THE THICK END OF THE WEDGE

ANOTHER week, another humiliating confirmation of President Jacob Zuma’s lack of judgment. Not for the first time, he shares the shame with “Justice” Minister Jeff Radebe in having their appointment of Menzi Simelane as head of the National Prosecuting Authority reversed by the Constitutional Court.

Forget the private life. It’s the public life that’s so disturbing. A rigged dropping of corruption charges ahead of his first general election, the botched appointments of Willem Heath and a chief justice, the retention of the worst education minister in our history, the spending of more than R200m (so far!) of public money on his private home, the silence in the midst of the implosion of the mining industry and our standing as an investment destination and, without doubt, much more of the same to come.

Zuma, it must be said, never promised anything else. He never said he would lead the country. He said he would do what the African National Congress (ANC) told him to do. Sure, he also runs the ANC but that is by committee, so he is perfectly protected. JZ, as he often reminds us, knows his party.

This is a group of men and (a few) women who bring a whole new meaning to the concept of liberation. Luckily, they are so incompetent at almost everything they do that the country may actually be big enough to survive them.

There’s not much use complaining about the ANC. It gets to fill in its own scorecard. The delegates to its conference in December will represent only one in every 10,000 citizens. Someone else is going to have to make the case (of itself not difficult) for a reform of the way we vote that is more democratic and more attractive to the majority. It’ll happen. You can’t hide from accountability forever.