President Jacob Zuma appears to have offered to step down as president in 2018 if he can get rid of Pravin Gordhan as finance minister now.
That at least is how Reuters has two sources telling it. There’s a nice ring to it and it is helpful because it reduces Zuma down to the raw. What he wants is a year in the Treasury, undisturbed, and then he’ll go.
In that time, his new finance minister (it really wouldn’t matter who) would raid everything. The Guptas would get their bank and the state-owned companies would get more guarantees and issue more tenders and pay more backhanders to middlemen so that finally Zuma could stand up in the middle of the huge circle of thieves he has created and say, "Right, now, I’ve done everything I can, you all have what I promised you and I have what you promised me. I’m off and if I were you, I would advise the same."
But Zuma is doomed. Even if he reshuffles by the time you read this, the one certainty is that he has run out of road. If Reuters is right, then he has already blinked. He has no strategy.
One post-reshuffle Cabinet list doing the rounds among journalists has Mosebenzi Zwane at trade and industry and Des van Rooyen at economic development! Hahahaha.
Zwane’s job would be to provide licences to export what’s left of the country to the Guptas. Brian Molefe gets small business and Malusi Gigaba gets women and children. Just kidding.
But, really, pay it all no attention. Someone’s made it up.
That’s because Zuma isn’t thinking about policy or the great affairs of state. He is 100% at the service of the Guptas. It’s about money for his family and for himself. That is the only fuel he has left to run on. And it is finally there for all to see.
Cabinet reshuffle or not, it is over for this guy.
About two months ago, I received a note from the Times Media human resources department. It said "congratulations" because I had now been with the company for 20 years. My reward was 40 days’ leave. From next week, I am going to start to take it, in addition to the generous amount of leave I already am due. This is going to mean some changes to the way I work.
When I left the editorship of Business Day just before the 2014 general election, the then publisher and I signed an agreement in which I would essentially be kicked upstairs and given a grand title, editor-in-chief of BDFM, which is what I am as I write. But, in all honesty, it has been nothing but trouble.
But Zuma is doomed. Even if he reshuffles by the time you read this, the one certainty is that he has run out of road
In newspapers, when you’re not the editor, the "in chief" part is meaningless. I have never once, since the day I left the Business Day newsroom, made any input into the paper, other than this column. I am nonetheless constantly asked to lunch by people who still think I matter, or who want jobs or their stories published. And, no, I’m not responsible for the paywall, the shrivelled news hole or the acres of white space or the occasional spelling mistake. Please call the editor. His name is Tim Cohen and he’s just dying to hear from you all.
I retire from the staff of the Times Media Group at the end of November. They have been kind enough to offer me a contract to continue writing after that, and I will. I’m really enjoying writing after decades of editing and TMG, trimmed to the bone though it may be, is still producing some really great journalism.
This column, The Thick End of the Wedge, a name inspired by an insult the late Deon du Plessis threw at the even later Louis Luyt, has been a joy to write these past 16 years. I get to write also for the Sunday Times, which is a wonderful privilege, and for the Financial Mail, of which, like Business Day, I was once the editor.
So, as of this column, I am no longer editor-in-chief of BDFM. My card, such as it is, will read Times Media Group Editor at Large and I challenge anyone to come up with a tax-deductible reason to have lunch with me.
One of the things editors value are angry readers. They write the letters. The classic of the genre, to The Times of London, is from "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells". The chronic dyspeptic I will miss most is Anthony Still, recently fired by the new mayor of Johannesburg. Still berated me on this page recently for daring to suggest Herman Mashaba might not in fact be perfect. This week, he was at it again about my suggestion we pay every adult a basic grant of R2,000 a month.
"That’s 75% of the national budget," he cried in a scorching letter. Can’t you count? Yes, Anthony, I knew that when I wrote it. The point was the grant, not the cost. But since your point is cost, what would you pay for peace in our land? Wait, on second thoughts, forget it ...
• Bruce edited the Financial Mail from 1997-2000 and Business Day from 2001–14
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.