The Big Read: He's sleeping on the job

Has anyone heard anything substantial from the great victor of Polokwane and Mangaung, Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, lately?

The man has popped up every so often in the 120 or so days of his second administration, but nothing substantial seems to be coming forth about the progress of his second term in office.

Last week Zuma was announcing the deaths of at least 84 South Africans at the "fleece 'em" establishment in Lagos of church leader TB Joshua.

The week before that, our president was in Lesotho, where he failed to find a solution to the kingdom's problems and called in his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, to do the job.

Then he scuttled off to the R246-million pad he didn't know was being built for him by taxpayers, where his nephew was marrying one of his four fiancées.

The week before, the president was in Russia, attended by a single minister, where he had two meetings and spent the week resting. Allegations are flowing strongly that Zuma was negotiating a massive nuclear power deal - all by himself - with Russian president and strongman Vladimir Putin.

The first 100 days of the second Zuma administration have come and gone and what a sad, miserable showing it was. One is embarrassed to go through this administration's achievements or, rather, the lack thereof.

At every conceivable level the new administration is failing. If one were to prepare a report card of the party's first three months in this term, it would be red.

Don't laugh, though. The ANC's failures are, unfortunately, our failures. Zuma's every misstep is our misstep. He is us. We are him. We did, after all, vote him and his party decisively into power in May. He is my president. He is yours.

Unfortunately, on the basis of his performance these past four months, he is without doubt the worst choice of the numerous faces that stared at us from that ballot paper on that crisp day in May. The next five years will be about surviving the deep, terrible, damage he is doing to the fabric of our society, our democracy and our institutions.

One day our children will confront us and ask: How could you allow Zuma to lay waste to your democratic culture and institutions? We shall hang our heads in shame.

When he was running for the presidency in 2009, Zuma and his leadership corps styled themselves security experts who would solve South Africa's crime problem. He has failed spectacularly at this.

Last week's crime figures, already out of date, show that for the first time in 20 years the number of murders and the murder rate have increased for a second consecutive year.

Under Zuma, South Africa is going backwards in the fight against crime.

His appointments in the crime-fighting cluster have been a disaster. National police commissioner Riah Phiyega is out of her depth. Zuma's former police minister was similarly flailing and had to be moved. Various wings of the police service are in similar trouble. It's a mess.

The unemployment rate has risen to 25.5% - the highest since 2008. Stats SA said in July: "The unemployment rate is four percentage points above the low of 21.5% observed in the final quarter of 2008."

A fortnight ago international investment house Morgan Stanley downgraded its GDP forecast for South Africa from 1.8% to a measly 1.3% this year. Other economists are similarly bearish. The economy has shrunk consistently since Zuma took over in 2009. He is impoverishing us.

These are the issues I expected the ANC's 86-member national executive committee to be grappling with when it met at the weekend. These are, after all, urgent matters that need serious, considered steps to taken if they are to be turned around.

However, the ANC issued a statement on Saturday in which it said it had discussed "concerning developments" in parliament, where opposition parties have "the obvious intention" of humiliating Zuma.

"The NEC advises and appeals to parliament to urgently resolve the challenges facing it and restore to the House the necessary dignity and decorum, appreciation of its rules ensuring that it becomes once again a house South Africans can be proud of," it said.

Are the sometimes uncouth attacks on Zuma and Ramaphosa, really the most pressing issue facing us today?

The shenanigans in parliament have been amusing, and sometimes even entertaining, but it boggles the mind that the NEC of the ANC sat for two whole days obsessed with this issue.

The real issues are before us: the stench of corruption around Zuma and his family, unemployment, a stagnant economy and rampant crime. These surely should have been top of the ANC's list of priorities as it huddled down this weekend.

Instead, we have a 102-year-old movement moaning about inadequate protection for its discredited president. You have to wonder where we are headed.