There is a sense of boredom as I look at the South African political scene and once again have to comment on the latest developments. It is not that there isn't anything happening .

There is the fatuous and dangerous ranting of our new head of the Special Investigating Unit, Willem Heath; the concerted effort by the president's spokesman to jail journalists and hide the truth of his involvement in alleged bribe-taking; the effort to emasculate the judiciary and the Constitutional Court in particular and; the presidency's kamikaze-like predilection for appointing absolutely the wrong people for jobs, particularly in the judiciary.

One could pick any of these and whip up the requisite amount of froth about how President Jacob Zuma is playing with fire in his running of this country. Yet the ennui is not induced by this.

Our biggest problem is drift. It is a lack of a centre, a lack of a controlling idea of what we are and what we are about. It is a lack of a roadmap, a lack of a vision, a lack of a cadre at the top to show the way forward by example. Simply put, Zuma does not have a plan, has never had one and, quite frankly, never will have one.

Not even the man's most fervent supporters know what his plan is. The best answer they can give is that he is keeping the ANC and all of us together. Then they point at embattled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema and say: "If Zuma goes, that is what you will get."

My retort is that at least Malema takes a stab at ideas every so often, even if they are deluded, impractical and unformed. There is a basis for a conversation there so long as one takes cognisance of Malema's vaulting hypocrisy.

The reason why South Africa has so many of its political and government leaders sitting in office despite doing and saying the most incredibly shocking things is that no one quite knows what the parameters of good behaviour are. At the moment it is anything goes in the Zuma government.

For example, the Sunday Times has comprehensively proven that payments were made by Schabir Shaik to Zarina Maharaj, wife of Mac Maharaj, the president's spokesman, in the late 1990s. It is alleged that these were bribes. Maharaj has refused to answer these allegations and instead is using apartheid legislation to shut up journalists.

Any self-respecting president anywhere in the world would have asked the man to take leave and sort his troubles out. It's simple: Maharaj is bringing Zuma's office into disrepute. Yet Zuma cannot say a word against his spokesman. After all, Shaik was convicted of paying Zuma monies - as he is alleged to have paid Maharaj's wife.

It is a cesspit. To fire Maharaj, he will have to fire himself first.

Heath will not tender his resignation. He cannot. What he has said about former president Thabo Mbeki having instigated the rape and corruption charges against Zuma is something that was said repeatedly by the Zuma camp in the run-up to the ANC's Polokwane conference in 2007.

That Heath is now the head of the Special Investigating Unit and that his utterances now compromise his office is something that is lost on himself, Zuma and his cronies. Anything goes in the highest office in the land.

The truth is that the Zuma administration is in full-on conspiracy mode right now. Enemies of the state are everywhere. The media is being investigated and attempts are made to shut it down daily. One day it's a media tribunal, the next it's the Secrecy Bill. Then there are gaggings by the likes of Maharaj, a man who is the president's press spokesman. I doubt he gets the irony.

If it is not the press it is the judiciary. Yes-men are installed at the highest echelons of the judiciary and yet ANC leaders like Gwede Mantashe, who also supports Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF, accuse the judiciary of behaving like the opposition.

Then, of course, there is Mbeki, a man who strikes fear in Zuma and his administration. Malema is shut down mercilessly for making a comparison between Zuma and his predecessor, a man who was pretty clueless himself on many issues, including Aids.

In the Zuma camp, though, every leak, every criticism and every suggestion that Zuma's government is lacking, is attributed to Mbeki or those who support him.

The truth is there for all to see. The Zuma government would not be in such a panic, in such profound paralysis, if it had a plan and was implementing it. There is no plan, so idle minds are busy chasing after conspiracies while Rome burns.

The Zuma government is a profound disappointment, a failure of leadership on a comprehensive scale.