The unintended consequences of the Zuma Effect

Unintended consequences produce fascinating examples, like the medieval practice of reserving hunting lands in England, which today ensures great swathes of parks for all.

Then there's what's called the Cobra Effect, which dates back to British rule in India where cobras in Delhi were a major problem. The government offered a reward for people to kill and hand in the venomous snakes, which worked for a while until people started breeding the snakes for the bounty. Delhi ended up with more snakes than it had before.

In the late 1950s China's Chairman Mao ordered the Kill A Sparrow campaign, targeting the birds which were feeding on the country's grain crops. Sparrows were brought to the brink of extinction before Mao realised sparrows also ate locusts which were now free to ravage crops, contributing to a widespread famine which claimed up to 40million lives.

In South Africa today we are witnessing the unintended consequences of Jacob Zuma's bungling administration, although with consequences which may be happier than Chairman Mao's.

The most obvious of these is how parliament appears to be finding its mojo as Zuma and his lieutenants behave with increasingly wanton disdain.

We witnessed a stirring in the loins of the legislature with its inquiry into the SABC. We saw it again when the social development standing committee ripped into minister Bathabile Dlamini and her department's officials in the social grants crisis.

This week it happened again as the public enterprises committee tore a strip off minister Lynne Brown and the Eskom board and gave Denel executives a slap around the chops, with axed finance minister Pravin Gordhan playing the role of executioner-in-chief.

Yes, sometimes unintended consequences can be quite delicious.