It is remarkably common for a leader, especially an example of the strongman ilk, to lose touch with reality and be unable to see what to everyone else is blindingly obvious. But to observe it up close, as we did on Wednesday during President Jacob Zuma’s "interview" with the SABC, was astonishing. The overwhelming sense of Zuma was of a man who lives in a universe of his own creation. He was oblivious to the damage he has done both to the country and to his party. He was oblivious to the messages so many emissaries had conveyed to him in the past two weeks. And, most shocking of all, he appeared genuinely oblivious to the charge that in his time as president he might have done something wrong. All of this tells us a lot about the personality and the politics of Zuma. While personality might be a bigger issue at play right now, it is the politics that is more relevant. Zuma has spent a lifetime in the ANC, more than two decades in government and almost a decade as head of the state ...
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