Zuma: A nation gets its pride back, plus five highlights from ‘Vrye Weekblad’

Our great-great-grandchildren will one day learn in their history lessons about what we witnessed on our television screens over the past few days.  

It doesn't matter how long Jacob Zuma will stay in prison, or whether he will at some point be given a presidential pardon. It doesn't even matter that he might not get prison time for state capture or corruption. It matters that he has been sent to prison for contempt of court. 

It is the symbolism of SA's own version of the Big Man of Africa who is now in a prison cell, that counts. 

It is the chorus of “oh they will never lock up one of their own” that has now been proven false, that counts.

“We are Msholozi and Msholozi is us” is not true of SA. 

The rule of law is something that the corrupt and the abusers of power will once again have to fear. The Constitutional Court has planted a flag for everyone to see. The authority of the law, and equality before the law, has been rigorously reaffirmed.

South Africa has today taken a giant leap towards closing the chapter that started in December 2007 when Jacob Zuma was elected to lead the ANC and then became the president in 2008. His nine years as president ripped apart the fibre of our democracy and vulgarised our political culture.

Zuma in a prison cell does not mean the rot within the ruling party will suddenly be cauterised. But it is inevitable that it will bring about some form of change in the ANC's internal dynamics, says Max du Preez in this week's Vrye Weekblad.

Must-read articles in this week’s Vrye Weekblad

>> Browse the full July 9 edition

THE LAST ANC AFRIKANER | And in other news, we look at the embarrassing fall of “the last Afrikaner in the ANC”, the oddball Carl Niehaus.

UNPERMITTED | About 180,000 Zimbabweans who are living and working in SA legally might become illegals overnight in December if no decision is made about how SA is going to deal with the matter.  

BUSTING FOOD MYTHS | Is breakfast the most important meal of the day? Is coffee bad for you? Do you have to avoid salt? Not necessarily, says Prof Tim Spector in his new book, in which he debunks several food myths.

TO WOKE OR NOT TO WOKE  | Is it possible to talk soberly and clearly about something like critical race theory or “wokeness” without someone trying to punch somebody? Well, we tried. 

FREE TO READ – COVID GRIPS NAMIBIA | The story of Gobabis makes you realise that we are really dealing with a pandemic as massive as the flu pandemic of 1918.