A former South African ambassador to Zimbabwe told me last year that Jacob Zuma and Emmerson Mnangagwa have a lot in common.
He said the most striking similarities are that they do not forget, and they do not forgive.
The ambassador said this to me on a Sunday afternoon over whisky and a braai with some EFF, ANC and MK contemporaries in Johannesburg, shortly after Floyd Shivambu left the EFF to join MK.
He said Zuma wanted Shivambu not out of love, but because, in his words, “to deal with your enemies, you bring them closer. You finish them nicely without doing much.”
Many dismissed this at the time, looks like we owe the ambassador a good bottle of whisky!
You cannot publicly shame a man and his family and then expect him to be your friend—it is plain delusional.
Duduzile Zuma’s rants against Shivambu on Twitter recently made it clear that the family had never forgiven him.
The only difference between Dudu and her father is that, like Mnangagwa, Zuma is willing to wait, conceal his anger, and strike ruthlessly at the most opportune moment.