Wow, what a week – and it's only just begun! So the ruling party is literally doing an about-turn on the rest of us, regarding where things stand with the presidency, and whether or not President Zuma will step down this week.
We have been waiting with bated breath (some of us, anyway – because the rest know that Jacob Zuma is uPhunyuka bemphethe). Or maybe we're just suffering from blind trust in the governing party – that they will decide the president's fate and provide leadership once and for all on a matter of national importance: when the president will step down.
Instead, we have been involuntarily roped into this tiresome game of cops and robbers, not knowing when it will finally end.
On Tuesday afternoon, the ANC officially announced that Number 1 has been recalled – ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule assured the country that the NEC's decision is final, that they will give President Zuma "time and space to respond", and that they have not imposed a deadline on his response.
The ANC and uBaba kaDuduzane are taking us for fools – we are still not able to tell what is going to unfold in the next few days, because inasmuch as the governing party has made its intent known, it remains largely unclear whether the president will agree.
I am also not sure whether all of the blame should fall on the ANC and Jacob Zuma – we have always known who he is, and just how strongly he would stick to his guns. The Zuma we see now did not appear overnight – this is the same man who was elected to public office 10 years ago, and he has always looked out for himself at all costs.
The ruling party has also always been without a backbone – deploying cadreson the basis of whether they are on good terms with the popular faction at the time, which is why it has always been easy for the party to come back and rid itself of those whom they feel no longer "serve the party's mandate" (translation: heed the party's bidding).
We have seen this happen with Mbeki in Mangaung, when the Zuma faction came out on top. Nxamalala should not be surprised that this is the manner in which he has to leave office, as he made this bed for himself way back in 2007 – and now he has to lie in it. The way in which he got into office was always bound to be the same way in which he exits – a classic case of what comes around, goes around.
The chickens have come home to roost.
The ANC may have decided to recall the president, but by not placing a deadline on Zuma's response, it shows that they don't care about South Africans, and have no regard for our concerns about where we are headed to from here.
I am tired of watching this miserable soap opera being drawn out – it needs to stop. This should be it; the final curtain call.