SA’s democracy stood up to the test, but some things need to change
SA’s greatest Valentine’s Day gift was the resignation of Jacob Zuma as president, less than 24 hours before his own party, ANC, was scheduled to debate a no-confidence motion against him in Parliament. The ANC’s election of Zuma as deputy president of the party, then as president of SA, gave the country the tragedy of a person promoted above his level of competence, and in a sphere for which he was unqualified. Zuma’s presidency will go down in history as SA’s most corrupt leadership since Cecil Rhodes was prime minister of the Cape Colony. Under Rhodes there were outrageous scandals, such as the railways catering contract and the resignation of a Rhodes cabinet in protest against corruption. The diamond oligarch went further: under his reign, the rule of law was perverted. This time around, the fourth estate did South African democracy proud. The investigative unit Amabhungane mined the "Gupta leaks" e-mails; an academic team compiled a report that dug deep into the Zuma administr...
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