After years of watching one man make a complete mockery of our democratic institutions, the end is in sight.

Times LIVE are reporting that Zuma has ‘agreed to go’, saying that will happen “as soon as a list of preconditions has been finalised, in a deal struck on Tuesday between Zuma and ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa”.

No one knows when those preconditions will be locked down, and we’re all going to grow tired of seeing the ‘will he / won’t he / when will he’ game play out.

That being said, if you want an overview of the life and times of Jacob Zuma then the BBC is where you should start. They have a feature piece titled “The trials of Jacob Zuma”, opening with a section called “This Charming Man’.

We’ll start there:

“Ehe… ehehehehehe… eh-he-he-hee… ahahahahayeee.”

The warm, rich, indulgent chuckle of South Africa’s President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma ripples through a solemn conference chamber in Pretoria.

It’s his trademark – a disarming, seemingly unlimited well of good humour, deployed to break the ice, lighten the mood and wrong-foot his opponents.

Many people who know him talk of Zuma’s extravagant charm.

I remember watching him gleefully bounding on to a stage, one cold night in central Johannesburg in April 2009, to celebrate the election victory that had just elevated him to the post once occupied by President Nelson Mandela. His laughter, his dance moves, his raucous singing – all seemed to promise a new era of confidence and energy for a country finally being led by “one of us” – a charismatic, salt-of-the-earth man rather than his predecessor, the elitist “professor” Thabo Mbeki.

Flawed, yes, the cheering crowds might have conceded. But aren’t we all?

Don’t stress, because it gets down to business pretty rapidly:

Today, after … 10 years in charge of the governing ANC, Jacob Zuma’s laughter has turned against him. To many in this country it has become a jarring, charmless cliche – the hollow mirth of a man whose presidency is widely blamed for the corruption, misrule and economic stagnation that now afflict a nation.

“President Zuma represents a betrayal of the South African dream,” says Sipho Pitanya, a leading critic from within the ANC, the liberation movement that came to power a generation ago after the long struggle against racial apartheid.

They cover Nkandla in a section titled ‘Admit Nothing, Challenge Everything’, outline his relationship with the Guptas, and finish with ‘Endgame’.

Here’s how they wrap it all up:

“There’s nothing, nothing factual. It’s just political… political propaganda,” he fumed of the mountain of allegations that have piled up at his door.

“It’s easy to criticise.”

It is indeed. And as Jacob Zuma’s troubled presidency begins to wind down, it is tempting to wonder how he will spend his retirement. Relaxing, perhaps, with his family at Nkandla. Or, as is beginning to seem more likely as he loses a string of court rulings, continuing the long legal battle to clear his name.

I know that reading about this cretin tends to send the blood pressure rocketing, but if you can muster the effort then do yourself a favour and read the full piece here.

Who knows who is going to have the last laugh, but it sure will be one hell of a ride.

[source:bbc]