To me, President Jacob Zuma's announcement of his new cabinet on Sunday, was more exciting than the election itself. After all, we knew who was going to win that. But the cabinet, now that was different. Who would be in, and who out, and what would the inclusions and exclusions say about the way Zuma intends to govern?

Elections are coming up in South Africa in a few weeks' time. This time it's going to be tough for me to decide who to vote for. At present I'm one of those 'undecided' people that the pollsters always worry about. Mid-last year, I was seriously considering not voting. I didn't want to vote for the ANC as I don't want Jacob Zuma to be president, but there also wasn't any other party I wanted to vote for.  But since last year, things have changed quite a bit.

There's an old line that goes: "The problem with political jokes is that too many of them end up getting elected." That line has been coming back to me the past few weeks. Firstly, with the replacement of the archetypal political joke -- George Bush -- with Barack Obama. And secondly with the imminent rise to power of our own political comics -- Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema.

Poor politicians -- they never have a break. While the rest of the country is closing up shop and heading for the beaches, South Africa's politicians are hard at work. Yesterday, both the ANC and the new splinter party, COPE, held rallies in Bloemfontein, where the leaders of both parties claimed their group represented the true spirit of South Africa's liberation and transformation.

I'm hopping mad. Zacob Zuma, the man who is likely to be South Africa's next president, is in court today, to try and ward off a corruption case against him. It's the latest in a long series of court appearances, as Zuma's lawyers try every tactic to avoid or postpone his corruption trial. That's not why I'm mad. I'm mad about the stance that Zuma's party, the ANC, is taking on the case.

It seems that all our state institutions in South Africa are being tested at the moment. They're all in crisis or under attack -- from the Human Rights Commission, to the Judiciary, to the national broadcaster. It's the toughest test our teenaged democracy has had, and its clearly time for us all to grow up and become adults.

On Youth Day, June 16th, Julius Malema, the leader of the ANC Youth League, said at public rally that the youth were prepared to kill for Jacob Zuma. A few days later, Zwelinzima Vavi, the head of the giant trade union federation, Cosatu, said the organisation's members would be willing to sacrifice their lives for Zuma. Despite the outcry that has followed these remarks, I remain deeply, deeply disturbed.