Comrades fear criticising Zuma

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IT was all joy when Jacob Zuma took over in Polokwane. Some saw the danger and chose to remain within the movement, some broke away and formed a new political party.

Zuma was said to be a man of the people and masses fell for such obnoxious statements. We were promised radical change in all sectors, but the very same man zigzagged across the world assuring investors and the West that nothing would change under his command.

Wasn't this a sign that one day the chickens would come home to roost?

Fast forward to 2011-2012 and we are seeing more service delivery protests, people are crying for access to clean water, sanitation, housing and quality primary health care. These are basic human rights – ouch! – to the poorest of the poor. Zuma wants to build his Nkandla homestead first at the cost of R238-million, so you must wait.

Is this the man of the people? How many rural villages would have had been serviced with such an amount?

Thulas Nxesi , the honourable minister of public works, finds himself deep in the soup defending the indefensible. Truth be told, this is just a waste of our hard-earned cash.

A military clinic on site? It is not far from Nkandla to Durban. Why does a clinic have to be in his own yard?

Is Zuma under threat so much that we prioritise his residence as a national key point? Is Zuma scared of the very same people who voted him to power? What an irony.

Yes, protocol is protocol. A president must be protected and be safe at all times, but it fascinates me the obsession behind Zuma's safety.

Then R1-billion of taxpayers' money would be used to make the village of Nkandla a modern city – wow! A great idea indeed! But would a right-thinking president – who is a man of the people – be obsessed about developing his own rural village instead of spreading the amount around the rural areas of our country, putting in water, sanitation and electricity infrastructure for the people.

But no, the people must wait for Nkandla to be the United Arab Emirates first. This reminds me of a Xhosa idiom that says, intaka evuka mva idliwa ziza gweba (get out early in the day to reap rewards). If we don't wake up as South Africans and stop these developments, I guess we will forever be sorry for not speaking out and taking action against what Zuma is doing with our hard-earned taxes.

It can never be correct for a president to do as he pleases with our money – no no no! The very same president almost bought a multimillion rand jet for himself and his entourage.

South Africa has just been downgraded by international agencies, right under his command. Even those who support him for a second term know very well that Zuma is bad for governance, but due to fear of losing their huge paying state jobs are supporting him.

They can see that the country is leaderless under JZ, but they are mum about it. Why comrades? Have the material conditions dictated you throw away your principles and conscience?

Is there still a revolution in South Africa or is it only on our lips? Why are we compromising what is right over a wrong?

My analysis tells me Polokwane was only about a change of guard to access state resources. Mangaung is a turning point – or be forever willing to defend the ineffective Zuma and his contested decisions.