SA’s chattering class is so small we can pretty much fit around a dinner table. We are so tiny we need only repeat something a dozen or so times for it to become true. Between June 2005 and December 2007, for instance, the time between Jacob Zuma’s dismissal as deputy president of SA and his coronation as ANC president, SA’s pundits collectively declared it impossible for him to ever lead the country. It became a truth as sure as Christmas. Until suddenly one day it wasn’t. These days, another truth is abroad among pundits. If Zuma holds on to power, it is said, the ANC will lose the 2019 general elections. Watching this truth come to life has been fascinating. A columnist said it, then a campaigning businessman repeated it, then another columnist said it. Now we are all saying it. It is, simply, true. But it doesn’t take too sceptical a disposition to cast serious doubt on this truth. Across small-town and rural SA, and in many townships, people in ANC heartlands stayed at home in ...
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