EDITORIAL: Zuma may have survived, but his presidency is wounded
In his final address to Parliament in the no confidence debate, DA leader Mmusi Maimane mangled the quote, but it was apposite nevertheless. He quoted liberal stalwart and PFP parliamentarian Helen Suzman, who once said in the days of National Party rule: "I can see a shiver running around these green benches looking for a spine to go up."The colour of the benches might have changed (in the old parliament they were green, in the new parliament they are brown) but the challenge to the ruling party is comparable. What Suzman was doing was to challenge her colleagues across the aisle to put aside their fears, their sense of history and their own positions, and vote in favour of what they knew to be the right thing: the reform of apartheid. Like a writhing eel, the National Party prevaricated, rationalised, justified and turned away. And then, after years of political suppression and economic chaos that seemed endless, in one dramatic moment, it changed. Maimane’s task was similar. In a...
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