The machine-gun presidency

MANY South Africans, like the recently demoted ANC leader and Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, find inappropriate the singing of Jacob Zuma's signature tune, Awu Lethe uMshini Wami [Bring me my machine gun].

Lekota argues that the armed struggle is long over and asks why anyone in their right mind should be asking for a weapon in a peaceful and democratic South Africa.

Feminists say Zuma's singing of the song outside court at his rape trial invested the machine gun with sexual overtones.

After his victory speech at the ANC conference in Polokwane on December 20, Zuma lustily belted out the song again, much to the delight of his fans.

The man's favourite ditty is especially revealing when one considers who is propping up his throne and who is on the ANC's new national executive committee.

A large chunk of the team that propelled Zuma to power is comprised of former army and intelligence operatives. They are drawn from Umkhonto weSizwe and ANC intelligence cells, and they organised Zuma's election like a military operation.

Zuma, you will recall, was for a long time the ANC-in-exile's head of intelligence.

Chief among Zuma's advisers is Mo Shaik, an ANC underground operative who became the democratic South Africa's first chief of national intelligence. Shaik, in the two-and-a-half years before Polokwane, built a formidable network of volunteers, funders and recruiters to back Zuma's campaign.

Siphiwe Nyanda, the former chief of the army, worked indefatigably with many present and former army personnel to ensure a Zuma victory at Polokwane.

Nyanda left the army about two-and-a-half years ago. For his efforts, he was placed high on the Zuma national executive committee nomination list and made it in at No 22.

Nyanda, like former Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa, has become one of the loudest voices in the ANC's calls to get rid of the Scorpions.

At No 21 on the national executive committee list is Tony Yengeni, another army man who, despite his incarceration at Pollsmoor Prison for fraud, worked energetically for Zuma in the Western Cape.

Che Masilela, the secretary of defence and a staunch Nyanda ally, was crucial in mobilising support for Zuma in Mpumalanga.

The current housing minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, was prominent on the Zuma list. The former minister of intelligence came in at No 7 in the executive committee elections and should be guaranteed a place in the next cabinet.

Then there is Billy Masetlha, the sacked and publicly humiliated former head of National Intelligence. Masetlha, once close to Thabo Mbeki, angered the president by being taken in by the false e-mails that alleged a plot against Zuma by pro-Mbeki cabinet members and businessmen. A prominent feature of the Zuma campaign, Masetlha made it on to the NEC list at No 28.

Masetlha made himself famous by threatening that if Mbeki did not listen to the ANC's new leaders he would be sacked. The threat, made only eight days after he was named a member of the NEC, was a crass display of how quickly power goes to some people's heads.

No 1 on the NEC list is Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, a woman well-known for her predilection for military fatigues and fighting talk.

There are many other military and intelligence types in the Zuma leadership. What does it mean, Zuma being surrounded by so many embittered securocrats?

Well, first think of the big losers in the Mbeki faction. The most high-profile casualty is Lekota, the defence minister who led the charge on behalf of Mbeki. Another is Ronnie Kasrils, the intelligence minister, who has had a long battle with Zuma's ally, Masetlha. The third is the Safety and Security Minister, Charles Nqakula.

It is clear that the war for the hearts and minds of the security and intelligence services, and of the army, has been long and acrimonious. And Polokwane made it clear that Zuma has won.

Will a Zuma presidency become a militarised entity? Will Zuma veer towards the military at the expense of civilians?

Will he rule by using the secret services to gather information to use against people?

In a proper democracy, the army and secret services are subservient to the civilian authority. But now the civilian authority is also the secret service and the army.

Has South Africa entered a military phase?