What makes President Jacob Zuma so dangerous right now? It is the combination of the powerful interests dictating his moves and the fact that he is on a mission to retaliate against those who have turned against him.
These might be real or perceived enemies.
Straight from the George W Bush playbook: if you are not with him, you are against him.
After the motion of no confidence against him in August, Zuma set his crosshairs on an unsuspecting target: National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete.
At an ANC top six meeting, Zuma lashed out at her and argued that she should be removed as speaker. The main source of his wrath was Mbete's decision to allow MPs to vote by secret ballot. This had not been consented to by the ANC officials, the president said.Zuma believed Mbete colluded with his opponents to engineer what could have been a successful attempt to remove him from office. As a result of the secret ballot, more than 30 ANC MPs were able to vote along with the opposition against the president.
But this was not the only source of his anger. Zuma believed Mbete failed to control the house during his appearances in parliament, and that the speaker ought to do more to protect him from being shouted at and insulted.
Mbete retorted that she was compelled to allow MPs to exercise their constitutional rights. Regarding the motion of no confidence, she argued that just as Zuma hears out ANC officials before going off to make his own decisions on cabinet appointments, she had exercised her discretion to allow MPs to vote in secret.
But that bridge is now burnt and Mbete has discarded any hopes that Zuma will support her campaign to ascend the ANC ladder.
While the removal of the speaker is not within Zuma's powers, he still retains blanket prerogative when it comes to cabinet appointments.
It is with the cabinet that he has been able to do whatever he wants, including punishing his detractors.
Blade Nzimande went from being the chief strategist behind Zuma's rise to power to one of the principal agitators for Zuma's downfall. The SACP is the most outspoken proponent within the alliance for Zuma to step down.At a recent special national executive committee meeting, Zuma launched the kind of attack against Nzimande that was the forte of his predecessor Thabo Mbeki.
Then this week he swung his axe.
While the conversation was nonchalant when Zuma called to inform Nzimande of his decision to fire him, the hostility between the two men is deep and complex.
When their political stories are ultimately written, they will feature intricately in each other's rise and fall.
There are widespread rumours that Zuma's next target might be Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.If there is anybody who should understand the hazard of such a gamble it is Zuma. His political ascension was aided by his own dismissal as deputy president in 2005. This led to a backlash against Mbeki and triggered the beginning of the end of his presidency. Zuma traded on his victimhood to campaign to replace Mbeki.
Axing Ramaphosa based on a flimsy claim that he is a spy of Western capitalists would also turn the deputy president into a political victim. South Africa's economy is bound to take another hammering, as was the case when Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas were fired on the basis of ridiculous allegations in a dodgy "intelligence report".
Zuma acted to punish Gordhan and Jonas for rebelling against the state capture network and to deliver the National Treasury to the Guptas.
It is not clear how Zuma or his network would benefit from Ramaphosa's dismissal.
If Zuma is considering booting Ramaphosa out, it shows he has lost the political sense that has made him unplayable up to now...