The ANC leadership, the generation of the 1994 transition, did not have an opportunity to grow into the responsibilities of governing a rather sophisticated and modern country, the richest and most powerful in Africa. It happened overnight. Their lives were transformed from oppression and struggle, from powerlessness, to total power. Poverty was replaced by overpowering richness. And all this happened overnight, in the scope of less than four years. 

The populist icons of South African politics have enormous egos; all believing that they are greater than the Ideas they are proposing. Some actually are; some not. However, none of them are bigger than perception.