Tag: Jacob Zuma

Done

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I’m finished. Someone call a doctor. My sides have split.

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This then, is the response of the official ANC twitter account to their defeat in Port Elizabeth and their utterly dismal showings in Johannesburg and Tshwane.

If you don’t laugh, you have to cry. It’s either hilarious or it’s tragic. It’s both.

For the other parties, this seeing the ruling party adopting this stance must be like manna from heaven. If this seemingly blind obliviousness continues towards and into the next (general) election in 2019, the ANC is not just going to be beaten, it’s going to be obliterated.

However, for the people, with another 3 years to go before the start of any possible change in government and/or attitude, it’s pretty galling. I don’t think (and the election results do kinda support my view) that things are going well here at the moment. There is a massive amount of dissatisfaction, irritation, anger. I’m not saying that the ANC is solely responsible for this, but nor do I see their current, rather apathetic approach doing enough (read “anything”) to combat it.

Incidentally, I’ve left JZ in the background there on the screenshot because his imperious, somewhat sour, face seems to me to be the perfect analogy (and possibly the biggest reason) for the ANC’s – and therefore South Africa’s – current woes.

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It’s stuff like this that makes me wonder if they’ve actually seen the results…

The Dictator Decides

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Will someone please say the unsayable?
Will someone please tell me I’m wrong?

If JZ was looking for a way out of this mess of a Presidency…

It’s Impeachment Day here in South Africa, or rather (unless something very incredible happens in the next few hours) Failed Attempt At Impeachment Day.
Also I’ve been listening to the new Pet Shop Boys album.

At present, these two facts seem wholly unlinked, but please bear with me as I intertwine their currently separate existences through the medium of interpretive dance blogging.

One of the standout tunes for me is track 5: The Dictator Decides. Now, while I’m not suggesting that Jacob Zuma is a dictator, he’s edging closer to the definition of that moniker every day. And while this track is probably written about the (apparently reluctant) rise to power of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, there are a few choice lines that could have been penned specifically for our JZ:

The joke is I’m not even a demagogue
Have you heard me giving a speech?
My facts are invented
I sound quite demented
So deluded it beggars belief
It would be such a relief not to give another speech.

Here’s the song if you’d like to hear the whole thing:

I’ve kept it deliberately small so that you don’t die from the flashing album covers accompanying this audio version. You may still struggle a bit though. Sorry.

The President isn’t very good. The Pet Shop Boys album, however, is. (It’s actually really good).
If you’re a glass half full kind person, this should be enough to see you through your day. Just.

Definitions…

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If this isn’t on the tip of people’s tongues yet (spoiler: it is), I have a feeling it soon will (should?) be:

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And with the State Of The Nation Address just around the corner (literally and figuratively), we might be able to see the second part of the definition demonstrated on Thursday evening as well.

Double whammy!

How much does your country like its president?

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(Not that I’m suggesting for a moment that this necessarily represents the view of the entire country. Or even the city. I think that I can safely say that it probably represents the view of the person that decided they wanted to put it up, though.)

Political leaders of countries are infamously unpopular – taxes, policies, disappointment often seem to get in the way of the love. But when was the last time someone put up a 6-storey high poster (just round the corner from Parliament, nogal) suggesting that your president “should resign from office”? (I’m sure it’s not as unusual as we in SA think.)

CYwJmFJWcAAf2tR  CYwJmFMWAAEucm8
Initial reports suggest that the billboard (which usually is home to adverts for airlines, fast food restaurants and cellphone companies) could cost up to R200,000 a month to hire. Ironically, if the individual(s) involved are paying in dollars, it’s likely that they probably wouldn’t have been able to afford it without Zuma’s intervention, since that amount will have more than halved since JZ came into power in 2009.

There are people on twitter are asking when someone is going to “claim responsibility”, like it’s some sort of terrorist attack. It’s not. It’s just three words. Three words from someone frustrated with the current status quo, who has money to waste. I’m not sure how long it will remain up there, but given that it doesn’t seem (at first sight, at least) to be breaking any laws or regulations [see below], I’m not sure why it would need to be taken down anytime soon.

In the meantime, the local Photoshop experts are going to have a field day.

UPDATE: It appears that the billboard HAS broken some local by-law or other:

But, I think job done, as far as the allegedly guilty party is concerned.