With a little over 40 mins to go until the midnight deadline, Jacob Zuma finally handed himself over to the authorities at his Nkandla homestead last night to begin serving his 15-month prison sentence. The embattled former president now faces the daily clothing option of an orange overall, and that suits South African’s just fine.
Sam Mkokeli detailed Zuma’s dark downward spiral to eventual arrest due to his dealings over the past two decades and colourfully coined the borrowed Afrikaans phrase Zuma se gat to eviscerate the ex-president. In his Financial Mail column, Mkokeli compared Zuma to two other strongmen, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, who both met a grizzly fate. While Zuma is unlikely to endure the sort of punishment those two men went through it’s a poignant read from the writer.
While playwright, Ismail Mahomed writes in News24 that Zuma should be treated like any other prisoner and not like, say Cinderella. Mahomed argues that it is up to the South African justice system to ensure that Zuma is treated like a criminal during his time in prison and not like a modern-day Disney princess, with humble origins and a fairy tale ending.
And in the Daily Maverick, Oscar van Heerden writes that amongst the rabid COVID-19 third wave, which continues to wash over South Africa, we must not lose hope. Van Heerden says it would be “far too easy to point fingers and engage in the blame game, even though this makes us feel better and less responsible for our own actions.”
Here’s a roundup of the most interesting opinions and analyses:
Zuma Roundup
Nkandla is a litmus test for the ANC – The Citizen (For subscribers)
The problem is ANC impunity — not Zuma – Financial Mail
Jacob Zuma is attempting an appeal via the back door – Business Day
SA Business
Public sector wage offer is hard for employees to refuse – Business Day
Steinhoff vultures in the headlights – Financial Mail (For subscribers)
Hollard puts its money where its mouth is – The Citizen (For subscribers)
Till debt do us part: Will unbundling really save Eskom? – Fin24 (For subscribers)
