Edward Zuma hysterical anti-Jewish rant

STAFF REPORTER

The hysterical rant of the missive and the snide Jewish reference is contained in the following paragraph:

“They are also in charge of the PIC [Public Investment Corporation] under the chairmanship of the holy Mcebisi Jonas [deputy director of finance], Gordhan’s partner in business and colleague in government‚ this institution countrymen (sic) is their base and playground for total control and capture of the country as the likes of shoprite checkers (sic)‚ bidvest (sic)‚white fund managers and many more Jewish based entities are running the show without interference from government and with the help of the government officials who have shares in the companies that get money from the PIC‚ including (Save South Africa convener, prominent businessman and fierce critic of Jacob Zuma) Sipho Pityana’s company and if they dispute my assertion let’s go public I will expose all this.”

Director of Political Futures Consultancy, Daniel Silke, believes the letter is cause for concern as it comes from the president’s son. Further, it should be viewed within the context of an “acute battle currently raging” between the president and his supporters on the one side, and (Finance Minister Pravin) Gordhan and business leaders like Sipho Pityana on the other.

Silke has suggested that the concern is exacerbated by the fact that the accusations made by Zuma further risk eroding confidence in South Africa, both from the foreign and local investment sector. “There is also a deliberate attempt to deligitimise the minister of finance and Treasury.”

Zev Krengel, vice-president of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) says: “This type of rhetoric is unacceptable – and the SAJBD will be following up on it.”

Ben Swartz, national chairman of the South African Zionist Federation, is convinced that Edward Zuma has been used as a pawn to circulate his letter – a ploy instigated by his father’s camp in their determination to undermine so-called “white monopoly capital”.

“It is a strategy that uses the Jews as sacrificial lambs to promote a particular political agenda. The irony is that Jewish businesses employ hundreds of thousands of workers and are committed to bring about the country’s economic success.

“Indeed, South Africa’s leading Jewish business people have been working closely with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to help salvage the nation’s stagnant economy. The anti-Jewish tirade stems from a policy designed to undermine Ramaphosa and Gordhan, with the Jews being used as the scapegoats.”

Swartz predicts that the Zuma camp’s anti-Jewish strategy will fail. “You can fool some of the people some of the time; you can’t fool all the people all the time.” 

Several leading Jewish business people canvassed by Jewish Report were extremely reticent about airing their feelings in public. As one expressed it: “Those who put their heads above the parapet during the era of the Third Reich were snuffed out quicker than a yahrzeit candle.”

Some nevertheless were prepared to speak anonymously. A cross-section of their observations:

• “The ultimate irony is that Jewish South Africans account for a miniscule 0,12 per cent of the country’s population. Why, then, target so few when the nation’s leaders are faced with such monumental challenges?”
• “Those who so glibly trot out the ‘white monopoly capital’ sobriquet should pause to consider the fact that without the taxes paid by this ‘beastly fraternity’, 17 million social grant recipients would starve. And that’s not counting the millions of jobs created by ‘white monopoly capital’.”

  “Ramaphosa, Gordhan and Jonas have demonstrated great perspicacity through having consulted with the nation’s top business brains (not all, of course, Jewish) to help boost the economy and ward off ratings downgrades. The Zuma enclave would do well to emulate this initiative. After all, who knows the economy better than those operating at its coal-face.”

• “Edward Zuma shows scant understanding of economics 101 by asserting that Jewish-based entities ‘are running the show without interference from government’. In fact, were it not for the government’s gratuitous and all-embracing interference in the economy via excessive regulation and widespread corruption, our GDP would be growing at a rate considerably above its current number – one that would make meaningful inroads into South Africa’s unemployment predicament.”

The SAJBD urges all South Africans to avoid resorting to anti-Semitic hate speech, including sinister invocations of behind-the-scenes Jewish financial domination. It is becoming more commonplace for those in leadership to refer to “Jewish-based entities” somehow being behind financial institutions and manipulating politics through economic power. 

“Conspiracy theories such as these thrive in societies experiencing high levels of socio-economic and political turmoil. When those in positions of power make such statements, there is a real cause for concern, according to a statement the Board put out following the release of Zuma’s letter. 

“This kind of discourse is clearly racist, and is antithetical to the kind of democratic, anti-racist values on which any socially cohesive society is predicated. Negative Jewish stereotyping, and the innate irrationality of attributing extraordinary, as well as malign power to members of a particular ethno-religious group, is further indicative of something fundamentally unhealthy in our society. 

“For all its current travails, the requisite democratic structures are in place in South Africa to enable its people to confront and successfully overcome the many serious challenges currently facing our country.

“That presupposes, however, that South Africans are united by a common desire to strive together to achieve those goals, and for that, sufficient levels of mutual trust, empathy and respect are needed. This is why the growing prevalence of hostile racial rhetoric, of which anti-Jewish conspiracy theories are just one part, poses such a serious problem to the national well-being.”

SA Jewish Report approached the Presidency for comment but had not received a response by the time of going to press.