Strange things happen in our land. What do you say when the leader of the country is likened to God? When President Jacob Zuma paid a visit to Kimberley, ANC Northern Cape chairman John Block said: "Sihamba nomfundisi [We are walking with a priest].
Xa uhamba nomfundisi kufana nokuthi uhamba noThixo [When you are walking with a priest, it is like you are walking with God]."
Zuma is a mortal man who has proven himself entirely capable of making mistakes.
He is human, not divine.
The recent tendency of ANC officials to appropriate the Bible and liken their leaders to God and Christ raises many questions.
In effect, this hero-worship aims to counter the failings of Zuma and scandals that surround him, such as the R246-million expenditure on upgrades to his private residence in Nkandla, by elevating him to a god-like status.
This deference is commonplace in dictatorships where leaders act as if they are superior to everyone around them.
The history of humankind is filled with "almighty" rulers who were cut down to size and exposed as flawed, mortal and vulnerable.
Zuma should correct anyone who tells him he is anything other than man.
If we do not speak out against this type of unabashed praise-singing, this country will become a banana republic.
Zuma is not God.
Block, given the multiple fraud charges against him, does not come across as an angel.
A leader, especially one accused of grand corruption, must be held accountable to the citizens of the country. He or she must not be elevated to some unreachable stratum.
There is no place for sycophancy.
The time will come when Zuma has to step down, and God will not come down to stop the process . Then Block will have to find another person to hero-worship and flatter .
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