ANC’s handling of Zuma matter deeply troubling and frustrating

In reflecting on my organization’s handling of the Jacob Zuma matter, it deeply troubles and frustrates me. The leadership missed a crucial opportunity for internal reconciliation between the incumbent President and his predecessor.

Instead of objectively and subjectively assessing the situation, they succumbed to the influence of political elites within the ANC and media pundits, who hugely underestimated Zuma’s political sway.

Maqabane kaTambo, leaving him in the political wilderness was a dangerous move. It is or was akin to caging a wild animal. Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Mhlanganyelwa Zuma is a true political animal; through and through. Surely alienating him from the ANC and closing the door on him to partake or attend the ANC NEC meetings was absolutely a bad and miscalculated move, because it left him to his own emotions, anger and resentment, more so it left him to people who fed into his anger and manipulated the situation to their personal benefits.

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Our ANC leaders failed to set aside emotions and factionalism, opting for a very poor strategic analysis that was fielded by the ANC elites, who by the way never were Zuma fans. They loathe the former President. So, they believed, wrongly so, that Zuma was a wounded animal that had no political life or energy to resuscitate or resurrect. Hence many were so bitterly angered by the decision or call by the ANCKZN to rope in JZ for provincial campaigns.

Now, we find ourselves in a challenging position, a political quagmire, with uncertainty on how to navigate Zuma’s political maneuvers because we all know that Nxamalala has long planned and developed a playbook against us. He is consciously anticipating our every political move and we are left without any clear or coherent strategy to remedy the situation, aside social media trolls who think swearing the old man who has been in the political game before many of us were even born, can deter or harm him.

He has been done worse; he climbed and grew within the ANC structures despite the external insults, allegations, accusations, character assassinations, political plots and propaganda machinery thrown his way. And yet he managed to get to the highest level within the ANC and country – the Presidency.

Therefore, it’s nothing new I assume for him to get insulted. Surely at age 81, with all the political credentials, he has over the years developed a pretty thick skin. It’s based on all the latter that I truly feel we are absolutely in an unfortunate situation that could have been handled more effectively, avoiding the quagmire we currently face.

~ written by Lunathi Kilani, ANC member and social activist.