"The war for the hearts and minds of the security services has been
bitter and Zuma has won it"
Embittered securocrats relish their power under Zuma
Many South Africans, like the recently demoted ANC leader and Defence
Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, find inappropriate the singing of Jacob Zuma's
signature tune, Awu Lethe uMshini Wami [Bring me my machine gun].
Lekota argues that the armed struggle is long over and asks why anyone in their
right mind should be asking for a weapon in a peaceful and democratic South
Africa.
Feminists say Zuma's singing of the song outside court at his rape trial
invested the machine gun with sexual overtones.
After his victory speech at the ANC conference in Polokwane on December 20, Zuma
lustily belted out the song again, much to the delight of his fans.
The man' s favourite ditty is especially revealing when one considers who is
propping up his throne and who is on the ANC's new national executive committee.
A large chunk of the team that propelled Zuma to power is comprised of former
army and intelligence operatives . They are drawn from Umkhonto weSizwe and ANC
intelligence cells, and they organised Zuma's election like a military
operation.
Zuma, you will recall, was for a long time the ANC-in-exile's head of
intelligence.
Chief among Zuma's advisers is Mo Shaik, an ANC
underground operative who became the democratic South Africa's first chief of
national intelligence. Shaik, in the two-and-a-half years before Polokwane,
built a formidable network of volunteers, funders and recruiters to back Zuma's
campaign.
Siphiwe Nyanda, the former chief of the army,
worked indefatigably with many present and former army personnel to ensure a
Zuma victory at Polokwane.
Nyanda left the army about two- and-a-half years ago. For his efforts, he was
placed high on the Zuma national executive committee nomination list and made it
in at No 22.
Nyanda, like former Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa,
has become one of the loudest voices in the ANC's calls to get rid of the
Scorpions.
At No 21 on the national executive committee list is Tony
Yengeni, another army man who, despite his incarceration at Pollsmoor
Prison for fraud, worked energetically for Zuma in the Western Cape.
Che Masilela, the secretary of defence and a
staunch Nyanda ally, was crucial in mobilising support for Zuma in Mpumalanga.
The current housing minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, was
prominent on the Zuma list. The former minister of intelligence came in at No 7
in the executive committee elections and should be guaranteed a place in the
next cabinet.
Then there is Billy Masetlha, the sacked and
publicly humiliated former head of National Intelligence. Masetlha, once close
to Thabo Mbeki, angered the president by being taken in by the false e-mails
that alleged a plot against Zuma by pro-Mbeki cabinet members and businessmen. A
prominent feature of the Zuma campaign, Masetlha made it on to the NEC list at
No 28.
Masetlha made himself famous by threatening that if Mbeki did not listen to the
ANC's new leaders he would be sacked. The threat, made only eight days after he
was named a member of the NEC, was a crass display of how quickly power goes to
some people's heads.
No 1 on the NEC list is Winnie Madikizela-Mandela,
a woman well-known for her predilection for military fatigues and fighting talk.
There are many other military and intelligence types in the Zuma leadership.
What does it mean, Zuma being surrounded by so many embittered securocrats?
Well, first think of the big losers in the Mbeki faction. The most high-profile
casualty is Lekota, the defence minister who led the charge on behalf of Mbeki.
Another is Ronnie Kasrils, the intelligence minister, who has had a long battle
with Zuma's ally, Masetlha. The third is the Safety and Security Minister,
Charles Nqakula.
It is clear that the war for the hearts and minds of the security and
intelligence services, and of the army, has been long and acrimonious. And
Polokwane made it clear that Zuma has won.
Will a Zuma presidency become a militarised entity? Will Zuma veer towards the
military at the expense of civilians?
Will he rule by using the secret services to gather information to use against
people?
In a proper democracy, the army and secret services are subservient to the
civilian authority. But now the civilian authority is also the secret service
and the army.
Has South Africa entered a military phase? *1
With acknowledgements to
Justice Malala and The Times.