Minding the generation gap
PETER BRUCE: The South Africans Zuma can’t fathom
Young South Africans couldn’t care less about Zuma — and their ambivalence scares him
It took a while to find, but I knew I’d seen it somewhere. Jonny Steinberg consistently stands head and shoulders above all observers of the SA scene. As I read a string of articles warning me that President Jacob Zuma is about to run off with the country in the form of a constitutional coup that will enable him to break free of the bounds of political nicety and be a dictator for just a few months, a recent piece by Steinberg came to mind. It is true that Zuma is up to something. He is trying to survive in the long term while failing spectacularly to bring any growth to the economy or create the jobs he claims are so important. To survive his own failures, he has to step outside the bounds of convention. But before he does that, he has to make a few calculations. As he said to a crowd in Soshanguve a few weeks ago: “Certain conditions must be in place before a reshuffle happens.” The main condition is that he will be politically secure afterwards. And he can’t guarantee that yet. H...
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