Public trust in critical government and independent public institutions has been severely eroded under President Jacob Zuma's watch. The SARS leadership was uprooted over untested allegations that a ''rogue'' unit had illegally spied on ANC leaders, including Zuma; the graft-busting Scorpions, which had our flawed leader in its sights, was dismantled after he became party leader; and its successor, the Hawks, was rocked this week by the sudden departure of its head, Anwar Dramat.We earlier had to witness the embarrassing spectacle of Willem Heath, a retired judge Zuma chose to head the Special Investigating Unit, being given his marching orders after making an extraordinary and reckless public attack on former president Thabo Mbeki.Then there was Zuma's misguided - and, thankfully, shortlived - appointment of the manifestly unsuitable Menzi Simelane as head of the National Prosecuting Authority. After almost two years of dithering, Zuma chose Mxolisi Nxasana to succeed Simelane, following the overturning of the latter's appointment by the courts. No surprises then that Nxasana now faces an inquiry over his fitness to hold office, or that he has clashed publicly with Zuma's pick as police commissioner over an arrest warrant issued for his deputy at the NPA.Now the president has turned his attention to the Independent Electoral Commission, whose work in piloting our young democracy through four general elections has won the trust of millions of ordinary South Africans.After the eventual departure, under a cloud, of its former chairman, Pansy Tlakula, over a leasing scandal, Zuma has chosen his trusted adviser Vuma Mashinini to head the IEC.Mashinini may do an excellent job, but the fact that he has been on the Presidency's payroll is a headache for the commission.Perceptions are everything in politics and the IEC's reputation as a credible arbiter of elections may now be called into question...