Former president Jacob Zuma resigned from office in February at the behest of the ANC’s national executive committee. He did not want to leave and it took numerous discussions and concessions to get him to resign and make way for Cyril Ramaphosa. When Zuma did eventually concede, he maintained he had done nothing wrong. The lack of a clearer stance and stronger sanctions of his behaviour are now haunting the ANC. Was he worth it? In the most recent municipal elections, in 2016, the ANC performed poorly compared to previous years, losing ground to opposition party (or coalition) control, especially in the metros. Later, polls indicated that further confidence had been lost due to Zuma’s maverick cabinet reshuffles and as disclosures of state capture came to dominate public consciousness. The effect of a decade’s worth of political interference in state-owned enterprises revealed itself through eye-watering figures of financial losses, while core social service delivery was hamstrung,...

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