Publication: Cape Argus Issued: Date: 2007-03-11 Reporter: Wendy Jasson da Costa

Is Jacob Zuma Trying to be the New De La Rey?

 

Publication 

Cape Argus
Date

2007-03-11

Reporter

 Wendy Jasson da Costa

Web Link

www.capeargus.co.za

 

Former deputy president's activities, from taking an HIV test to meeting Afrikaners, suggest he is on campaign trail

What is Jacob Zuma up to?

In the past two weeks he's taken a public HIV test, twice reached out to the Afrikaner community and spoken out against crime.

His supporters vehemently deny he's on the campaign trail, yet his activities, on the face of it, contradict that.

Zuma's activities portray him as a man of the people who is in touch with issues on the ground.

It's the very thing President Thabo Mbeki has been criticised for not being.

So, is Zuma trying to upstage Mbeki?

And does it matter given that the Afrikaner community, which is not homogenous, at most numbers only three million people according to Afriforum chief executive Kallie Kriel?

Apart from that, Mbeki is said to have the ear of the Afrikaner elite, the corporate multinationals and the intelligentsia.

Zuma first raised eyebrows when he met Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmeyr.

An aide to Zuma, Ranjeni Munusamy, said Hofmeyr reached out to Zuma because while he was the country's deputy president he was regularly approached by the Afrikaans community and they had maintained that contact with him.

The Friends of JZ Trust in Gauteng say Zuma's actions were just a reflection of his personality. "Zuma is not campaigning … It is wrong for people to think he is trying to show off and it is wrong for people to look at the ANC as if there is a personality contest," said trust secretary Lucky Zibi.

Hofmeyr, however, said he received a call from Zuma's office and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

It was wonderful to have a black leader who was prepared to listen to Afrikaner concerns, he said. The singer, who has fashioned himself as an activist, said he had embraced Zuma's open and "quite benevolent approach".

However, he questioned Zuma's agenda, saying he wasn't sure what the Afrikaners could offer him in terms of votes.

In the past few weeks the song De la Rey by singer Bok van Blerk has made headlines and in some quarters evoked outrage in those who believe it is a call to arms.

The song is about the longing for a strong leader like the Boer general - even from outside their own ethnic background - given what they believe is the paucity of leaders among their own.

Yet, despite the similarities between Zuma and De la Rey, their first names (Jacob and Jacobus), their military backgrounds and their roles as peacemakers, Hofmeyr believes Zuma cannot fill that role.

Although Zuma was affable and empathetic, Hofmeyr said he did not have what it takes to be a statesman.

Bok van Blerk, who is the co-writer and singer of the controversial De la Rey song, said the Boer general was a man "ahead of his time" and Zuma did not evoke that sort of confidence in the people.

"With his history … I don't think there is a lot of trust in somebody like that…"

Political analyst Protas Madlala said people must not forget that Zuma was one of the driving forces behind the peace process between the ANC and IFP in KwaZulu-Natal. Reaching out to various communities was just a natural extension of the kind of person Zuma is.

"I see him reaching out to a broader audience to show that he's concerned about issues that other politicians are scared of … he's showing a human face," said Madlala.

Zuma was not an opportunist *1 and his actions were "consistent with his character".

Madlala said Zuma was portrayed in the media "parochially as a Zulu boy" and it was not "criminal" for him to reach out to other communities. However, he acknowledged that "a shrewd politician should use every chance to gain political leverage".

Zuma's movements are all the more relevant given that the ANC will choose a new leader in December and that person is likely to be the next president of the country.

It becomes more significant given that he visited the family of an Afrikaans florist who was stabbed to death on his farm in Meyerton, where Zuma spoke out against the crime epidemic.

Then he took a public HIV test in his home village at Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal, where he was a guest of the KwaZulu-Natal health department.

In contrast, Mbeki has been branded both an Aids and a crime denialist for his stance on the issues.

He has also refused to take a public HIV test.

William Gumede, author of Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC, said it was clear Zuma's strategists were "refashioning" his political image.

Gumede said Zuma's star had temporarily dimmed in the sense that even in the ANC the focus was now on finding a compromise presidential candidate, and more dramat-ically, a woman.

He said Zuma's weakness so far had been his association with "narrow ethnic politics", and the fact that his support base was largely in KwaZulu-Natal.

Zuma now wants to show his support base extends beyond that province. Also interesting is that Zuma is reading the political mood quite adroitly.

"There has been renewed restlessness in the white Afrikaans-speaking community about being marginalised … there has been fresh agitation against affirmative action, as well as crime," said Gumede.

In contrast, Mbeki has been quiet on all these issues, except for conceding the seriousness of crime during his State of the Nation address.

"So clearly, this is an attempt by Zuma to restore his flagging (unofficial/unstated) presidential campaign," said Gumede, adding that by taking the public HIV test it was clear Zuma wanted to contrast his "man-of-the-people image" to that of "Mbeki the reclusive president".

However, Munusamy insisted Zuma's actions were in keeping with his nature that "endears him to so many communities".

She pointed out that if Zuma were campaigning "then he would be making statements on Zimbabwe and the arms deal *2 but he's not doing that".

"Everybody has their own view of who or what Jacob Zuma represents … to Afrikaners they see him as someone who can listen to them (but) he is very much his own person," she said.

With acknowledgements to Wendy Jasson da Costa and Cape Argus.


*1       And the moon is made of cheese.


*2      Zuma is not making statements on the arms deal because its hard to talk when one's testicles are so firmly enclutched.