Can you imagine being lead by a president in prison who would be wearing orange clothes? You only see of such in movies where the leader of a gang is still controlling operations in the real world from his prison cell. But this is not a movie and this is the real world. ANC Youth League President Julius Malema said on Wednesday (23 July) that South Africa will be led by Jacob Zuma – even if it is from prison. This comes of the back of the possibility that ANC president, Jacob Zuma could go to jail if he is found guilty of charges put against him.

“We can’t imagine the courts finding (Zuma) guilty because, if you arrest him, he will lead us from prison. We are not afraid to be led by a president in orange clothes. If you want to save yourselves the embarrassment you must drop the charges, because arresting him will not stop him from being the president.” These were the words of Malema.

This leaves many to wonder what is going to happen with regards to the leadership of South Africa. There are suggestions from some quarters that this whole Jacob Zuma trial is a conspiracy so that Zuma gets arrested and does not become the next president of South Africa. But judging from the words of Malema, the ANC, well at least the ANC Youth League, will still back Zuma. There are calls for the charges to be dropped to avoid all this dragging out in court. But some would say, if the charges are dropped, where is the governance in the country? Just because he is Zuma should the charges be dropped? It would cause a lot of up-roar if the charges are just dropped without a trial.

Zuma is due to appear in court on August 4 and 5 when his legal team is expected to file an application to have the National Prosecuting Authority’s decision to prosecute him for fraud, corruption, racketeering, tax evasion and money laundering declared unlawful.