Outside the Durban Magistrate’s Court this week, South Africa got a very clear snapshot of what a Jacob Zuma presidency would be like. And it was not a spectacle that engenders confidence.

Arriving and departing in a shiny black Humvee, the African National Congress deputy president was at all times surrounded by a phalanx of bald-headed toughs and was escorted to and from court by a cavalcade of police cars, sirens blaring. They elbowed aside the bystanders, staring menacingly at all who dared come close to Brother Leader.

Zuma was the perfect pastiche of the populist rabble-rouser. Outside the courts, he drew comparisons between his court appearance this week and his experiences under apartheid -- a declaration not calculated to bolster public confidence in the judiciary. Addressing his supporters, he spoke of the institutions of South Africa’s democracy -- the National Prosecuting Authority and the courts -- as if they were an alien and illegitimate force.

Spurred on by toyi-toying demonstrators, he hinted darkly at conspiracies designed to keep him out of the presidency. Zuma’s suggestion that he has nothing to answer for, and that the corruption case against him is a political plot, is an oft-repeated allegation which the former deputy president has not once fleshed out, despite ample opportunity to do so. South Africa has still not been given his version of the notorious R500 000 bribe message, although he has only to call a press conference to provide it.

On Tuesday, Zuma revealed himself as the country’s number one populist, prepared to pander to the basest instincts of ordinary people and inflict any quantity of damage on our constitutional democracy to attain power. For this reason, and because of the question marks over his personal integrity, he is not qualified to be its first citizen.

If installed as president, it is reasonable to conclude that he would continue operating in the same way, rewarding his political allies and nailing his former enemies, playing to the gallery and ducking the unpopular but necessary decisions any responsible national leader must make. How a man with such a tainted record could lead the struggle for clean government in South Africa is unclear.

As a president, he will certainly not be constrained by undertakings. Mere weeks ago he pledged, by agreement with the ANC’s national executive committee, to find a political solution to his battle with President Thabo Mbeki, which poses an mounting threat to South Africa’s political stability. Yet this week he flouted the principles of that agreement. And he spoke with a forked tongue, mouthing the language of the rule of law in English and speaking in isiZulu of sinister conspiracies in the rhetoric of struggle.

Zuma is not a leader for South Africa in the 21st century. He should not be allowed to take us back to an earlier and darker age.

With acknowledgement to the Mail and Guardian.