The ‘proud Zulu man’ who would be president is a financial clown who lived on hand-outs
Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni must be quaking in his boots.
The governor has been trying to get all of us to live within our means — to spend money we have instead of chasing adulation by getting deeper and deeper into debt.
Then along comes Jacob Zuma, a man who cannot seem to grasp the basics of household financial management … a man who would, if sense prevailed, be prevented from getting married and having children.
Zuma is, quite frankly, ignorant and a danger to himself. He is irredeemably irresponsible.
It is extraordinary that we sit today mulling over the real possibility that such an ignoramus will rule over an economy as sophisticated as ours.
Zuma married Nompumelelo Ntuli, his fourth wife, on Saturday. I have my views on polygamy but simple economics suggest that Zuma should not be having more children or taking more wives.
He cannot feed the ones he has, or house them or educate them.
At the conclusion of his rape trial in 2006, Judge Willem van der Merwe told Zuma: “Had Rudyard Kipling known of this case at the time he wrote his poem If, he might have added the following: ‘And, if you can control your body and your sexual urges, then you are a man, my son’.”
Zuma has not listened much, it seems, given that he has fathered several children since that day.
Children he simply cannot afford, given his history.
Zuma is a political liability to the ANC and the country because he has fathered so many children and taken so many wives that he cannot afford.
As a result, he has found himself in deep financial difficulties, indebted to many people.
The Sunday Times yesterday broke the story about Zuma’s debt to just one man, the convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik.
It makes for extraordinary, and depressing, reading.
Zuma, who likes to claim that he is “a proud Zulu man”, was in reality a kept man. Shaik paid for the education of Zuma’s children, their travel, their cars, their homes — virtually everything.
Extraordinarily, the Sunday Times also reveals that Zuma’s new wife is living in a R5-million mansion “given” to him by another businessman! Does the man learn nothing? Has he neither pride nor shame, living on hand-outs from other men?
The Sunday Times’ report reads in part: “[Shaik] funneled a total of R4072499 to Zuma … in 783 separate payments between October 25 1995 and July 1 2005.
“Shaik’s companies gave money to Zuma’s ex-wives, paid his rent, supplied his children with pocket money and forked out for his many debts.
“They even paid R10 to cover the cost of a wash-and-vacuum for his car.
“Within days of Zuma being fired as deputy president of South Africa, the last payment was made to him — R393.80 to Absa on July 1 2005 for insurance on a Toyota Tazz — and he was also given R400000 to pay off a debt.”
For goodness’ sake, the man can’t even manage the small change in his pocket.
The Sunday Times reveals that while Zuma was earning about R870000 a year, Shaik was giving him R10 in cash to pay for a car wash. The mind boggles.
You might think all this is personal stuff, but consider what kind of an example this is for our children and our people.
Is it okay to live as a sponger for essentially the rest of one’s adult life? To breed without a care about where the next meal is coming from for the children?
Was Zuma even aware of the implications of the deputy president of a country being so heavily indebted to an individual such as Shaik?
There is a basic lesson here. If you want to drive a 4x4, you must work for it.
The idea of application, of hard work, does not seem to have entered Zuma’s mind. From the numerous payments made by Shaik, it is clear Zuma wanted the high life without the hard work that comes with the territory.
This is just one aspect of the Zuma character that hobbles him. There are many others: his lack of education despite his new and old defenders claiming he has “native intelligence” (President Thabo Mbeki is also said to possess this racist nonsense, and look what a disaster he has been), his unsavoury friends, and his dangerous fondness for appealing to populism and tribalism.
Many people have asked what a Zuma presidency would be like. The answer is not hard to find: it will be characterised by sloth, irresponsibility, lack of ambition, appeals to non-existent “African” values, and the ascendancy of criminals and those who want to feather their nests.
A Zuma presidency would be an unmitigated disaster.
Zuma’s greatest achievement is helping South Africa get rid of the nascent dictatorship of Mbeki. The ANC now needs to help itself and dump Zuma.
Quickly!
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The Times
