ANTI-CORRUPTION
MAGDA WIERZYCKA: Zuma is right to fear civil rights groups
‘Case by case, the process of bringing to justice those responsible for plundering SA grinds forward’
The last ANC national executive committee meeting, followed closely by the ANC policy conference, left most South Africans feeling that although under pressure, President Jacob Zuma remains untouchable for now — while our economy collapses, joblessness and poverty increase and the rest of the world rates us as junk.
Yet his own narratives give us an indication of his Achilles heel. One hint came in his recent speech to the MK Military Veterans Association, in which he warned of the sporadic rise of civil rights groups.
Among the most prominent civil rights groups in SA are Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, Black Sash, Corruption Watch, the Helen Suzman Foundation, Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation. In singling out the civil rights groups, Zuma entirely missed the point that he is in effect targeting the electorate, the portion of the 55-million people who elected the ANC to power and, through that vote, elevated him to the highest position in the land.The civil rights groups are the only mechanism by which the same 55-million people can find a voice to fight back against a morally bankrupt government. These organisations enable us to move beyond helplessness and complacency to becoming active participants in how SA is run. Hence, he is right to be afraid. We are not Zimbabwe, with its small population easily controlled by a paid-off army and an option to migrate south. There is no "south" for SA — only the ocean. We have nowhere else to g...
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