Anyone logged onto the BBC site recently and had a snoop around?

If you happened to scroll down, past all the breaking news, you would be greeted with a familiar face.

Here’s what we’re talking about:

How to make people hate you on email – sign off with ‘have a great day further’, or fail to understand the difference between ‘reply’ and ‘reply all’.

Are America’s whites dying faster – not at the hands of police, that’s for sure.

And then there, in the middle, sits Jacob. Sigh.

The BBC have a detailed read on what’s going on down this side of the world, so let’s take a little look:

The last year has been a bumpy one for South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma. Mr Zuma has appeared to veer from one crisis to another. The latest being the negative effect to the economy after the controversial sacking of his internationally respected finance minister. Yet, he is far from out…

While cracks are opening, the formidable ANC machinery is once again rallying behind the president.

“Thank you comrade president,” the ANC’s deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte told the crowd at his 75th birthday party in Soweto a fortnight ago.

“Thank you for the dignity you have shown in the face of many, many years of being insulted for who you are and what you stand for,” she said, to cheers and applause.

But who exactly does President Zuma stand for?

Is it the poor and struggling masses the ANC has a commitment to help, or is his leadership more about enriching himself and his close supporters?

It all depends on who you ask.

Pick me, pick me – spoiler alert, it isn’t the poor and struggling masses.

It’s worth reading the whole article, but I’ll skip forward to the conclusion:

At his birthday party there was no doubt President Zuma still oozes charisma.

Singing a rousing solo, dancing on stage and delivering a long and passionate speech in Zulu he is appealing to his base.

As long as he keeps the core support of the party, and his people, it seems unlikely any vote of no confidence will succeed or that he will be leaving a moment before his time is up.

But we signed all those petitions?

[source:bbc]