Jacob Zuma is on the offensive over President Cyril Ramaphosa’s refrain that the country is recovering from “nine lost years”, a tacit reference to his predecessor’s term in office. Zuma has taken to Twitter to hit back at his critics, but this is the first time he has directly taken on Ramaphosa, saying that when he took over as president, he “never once blamed any predecessor or pointed to any perceived failing of any predecessor”. Ramaphosa’s message of a “new dawn” essentially means a shift from the trajectory that Zuma had placed the country on. On the campaign trail ahead of the ANC’s manifesto launch in January as well as in Davos last week, Ramaphosa referred to the “nine lost years” under Zuma, without mentioning the former president by name. Zuma taking on Ramaphosa publicly is a clear indication of his faction’s continued belief that the current ANC and SA president’s time at the helm is limited. A key Zuma lieutenant, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule told a KwaZulu-Na...

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