Zuma is no master strategist

Jacob Zuma’s supporters claim he is a master chess player and a tsar of brinkmanship.

This is an image his political supporters have carefully cultivated over the years as his career somehow survived when it looked like it was the end for him.

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Even when his political obituaries had been written, printed and sent out for distribution, he would somehow halt proceedings, come back to life and fight another day.

But none of the events that got him into the Union Buildings were part of a grand plan orchestrated by himself, as would be expected of a master chess player.

This past week, his legal team asked six judges of the Constitutional Court to recuse themselves from the judgment on whether he is eligible to stand as a candidate in this month’s election.

He claims that because they were part of the decision that sent him to jail in 2021 for contempt of court, they will be biased against him.

If they were to do so, it would only leave five judges to make a decision and that doesn’t form a quorum. His supporters are screaming “genius” again.

The reality is that a series of sometimes accidental and unfortunate events, aided by extremely large doses of playing victim, landed the former president where he is today.

No-one plans and strategises to be fired from the position of deputy president of the country. Absolutely no-one plans to be a rape accused and be found not guilty as part of their political journey to becoming president.

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How does one plan to have corruption charges thrown out by the National Prosecuting Authority on the eve of their elevation to the highest office in the land?

Like Nikita Khrushchev, who once took the world to the brink of an open nuclear war with the Cuban missile crisis in the ‘60s, the former president has learnt the art of brinkmanship along the way.

Some of his supporters have learnt that possessing the card that threatens to unleash untold violence when things don’t go their way can see their man stay out of jail. As they did in July 2021.

Again, there is no master brinkmanship from the former president in this regard. John Dulles, a US secretary of state back in the days of the Cold War, described brinkmanship as “the ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art”.

A master tactician or chess player knows how to get the threat to work to their advantage without getting into a costly and catastrophic war that they might even lose.

They do not unleash mayhem on the streets as was witnessed in the July 2021 looting riots. The latest move that Zuma is trying is aimed at manufacturing a constitutional crisis.

Unfortunately, it is a move his legal team have tried before and it ended up with him in jail. Nothing masterful there.

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Sure, the man has the luck of a Forrest Gump and lands with his bum in the pound seats whenever random events seek to dictate his fate – but that is all there is to it.

The luck of a Houdini is what has worked for him, aided by a legal team that has had it in for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC for over a decade.

Believing that six judges of the Constitutional Court can be biased against a single individual doesn’t say anything about the court’s integrity.

It does, however, say a lot about the individual who thinks they can be the subject of a judgment of the country’s apex court.