The ANC's Polokwane conference showed that genies don't easily go back into the bottles from which they are released.

The thuggery that suited Jacob Zuma in his bid to oust Thabo Mbeki as party leader has become the preferred tactic, even in battles for the most paltry party office.

Children of the struggle generation feel free to denigrate the true heroes of the war against apartheid, to cite iconic liberation battles as precedents for their ugliest excesses and to aspire to influence which they in no way deserve.

The ANC leaders who were the first beneficiaries of this mob mandate seem powerless to reverse the trend.

Now Cosatu, the labour federation, is heading into similarly uncharted territory with a political campaign to intimidate the judiciary into releasing Zuma from accountability for his alleged crimes.

General secretary Zwelinzima Vavi's warning that popular anger against the judiciary might be uncontrollable if Zuma is put on trial is a disingenuous call to arms. It reaches beyond the labour federation's own constitutional mandate to defend the rights and interests of workers, into the realm of partisan power politics.

Section 1.4 of the Cosatu constitution commits members "to fight for worker rights ..., to build solidarity ..., to encourage industrial unions ..., to support affiliates ... and to manage union funds". Nothing suggests the federation should go to war for a tainted leader's political ambition.

By its own admission, Cosatu is losing the struggle for worker rights as more and more people are displaced from permanent employment into contract labour. At the same time, there are broad social causes more properly in Cosatu's remit where its power could be applied.

Yet all the energy of the federation's leadership has been turned to the Zuma cause. Where employers were beginning to accept the need to take the shop floor seriously, they are now being driven back into a polarised political conflict.

Interrupting production to take workers onto the streets in support of Zuma's bid to subvert the judiciary is foolhardy in a season of economic recession. These actions do not only have an impact on the revenues of often struggling factories and businesses; they undermine the credibility of the South African state and economy, which have been the foundations of slow but steady growth and job creation over the past decade.

Zuma, if he is installed as president, will not be able to restart failed small and micro enterprises. No amount of Zuma charm will reassure potential investors if they have seen our courts crumble under social and political pressure that could as easily be turned against their property rights.

What Zuma may be able to do is give those who guided his walk to freedom places on the gravy train, while the workers who paid their salaries are left to walk the streets in search of an hour or two of work.

And no amount of pro-poor rhetoric can disguise the truth that this fight for Zuma's liberty is really a fight for the freedom to loot the public purse.

With acknowledgements to Sunday Times.