By Dr Robert Ngwenya, businessman and ANC North West leader.
Johannesburg – The much publicised to be an encounter between Malema and Zuma must not be viewed with the spectacles of suspicion or the suspense of a much awaited heavyweight title fight nor a latter-day revised battle field meeting of a David and Goliath.
Rather, it must be seen as a tête-à-tête between patriots, politicians who at some point and even now, may still share a common wish for their people.
Similarly, it should not be interpreted as a biblical parable of the prodigal son going home and honoured with the slaughtering of the fattest beast for a feast and new robe.
The much talked about tweet wherein Julius publicly requests a tea moment with Zuma is nothing out of the ordinary, nothing which has not happened privately and even accidentally as the two continue to do work for their organizations and the people of South Africa.
Now that this was made public and comes at the time when Zuma is pushed against the wall by the constitutional laws of this country, and that, in his defense(Zuma), true to form as a political animal, Zuma has chosen a political route to fight laws which he feels were designed to suppress him and portray him as a face of corruption.
Indeed, in the midst of this declaration, any and every politician should be worried about the implications of a former Head of State defying the very constitutional democracy he fought to create and ultimately led.
Malema’s request, no matter how hard he fought Zuma in Parliament and in front of every microphone he stood, is a sign of respect and acknowledgement that Zuma is a seasoned politician whose life has been nothing but to free his people. It is a request to have tea and discuss politics and political implications of Zuma’s defiance.
Maybe, as we know Julius, is to plead with the old man, the man he once was prepared to kill for, to appear at the Zondo Commission for his sake and for the sake of this country. He probably seeks to remind the former President that the Commission’s work is exactly what Zuma sacrificed his youth for and that if he was ill-advised as the President, that we should never ever have people who would seek proximity to any President to further their own nefarious agendas thus plunging our country into a poverty state.
It is our wish that as the two gulp that Rooibos herbal tea with honey that Zuma is known to like, that former President would take heed to the nation’s call to appear before the Zondo Commission to finally clear his name, that of the organization he served all his life, but most importantly, the dignity of his family and that of all us who loved and elected him to lead us.
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