HOWARD FELDMAN

HOWARD FELDMAN WRITES IN HIS REGULAR BLOG

It is patently clear that the ANC lacks the moral courage to pull the plug on the President, and that the President himself has no intention of doing the honourable thing. Given both their behaviour to date, one can hardly afford to be shocked. Actually, given what they have done to the country and to the economy, one can hardly afford anything.

Hope glimmered during the State of the Nation Address, albeit weakly. Because for those brief moments, South Africans dared to believe that the penny had dropped (and this time not into the President’s wallet) and that he finally, with the help of the country’s leading CEOs, had understood the critical need for a strong economy.

SONA was followed by the Finance Minister’s Budget. It was not pretty, but it was real. And to name it meant that we could tame it.

Only we didn’t. Fast forward a little and the picture is much worse than it was then. South Africa’s Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, desperate to keep foreign investors in the country, embarked on a gruelling road show where he no doubt did whatever it took to keep them interested.

I suspect (this is pure speculation) that he might even have engaged in a karaoke night or two in downtown Europe, where he pelted out his best rendition of his host’s Eurovision 2015 song entry, along with complementary props (whatever those were). All in the interest of South Africa.

And whereas the people of the country were supportive of him and were behind him, because they understand just how important this is, the administration it would seem, were not. And does not.

Instead of being allowed to focus on saving the country from a down-grade, Gordhan appears to be deliberately distracted by demands from the Hawks, who claim to be pursuing justice. No political agenda, they assert. No working at the behest of anyone. Just pure and wholesome justice.

And whereas, far be it for us to question their bone fides, given that the SARS head is a “Zuma man”, and that the Finance Minister is hardly the President’s first choice, it wouldn’t be unreasonable, if one were to wonder (out loud, or even to oneself) if this whole investigation might possibly have waited for a month or two.

Add to that the horrible revelation by Vytjie Mentor. Recent reports claim that while President Zuma was in another room at the Saxonwold home of the Guptas, she was offered the ministerial position of head of Public Enterprises, so long as she dropped the SAA flight route to India.  Oh, and that she gave it to the Guptas as a quid pro quo.

She turned down the offer and was never made a minister. And so the picture gets uglier and uglier and more and more dirty. So that no amount of showering will wash off the stench of corruption.

The fact that other reports claim that President Zuma’s son, Duduzane, was involved with the Guptas as the family interviewed potential finance ministers for South Africa, the fact that it has become accepted that they control the President and that he seems to have no recollection of the above, is not only cause for alarm, but should have us running screaming from the building.

The fact that the Supreme Court of Appeal last week confirmed that the ANC had an obligation to work with the International Criminal Court (as a signatory to the Rome Statutes) and to arrest Sudan President Omar al-Bashir when he visited South Africa last year and that in its arrogance they not only flouted the ruling of the High Court but took it on appeal, is indication as to just how untouchable the ANC and the President consider themselves to be. A grave mistake made by many a politician.

History will not be kind to this government and to the President. As they have not been kind to the people they were elected to serve. They have failed their country and its people. And along with their leader, they should waste little time in packing up their spoils into neat cardboard boxes and should exit the building before the whole place implodes.