Zuma is living proof that SA leaders don't need a degree
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is not a Barack Obama - someone who has emerged from social adversity and gone on to top academic honours at a prestigious Ivy League university before taking a nation by electoral storm.
I had breakfast with Zuma on Friday. What I like about him most is his common touch. He recognises people, including those who are quite clearly not part of his political constituency, and takes time to listen to them.
One of the Cape Town Press Club breakfast guests said to me afterwards that Zuma is living proof that you don't have to be educated to be a leader in our nation.
It was similar to a remark by a lawyer friend who noted that Zuma - who spent 10 years on Robben Island - had not shown much interest in academic pursuit during his incarceration, while others emerged with post-graduate degrees.
Indeed, Zuma is no academic.Yet his performance in the public spotlight has improved considerably. Granted, his speech on Friday contained little new, but it was a call for tolerance. He argued that our democracy had matured considerably and he did not believe the emergence of a new party in opposition to the ANC would lead to violence.
During question time some contradictions emerged. He suggested that corruption was indeed a problem all over, but in the public's mind it was a public sector difficulty. He proposed - as he had obliquely suggested before - that thetendering system should be changed, adding that politicians should not be involved in the process.
It so happens that politicians are already not involved in tendering. Municipal legislation also excludes councillors from the process. At national and provincial level, departmental accounting officers are responsible for state procurement. It was a bit of a flaw, but at least Zuma's intention is good.
He also suggested that the jury was still out on the Springbok emblem, even though the ANC at Polokwane had pretty much decided it should go.
He produced little new detail about the ruling movement's economic policies, other than to suggest that the inflexibility of the labour market was still a point of debate. To titters from the audience, he suggested ways to avoid teenage pregnancy should be found so that unwanted children do not end up being raised by their grannies, who have to use their state old-age grants on them.
Asked by a retired opposition politician whether he foresaw President Kgalema Motlanthe staying in office for five years, Zuma said it was for the ANC to decide - political speak meaning Zuma wants the job.
One is left with the impression that Zuma is more conservative about most things than the support base that has buoyed him into the ruling movement's presidency.
In the same week, Motlanthe appointed conservative Nhlanhla Nene as deputy finance minister. Also attending Friday's breakfast were newly appointed deputy minister of education Andre Gaum and MP Francois Beukman, who have been playing a key role in engaging the new ANC leadership in a debate about the economy with conservative Afrikaner business leaders.
Zuma and Motlanthe have so far made little change to the face of former president Thabo Mbeki's government. I suggest that the changes they have made - including appointing Barbara Hogan as health minister - signal hope and stability.