GARETH VAN ONSELEN: The mouse in the maze
Jacob Zuma has nowhere left to turn. And so he fights to bring down the whole edifice
The ANC produces demagogues first, and constitutionalists second. And never shall the two meet. At the same time, the rule of law is both simple and complex. The principles are clear but their legal parameters can be confusing, and compounding. It is in this maze that the demagogue lives. Ostensibly guided by virtue but, in reality, permanently trapped by the particulars.
This is how Jacob Zuma has existed. In 2009 he accepted the mantle of the primary custodian of our constitutional order. It sat alongside his informal title, of SA’s primary victim. And so the maze was established. To the public, observing from the outside, he would always turn left or right on principle. But for those who watched his movements through a legal lens, this mouse was going nowhere...
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