Former South African president Zuma gets 'Idiot of the Year' award
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – The Sunday Times – South Africa’s biggest selling weekend newspaper – reserves a section of its opinion pages for its popular Mampara (fool) Of The Week.
For decades, politicians, lawmakers, celebrities and other personalities have been shredded by the editors for misbehaving. And as one of the most turbulent years in South Africa’s history draws to a close, the newspaper is considering bestowing a lifetime Mampara Award on former President Jacob Zuma.
The newspaper noted that when Zuma reluctantly stepped down as president in 2018, he was expected to spend his retirement in the company of his children and grandchildren.
“We expected him to only leave his Nkandla home to appear in court for alleged corruption or before the Zondo commission to account for selling the country to his friends, the Guptas. But alas, he spent the year using every trick in the book to avoid responding to questions at the judicial commission of inquiry into state capture. When all those acts of desperation failed, Zuma shocked the nation when he walked out of the commission without permission, which resulted in the commission filing a criminal complaint against him.”
The newspaper said 37% of its readers voted to declare “this giggling moegoe (idiot)” Mampara of the Year 2020.
“It’s a spectacular return to mamparadom as he last clinched it in 2018 and had won it many other times before, hence a lifetime achievement award is now apt,” it added.
PANA reports that Zuma earlier this month said he would not be participating in the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture’s urgent Constitutional Court case compelling him to testify before the commission next year.
The commission lodged an urgent application on 3 December, asking the court to force Zuma to comply with summonses served on him to respond to 35 witnesses who linked him to state capture while he was president. He sparked an outcry last month, by walking out of the commission without testifying and without being excused.
His attorney, Eric Mabuza, wrote to the Constitutional Court, saying “we are acting on instructions by our client, president JG Zuma that he will not be participating in these proceedings at all”.
The Jacob Zuma Foundation last month stated that the commission, which is probing government corruption, “is nothing but a bastardisation of legal processes to achieve political ends for those who pull the strings from behind”.
The commission wants Zuma to be ordered to appear before it on 18 January and 15 February next year.
The Constitutional Court is currently hearing the urgent application.
-0- PANA CU/MA 30Dec2020
