The first domino to fall in the process of undermining the country's democracy was when sections of the ANC, desperate to get rid of former president Thabo Mbeki, resorted to elevating the worst among themselves to positions of leadership in the party.

That is how the era of Jacob Zuma's havoc was born.

In Zuma the ANC created a political Frankenstein that they now don't know how to rein in. He has not wasted time since his inauguration, but acted swiftly and decisively in weakening the critical institutions of the country by appointing incompetent allies to top positions.

The appointments of Menzi Simelane to head the NPA, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, Mac Maharaj as presidential spokesman, Willem Heath, who has just been reappointed to head the Special Investigating Unit, and others have nothing to do with the improvement of capacity, but to preserve Zuma's political life.

The problem with Zuma is that he is clueless about how to fight his way to a second term.

His "friends" who helped him to the presidency in Polokwane 2007 are so short of ideas that some are delirious, as displayed by Heath when he recently attacked Mbeki and the judiciary.

The road to Polokwane was favourable as Zuma was able to position himself as a conspiracy victim when Mbeki fired him as deputy president of the country.

In his favour, too, was the corruption trial that he was fighting tooth and nail to avoid. He used the trial as a platform to accuse Mbeki and the NPA as co-conspirators to have him stand trial.

People who rose up to support Zuma did not necessarily like him, but were driven by their common hatred of Mbeki. These are the same people Zuma is now rapidly drawing to his camp to fight his Mangaung battles. The tragedy is that this time around, he has to pay them with high positions in critical institutions of the country.

Zuma is no longer being pursued by the NPA, and the umshin' wam' song is no longer relevant. He has created many enemies through his continuous bumbling in the presidency.

Zuma declared Mbeki a dead snake. Now we see a desperate attempt by Heath, who has no plan for Mangaung, to resurrect a dead snake so they can kill it again. It's a plan that will seriously backfire.