The High and Mighty

I'm no political analyist. I take very little interest in the in's and out's of politicians or their doings bar noting their latest actions as a scroll through news headlines. (Exception to the rule, Oom Bob from up north) Perhaps I have my head in the sand - after all these blokes do run the country, and what they do affects everyone.

Take Jacob Zuma for instance. He's in the news a lot lately, and for good (well - perhaps not good as such) reason. His personal life is currently affecting the economy - corruption charges and a pending trial are having a negative knock-on effect all over the place, and his recent election to ANC president made markets get a wobbly too.

On the way to work this morning I was listening to a back-and-forth on the radio about Zuma, the ANC and various aspects of internal elections in the party that will affect us all.

As ANC president it's quite probable he'll end up Lord and Master over South Africa (ie President) in the next presidential election. Which, quite frankly, is a scary thought. Why? Because of the general trend in personality that seems to be his lot.

He has been taken to court over fraud, corruption, rape. He has seemed extremely clueless at times - take his "I showered after sex to prevent HIV infection" statement during the rape trial. He was fired from the position of Vice-President of the country. He was married to and divorced the current Ministor for Foreign Affairs. This weekend he took a 4th wife - an ANC activist of youthful years with whom he already has 2 children. He apparently has 18 children - at least one the result of an affair (though "affair" here should be very loosely used based on the trend). I have yet to hear anything substantial being said by him regarding how he plans to sort out any one of the million issues facing both his party and the country - other than a call for unity, when it was his actions that caused the most division. No-one seems to know exactly what his policy on anything will be or is, as he's been rather vague. He's supposed to give a "state of the party" address tomorrow - contents yet unknown.

And then there's the "bring me my machine gun" song - not exactly a peace-inducing tune.

What amazes me is that he seems to have garnered more support through his "sins" than if he'd been a mild, quiet-diplomacy type (though our current mildly-quiet diplomatic president has his support base too - by default). In stirring the pot he's both polarized and mobilized people - one way or the other. He's got more vehement and loyal supporters now than he had before this public drama started. And those supporters seemlingly see absolutely nothing wrong with any of his actions. They're backing him all the way to the top. Some are saying "it's culture" - that all he's done is perfectly acceptable within cultural norms. Perhaps I don't know enough about his culture?

But it's worrying, from my small and unprofessional perspective. If a leader can get away with so much that seems so wrong, can still be seen as a role model for youth and women in spite of everything he's done and continues to do - where will this country end up? Will the young see that there are no real consequences for their actions, based on what's happened to their hero and leader? Will they do this, and more, themselves? Will it simply be a downward spiral from then on out?

Or will he prove me wrong, step up to the plate and become the kind of leader we need?

Frankly, I don't hold out much hope. But then again, what do I know.