Zuma's redemption

Whether he seeks a second term in office or not, President Jacob Zuma urgently needs to up his game if he is to avoid going down in history as one of the worst heads of state of South Africa's democratic era.

We are almost halfway through Zuma's term of office but even the most faithful of his adherents would admit that there has been very little that is inspiring about his administration.

For the open-minded, the Zuma government began with so much promise in May 2009 - doing away with the dithering and denialism that had characterised this country's fight against the spread of HIV/Aids and courageously taking a firm stand against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

Unlike the Thabo Mbeki administration, which was often accused of being aloof, Zuma proved himself to be a "man of the people" in his early days in power, making unannounced visits to some of the country's poorest communities to see for himself if services were being delivered to the most vulnerable.

Some of his major appointments, especially in the economic portfolios and at the Reserve Bank, received universal praise.

But it has been downhill ever since, save, perhaps, for that short period in October last year when Zuma was hailed for radically reshuffling his cabinet.

Never in the post-apartheid era had a president been so brave as to fire seven ministers at one go.

A year later, very few still use "decisive", "courageous leadership" and "Zuma" in the same sentence.

When he took office, Zuma said his government would focus on five priorities: creating decent work, education, health, rural development, and fighting crime and corruption.

He is not succeeding in most of these areas. The 4million jobs he said would be created look more unlikely as the economy continues to shrink.

Despite the pouring of billions of rands into our public education system, there is little or no improvement in many of our black township and rural schools.

Access to decent health facilities is still largely dependent on economic status, and rural development and agrarian reform remain stuck in never-ending policy debates.

Though recent police statistics indicate that most categories of crime are on the decline, they remain unacceptably high.

Corruption has become a pandemic that threatens to eat away at municipalities and other important pillars of our democracy.

Yet it is in the fight against corruption, if he has the political will, that Zuma can make a marked difference and possibly alter the public's negative perception of his government.

His announcement last week that a commission of inquiry will be established to investigate allegations of corruption relating to the arms deal is certainly a step in the right direction.

The 12-year-old arms procurement graft saga has been hanging like an albatross around our young nation's neck for too long.

Much of the corruption we are witnessing today can be traced back to the failure by the government to act against many of those who were accused of having illegally benefited from the R30-billion (it has since climbed to R70-billion) arms deal.

What this failure did was send out a message that you can steal from the public with impunity as long as you have the right political and business connections.

Zuma now has a real chance to reverse this.

If properly constituted, with fiercely independent commissioners, and if its terms of reference give it the power to summon witnesses - no matter how senior in the government or business - to appear before it, the commission could help the nation get to the bottom of the saga.

The commission of inquiry should not, as some suspect it will, be used merely as a tool to do away with political rivals ahead of the ANC's national conference in December next year.

It should be a genuine effort to put this ghost to rest once and for all by exposing all the facts to the public.

If that is achieved, perhaps Zuma will be remembered as the president who succeeded where his predecessor failed.