Former President Zuma pressed some well-worn buttons in his testimony before the Zondo commission on Monday. And, like a soap opera, it was packed with open-ended innuendos, accusations and a whopping dose of political intrigue.
Of course, playing the victim was always going to be Zuma’s trump card. But, the healthy dose of conspiracy theory meted out by the former President will have left many in the ANC reeling.
Indeed, no-one should ever have expected Zuma to admit any culpability in the hitherto unproven allegations of state capture. But in the process, Zuma has ushered in another bout of intense internal ANC navel-gazing over issues that once again threaten to undermine party cohesion at a highly fragile moment for President Ramaphosa.
Other than blaming international agencies for an orchestrated campaign to besmirch his character (clearly un-successful since he later became President), Zuma effectively laid the blame for his character assassination at the door of his own party. And, he did this through the narrative of questioning the genuine struggle credentials of his fellow ANC cadres.
In labelling Ngoaka Ramatholdi, a former mineral resources minister, a spy (rapidly denied by Ramatholdi), Jacob Zuma was returning to the well-worn habits of old within the ANC – and habits that were ultimately nurtured by the Apartheid police state at the time.
Discrediting opponents within the ANC was often associated with besmirching an individual as a spy – but since the Apartheid State had largely infiltrated key ANC positions, such allegations were often correct.