It’s not exactly a well-kept secret that many felt Helen Zille had taken the DA as far as it could go under her leadership. Whilst there are a few members competing for the position of top dog within the DA’s ranks, it looks pretty certain that Mmusi Maimane will take over the reins.

In the same vein it seems that, even within the ANC itself, many have lost patience with Jacob Zuma and the damage he has caused to the party. Quite whether that unrest with the powers-that-be could in any way hasten JZ stepping down from the throne remains to be seen, but the key could lie with Maimane himself.

Hang on, how exactly can one come to that conclusion? The Mail and Guardian reports:

The DA judicial review case that challenges the lawfulness of the March 2009 decision to drop serious corruption charges against Zuma is to be heard by the high court in the coming months. After years of legal filibustering, Zuma is likely to finally get his day in court…

If the court decides the dropping of the charges was irrational, then, regardless of the inevitable appeal Zuma’s legal team will institute, it may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and Zuma may be forced to resign by his own party.

Or, more likely, he will resist such a move tooth and nail and further political turbulence will ensue, causing more damage to institutions and government.

And so we find our way back to Maimane, because an alternative scenario is this: that he, perhaps under pressure from some of his party’s most generous and influential corporate patrons, decides that the greatest act of leadership that he could give the nation early in his term as opposition leader would be to pave the way for Zuma to be quietly convinced to go. That would require delicate navigation and negotiation between Maimane and significant figures in the ANC’s leadership. Maimane would offer to withdraw the judicial review case in the public interest, in return for a cast-iron promise that Zuma would go.

Sure it would mean that Jacob would walk away a free man, returning to his Nkandla palace to enjoy leisurely jaunts in his fire-pool and evenings spent in his home cinema, but at least he wouldn’t be the president the rest of the world judges us by.

Perhaps, for that, there is no price too small to pay.

[source:mg]