The rise of the Weak Man

September 28, 2009 by Tim
Filed under: Politics

As the editor of a major South African broadsheet, Peter Bruce writes an amazingly naïve article on his surprise at how the Zuma presidency is panning out:

Jacob Zuma is proving to be almost the opposite of what I expected him to be. I expected a decisive presidency but he isn’t. I expected an authoritative leader, yet no one in or around the ANC seems to pay him the slightest heed. I expected that he would keep party loudmouths quiet but the only person whose attention he seems to have is the mayor of Balfour.

Zuma’s weakness was fully expected. Zuma is not a leader at all. He didn’t take the Party by the scruff of its neck and impose his leadership vision on it. He never had to stump for support or run on his record. He has never debated an opponent in public nor has he made any direct appeal to the South African public.

South Africa is being ruled by a Weak Man.

A Weak Man is someone who is deeply flawed and in deep trouble. He desperately needs support to keep him out of jail or penury but has nothing to offer his benefactors other than his soul. He is without principle and will do anything to get out of his predicament. He has another very important characteristic: he is a populist and appeals to the ordinary man who empathises with his “oppressed” persona.

The Weak Man is surrounded by power-hungry individuals who prefer, or are only able to rule by proxy. In Zuma’s case this is largely the South African Communist Party and its leftist allies, the trade union movement Cosatu and the ANC Youth League. These organisation would be hard-pressed to win any seats in an election, let alone a general election itself.

Bruce is “rescued” by writer Meshack Mabogoane:

“A hardcore party man, he (Zuma) defers to the ANC for the positions he adopts,” writes Mabogoane. “He reads what is written for him and avoids discussing complex matters. At the same time his comments on crucial matters are usually made after the events and are generally evasive and weak. Zuma has never committed himself to any policies and never offered any personal vision.”

The ANC leaders he defers to are SACP chairman Gwede Mantashe, SACP secretary-general Blade Nzimande and Cosatu head Zwelinzima Vavi.

This same strategy was tried in the campaign to get John Hlophe onto the Constitutional Court. The fact that it stumbled at the last hurdle this time does not mean it won’t be successful in the long run. The problem with Hlophe is that he is just too unpredictable and not nearly as pliant as is Zuma. Perhaps Hlophe will come to realise this and make himself the vassal his supporters so wish him to be. At the moment he is not quite weak enough – but give him time.

Another manifestation of the Weak Man phenomenon is one Siyabonga Gama who is in the running to be the next Transnet CEO. Except that he has been suspended by his board for awarding lavish contracts without authority amongst other misdeeds. There is no doubt he is a loose cannon and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near South Africa’s largest state-owned enterprise.

But what do we see instead? Huge, unprecedented political support – and threats – from the same team that put Zuma in power. In fact, they are claiming he is a victim of political conspiracy just like Zuma was. Another Weak Man is being pushed into an influential position to do his masters’ bidding. Transnet of course has many billions of Rand flowing through it and under its control. Thanks to previous CEO Maria Ramos, it is not yet a smoking, bankrupt ruin and remains a deep trough for alliance parties and the leaders that run them to get their snouts in it.