The politics of the left in South Africa are in disarray, and there is no end in sight as long as one man is centrally involved.
And that is Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK) Party president and former head of state Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma.
This is a man who, over the years, has opportunistically branded himself as the poster boy of the left for blatant self-promotion.
Use them, then dump them
First and foremost, there is nothing practically leftist about Zuma. And his reign at the Union Buildings and policy choices thereof bear testimony to this to those who are still doubting Thomases.
Zuma has, however, mastered the art of using forces of the left when it is opportune for his individual political career, and dumping them when he is done.
In recent history, it starts at the ANC 2002 national congress at the University of Stellenbosch.
This is the conference in which strong proponents of the left, such as now ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe, were dealt with by a Thabo Mbeki who had no time for the left and was forthright about it.
To Zuma, it was an opportunity to build a base for the following Polokwane 2007 national congress. This was where he eventually emerged as the ANC president.
Zuma was a master tactician in how he used the forces of the left to elevate himself to the pinnacle of the ANC, and ultimately the country.
Strategic positions
It was no coincidence that two former general secretaries of the then most popular trade union, NUM, Kgalema Motlanthe and Gwede Mantashe, were placed in strategic positions in Zuma’s slate.
Indeed, the entire slate emerged as conference victors, with Mantashe as ANC secretary-general (revenge on Mbeki for 2002 sins). Motlanthe became second-in-command after Zuma.
The left had delivered for Zuma, as they did with mass mobilisation for his court appearances and political messaging during his rape trial, for which he was eventually acquitted.
They had hoped that after years of being shunned and pushed to the side by a market-friendly Mbeki as head of state, it was time for the left to take charge and influence the levers of state power.
But in Zuma, they had committed a historical and tactical political blunder most would live to regret.
It did not take long for Zuma to get to work to weaken this left bloc that delivered him in Polokwane.
Zwelinzima Vavi
Further attempts at entrenching themselves in the state by the left, such as Numsa’s suggestion for then all-powerful Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi to be appointed deputy president, were shunned by Zuma.
The less said about where Vavi and Numsa ended up, the better.
Another leftist force that also immensely contributed to Zuma’s rise to the Union Buildings was growing impatient. That was the ANCYL as then led by its president, Julius Malema.
True to form, Zuma did not hesitate to do what he does best to divide the “Economic Freedom in Our Lifetime” ANCYL generation and conquer them in the process.
Malema, the face, was expelled from the ANC, sending shivers to the rest that remained in the ANC ranks. Those who had no other option but to tone down on the left radicalism.
As we now know, Malema, with those who were jealously married to the left radical course, went on to establish the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to close that left gap which was now totally hollow within the ANC and broader mass democratic movement (MDM).
Cosatu, with the expulsion of Vavi and Numsa, followed by other industrial trade unions, had been destroyed.
SACP
The SACP had long been castrated to become sell-outs. With its leaders being showered with blue-light positions within the national executive in government.
Zuma has done it again with the glimpse of a so-called Progressive Caucus building to oppose the neo-liberal government of national unity (GNU).
He began poaching from within the ranks of what were supposed to be his allies, the EFF. Thus causing natural and correct suspicion about his real intentions in the Progressive Caucus.
That bloc is now, by all indications, dead in the water. And the GNU is moving freely to entrench neoliberalism in the state. With right-wing elements of it more emboldened than ever before since 1994.
Politically homeless, Floyd Shivambu was another victim of Zuma’s manoeuvres that are wreaking havoc in the politics of the left.
He was convinced to dump the EFF with promises that the most genuine force of the left was Zuma’s MKP. And he would believe this because a carrot was dangled – immediate benefit for him to grow outside the shadow of Malema.
Shivambu homeless
Shivambu was swiftly appointed national organiser of the MKP. This was before being promoted quickly into the secretary-general position. A setup for sabotage by people who had been there from day one of the party’s formation without personal benefit.
Ten months later, he is homeless and moving clumsily in anger to establish another leftist political party.
This is another problem with politics of the left in this country, egoism is going to be the end of it all.
Shivambu does not see himself as humble enough to go back home to the EFF and subject himself to being led by Malema.
Zuma rejected joining EFF before forming MKP because he sees himself as too senior to be led by Malema.
Neoliberal political parties
Malema himself refused to collapse EFF into MKP because he is too popular on his own without Zuma.
But with Malema, he cannot be blamed if Zuma’s track record of destroying the left is anything to go by.
While the left continues to fracture, with Shivambu destined for his own party, the neoliberal forces have never been so united, especially when it matters the most.
Neoliberal political parties can contest elections individually. But when it is time to close ranks post the polls, they do so with maximum discipline. This as we witnessed with the formation of the GNU, which totally isolated the disorganised left.
