Jacob Zuma was his followers' Father Christmas, but instead of toys, he handed out contracts. And just like the bigots who romanticise apartheid, his supporters still yearn for his corrupt version of the "good times". Under Zuma's ANC, the youth were robbed of a prosperous future so that the greedy could eat. Competence was never his guiding principle, loyalty was.

Wouldn't it be fun to see Jacob Zuma at the Madlanga Commission? They should bring him in and ask him why, when he was ANC president, the party opened its doors to a flood of unvetted and unscrupulous members during the "million membership" campaign?

Back then, if they met you in the street, tavern, or brothel, and you had R10, knew your full name and surname, boom... you were instantly a member.

It was a mass mobilisation campaign, yes, but not for democracy. It was a campaign to feed the egos of the ANC hierarchy, led by JZ himself. Principle? None. Patronage? Plenty. That's how characters like Brown Mogotsi swelled the ranks.

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I myself, unfortunately and unintentionally, interacted with some of these "comrades" at branch level. Thugs and career criminals who suddenly discovered revolutionary vocabulary. Cadre deployment, they called it, a system that became the perfect recruitment drive for future government employees. Today it's impossible to tell who's who in the SAPS, Department of Social Development, justice cluster, Transnet or Eskom.

Key institutions have become playgrounds for procurement hustlers, especially in supply chain departments. If the ANC was heading to a conference or branch general meeting, and the big men...