South Africa’s weekly trends report until 26 November

Zondo vs Zuma

 




Former president Jacob Zuma’s appearance before the Zondo commission took an unexpected turn after Zuma demanded that the judge he appointed to lead the commission should recuse himself.

“DCJ Zondo delivers his ruling on Zuma's recusal application. He says the commission was established to investigate and report on state capture. He says the commission was established by the applicant in Jan 2018. #StateCaptureInquiry @TeamNews24,” shared Jeanette Chabalala. 

Social media users Lebogang and Bra Stan pointed out that Zuma might be suffering from memory loss: “Zuma claimed not to know Mentor whom he served with in the NEC Nd Cabinet. bt he remember Zondo’s 30yrs friendship #StateCaptureInquiry,” tweeted Lebogang, with a comment from Bra Stan: “Selective remembrance. Mr Zuma, when he appointed Judge Zondo, he said we should all be working together with the judge, but now he is the one going against his own words, or maybe it is the advice from his attorneys, very bad.”

Twitter users were divided as supporters of the former president took on his opponents. 

“The DCJ Zondo says President Zuma left without telling him. Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane SC did say we will excuse ourselves and will lodge a complaint about you being a judge and witness in your own matter. #ZondoCommission,” shared Banele.

Bongzmessi did not understand why Zuma was being pursued: “No man in SA has been pursued by real rulers of this land like Zuma has been. Not even Mandela if u say it's about Justice I say BS. If it was about Justice Senzo's killers would be in jail, Marikana murderers would be in jail, De Klerk would be in jail. But it ain't it, is it?”

@Luyolom questioned why Zuma was only raising his concerns now, after having appointed DCJ Zondo, “#ZondoCommission for me it’s the fact that it’s President Zuma who appointed Judge Zondo without raising issues. Secondly it’s not the first time the president is called to assist the commission.”

The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation released a statement warning that Zuma’s conduct could set a negative precedent for other witnesses: “We commend Judge Zondo for turning down former Pres. Zuma’s recusal application. However, if Zuma is not brought to account before the Commission in compliance with his summons, it sets negative precedent for other witnesses who still have to testify.#ZondoCommission.”

The Zondo commission has laid a criminal complaint against Zuma for walking out of the State Capture inquiry without permission, and will apply to the Constitutional Court for an order to force Zuma to appear before the commission. “Zondo: I am going to determine other dates when Mr Zuma must appear before this commission. The secretary will issue a summons to be served on Mr Zuma to appear before this commission during those dates. #StateCaptureInquiry @TeamNews24,” shared Jeanette Chabalala.

Politics of protest

 



The EFF-led protest at Brackenfell High School continued to make news after it received support from Jack Markovitz, grandson of the late DA member Leon Markovitz. @IOL tweeted an interview in which Jack Markovitz accused the DA and the Cape Party of supporting white supremacy and apartheid. He said the protest at Brackenfell High School was justified and should be replicated in other parts of the country. This was retweeted 2,200 times and liked 5,600 times.

Markovitz was praised for his stand: @GeeSport69 claimed that while some see a white man, he sees a freedom fighter. 

In a second video posted by @Ribes_L, Markovitz claimed that discrimination was still very prevalent in South Africa and that it was time to fight back. The video was retweeted 1,800 times and liked 4,900 times. @i_likebrandon tweeted that this video proved there were white people who acknowledged their privilege and wanted to fight against racism.  @Macfarlane123 tweeted that the Markovitz family held more wealth than the residents of Brackenfell, but were criticising them. @JoeSoap18104265 claimed that Jack Markovitz was just an “angry rich kid” who was “throwing a tantrum”.

Counter-protesters at Brackenfell High School included members of the DA, the Cape Party and the ACDP, who gathered in support of the school.  @MightiJamie pointed out that the counter-protesters were chased away because they did not have approval for their protest. @HonourableHloni said that even though the Cape Party did not have permission to march and were armed, the police were using violence against the EFF members, who had all the required paperwork. 

The clash between EFF members and the counter-protesters led to an assault. @Conracal explained that an unknown white man was assaulted after confronting the EFF’s Marshall Dlamini for saying that white people were the enemy and that they should kill their enemy. @K9_Reaper described this attack as cowardly and @Wolfjas stated that this was how the EFF operated and promoted violence. DM

The Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC) is a non-profit organisation based at UCTs Graduate School of Business and incubated by the Allan Gray Centre for Values-Based Leadership. It was established to track and counter mis- and disinformation, fake news and divisive and polarising rhetoric that is promulgated online to undermine social cohesion, democratic integrity, and the stability of nation states.