appointed loyalists to run Eskom (Brian Molefe), the SABC (Hlaudi Motsoeneng), the security services (David Mohlaba), the police (Riah Phiyega, Khomotso Phahlane), the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) (Nomgcobo Jiba), and the Hawks (Berning Ntlemeza), among others.
In 2011, three intelligence chiefs warned that the Guptas should be investigated as they appeared to wield undue influence over the state. They were fired.
In January 2013, Zuma appointed Dudu Myeni as head of South African Airways after Cheryl Carolus and six board members resigned — this after a Special Investigating Unit report said Myeni, as head of a water board in the Department of Water and Sanitation, had been probed for tender irregularities, abuse of state resources and other charges.
By February 2015, economist Iraj Abedian said SOEs had long been a drag on growth, instead of a facilitator.
In June 2014, Zuma appointed Shaun Abrahams to replace Mxolisi Nxasana as National Director of Public Prosecutions, after the latter was given a R17m golden handshake. Rumoured to be a cousin of Zuma’s lawyer Michael Hulley, Abrahams has prevented Zuma from facing corruption charges ever since his appointment.
Zuma appointed Tom Moyane in September 2014 as head of the South African Revenue Service (SARS), without consulting the finance minister, as required, with disastrous results. An exodus of able functionaries followed and the so-called "rogue" investigative unit was vilified and dismantled, crippling the service’s capacity to gather taxes.
Zuma suspended Anwa Dramat, the head of the Hawks in April 2015. It later emerged that Dramat had been investigating an ally of Zuma, businessman Thoshan Panday. In 2013, the NPA dropped bribery charges against Panday, even though it had intercepted calls in which Panday boasted about giving money to Zuma and his foundation.
In September 2015, Zuma appointed a new Hawks boss, Berning Ntlemeza, who, together with Abrahams, went on to hound Pravin Gordhan after December 2015.
Many of these have been dis-appointed, including Phiyega, Molefe, Motsoeneng, Ntlemeza, Phahlane and Myeni — and Abrahams is headed that way.
In 2011, three intelligence chiefs warned that the Guptas should be investigated as they appeared to wield undue influence over the state. They were fired.
Zuma and the veterans
The ever-cynical Zuma embarked on a much-publicised visit to an ailing Nelson Mandela for a photo-op on April 30 2013, with an SABC crew in tow, taking flash photos of a frail Madiba. The elder statesman was unable to speak, which suited the President perfectly. The Guptas landed a jet at Waterkloof on the same day.
Mandela died on December 5 2013 and the nation went into mourning. At the memorial service, with world leaders in attendance, Zuma was booed when he entered FNB stadium, in contrast to Thabo Mbeki, who was cheered, as was FW de Klerk. KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu got the loudest welcome.
The SABC edited out Zuma’s booing while the ANC blamed the Gauteng branch for the behaviour. Like a typical cop-Stalinist, South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Blade Nzimande warned that booers would be named and shamed.
This was the beginning of open public disgust at the Zuma administration’s corrupt activities and at the tripartite alliance’s refusal to acknowledge the public’s mounting concerns.
ANC veterans were more astute. Mandela’s former lawyer George Bizos asked: "Who are our leaders kidding when they say they are following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela?" A tearful Ahmed Kathrada, speaking at the funeral of his late friend, closed his speech by praising SA’s Chapter Nine institutions; the good works of people such as Madonsela, he implied, were safeguarding democracy.
When Kathrada died in March 2017, amid an outpouring of national grief, Zuma was asked not to attend the funeral. It emerged that Kathrada had written to Zuma asking him to resign. Recently, Zuma suggested that the stalwart was manipulated into writing the letter.
Re-election as SA’s president
In April 2014, Max du Preez charged that Zuma was using the powerful new State Security Agency, which had swallowed the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), to stay in power. "We have recently seen evidence that NIA operatives and former operatives were active in vetting candidates for the ANC’s elections lists and that NIA was monitoring SABC employees," he wrote.
Despite being booed a second time at a rally in Limpopo in April, and former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils telling voters not to vote for the ANC, Zuma and his party won the election in May, but with a reduced majority. And the EFF would now be in Parliament to harass Zuma.
At his second inauguration, stealing the idea from the EFF, Zuma spoke of radical socio-economic transformation, which would later be seized on by PR firm Bell Pottinger.
His new Cabinet prompted commentators to say government was undergoing "Zulufication". He appointed Nhlanhla Nene as Finance Minister, believing he was more pliable than Gordhan, who was downgraded to the local government portfolio.
A slew of Zuma sycophants became ministers, among them Mahlobo (state security), Muthambi (communications), Dlamini (social development), Lindiwe Zulu (small business), Mokonyane (water), Nkosinathi Nhleko (police), Edna Molewa (environmental affairs), and Nathi Mthethwa (arts and culture). They joined his A-team: Malusi Gigaba, Fikile Mbalula, Cwele, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Lynne Brown, as well as 37 deputy ministers.
Despite a report by then public protector Thuli Madonsela slamming Tina Joemat-Pettersson, she was given the energy portfolio, and almost immediately announced she would be going nuclear. Zuma confirmed this in his state of the nation address in February and during mysterious trips to Russia.
It was reported that 19 of the 35 ministers had private businesses, including Zuma.
Dlamini would go on to try to syphon money from social grants; Muthambi would miss the deadline for TV to switch from analogue to digital broadcasting and keep matric-less Motsoeneng at the SABC; while Brown would allow parastatals to become troughs for Gupta and Zuma cronies.
To facilitate state capture, in September 2015, Zuma fired Ngoako Ramatlhodi as minister of mineral resources and replaced him with Gupta gopher, Mosebenzi Zwane.
Nkandla comes home to roost
Late in November 2013, her draft report on Nkandla by Madonsela was leaked to newspapers, suggesting Zuma had, indeed, benefited from the "security upgrades", recommending that he be called to account by Parliament for violating the executive ethics code.
Madonsela’s report on Nkandla was finally released on March 19 2014 and Zuma, for the first time, commented on the debacle. "I’ve done nothing wrong," he said. "They say I’m corrupt and I built my house with taxpayers’ money ... I never did that."
He launched parallel probes into Nkandla that exonerated him. But the Constitutional Court ruled that Zuma was liable for the costs of non-security upgrades at the homestead, and ordered him to pay back an amount Treasury would determine. The Court found that Zuma had failed to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.
After a failed appeal, he paid back the money.
Despite reports that officials received instructions from "number one" to let the Guptas fly in, Zuma escaped blame, orchestrating a few low-level fall guys to take the rap, and staying silent.
From ‘Guptagate’ to Guptaleaks
In April 2013, at a Freedom Day event, Zuma declared: "Fellow South Africans, I must underline here that of all the countries that I know of, very few compare to SA in the effort to fight corruption."
Days later the Guptas landed a plane at Waterkloof airbase, sparking a huge controversy: Guptagate had landed. Reports claimed the ANC was split on the issue, and that some were calling for Zuma to resign. From this point on the state-capture narrative was revealed in more and more detail, with calls by ANC leaders as well as opposition parties for Zuma to resign, all of them unsuccessful.
Despite reports that officials received instructions from "number one" to let the Guptas fly in, Zuma escaped blame, orchestrating a few low-level fall guys to take the rap, and staying silent.
He finally broke his silence on Guptagate in November, saying he knew nothing about the jet the Guptas had landed at Waterkloof. Emerging virtually unscathed, the Guptas went on to launch a TV channel, take over mines, siphon money from parastatals, and cause havoc in the ANC. They effectively crippled the economy. Zuma encouraged all their misdeeds, and yielded to their designs. There has never once emerged signs of discord between him and the Guptas.
The most dramatic period in Zuma’s presidency began on December 9 2015 when he fired finance minster Nene and replaced him with the hapless Des van Rooyen. Forced to back down by the ANC’s leadership, he re-appointed Gordhan, even as he had his minions in the NPA begin a war with the Treasury.
It emerged in March 2016 that the Guptas offered Mcebisi Jonas a massive bribe and the position of finance minister in November 2015.
Themba Maseko, head of the Government Communications and Information System, revealed that Zuma personally asked him to "help" the Guptas, who virtually ordered him to divert government’s advertising budget to their media outlets. He refused and was fired two months later.
Kebby Maphatsoe, the Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, defended the Guptas, saying: "These are South Africans, they are not whites. They do not take profits out of the country; they invest." But the EFF alleged that the family had spirited R6bn away to Dubai. Zuma sat on the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, which would have allowed banks to fact-check the allegations.
Following these revelations, the Guptas appeared to flee the country in April 2016, but they slunk back a few weeks later.
On November 2 2016, the departing public protector released her 355-page report on state capture, recommending that Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, and not Zuma, appoint a commission to further investigate the issue. The report confirmed the slew of reports about Zuma and the Guptas ever since Guptagate.
Zuma laid low as unprecedented protests followed, with civil society baying for his blood.
Then, on March 30 2017, Zuma again fired his finance minister, this time Gordhan, appointing Gigaba in his place. Finally, he had his hands on Treasury, but by the time the new minister delivered his first budget speech, Moyane had succeeded in racking up a R50bn deficit.
On June 1 2017, Guptaleaks hit SA. Every day saw new headlines confirming just about every report on the Guptas and state capture. The anti-Zuma members of the ruling party’s national executive committee (NEC) were powerless to do anything about revelations that a functional police force would have moved on — even before the leaks.
From Zuma to Ramaphosa
After his 12th Cabinet reshuffle, Zuma renewed his campaign to have his former wife installed as president of the ANC. He wrecked the ANC in the process, cutting the organisation into two hostile camps. At Nasrec, in December, Ramaphosa won the ANC presidency — but three of the top six and half the NEC were voted in by Zuma supporters.
A disastrous President, Zuma destroyed the tripartite alliance, engineered the decimation of union federation Cosatu, and used populism to facilitate the capture of the state by a thieving family that effectively took over government. Yet he survived countless scandals and several motions of no-confidence, using wiles that proved he was that much more Machiavellian than Mbeki.
This article, a far-from-complete account of Zuma’s destructive career, will hopefully serve to remind the ANC why Zuma must be removed.
• Yunus Momoniat is a freelance journalist
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