In the wild, hamsters will run for
several miles in a single night, but they obviously can’t do this when confined
to a cage. So does the wheel dupe them into believing they are still free, or are
they really so dumb they will run around in the same circle for eternity? The
answer is they are not so dumb - running is in their DNA so they will use
whatever is available to ensure their survival - but what about our own
metaphorical hamster wheel, the one that keeps us going around and around in
the same circles, doing the same things again and again with the same results?
How many more disappointments is
it going to take before we realise that a different strategy is needed to
counter Jacob Zuma’s State Capture project? All efforts to date have been directed
at removing him as President of the Republic, whether through the High Court,
Constitutional Court, Parliament (6 times with one pending), or the ANC’s own
NEC (twice). All failing to achieve their objective, with little chance that further
legal or political challenges targeted directly at him will enjoy any greater degree
of success.
One certainty is that we do not have
the luxury of enough time to play a waiting game. We cannot just hope that alles sal reg kom if the ANC lose the
next election, so put the “Roll on 2019” mantra back in its box for a while. If
Zuma can’t be removed as seems to be the case, then we desperately need an
alternative strategy that will at least neutralise some of the damage being done.
We need to start thinking differently, and creative thinker Edward de
Bono hit the nail on the head when he said “We
may need to solve problems not by removing the cause, but by designing the way
forward even if the cause remains in place.”
There are many South Africans
capable of finding creative solutions if they put their minds to it, but let me
get the ball rolling. It is fairly certain that in the upcoming parliamentary
vote of no confidence, ANC MP’s are again likely to toe the party line, secret
ballot or not, leaving Zuma in place to continue plundering the country’s financial resources
while decimating social cohesion. Thinking beyond this eventuality, he still
needs his captured apparatchiks in place to give effect to his plans. Without
compliant ministers he will be frustrated, so is there a way to remove the
captured or incompetent ones without throwing the baby out with the bathwater?
I believe there may be.
Section 102 (1) of the
Constitution says: If the National
Assembly, by a vote supported by a majority of its members, passes a motion of
no confidence in the Cabinet excluding
the President, the President must
reconstitute the Cabinet
The Constitutional question is
did the writers really intend this clause to be inclusive of the entire Cabinet,
or could it perhaps be interpreted to apply to a single member of Cabinet? After
all, it does seem a bit silly, does it not, to have to reconstitute the entire
Cabinet if it is only a single minister at fault? The thing is, we can be
fairly certain that going after Zuma directly is an exercise in futility, but
is it possible that a sufficient number of ANC MP’s might be willing to propose
or support a vote of no confidence in, for example, Mosebenzi Zwane or Nomvula
Mokonyane, Faith Muthambi or Bathabile Dlamini, Lynne Brown or Malusi Gigaba,
thereby cutting off the potential for direct access to State resources? It
would certainly be less risky for them to depose an incompetent or possibly
captured minister rather than the main man, and they can also earn some kudos
by being seen to be making a contribution to halting the rot.
Of course, Zuma will just replace
deposed ministers with other sycophants, but if anti-Zuma MP’s remain
steadfast, at some point the Zupta’s will be fighting on so many fronts, that
they must eventually run out of willing sycophants and this war of attrition
will be won.
Is it Constitutionally viable? I don’t know.
Only a Constitutional lawyer can offer an opinion on that, and the
Concourt itself is the obvious final arbiter. Will sufficient numbers of ANC
MP’s be prepared to grasp this nettle? Again, I don’t know. What I do know is
that we have to find ways to circumvent our apparently unassailable president,
and I refuse to believe we are dumber than a hamster.
thanks
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