A besieged President Jacob Zuma spent most of the December holidays re-energising his political power base in his KwaZulu-Natal home area.
As has become the norm each time he is under siege, Zuma retreated to his home province, attending and addressing a number of functions ranging from local soccer tournaments to Christmas parties and church services.
Zuma is expected to bow out as president of the ANC at the party’s December conference and is said to be pushing for former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to take over from him.
Though the topics he tackled at these year-end gatherings were as varied as the meetings he attended, the common thread was his complaint that he was being maliciously targeted by political opponents.
At one of the events, an "Economic Freedom" lecture organised by the ANC Youth League in Durban, he said he would prioritise education and economic transformation.
He also gave his side of the story about his firing of former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, saying "white monopoly capital and their stooges" forced him to reverse his decision.
"In December last year [2015], I took a decision informed by what I am talking about and appointed a minister of finance, and monopoly capital and their friends and their stooges attacked me and they are still attacking me today.… The question is if the president takes another decision, are we ready?" he asked the audience.
"I can tell you sitting on my own being pushed to reverse the decision, I said to myself, ‘This is what happens when the nation is not alert. When they do not even understand the actions taken and then they listen to the wrong narrative’," he was reported as saying by News24.
"Since that time some colleagues [call it] ‘the disaster’; ‘the Nene disaster’, some call it, even some amongst yourselves."
He said he had heard news reports about an international business chamber calling for his resignation.
"And I realised … that I will never on my own resign because, if I did, I would be surrendering to monopoly capital," he said, adding that he had asked himself: "What had I done wrong?"
The JG Zuma RDP Education Trust held its annual Christmas party in Nkandla for children and youth in the area.
University of Johannesburg political analyst Steven Friedman said Zuma’s language over the December period was the hallmark of a "frustrated leader venting to the constituency most sympathetic to him".
"The important thing is, is he going to have another bash at doing what he has tried to do many times or [was it] just a show of frustration at the fact that he can’t? Half of his own leadership won’t support him, the trade union movement won’t support him and business will not support him."
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