After the recent elections result there are some people still hoping that Jacob Zuma will eventually resign and admit his guilt.
But I think it is quite improbable considering which type of leader he is. Although he was democratically elected he doesn’t believe in democracy, for him it is only a tool for his purposes he may use when needed and ignore when it doesn’t serve his purpose.
Jacob Zuma is an uneducated person whose basic mind set is of a rural traditional leader. For him his right to leadership is not given by his elective constituency but he consider it a birth right given to him by blood lines and eventually God or any sort of beliefs he may have. So he strongly believes he has the right to lead for life and problems can always be sorted by changing people in his entourage and make them take the blame.
He has always shown his preference of traditional leaders rule over democratic ways and he has expressed it publicly. He supported the enhancement of rights of traditional leaders to rule independently of justice system. Under his government the budget for supporting traditional leaders is three times larger than the one allocated for social grants.
It is not something new within the ANC which always has tried to harmonize with the traditional structures and tries to make them meaningful and helpful. Many of great ANC leaders were also traditional leaders including Nelson Mandela. But it takes a lot of wisdom to remain fair to both traditional and democratic structures when interests collide, and Jacob Zuma is not specially gifted in this department. The example of Chief Albert Luthuli resigning his traditional leader position in order to devote himself to his duties within the ANC has been largely ignored and forgotten.
The last municipal elections have practically relegated the ANC to become a rural party and it is the result of the party elite ruling it in pure traditional leadership fashion. The future of the party now lies in acknowledge and correct it. It is impossible to rule effectively an industrialized country in the 21st century with the mental perspective of a rural early agricultural age chieftain.
Jacob Zuma is an uneducated person whose basic mind set is of a rural traditional leader. For him his right to leadership is not given by his elective constituency but he consider it a birth right given to him by blood lines and eventually God or any sort of beliefs he may have. So he strongly believes he has the right to lead for life and problems can always be sorted by changing people in his entourage and make them take the blame.
 |
| Why Jacob Zuma won't resign |
It is not something new within the ANC which always has tried to harmonize with the traditional structures and tries to make them meaningful and helpful. Many of great ANC leaders were also traditional leaders including Nelson Mandela. But it takes a lot of wisdom to remain fair to both traditional and democratic structures when interests collide, and Jacob Zuma is not specially gifted in this department. The example of Chief Albert Luthuli resigning his traditional leader position in order to devote himself to his duties within the ANC has been largely ignored and forgotten.
The last municipal elections have practically relegated the ANC to become a rural party and it is the result of the party elite ruling it in pure traditional leadership fashion. The future of the party now lies in acknowledge and correct it. It is impossible to rule effectively an industrialized country in the 21st century with the mental perspective of a rural early agricultural age chieftain.
