Both Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki were prepared to tolerate both underperformance and incapacitating illness for much longer – although Mbeki drew the line at the outright rebellion of Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.
This week Zuma made a series of changes that, by and large, are welcome.
The communications minister, Dina Pule – who was politically isolated, out of her depth and distracted by allegations of corruption – is gone. Her replacement is the diligent and able Yunus Carrim. While much is made of his lack of experience in the sector, he is a genuine wonk, prepared to get deeply involved in intricate policy detail. We expect he will be a quick study, and he will need to be, given the sprawling chaos at the SABC, communications company Telkom, signal distributor Sentech and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa. There is big money at stake, some nasty personal agendas, and the politics of public broadcasting in an election year.
It will take skill, guts and savvy to navigate this mess, but Carrim represents the best chance the portfolio has had in years.
Notwithstanding a headline-grabbing night in a shack, Tokyo Sexwale failed significantly to accelerate delivery in the crucial housing portfolio. His open rebellion at Mangaung may have been a factor in his demise, but it is certainly not the only one, and he may well be happy to get back to tending his complicated business interests.
Connie September, a well-regarded ex-unionist, is a bit of a surprise replacement, given her many years on the backbenches but she did credible work at trade union federation Cosatu, and there is little to criticise in her elevation.
The same goes for Lechesa Tsenoli, who replaces the hapless Richard Baloyi at co-operative governance and traditional affairs, a critical ministry actively mismanaged by the late Sicelo Shiceka, and drifting dangerously against a backdrop of service protests, demarcation rows and botched legislation.
Much less obvious is the rationale for swapping Ben Martins, only just blooded at transport, for the rather weak Dipuo Peters at energy. The energy department shares responsibility for the precarious electricity environment with the department of public enterprises, and has been pushing (against strong resistance from the treasury) for a budget-busting nuclear power tender and an ill-advised oil refinery at Coega in the Eastern Cape.
Nor is it clear why the solid Andries Nel has moved to the department of co-operative governance, unless it is to make way for John Jeffery as deputy justice minister. Jeffery has for years been a tough and effective parliamentary counsellor. He has, in that role, also been a key aide to Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, who will miss him sorely. Deputy ministers vary in relevance, and many in the presidency will be hoping that confining Jeffery to a single beat doesn't waste his political abilities. Perhaps the objective is to strengthen the ministry in the battle over judicial transformation and the Judicial Service Commission, or to repair the woeful office of the state law adviser.
None of this matters much to the "opinion makers" slammed by Mac Maharaj for requesting an explanation for the moves, nor indeed is it likely to matter much to voters. And that is because the president's personal stock is so low that everything that he does has a hefty moral and political discount applied to its assessment. So, although he has consolidated his own position, and made a few credible choices in the process, Zuma will have to remove the plank of Nkandla, Guptagate and the Central African Republic intervention from his own eye before the public cares much about the motes in his Cabinet's vision.