There has been a great flurry of commentary on the looming confrontation between a recalcitrant former president and the law. Jacob Zuma’s trashing of the rule of law via his defiance of the Constitutional Court order directing him to explain himself under interrogation at the Zondo Commission has drawn a great deal of comment, most of it reactive in nature. The true cause of the looming problem is that both Zuma and the current secretary-general of the ANC, Ace Magashule, do not regard themselves as bound by the rule of law and the Constitution. The former thinks the ANC comes first and says so, while the latter assures those who listen to him that the Constitution is not “sacrosanct”.