Guest Post: Cows Slaughtered for Re-Election

Guest Post: Bonga from South Africa

South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, in preparation for the upcoming elections, had 12 cattle slaughtered in a ceremony to request help and guidance from the ancestors in the upcoming ANC presidential elections. Zuma is running against deputy president, Kgalema Motlante, who he had appointed after the recalling of former president Thabo Mbeki.  Motlante, who was care-taking president in the lead up to the elections at Mangaung, is a strong favourite to win the election with Zuma’s opponents pushing for him to be expelled from the top job. Analysts, however, have said that Zuma will get re-elected, this is despite his being investigated for using taxpayer’s money to renovate his residential complex which reportedly cost  $27,000,000. 

SA President Jacob Zuma

Random Bonga Thoughts: I wonder  if Zuma really believes in traditionalism and its practises or if it is just an image that he wants to put out to black South Africans, in order to show them that he is one of them, despite his excessive mansion and private  jet, and thus gain and keep their support for himself and the ANC at large. I question what the purpose of  having local chiefs act as judge, prosecutor and mediator, as was warranted by the Zuma government’s Traditional Courts Bill which was unveiled earlier this year, is, given the fact that South Africa already has a functional, though it may have flaws, judicial system. I think that in addition to seeking support through his action, President Jacob Zuma is creating a platform upon which he and South Africans, who are traditionalists when it is convenient, can get away with actions that are seen as unacceptable and even law-breaking to some extent. There may be a legitimate reason for something like making a local chief a decision maker on matters of the law, but I think that this should be on the basis of our already existing constitution.