Famed television producer and writer Shonda Rhimes would do well to create a political drama as scintillating and befuddling as the current South African political scene. Oh‚ wait... she has: the Emmy award-winning Scandal (The Fixer).

Indeed‚ she may even admit one day once her memoirs have been penned and published and become a bestseller‚ that the show — now in its fifth season — was in fact inspired by our very own Jacob Zuma.

 The backstory is too long and convoluted to serve up here‚ but similarly to JZ‚ Fitzgerald Grant’s (played by Tony Goldwyn) road to the presidency was a rough one‚ featuring many an antagonist‚ chums‚ and of course‚ unfathomable scandal.

 In the current season‚ Grant has reached a point beyond reproach. Similarly Zuma. Grant is showing that the obsession with legacy is a media- and critic-driven fallacy‚ but that really not every man cares about how he is remembered once he has served his time.

 After dallying with mistress Olivia Pope in dark rooms‚ and frankly any space big enough for the two of them to cavort and release their tensions‚ he has finally flipped the bird at an apathetic America and given his wife Mellie the boot. He has come clean about his love affair with Olivia‚ but much to the disgust of one-time Presidential elections foe Sally Langston‚ doesn’t intend on breaking off the relationship — or vacating the Oval Office.

The firing of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene in the late hours of Wednesday‚ and the subsequent hiring of little-known and seemingly under-qualified David van Rooyen‚ sent the beleaguered rand tumbling to an ominous R15.3857/$ after the news. By a show of hands‚ who believes Jacob Zuma cares?

One scene in the millions that have been between Olivia and Fitz‚ she asked‚ “your time as President will be over and you’re worried about getting your mistress back?“

He responded: “How many times do I need to tell you that you’re more than that... You can’t fix the fact that I love you. That I love you more than I love being President. I have told you that I’d give it all up for you again and again‚ and you know what I think? I think you don’t believe me. I think you believe that i will never choose you. Well‚ this time‚ I’m fixing things“.

That could well have been a conversation between JZ and each of his friends — they may be finding it hard to believe he is so willing to put his own interests before the country‚ and he may well believe he is doing the right thing by repaying them ala SAA chairwoman Dudu Myeni‚ while we moan on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

The school of thought is that Nene was axed for trying to hold the line on fiscal discipline‚ especially by refusing to concede to Myeni‚ and the reported nuclear deal. Here is a man who was an anomaly in a cabinet that lost our trust a long time ago. Even if Zuma foresaw that the markets would react terribly to the firing of a man who was doing a commendable job under difficult economic circumstances‚ he has provided us with enough examples to show he cares not what we think.

In her analysis for the Daily Maverick‚ Judith February wrote: “Those within Cabinet might wish to ask what their role is in acceding to this crisis. Those within the ANC who still have a semblance of decency should surely now be questioning their part in this crisis? And we‚ as citizens‚ should finally be asking‚ why it is that President Jacob Zuma remains in office when he has set about to undermine our democratic institutions with such devastating precision?“

What Rhimes’ Scandal has taught us is‚ those that surround the Commander in Chief‚ are just as complicit (see: Cyrus Beene‚ Mellie Grant‚ Jake Ballard‚ Elizabeth‚ etc).

It sounds cynical‚ but what the South African political scene has taught us — and continues to — is that while power (the people) got the President elected‚ power is not in charge‚ the people are rather counting down to the end of this nightmare instead of reclaiming our once formidable power.

What this country would do to have a Cyrus Beene right now — the real influencer in the Oval Office‚ the guy behind the president of the United States‚ but the one who really steers the country.