It’s no secret I am a sports fan, and sometimes you look at a record and think it just can’t be beaten. Usain Bolt’s 9.58 for the 100m, Donald Bradman’s test match average of 99.94, Alan Shearer’s 260 Premier League goals (OK I’m biased on the last one) – it will take a superhuman effort to surpass any of these incredible feats.

The same can be said of Jacob Zuma and 2016. Just how could this buffoon have his name dragged through the mud any more than the past 12 months you ask? Enter Max du Preez with his column on News24:

Every indication is that if 2015 was Zuma’s annus horribilis, 2016 is going to be his annus maximus horribilis.

Even his bodyguards are in trouble at last. This week two of his most loyal pawns appeared in court: advocate Nomgcobo Jiba, deputy head of the National Prosecuting Authority, and former crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli.

Jiba is being accused by a senior colleague, Willie Hofmeyr, that she had abused her position to target her personal enemies. Hofmeyr also aims a sideswipe at their boss, NPA head Shaun Abrahams, who has in a very short time proved to be firmly in the Zuma camp.

Mdluli, for many years regarded as super-powerful and untouchable, is facing charges of kidnapping, assault and subverting justice.

The wheel is turning, slowly but surely.

Then there was perhaps Jacob’s standout performance of 2015, the finance minister fiasco that saw the rand plummet to never seen before lows:

The more we know about the disastrous sacking of Nhlanhla Nene as Finance minister in December and the somersaults that followed, the clearer it becomes at least three of the ANC’s Top Six had purposely given Zuma rope to hang himself.

The plan to sack Nene wasn’t a surprise to the senior leaders in Luthuli House. An ANC insider-journalist wrote about it several days before it happened. I saw that and immediately posted a comment on Facebook warning that such a move would shake the very foundations of our economy and put Zuma under extreme pressure.

It is impossible that Cyril Ramaphosa, Gwede Mantashe, Zweli Mkhize, Baleka Mbete and Jesse Duarte didn’t take note of these reports and comments days before the event. There is no way they did not, like me and many others, foresee the impact it would have on the economy and on the rand.

We also know that Des van Rooyen knew about his appointment days before it was made public – enough time for him to go and recruit senior people elsewhere to work for him at the Treasury. He arrived with these appointees at the office the day after his appointment.

But Ramaphosa, Mkhize and Mantashe remained tjoepstil until after the pawpaw hit the fan, when they promptly forced him to reverse the decision – Zuma’s biggest humiliation since be became president.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get worse Nkandla and corruption reappear once more. Ah yes, those old chestnuts:

He is facing two serious court challenges in the weeks ahead, the one about the money he needs to pay back for Nkandla and the other seeking to reinstate charges of corruption against him.

He also faces the likelihood that his attempt to capture SARS by handing it to his sycophant Tom Moyane is going to be reversed. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan will not lose the power struggle with Moyane, a former head of correctional services.

At stake is not only the efficiency and credibility of SARS, but access to the many SARS dossiers with allegations of corruption by Zuma and several of his benefactors and friends.

But first Zuma has to get past the EFF that has promised to disrupt his state of the nation address next week.

If I were a better and more generous human being, I would have said: Good luck, comrade president.

I wish JZ no such luck – eventually your chickens must come to roost, and one can only hope that 2016 is the year we as a country stand together and say enough is really enough.

[source:news24]