With Zuma gone, S. Africa will rise and shine again!

What you need to know:

  • New chapter. Zuma’s downfall opens a new chapter for South Africa, especially for the wananchi who suffered most under Zuma’s corrupt, incompetent and lacklustre administration.

February 14 began normally for me and I presume for most believers as Ash Wednesday or St Valentine’s Day, but for the embattled and scandal-ridden former South African president Jacob Zuma this great day was a day of reckoning, the day on which things fell apart for a man who is frankly unfit to be leader of Africa’s most developed and industrialised economy.

On that glorious or fateful day, depending on your side of the political divide, Zuma’s luck finally ran out and the man with nine lives was forced by a combination of self-made disasters and circumstances beyond his control to bite the dust. Well, what goes around comes around.

Much as he refused to believe the impending bitter truth, the writing had, in fact, been on the wall for Zuma for quite a while. But like all African dictators who think they know it all and can bribe or intimidate or manipulate everybody to do as they please, Zuma arrogantly continued to blame others for his troubles and wondered up to the end why fellow ANC members abandoned him and decided to support a popular demand for his immediate resignation as president of South Africa.
The presidency has sadly been personalised, privatised and ring-fenced in many African countries such as, Gabon, Togo, DR Congo, etc.

After procrastinating for days, the National Executive Committee of ANC gave Zuma one choice; to either resign by midnight on February 14 or face a vote of no confidence in parliament on February 15. The august house was, for once, united in its determination to get rid of Zuma democratically and peacefully.
The end of the despicable Zuma regime was received with jubilation across the length and breadth of South Africa. There is now a breath of fresh air filled with great expectations blowing throughout the rainbow nation. I tell you, nobody will miss Zuma, except the Guptas and corrupt elements who have for nine years been feasting like hyenas, vampires and vultures on the animal Zuma hunted in 2009.

The end of the road came swiftly for Zuma and within 24 hours he was gone and his deputy and ANC president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was sworn in as the fifth president of the Republic of South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994.
There was a sigh of relief in South Africa and the markets reacted with cautious optimism; the rand rose on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange which is a positive indicator that the South African economy, which has been on the decline for many years, will soon rise and shine again!

What next for South Africa?
Zuma’s downfall opens a new chapter for South Africa, especially for the wananchi who suffered most under Zuma’s corrupt, incompetent and lacklustre administration. The irony is that Zuma is, in fact, one of their own. He promised a fundamental change and better days for wananchi in 2009, but delivered almost nothing. On the contrary, under Zuma the rich got richer while the poor became poorer and miserable. Corruption or “eating” as Ugandans call it became the order of the day. The new president has his work cut out and I wish him best of luck.

The onus is on president Ramaphosa to guide the ship of state away from troubled waters into calm seas. He must immediately dismantle the patronage network Zuma built to buy loyalty and support and mobilise the private sector to invest in South Africa’s economy.
Unlike Zuma and many African leaders, Ramaphosa should appoint credible people as cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats on the basis of merit, not loyalty or ethnicity. Meritocracy will pave the way for a competent and efficient public sector.

Above all, the new president must urgently fight cronyism and corruption which are endemic and systemic in most African countries, including South Africa. President Ramaphosa must also address the problem of youth unemployment and take drastic measures to fight corruption, including recovery of public funds stolen by corrupt officials as well as eradicate “state capture” which is a hallmark of Zuma’s shameful misrule.
I wish the new president, government and wananchi of South Africa every success. May God bless Africa!

Mr Acemah is a political scientist and retired career diplomat.
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