Could the broad anti-Zuma protests which are now reaching a
crescendo across South Africa, finally be bringing the President close to his Ceaușescu moment?
The humiliating and crushing treatment dished out to Zuma at the main Workers’
Day rally in Bloemfontein on the 1st of May where he was
prevented from speaking by trade unions members, could finally spell the end of
his presidency. This is in addition to several months of calls for his to
resignation from leaders across the spectrum, including opposition parties, members of the tripartite
alliance – Cosatu and the SACP, ANC veterans, three former South African
Presidents and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and even members of his own cabinet.
The significance of Zuma booed and heckled will have emboldened the anti-Zuma elements both within the ANC
alliance and in the opposition, especially supporters of the EFF, a party which
is frequently thrown out of Parliament when disrupting Zuma's speaches. His rapidly diminishing support-base is now limited to group of financial beneficiaries, assorted sycophants and the Gupta
family. The rousing applause that Vice-President Cyril Ramaphosa received
at a similar venue and his open criticism of Zuma, make it unlikely for the two
men to ever appear together at a public venue again.
When Nicolae Ceaușescu of Romania, Erich Honecker of East Germany were confronted by hostile and resentful crowds and were seen
as powerless to do anything about it, the floodgates finally opened and soon
led to their downfall. Zuma should keep these examples in mind in case he is
considering an authoritarian response to growing opposition to his Presidency,
as Matthews Posa warned he might doing.
In either case, South Africa has moved past the point of no-return,
where either the masses in the streets will soon bring down Zuma, or his own
Party will do so as an act of self-preservation.
© Johann van Rooyen, 1 May 2017
Also see the author's other blog at Residency and Citizenship for Investors
Also see the author's other blog at Residency and Citizenship for Investors