The End for Zuma

“What are you on about?” you may ask. We have just bid farewell to Thabo Mbeki after a week of tumultuous political manoeuvring; sworn in a new president and now you are predicting the end of the heir apparent to the south African presidency. Well I am not “on” anything or smoking anything. I am serious, let me explain.
Let me use the analogy of the dragon and the castle. The Zuma castle has been united against the Mbeki dragon, which it has finally slain this week. However, the Mbeki dragon’s threat against the Zuma castle is what kept this castle of knights from various clans, united. A symbiotic relationship that protected the king of the castle, Zuma. However, now that the symbiotic relationship is no more, there is no guarantee of protection anymore for the king. The king is now on his own, he is threatened.
What must concern the king of the castle most, must be the developments since the slaying of the dragon. There is some serious talk of a palace revolution that could lead to the establishment of a new political party (clan) about to leave the castle and contest it. Although one might think that this new party will replace the threat of the dragon and unify the castle once again, this is only partially true.
You see, the other clans in the castle also have ambitions and although they have supported the king in his struggle against the dragon, it was only in his struggle against the dragon. The new possible threat offers them an opportunity to change the guard and give rise to their own ambitions. King Zuma is no longer useful against the new threat. And therein lies the opportunity.
Why is he no longer useful? Well, if recent polls are to be believed, he is no longer that popular. In actual fact the undertaker he sent to bury the dragon, Mothlanthe, is more popular. So is the slain dragon and the slain dragon’s second head (Mlambo-Ngcuka). There also seems to be significant support for the to be established clan who wishes to contest the castle. This is a problem, or rather an opportunity. This requires the castle to unify once again, but around a king who is right for the challenge.
The old king (Zuma) was the right king to slay the dragon, but the new king (Mothlanthe) is better suited to fight off the challenge of the new clan about to contest the position of the castle in the kingdom. So what do you do? Well, those clans present in the castle made Zuma king, they can also dethrone him. The only question that remains is whether he will be dethroned with his dignity intact or will he also be humiliated in the same fashion as the dragon?
Since the king has not yet been proven innocent in his dealings with weapons pedlars, these accusations may all of a sudden resurface again and cause his forced abdication. We watch the castle with abated breath.