• Head-spinning truce is reminiscent of Raila and Njonjo photo opp at K’Osewe’s
Image: FILE
In politics, there are no permanent enemies and no permanent friends, only permanent interests. The oft-quoted truism has been ringing in my head this week as South Africa witnessed its own version of Kenya’s 2018 political handshake moment.
Former President Jacob Zuma met Julius Malema, commander-in-chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters political party, at Zuma’s once-infamous Nkandla home for a handshake, a few smiles and a much-photographed drink of tea.
Malema is fond of pan-Africanism and in favour of adopting Kiswahili as the continental lingua franca. Because of this, as well as his love of the finer things in life, which some have claimed is a form of champagne socialism, I hoped the tea in the cups was from Kericho or Limuru.
However, as the people who sell Kenya’s tea don’t seem to have made great inroads in the SA market, it was probably Five Roses tea from Sri Lanka. Come to think of it, after a decade in this country, I am yet to see Kenyan tea on South African supermarket shelves. Somebody is sleeping on the job.
Anyway this is not really about the tea that was drunk at the only house in the world with a fire pool. It is more about who will be most irritated, if not actually alarmed, that the two men are speaking again.
Back in 2007, then former Deputy President Zuma and the fiery leader of the ANC Youth League Julius Malema were close allies. They managed to bring down President Thabo Mbeki and get Zuma into Mahlamba Ndlopfu (the New Dawn, in the Shangaan language), the official residence of the President in Pretoria.
Five years later, in 2011, Malema, who some in the ANC saw as a threat, was charged with violating the ANC constitution, including bringing it into disrepute through his utterances and sowing division in the ranks of the party. He was found guilty and expelled. Zuma, who was President of both the party and the country, did not defend his one-time buddy.
Malema went on to form the EFF and become a permanent thorn in Zuma’s side, until Zuma himself was forced out of office by the ANC and replaced with his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa.
However, Malema has about as much time for Ramaphosa as Zuma has. It was Ramaphosa who chaired the disciplinary committee that saw Malema thrown out of the ANC.
So perhaps in the spirit of that old political proverb, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, we might see a new alliance between Malema and Zuma, but it is still early days.
My initial guess is that with local government elections coming up this year, an alliance of sorts with Zuma might be good for the EFF in Zuma’s KwaZuluNatal province stronghold, where the EFF is weak.
The tea between Zuma and Malema and the panicked reaction of various political groupings across the country and within the ANC itself, reminded me a little of the 1983 rapprochement between Oginga Odinga and Charles Njonjo during the Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of the latter.
While of course, Njonjo and Jaramogi had never been close, they had known each other for a long time and worked together in the Kenyatta Cabinet. Of course, that did not stop Njonjo and his buddy Tom Mboya from having a hand in Jaramogi’s troubles through the 1960s.
The Njonjo-Odinga patching up eventually led to Njonjo and Jaramogi’s son Raila Odinga also becoming friends back in 2006.
Raila and Njonjo made a big deal of being photographed together and dining at K’Osewe’s. Of course those in the know knew that part of the reason Raila and Njonjo were playing buddy buddy, was mischief-making. They both knew it would irritate the heck out of President Mwai Kibaki.
Perhaps underneath it all, the Zuma and Malema tea party is nothing more than a ploy to cause President Ramaphosa great discomfort. After all, politicians can be as petty as the rest of us.