UMSHINI WAM
Jacob Zuma: A Rebel without Applause
Running on empty is a price we have to pay for the few to come to power. Collective bargaining has somehow metamorphosed into collective politics. With the never-ending strikes, from security guards to public servants to the most recent petrol crisis, one has to wonder whether these actions are being orchestrated or encouraged by the comrades in the “politburo” of COSATU. Co-incidentally, the tripartite alliance’s National Velvet, Jacob Zuma, is picking up pace before the turn of the ANC elections in Polokwane at the end of this year. Is there a correlation between the two?
In looking at the answer conversely, one cannot say that Zuma, the candidate for the people, has not gained political favour from COSATU’s verbal purge of the traditional Xhosa Nostra ANC leadership, specifically Thabo Mbeki. As such, the agitation of strikes and riots can only be political ammo for the worker’s hero, Zuma, a man of the street. Whether he is involved, tacitly or by proxy, in the internal strikes is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that he is gaining from the witch-hunting attack on the capitalist Mbeki/Sexwale camp to such an extent Tokyo is being
manoeuvred out if the race entirely.
But what is the price of power? If power is to be gained by all means necessary, including mass action and boycotts, even at the risk of bruising the South African economy, then whoever does so is a rebel without applause in my eyes. Drop your “Umshini’s” comrades, the struggle is over. We need leaders, not rebels.
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