Information Minister and NRM politician, Frank Tumwebaze has said that the resignation of South African President, Jacob Zuma should be a lesson to Uganda’s opposition that political power is derived from a political party with a mass support, not “an obsession with individuals”.
Jacob Zuma who has been in power since 2009 resigned on Wednesday evening after weeks of mounting pressure from his Africa National Congress (ANC) party to step down.
His party demanded his resignation threatening a vote of no confidence in Parliament.
Zuma, 75 has faced numerous corruption allegations and the ANC accused him of being used by the Guptas, a powerful and wealthy South African family which they say had wielded enormous political influence.
In his address to the nation a night before the Parliamentary sitting in which the vote of no confidence would be passed, Zuma said that violence and division within the ANC had influenced his decision to step down.
“No life should be lost in my name and also the ANC should never be divided in my name. I have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect,” he said.
Asked on Thursday by journalists to comment on the lessons that Uganda’s ruling NRM party could draw from Zuma’s resignation, Minister Frank Tumwebaze instead said that the events in South Africa should serve as a reflection point for the opposition politicians in Uganda.
“The opposition should learn a lesson that political power comes out of organizing politically on merit,” Tumwebaze said.
“They should know that the opposition did not force Mugabe (Zimbabwe’s former President) or Zuma to resign. The opposition that is always making noise was not anywhere when Mugabe was being forced out or after her resigned,” he added.
The Kibaale East legislator said that the opposition “should know that their obsession with an individual takes them nowhere”.
Rather, he added, “it is the strength of a party, even when that individual is not there, the mass party will always find a replacement”.
Relating the resignations of Zuma and Mugabe to other African leaders including President Yoweri Museveni, Tumwebaze underscored the weight of endorsements given by political structures as opposed to the narrative that such leaders are despots.
“The fact that these leaders heed their parties’ calls means that their parties wanted them to be there and that those who have served for long are not there by accident or against their parties. When President Museveni says he will go when his party decides, he knows the importance of a mass party,” Tumwebaze said.
He said that President Zuma took the decision understanding that if his ANC party believed that he could disadvantage them politically, it was necessary that he resigns.
“So, those who fail to build their parties and think they can sell themselves as individuals will keep having all sorts of weird imaginations,” he added, indirectly making reference to opposition leader, Dr Kizza Besigye.
To the NRM, he said Zuma’s resignation was a reminder that the party holds a strong ideology and support, which is reflected in the majority in Parliament.
“Leaders can not serve without the endorsement of their parties, and a party can not be in power without the support,” he said.
Tumwebaze took a swipe at the opposition who downplay the NRM’s numbers in Parliament, and called them activists that do not amount to a formidable force.
