Zuptocracy responses bring out best in Mogoeng and worst in Mkhwebane

25 June 2017 - 00:03 By barney mthombothi

In a fascinating coincidence, the judiciary and the public protector — two institutions that have thus far escaped the ravages that Jacob Zuma has wrought on other state bodies — took centre stage this week, both making decisions that may prove to be watershed events.
And the president himself was in parliament, his hectoring delivery sounding more like a complaint than a command. It was the performance of a man with all the trappings of power, but shorn of all authority. If his objective was to plead his case in the court of public opinion, he made a hash of it. He may have succeeded in poking his finger in the public's collective eye.
The Constitutional Court's decision on whether a no-confidence vote against Zuma could or should be secret had been eagerly awaited. But public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane's intervention was as unexpected as it was unwelcome.
Both the court and the public protector have been a thorn in Zuma's side. The three were tied together in the Nkandla judgment, for instance, with the court giving Zuma a lot of grief while reinforcing the powers of the public protector.But in the short time that she has been in office, Mkhwebane has almost ruined all the good work and reputation left behind by Thuli Madonsela. Protecting the public interest seems the furthest thing from her mind. An entity that waged an unremitting war against corruption has almost become another toothless poodle.
Her decision to transform an inquiry on the Bankorp lifeboat into an inquisition against the South African Reserve Bank was either an exhibition of extraordinary naivety or had sinister motives. She seems ignorant even about the scope and limit of her office.
Mkhwebane's remedial action - that the Reserve Bank's constitutional mandate be reviewed - poses a risk to an economy that has endured more than its fair share of buffeting. It's like a child playing with fire unaware of the consequences of her actions.
But a better guess is that she knows what she's doing; that she's playing to a well-rehearsed narrative. She exposed her allegiance by giving her report to the clumsily-titled Black First Land First movement, paid surrogates of the Gupta family.
There's no other logical reason why this minuscule body was favoured, other than the fact that it is that family's convenient mouthpiece.
She launched herself into a matter that had been thoroughly probed in the past, even as she drags her feet on investigating the Guptas. After the fall of the National Treasury to state capture and its malcontents, it is now open season on the Reserve Bank, the last bastion of independence and financial probity.
But if Mkhwebane is driving us up the wall, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng proved once again that the judiciary - and democracy - is in good hands. This week's judgment, like the Nkandla decision before it, was a masterclass in good governance and accountability.
Baleka Mbete, who moonlights as National Assembly speaker, has said she was not opposed to a secret ballot. Mogoeng has now given her permission to go ahead and hold it. As ANC chairwoman, she's between a rock and a hard place.
The chief justice didn't tell her what to do, but the judgment paved the way for the conclusion sought by the opposition. It's difficult to see how she can escape from the straitjacket Mogoeng painstakingly crafted for her.
In parliament a few hours later, with the country still digesting the judgment, Zuma - bellicose as ever - behaved as though the ground had not shifted under his feet. And he displayed no shame that the highest court in the land has had to make critical pronouncements regarding his behaviour barely months apart.
It takes a particular kind of talent or hubris not to be sheepish about such things.
Nobody seems to have told him, either, that misleading parliament is a serious offence. His son Duduzane has shamelessly abused his father's office to enrich himself. That's a matter of record. And Zuma stood up parliament and denied it - a blatant lie.
Somebody made the mistake of asking Zuma about the judgment. It was a godsend, the opportunity he had been waiting for. He lectured the honourable members about the merits of an open vote, sounding like a suspect instructing a judge about the correct way to sentence him. The contempt, the disdain, in his voice was vomit-inducing. But this was a directive for Mbete's ears and the flunkeys on the ANC benches. They're to do as they're told.
Zuma will go, eventually. But the country will have to rethink the way it elects - and dismisses - its president, and the powers it confers on that office...

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