No kind words for politically dead Zuma, let him rot in jail

When a person is dead, his or her obituary is normally read out at the funeral. In African culture, it is considered insensitive to speak ill of the dead. Hence most obituaries are embellished. 

Over the past few days, Jacob Zuma had the rare opportunity to listen to many people say something about him while he is still alive. This is so because, while the man continues to breath, he is a political corpse. We can read out Zuma’s political obituary without entertaining any possibility for him to jump out of his political grave. 

The man is morbidly lucky, for he can hear what people say at his political funeral. He can even read this column, although he can do nothing about it, since he is politically dead. So, what are we to say about Zuma as he lies still in his political coffin? 

When Robert Mugabe finally died, his diehard supporters implored us to remember him as a gallant revolutionary who fought for the liberation of the oppressed black majority in Zimbabwe. 

That is not how a dead human being must be judged. When a decrepit murderer dies, it would be dishonest to revisit his days as a young man to find something positive to hide the fact that he became a killer in old age. 

In the final analysis, Mugabe was a dictator who left his people more impoverished than they were before he became president. That he was once a liberation fighter pales into insignificance when we consider the outcome of his leadership. 

That is how Zuma’s legacy must be assessed. That he was once a liberation hero means absolutely nothing, given what he has left behind as SA’s former president. Before Zuma entered the Union Buildings, SA’s presidents (Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki) were respected across the world. We walked tall and spoke confidently about our dignified presidents. 

When Zuma became president, South African travellers had to find all manner of reasons to explain to foreigners why our great country allowed a clown to occupy the highest office in our land. Some South Africans simply said to the world: “Don’t ask me; I did not vote for him.” In short, Zuma’s presidency was a massive embarrassment to our nation. 

With hindsight, we can now tell that embarrassment is the smallest aspect of Zuma’s disgraceful leadership. The man was so idiotic that he could not comprehend the consequences of his actions. What do people who support Zuma have to say about the fact that he sold our country to foreign thieves, the Guptas, who are now enjoying our money in Dubai? 

Every patriotic South African must be seriously anguished to think that Zuma treated us as if our country was a personal commodity he could sell to foreign thieves. Zuma so disrespected us that he even allowed his fellow thieves to land their private jet at a national key point. 

Even some discredited characters in the ANC could not stomach the shame. We now know that Fikile Mbalula cried after the Guptas told him that he would be made sports minister before their puppet, Zuma, told him. If you want to appreciate the fullest extent of Zuma’s destructive legacy, look at what he did to our state. The man used the Union Buildings to destroy almost the entire criminal justice system. It got to a point where serious gangsters in the Western Cape pronounced proudly that “JZ is part of us”. Only God knows how long it will take to rebuild our criminal justice system. 

As for state-owned companies, Zuma treated them as if they were his private purse or gifts to his female friends. Can any rational person explain how an incompetent woman like Dudu Myeni ended up as SAA board chairperson?   

Instead of fixing Eskom, Zuma unleashed an unprecedented looting spree in a company that plunged the whole country into darkness. Today, millions of South Africans have no jobs because Zuma hollowed out the company that is supposed to provide electricity to new economic projects. That is why most South Africans are happy to see Zuma behind bars. 

Let the rogue rot in jail. We will not miss him.