South Africa is in the midst of a high-stakes leadership drama that has been underway for some years. The stage is the South African state, including its national departments and ministries, provincial governments and local municipalities. It is a drama that has pitted comrade against comrade, and the ensuing battle has led to friends becoming enemies, and erstwhile enemies becoming friends. The ultimate prize is the presidency and the political power and spoils of patronage that go with it.

The drama's multiple acts have so far each been marked by a symbolic high point. The opening act was the firing of then deputy president, Jacob Zuma, by then president, Thabo Mbeki, in 2005. This was followed by the fightback by Zuma and his allies, which culminated in December 2007, when Zuma was elected president of the African National Congress (ANC) at the party's national electoral conference in Polokwane. Nine months later, in September 2008, Mbeki was unceremoniously ejected from his position as president of South Africa, and after a short caretaker presidency by then deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, Zuma ascended to the presidential throne in April 2009. Significant sections of the senior hierarchy in the political establishment and state bureaucracy were soon replaced as cadre deployment within the ruling party morphed into factional deployment.

Soon after this, however, the battle lines were redrawn and a new act in the drama began. This time Zuma, as presidential incumbent, was the focus of the attempted ejection. His nemeses were his onetime allies, Julius Malema, Fikile Mbalula, Mathews Phosa, Tokyo Sexwale, and even Kgalema Motlanthe. Malema was effectively fired as president of the Youth League through the mechanism of the ANC's disciplinary committee. In December 2012, Motlanthe, who was deputy president of both the ruling party and the country at the time, stood against Zuma for the presidency of the ANC at the party's national conference in Mangaung. He lost, and having withdrawn from the candidature for the party's deputy-presidency in favour of Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa, Motlanthe was effectively cast into the political wilderness. His role in the ANC has been confined to heading up political education within the party.