Zuluboy is here

South Africa’s Brave New World: The Beloved Country since Apartheid, by R. W. Johnson
After the Party: Corruption and the ANC, by Andrew Feinstein

I am writing this in Cape Town on the very day that Jacob Zuma is exonerated of all charges of corruption, racketeering and money-laundering — not by a judge, but by an ANC-appointed acting Director of the National Prosecuting Authority. This man defended his decision by claiming that there had been an abuse of due process when the head of the Scorpions anti-corruption unit was recorded by the National Intelligence Agency talking with ANC high-ups, including Thabo Mbeki, about the timing of Zuma’s prosecution. This abuse of process has apparently made the strong case against Zuma unwinnable. But who gave wire-tapped intelligence information to Zuma’s defence team? Presumably people who wanted to keep in with Zuma. So it seems that abuse of process is the prerogative of the current president of the ANC.

The timing of the charges against Zuma was sensitive because Mbeki, who was becoming increasingly unpopular in the party, wanted to eliminate him as a rival for the presidency of the ANC. As both these books make plain, Mbeki was not too worried about the ethics of the long-running problem — he had already turned a blind eye to earlier pay-offs from various arms dealers. But it was clearly a good opportunity to bring charges against Zuma, who had received money from a man called Schabir Shaik who was sentenced to 15 years for corruption and fraud. Originally Zuma faced the same charges.

Mbeki was indeed right to be worried that Zuma was a threat to him. In December 2007, at a place in the middle of nowhere called Polokwane, Mbeki and his cronies were all voted off the National Executive Council of the ANC; some months later, a judge ruled that Mbeki had been involved in pressing for his prosecution.