Johannesburg — IT IS often said that a week is a long time in politics and seldom has this been more true than in the case of President Jacob Zuma .

Clearly on the comeback trail, Zuma this week blitzed several hot spots and announced in vintage African National Congress (ANC) style that he was available to serve his party, and by extension the country, for a second term.

Zuma's very public posture since Friday suggests he is fighting back and keen to reclaim his turf in the battle of perception around his suitability for office.

This came into question after the disclosure that he had had a child out of wedlock with the daughter of a long-time associate, and after a flat, uninspiring state of the nation address that failed to soothe nerves and address expectations.

Amid calls to change his advisers and fire his communications team, the Zuma machine kicked into gear, albeit off the back foot.

Yesterday, the wild cheers that greeted Zuma at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital were a far cry from the misgivings that produced his embattled public persona barely a month ago.

The welcome in Soweto must have convinced his advisers their latest efforts to rebrand the president are already bearing fruit.

On Friday, he wowed the crowds in downtown Pretoria on a walk about at Marabastad. Yesterday, a confident Zuma shook hands with patients and hospital staff who mobbed him in a rowdy welcome.

Zuma praised management at the hospital, saying it was no longer the place where one always left depressed. Rehabilitation of the hospital was a reflection of the seriousness with which his administration regarded health.

"If this is not delivery, I don't know what delivery is," he said.

Zuma's Baragwanath visit was one of a series of tours of various places, which the Presidency calls "monitoring and evaluation visits", due over the next three weeks.

The timing could not be more appropriate. Neither is it accidental. Zuma's public interaction with communities in distress is a perfect fit for a president who connects easily with ordinary folk - a strength of his Presidency that nosedived after the negative publicity over his parlous private life.

The announcement yesterday that Zizi Kodwa, his long-time ANC media aide, had been appointed as a communications adviser in the Presidency is further evidence of a revived spin machine that is taking nothing for granted. Kodwa has been central to refashioning the battered public image of a president who has appeared more preoccupied with bedroom politics than matters of state.

This week, the spin machine went into overdrive, ensuring that Zuma hogged the headlines on key policy matters, including revamping the state and plans for troubled state-owned enterprises.

Zuma also reasserted his leadership in a fractious ANC, lashing out at inefficient ministers and putting paid to notions that he was unfit for public office and would not last his term. Zuma's deliberate message in interviews with the media, that he would not "defy" the ANC should its branches nominate him for a second term, conveyed a clear message that he was far from ready to give up his presidency and also scuttled suggestions of his being a lame duck.

The ANC's decision to read the riot act to its squabbling brood, including Julius Malema, allowed Zuma to dispel criticism he was too weak to act against the youth leader.

His two-and-a-half-day visit to Zimbabwe also presents an opportunity to showcase him as an ace negotiator, while putting his family woes firmly behind him.

Zuma's heavy political programme allows his spin machine to play to his obvious strengths. However, the fact that many of Zuma's troubles are his own doing places limitations on any effort, no matter how well orchestrated, to spin him into an effective and decisive president. His image minders can only work with the reality that Zuma is a fallible human being who happens to hold high office.

Their best recipe is to keep him focused on matters of state, to keep his private life private, and to rise to the challenge of mediating the inevitable faux pas.