Jacob Zuma cuts an elegant figure as he dances warrior-like to the rhythm of his supporters' songs. The dance conveys power and purpose - a man going somewhere; not at all a has-been.

So what is going on here as Cosatu and Zuma's supporters make demands calculated to cause framers of the Constitution to choke on their cornflakes?

On one level it's predictably South African and therefore pans out in racial terms, as much as we would prefer it otherwise. Zuma is supported by many black people and almost no whites, even though many whites had a soft spot for him as a personality. But most whites believe quite simply that he is guilty by association with Schabir Shaik, and Justice Hilary Squires seems to have made it clear that he thought so too.

There is also for whites a sense of relief that the Zuma case has shown that it is possible for the high and mighty who are corrupt to be brought down. In this relief there is also a hope against hope that this affair will reverberate through the corridors of power and persuade political crooks to mend their ways.

The reaction is perfectly rational from a section of the population that knows that in the long term and in the context of a globalising economy their livelihoods depend on relatively clean government because of the power of perceptions of business and political elites in the West.

Even if he is not corrupt, whites observe that it is at the very least unfortunate that a man who obviously cannot manage his domestic finances was making decisions that must impact on our national finances.

Furthermore many white people look cynically at Zuma's houses in Nkandla and Forest Town and ask themselves how this man can so brazenly identify himself with the poor and how the poor can be so easily beguiled. But there are several things that are being missed here.

Firstly, the picture of a severe-looking white judge with a Rhodesian background effectively judging a popular black leader understandably still evokes negative emotions for many black people. Perhaps especially for the class of young Turks, of which the ANC Youth League is an exemplar. These 30-somethings, who often seem locked into a past-struggle mode, have neither the security of having arrived in power, nor the fresh perception of the real younger generation for whom the struggles of yesteryear are not such a big deal and when along comes a powerfully symbolic cause evoking and renewing their past student activism, the proverbial knees jerk spasmodically.

Then the person of Zuma himself has its attractions for many. He is warm, charming and traditional. He claims he is a champion stick-fighter and I believe him. Most South African men, even white men, have fond youthful memories of fencing with sticks and they too fancy themselves as champions.

Zuma is man with whom to sit down with a good pot of utshwala to slake one's thirst after a vigorous and virile bout. As for his personal finances, he mirrors the position of many of us. As the priest in confession once said on hearing a penitent confess a particular fault: "That's not a sin; I do that myself."

He also claims to be a self-made man, who overcame his lack of education to climb to the number two position in the land. The rags to riches, poverty-to- power story moves a poor, powerless people powerfully. Here the modern myth moves in to complement the traditional.

In the end what whites have to try to understand is this: it's not so much that Zuma identifies with the people, but that the people identify with Zuma. They see a wealthy, powerful polygamist.

In terms of traditional and even modern values, he has arrived, but the forces of envy are out to get him and so he must be protected. He is a kind of feudal figure if you will, one to whom traditional and conservative people naturally gravitate to find protection, reassurance and livelihood. He is a stout and fecund tree under whose branches the people can find security and sustenance. Such a tree will be protected from those who would fell it.

As ever South African politics is never dull, ever colourful and always peopled by strong, vivid personalities. In the battle for the soul of the ANC we have in the one corner Thabo Mbeki, the modern, Sussex-educated patrician intellectual and consummate political operator; in the other the traditionalist stick-fighter from Zululand who, although he looks down and out, has the vocal part of the crowd behind him.

The book is open as to who will emerge the victor from this fascinating bout.

Chris Chatteris is the local superior of the Society of Jesus in KwaZulu-Natal and teaches preaching and philosophy of education at St Joseph's, Cedara.

With acknowledgements to Chris Chatteris and The Natal Witness.