It would be fair to say that here in South Africa our daily lives are littered with news stories that appear less regularly in other parts of the world. We don’t need to go into a Monday spiral and rehash the worst of them – I’m sure you get the picture.

Up top the political food chain sits President Jacob Zuma, a man whom Mail and Guardian writer Tinyiko Maluleke credits with a political strategy of ‘excess, outrageousness and shock’. I’ll hand over the reins to Maluleke to flesh out that idea below:

…the Zuma strategy appears to be “shock them till they’re numb”. Some of the most outrageous things that have occurred in the land have a direct causal link to him and his person. Other shockers simply derive inspiration from him before forking off towards their own destructive destinations. Few leaders, political or corporate, have had half as many shocking things done or said by them, of them, for them or on their behalf…

The genius of the Zuma shock strategy is to get his detractors to foam at the mouth and choke in anger or disgust before they can finish a speech. It is precisely in the frequency of their reference to Nkandla (or any other Zuma scandal) that they begin to sound monotonous, hapless, inarticulate, ridiculous, uncreative, hateful and too obsessed (with Zuma)…

“How can he laugh like that at a moment like this?” we ask one another. Let me give you five reasons why Zuma laughs. One: He laughs because he can. Yes, he can! Two: He laughs because derision and sarcasm are an essential security feature – Nhleko missed this one – of his tried and tested political strategy. Three: He laughs because he is arguably the most powerful ANC president since democracy began. Four: He laughs because the joke is not on him. Five: He laughs because he is having fun – at our expense.

It is those barely stifled parliamentary chuckles that really irk so many people (his Nkandla jokes or his State of the Nation smirk anyone?), but I suppose when you’ve fleeced your people to the tune of over R200 million and got off scot-free you probably feel pretty bulletproof.

You can read the full article HERE.

[source:mg]