Zuma has plunged a dagger into the heart of our nation

Fifty-eight days. That's how long President Jacob Zuma has left to achieve whatever scheme is festering in his mind and those of his controllers.

On December 16, the ANC national conference will convene to elect his successor as party leader, and by the time the shopping malls take down their tired tinsel we should have a clearer idea of the manner of chaos 2018 - the 25th year of our democracy - will bring.

Zuma's cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday, his 12th in eight years, was widely interpreted as a threat to South Africa's stability and the president's latest manoeuvre to ensure a comfortable retirement for himself.

It was also an unmistakable signal that whatever Zuma or his government might say in the next 58 days - most especially in Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba's medium- term budget policy statement next Wednesday - there is only one matter at the top of its agenda: saving Zuma's hide and feathering his nest.

The machinations that lie ahead are beyond the imaginations of most of us - some commentators are even talking about a further reshuffle - but the shape of the post-December challenge is clearer.

South Africa has been mortally wounded by Zuma and is in urgent need of rehab, which will be a lengthy and painful process. The damage done in his eight years in the Union Buildings will take at least as long to repair, and that's assuming that whoever takes over as ANC leader has the will to take on the challenge.

By the time we reach election day in 2019, psychologically - and in many other respects - we'll be worse off than we were in 1994, when at least we had a scintilla of optimism to cling to.

Thanks to Zuma, all we are left with today is cynicism. What a pitiful legacy.