How Jacob Zuma stole South Africa (and how the people fought back)

The Money Show’s Bruce Whitfield interviews Editor in Chief at Huffington Post South Africa Pieter du Toit.

On Wednesday, President Jacob Zuma told the nation, and the ANC, he will not resign.

Nevertheless, the long, catastrophic Zuma-era is coming to an end.

How did we get to this point?

The Money Show’s Bruce Whitfield interviewed Editor in Chief at Huffington Post South Africa Pieter du Toit.

Du Toit is the co-author of “Enemy of the People: How Jacob Zuma stole South Africa and how the people fought back”.

Listen to the interview below (and/or scroll down to read quotes from it).

The Public Protector found he received undue benefits [Nkandla] paid for by the State. He just totally ignored it.

Pieter du Toit, HuffPost SA

He undermined the law and he undermined institutions.

Pieter du Toit, HuffPost SA

He’s done enormous damage to the State and institutions supporting democracy. He’s done enormous damage to his party.

Pieter du Toit, HuffPost SA

He led the ANC to its worst electoral result ever.

Pieter du Toit, HuffPost SA

There is no level of Government where he hasn’t caused enormous damage.

Pieter du Toit, HuffPost SA

Our national conversation has been dominated by Jacob Zuma for more than a decade.

Pieter du Toit, HuffPost SA

It’s fascinating to see people turning around and denouncing him!

Pieter du Toit, HuffPost SA

Description of “Enemy of the People: How Jacob Zuma stole South Africa and how the people fought back” on Amazon:

“Enemy of the People” is the first definitive account of Zuma’s catastrophic misrule, offering eyewitness descriptions and cogent analysis of how South Africa was brought to its knees – and how a people fought back.

When Jacob Zuma took over the leadership of the ANC one muggy Polokwane evening in December 2007, he inherited a country where GDP was growing by more than 6% per annum, a party enjoying the support of two-thirds of the electorate, and a unified tripartite alliance.

Today, South Africa is caught in the grip of a patronage network, the economy is floundering and the ANC is staring down the barrel of a defeat at the 2019 general elections.

How did we get here?

Zuma first brought to heel his party, Africa’s oldest and most revered liberation movement, subduing and isolating dissidents associated with his predecessor Thabo Mbeki.

Then saw the emergence of the tenderpreneur and those attempting to capture the state, as well as a network of family, friends and business associates that has become so deeply embedded that it has, in effect, replaced many parts of government.

Zuma opened up the state to industrial-scale levels of corruption, causing irreparable damage to state enterprises, institutions of democracy, and the ANC itself.

But it hasn’t all gone Zuma’s way.

Former allies have peeled away.

A new era of activism has arisen and outspoken civil servants have stepped forward to join a cross-section of civil society and a robust media.

As a divided ANC square off for the elective conference in December, where there is everything to gain or to lose, award-winning journalists Adriaan Basson and Pieter du Toit offer a brilliant and up-to-date account of the Zuma era.

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