By now it must be very clear that only the most apolitical among us, unless they are also very dumb from their neck upwards, will doubt that the matter of former deputy president Jacob Zuma is a politically-loaded conspiracy.

In the nature of all political conspiracy theories, it gets very hoary the deeper it gets. The recent introduction of spies into the equation is no joke, for it means that "they" are hellbent to get uMsholozi whatever it takes.

I am glad I was never, and will never be, a member of the ANC - simply because I never bought into its civil rights campaign: what was really needed was a national liberation struggle whose sole intent should have been the total return of the land to the dispossessed African majority and nothing less.

As it is, the civil rights campaign has been won in that apartheid legislation has disappeared and all "whites-only" and "non-whites only" signs have vanished, but otherwise the status remains firmly quo - the indigenous Africans are as landless as they always have been, and the only beneficiaries of this scheme have been the dispossessors who still own vast tracts of the country, and a filthy-rich emerging class of African elites who are very greedy and will stop at nothing to hoard more material gains.

A man with populist inclinations and ideals such as uMsholozi posed a threat - real or imagined - to the materialistic classes, whose defining characteristics are to live the life of opulence much like their former oppressors: gated and high-walled neighbourhoods mainly in golf estates, driving 4x4s and having their English-speaking children schooled at the most expensive schools. Fat bank balances tare a definite must-have in these circles.

How the struggle was lost

This is how the struggle was lost. The primary motivation to do good for the benefit of the oppressed majority has been abandoned, and replaced with a "what's-in-it-for-me" selfish attitude which, now that it has become firmly set, will prove impossible to eradicate.

The cliques which are now in operation are working in fierce opposition to each other and the one closest to the seat of power considers itself as having arrived, while the other - Cosatu, SACP, Sanco and various other small formations - demand a heftier slice of the cake.

Along comes Jacob Zuma who is seen as bringing along with him "backward" tendencies of being very close to the masses, whose agenda and demands threatened the greedy intentions of the new elites.

And so "they" went all out to get him. The plot was to hound him out and to neutralise him forever as a political force.

This scenario brings to mind the titanic struggle for the soul of Wits university in the early 1990s, when a group of 13 academics including one imported black man, set about ruthlessly attacking professor Malekgapuru Makgoba's credentials because his sole aim was to introduce transformation at the institution. Had Makgoba been a lesser man, all the meaningful change we observe at Wits and other campuses across South Africa today would not have happened.

The ANC succession battle

The ANC succession battle had already begun to be planned shortly after the Mafikeng congress of the party, and the rich elites were not happy with uMsholozi as a deputy president.

They thought long and hard, and eventually struck on the idea of smearing him such that he has spent the last five years trying to get rid of the slime sticking to him, starting with the "off-the-record" remark that there was a prima facie case of corruption for Zuma to answer, but it was unwinnable.

That was abusing state organs, and the practice has gained in intensity. The claims of corruption against uMsholozi were made by the best friend of a presidential hopeful, who himself is a very close buddy of Mbeki's, often accompanying him on foreign junkets, notably regularly to meetings such as the World Economic Forum.

The allegations against Zuma are widely repeated and broadcast and the Scorpions, a unit controlled by Bulelani Ngcuka, Zuma's main accuser, finds it fit to feed the gullible and largely unquestioning "mainstream" media every derogatory tidbit about Zuma.

Unimaginable events

Mbeki, of course, finally fires uMsholozi and unwittingly sets into motion a set of events which even the presidential clique never imagined would be unleashed.

In the meantime, he appoints Ngcuka's wife to fill the post vacated by Zuma, while there are deafening cries for Zuma to be reinstated.

Enter the spies, and another page is turned in the abuse of state organs for the settling of personal scores. Why was ANC Youth League Fikile Mbalula summarily brushed aside when he complained to intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils, long before Saki Macozoma made a similar complaint that was seriously entertained to the point where three spy masters were suspended from duty? Was it because Mbalula is an unapologetic supporter of Zuma?

When the crown prince did complain, Kasrils wasted no time springing into decisive action. The spies were perceived to be doing work in support of Zuma and had to be stopped; the spooks must not do anything that would stop "them" from getting at Zuma.

But "they" seem to have miscalculated terribly: they were very successful in getting rid of Nomzamo Madikizela-Mandela, the late Harry Gwala, Bantu Holomisa and Tony Yengeni.

But in uMsholozi they have met their match.

Trouble is that this wanton materialism of the new elite is a very contagious disease - Yengeni fell victim to the epidemic, as did Madikizela-Mandela and so too did Zuma with his traditional homestead in Nkandla.

All these factors have been hugely exploited by the so-called "progressive" elites to fight their savage battles.

And while we are about the succession struggle, why was Brett Kebble murdered and on whose orders? Could it be because he actively financed an unpopular faction in the succession battle?

·  Jon Qwelane's column is published each week on News24, courtesy of Jon Qwelane and the editor of Sunday Sun, which originally carried the article.

With acknowledgement to Jon Qwelane and Sunday Sun.