Out to lunch again: Has government lost the Zuma soap-opera plot?

Out to lunch again: Has government lost the Zuma soap-opera plot?, by David Bullard.

What The Star wrote about Out to lunch again, by David Bullard: Right on, Bullard. Long may your column continue, and as we like to say on this rag - even though you don't work here - long may you 'tell it like it is'. This is extract is Has government lost the Zuma soap-opera plot?

Has government lost the Zuma soap-opera plot? Poor Jacob Zuma. If he resigns, as many feel he should, it will be seen as an admission of guilt. If he doesn't resign, people will assume that he is probably guilty but prepared to bluster his way out of his predicament. Political resignations, other than for ill health or a transfer to the more lucrative private sector, are virtually unheard of in South Africa. Indeed, rumours of corruption involving high-ranking politicians are now so common that, were they all to resign, nobody would be left to run the country. Watching a politician wriggle on the end of a hook makes us feel all warm and fuzzy about our new democracy. Remember the hours of amusement Tony Yengeni gave us before he finally walked off into the sunset of well-remunerated political oblivion? Watching the deputy president of the country wriggle on a hook is an altogether less pleasant spectacle, partly because of his seniority but mainly because the rest of the world's media are much more interested in Zuma than they were in a political minnow like Yengeni. It would be hysterical to claim that the charges against Zuma could do irreparable damage to the country's image abroad but we would be seriously deluding ourselves if we were to believe that there is no foreign interest in the issue. To cynical overseas observers, it is yet another manifestation of African corruption.

The ANC has reacted defensively to the whole Zuma saga, hinting at the existence of dark forces out to get him (ANC head office loves a good conspiracy theory). At least we should take comfort from their 'dark forces' theory. Five years ago it would have been 'light forces'. We would have been told that it was all part of a white supremacist plot and the ANC would, no doubt, have laid the blame at the door of the white-owned media. That accusation rings rather hollow today. Respected black newspaper editors do not hesitate to carry stories of corruption, and black journalists write critical leading articles about the government.

Our politicians may be letting us down badly but we should take pride in the independence of the media in this country. Had it not been for journalists at the Sunday Times and the Mail & Guardian, many of these stories would never have found their way into the public domain. There's no doubt that allegations of political corruption, particularly against a deputy president, help sell newspapers. As the story unfolds and the waters become muddier it becomes rather like a TV soap opera as we tune in for the next exciting episode of 'The Bald and the Bountiful'. Will Jacob wake up to find the whole thing was a terrible dream? Will Schabir Shaik turn out to be South Africa's answer to JR Ewing?

The one thing the media cannot do though is to sort out the damage control. That's the government's job and they are clearly not very good at it. Having publicly committed themselves to clean government, they now imitate Admiral Lord Nelson whenever there is a hint of scandal, putting the telescope to their blind eye and declaring 'I see no shits.' From conversations I overhear in the streets they are fooling only themselves. But we should not judge our politicians too harshly, or believe that this is a uniquely African malaise. Precisely the same sort of thing happens in the UK and the US and a politician's grip on the reins of power usually has to be prised off finger by finger.

The essential difference between our political systems is that a disgraced South African politician seems to have a somewhat longer shelf life than, say, a British one. The party rallies around to protect the victim, and miscreants continue to live well at the taxpayer's expense, removed from the glare of unwelcome publicity while performing some superfluous function. Which is precisely why so few of us believe that the ANC is really serious about clean government.

Has government lost the Zuma soap-opera plot? is an extract from the book: Out to lunch again, by David Bullard.

Book title: Out to lunch again
Author: David Bullard
Publisher: Jonathan Ball
Cape Town, South Africa 2005
ISBN 9781868422356
Softcover, 15x22 cm, 144 pages