President Jacob Zuma is by now so tightly tied up in legal cases relating to his cavalier and miserable eight years in office as head of state that he cannot possibly meekly walk away should the new ANC leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, persuade his national executive committee to recall Zuma from the Union Buildings. Just like Zuma did to Thabo Mbeki. Somehow, Zuma has to fight, to say: "No, I won't go." Because once he does depart, those court cases swirling around him like the Harry Potter Dementors will suck the life out of him. If he goes now they will torment him for every day that he lives. And yet it is impossible that he can remain. So stark are the divisions between Zuma and Ramaphosa that they cannot be contained in one party. Right now, Ramaphosa will be working on the ANC's annual January 8 birthday statement. He delivers it in East London on January 13, and he'll want to use it to point South Africa in confident new directions. Less than a month later, on February 8, the head o...
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