Editorial

Perspective: Trials of Black Men… The Jacob Zuma Story

President Jacob Zuma

Perspective: Trials of Black Men

The Jacob Zuma Story

So far we looked at Laurent Bgadbo, of the Ivory Coast, Bill Crosby, Tiger Woods and now South Africa’s President Zuma who faced corruption trials and the possibility of impeachment recently.

In all the cases we have posted so far there seem to be a common thread … these are all powerful men, men trusted with power and considerable power. They either betrayed our trust or allowed power to corrupt them.
There were cases also of indiscretion as it relates to personal judgment if not morals.

Let us look at Zuma for a moment, he has been one of the leaders who have succeeded Nelson Mandela who fought so hard to uplift the plight of blacks pulling them out of a deep hole of racial segregation, apartheid to be exact to now have its leader debased and being humiliated.

He has spent about 23 million pounds on his Nkandla Homestead … The court ruled that he should pay back some of the money. Opposition wants him to resign, accusing him of being corrupt and not fit to continue as president as he breached the Constitution.

The African Nationalist Congress (ANC) has been in power since South Africa’s independence in 1994.

We long argued in Vision that some of these trials were self inflicted miss steps. We certainly thought so in the cases of Tiger woods and Bill Cosby. We can now add Zuma to this not so prestigious list.

When placed in a position of trust,
Transparency must be your only focus,
Your integrity should be robust …
Then we put in power people we can trust.

ANC

Jacob Zumba

Zuma had not all yet … he almost blew it. South Africa is a rich country …rich with minerals and in agriculture. The ANC, if they play their cards right could be in power for a very long time …. creating if you will, a form of democratic dictatorship. It is the largest party, has the seats and has broad based support … all the trimmings that are the right ingredient for solid political support.

Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma 73, became President of South Africa in 2009 and re elected 2014 is from the Zulu tribe, a polygamist … he currently has 4 wifes according to tradition from his tribe. He has inherited much and for whom much is expected.

So for Zuma to have allowed greet, licky, licky type behaviour as we like to say in this neck of the woods here in Jamaica W.I. to brought the presidency into disrepute is most unfortunate. This reinforces the widely held, if not and also our view that ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’

We hope President Zuma will ponder carefully the awesome responsibility of his office, and most of all his legacy.

Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is Senior International Correspondent & Photojournalist for Vision Newspaper Canada.

Picture from www.bbc.com

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