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Max Du Preez

President Jacob Zuma is on a roll. If he can keep up the momentum and doesn’t make an obvious big mistake, he should be a shoe-in for the position of ANC president at the end of the year and thus for a second term as president of SA.

A calamity? Well, not necessarily, not under the circumstances. Or have I become part of the national syndrome of lowered expectations? SA is at such a low point that we’re jumping at any sign that things aren’t getting worse.

Sure, a thinker and doer like Cyril Ramaphosa should have been the president of a country like ours, but let’s work with what we have.

I think Zuma’s presidency has been a disaster for the country so far. The dividing line between state and governing party is almost indistinguishable; corruption has become institutionalised; social cohesion has taken a huge knock; the civil service has become more bloated (eating 42 percent of government revenue) and less effective; education to the poor deteriorated; and foreign policy is an embarrassment.

And let’s not forget, under Zuma the ANC launched a dangerous assault on free speech and on the independence of the judiciary.

But Zuma did succeed in stopping the tide of the populist drive for the nationalisation of mines and banks. And he can claim the scalp of one of the most dangerous and destructive political phenomena of our time, Julius Malema.

The most significant aspect of last week’s State of the Nation address was Zuma’s new confidence and the relative clarity of his message. Where most laughed at him in the past when he mispronounced words, got his figures wrong or lost his place in his speech, this time people laughed with him. His jokes at the launch of the new banknotes on Saturday were also more endearing than cringe-worthy, as they had so often been in the past.

As is the case with a rugby flyhalf, confidence goes some way to making up for a lack of natural talent in a politician.

Zuma’s confidence doesn’t stem from his political achievements, sadly, but from the fact that he is the ANC’s top dog again and, for now at least, he is certain that he won’t be ousted in Mangaung in December.

But that confidence could – and we have possibly seen the first evidence of that – move him to spend at least some of his energy on being president rather than on outfoxing his opponents in his party.

And it could mean that he will be bolder from now on, rather than just go with the populist flow.

That includes following the advice of the handful of astute members of his cabinet and party, as he has clearly done in his State of the Nation address.

It does not, sadly, stop him from doing or saying really stupid things just to keep his friends close and his enemies closer – as his outrageous expression of gratitude to the “teachers’ unions”, meaning the Cosatu-aligned SA Democratic Teachers’ Union, in his speech proves.

Sadtu are the prime wreckers of our education system and our youth’s future and deserve no thanks from anyone.

That was also the most disappointing part of Zuma’s address: he should have talked about education, education, education – because however sincere his government is about a “developmental state”, it is bound to fail because we simply won’t have enough skilled people.

The poor education system remains the biggest crime of the post-1994 governments.

Still, suddenly South Africans think they have a man with a plan: massive infrastructure-building to stimulate the economy and create jobs. They have been yearning for a leader with a bit of direction, a smidgen of vision for years.

Zuma can ride this new wave of support and hope and become a much better president than he has been so far. Most South Africans will forgive him a lot if he stays vaguely on course.

The best president Jacob Zuma can be is one that surrounds himself with good men and women, cabinet ministers and advisers, and really listens to them. The script has been written: the National Development Plan. Zuma only has to take his constituency with him, keep the tripartite alliance more or less together, and serve as the symbol of unity in the country: the president of all South Africans.

I think he is capable of that. (I’m not so sure he’s capable of whipping Cosatu into line, especially as regards civil servants’ salaries and teachers’ irresponsible behaviour.)

I get the impression Zuma is beginning to realise that the mood in the country is changing from blind loyalty to the liberation movement to an insistence that the promise of a better life for all be fulfilled.

Perhaps this “devil we know” can now start rewriting the story of his presidency that has been very unflattering so far.