Photo: Flickr / GCIS
Photo: Flickr / GCIS
What a way to finish the working week. Jacob Zuma has stewed on the open letter Cyril Ramaphosa sent out to colleagues this week, and after a few days to mull a response, Msholozi has chimed in with his own ‘poison pen’. The former president has attacked his successor and refused to mince his words right from the get-go.
It’s a fiery explosion of accusations, insults, and occasional tirades. Although Jacob Zuma says he wrote back to the president ‘in the interest of starting a constructive dialogue’, it is very difficult to see the sincerity in this. It’s fair to say that uBaba has crafted this letter with some very strong, ulterior motives.
We’ve put together the main parts of the diatribe below. Cyril Ramaphosa, for the first time, is now dealing with a version of Jacob Zuma that isn’t hiding behind cryptic criticism anymore. This is as direct as it comes, and the battle lines have almost certainly been drawn in the sand now…
“Your letter is fundamentally and it plays right into the hands of those who seek to destroy the ANC. The statement you make is not helpful to the party. Your actions are unprecedented in this regard. You are now the first ANC president to accuse his own party and members of criminal activity.”
“To stand in public and say the ANC must bury its head in shame is a devastating statement to make. Your letter is a diversion and merely serves as a PR exercise to save your own skin. By accusing the whole ANC of corruption for the acts of a few, you betray all the people who assembled to create the party in 1912.”
“It’s unforgivable to label our rank and file members as criminals for crimes you and those with whom you serve in the structures of state are accused of. Your letter is rather low and disappointing, and it lends credence to the suggestion you work for white monopoly capital.”
“You write for your own validation and approval, which is the worst betrayal imaginable. With your pen, you desecrate the graves of young men and women who lived and died cruel deaths during apartheid. We should never implicate our struggle heroes as individuals complicit in corruption.”
“In the years of persecution I’ve faced with the arms deal and the new narrative of the famous state capture, I have never implicated other ANC members to try and clear my name. I faced the charges alone and it is sacrilegious to do anything otherwise.”
“It has become your hallmark to divert accusations against yourself rather than to face them and clear your name. You stand accused of receiving R1 billion from white monopoly capitalists to win an internal ANC contest. Worse still, you have sealed the record of those generous donors through court action – another major betrayal.”
“Until you come clean, Mr President, your letters will only serve as an appeasement to others: Your own spokesperson is accused of corruption, and your son also faces the same allegations. It is perhaps you that should hang your head in shame, rather than the rest of the ANC.”
“Your letter pays lip service to our Nasrec Conference in 2017. Your leadership has avoided implementing land expropriation, nationalising the SA Reserve Bank, radical economic transformation, free higher education and job creation just to name a few. The tendancy of yours to not implement these decisions is worrying”
“I implore you to take responsibility without insulting our movement or its members. I am merely making a plea to our leaders to honestly confront the challenges it faces, as well as those faced by African people in SA.”
BREAKING NEWS: Jacob Zuma tackles Ramaphosa in a hard-hitting letter.#Zuma pic.twitter.com/qEYsiJNgvr
— Advovolicious (@Advovolicious) August 28, 2020