Zuma’s party is not that of Madiba

The characteristic which most narrowly defines President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is his street-smart toughness; it is almost as if the phrase “bring it on” was coined especially for him.

And you would have to believe him making good the promise he made in his quarterly parliamentary question-and-answer this week: he is sticking to his guns and going nowhere.

Zuma’s Teflon-coated tenacity has manifested itself in many ways. He has shaken off seven motions of no confidence in the House of Assembly – a fact he produces as a proud boast – and is confident he will survive another.

Part of this is generated by the president’s seeming disregard for what the country’s electorate – and indeed the world – think of him, ring-fencing himself with a coterie of cronies in key positions inside and outside the party.

It is Zuma’s intimate understanding of the myriad cogs which go into making the ANC operate which has kept him where he is – even though he is generally blamed as the architect of the deep divisions within the party.

He has risen from the ignominy of being sacked as vice-president to the stunning removal of president Thabo Mbeki and ultimately the top job. He has seen his way through the minefield of corruption charges, the state capture report and an economy forced into recession.

Zuma holds the reins of power captive in his own hands and is not about to let them go, even down to promoting the presidential candidacy of his former wife Nkosasana Dlamini-Zuma as his successor.

But through all this, the party in which Zuma currently holds sway, is assuredly not the party the late former president Nelson Mandela led with such stateliness into the uncharted wastes of a nascent democracy. And many would hasten to add, can never be again.