STEVEN FRIEDMAN: Democracy will be the big loser if Jacob Zuma is voted out on Tuesday
"Democracies are shaped by precedent — 'once off' exceptions usually become part of the political furniture"
Relying on one event to change a country usually ends in tears — particularly when you pin so much on it that you endanger your future. The event on which many in the South African mainstream are pinning their hopes is the motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma proposed by opposition parties and scheduled for August 8. Zuma’s governing African National Congress has a comfortable parliamentary majority and seven previous no confidence votes have failed: but this one has taken on almost mystical significance among opposition parties and citizens’ groups that oppose Zuma and commentators. One opposition politician, Julius Malema, claims enough ANC legislators support the motion to assure a majority. While others don’t go that far, they hint that it could succeed. But there is a catch: the motion will only pass, they say, if representatives can vote in secret, which needs the help of the courts. What they want Parliament — and the courts — to do would damage South African democ...
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