Political analyst Richard Calland released a book this year titled, ‘The Zuma Years: South Africa’s changing face of power‘. In the book he said while he is still critical of the past, he misses Mbeki.

Calland, who also teaches constitutional law at the University of Cape Town and heads the democratic governance and rights unit, told the Cape Town Press Club that Zuma’s downfall is that he doesn’t read:

It’s not that he can’t read, it’s that he doesn’t read and he doesn’t read the proper stuff; he doesn’t read Cabinet briefs, he doesn’t read stuff that is the meat and drink of modern, sophisticated government.

He goes on to say:

It is not easy for one to have such disrespect for our president. The truth is we have a leader who encourages that … and who is, in many ways, the embodiment of anti-intellectualism.

He added that Zuma’s predecessor, Thabo Mbeki’s downfall was he read too much, and didn’t pay too much attention to his advisers. He said Mbeki had a great understanding of important documents.This encouraged his cabinet ministers to be prepared:

Cabinet ministers were constantly on their toes because they knew that they had a boss, a chairperson of Cabinet, who had read at least as much as they did, if not more and knew their briefs as best, if not better, and that kept them on their guard.

[Source: Mail & Guardian]