What are we to make of a man who calls Britain ‘patronising and racist’ – and then calls for his favourite machine-gun?

Jacob Zuma is a corrupt, womanising, controlling and ruthless ANC hardliner. To those of us old enough to have marched against first Smith in Rhodesia and then the Botha dynasty in South Africa, he is a walking betrayal of our support. A confrere of the appalling Winnie Mandela. An AIDS denier. A purveyor of madcap anti-West conspiracy theories. And a man who (for anyone with even an average aptitude for character assessment) has ‘Mugabe sociopath’ writ large in dayglo on his forehead .

He is also the leader of a nation destined to be in a pivotal position to influence near-future Weltpolitik. That he grasps this perfectly well is beyond doubt. He has moved swiftly to put his own nominee Gill Marcus in charge of South Africa’s national bank. This woman is a former ANC spy who also controls the biggest gold mining company in the country. She (like Zuma) is pro-China. The Beijing regime has in turn put $80 million into the bank’s deposits. And the Zuma Government has sent experts to train the Chinese in the secrets of gold mining.

Gordon Brown opted out of PMQs today in favour of licking this gargoyle all over. I seriously doubt if the PM has the vaguest concept of how decadent and dangerous Jacob Zuma is. How paranoid is his hatred of the white man. How mad he will become over time, as the vast flows of money and grovellers turn his mind from one that is merely ignorant, to one insanely hell-bent on proving that black is white.

Whereas Zuma is merely an obscene ego on legs, Brown is a naif. Disturbed and dysfunctional, but naive for all that. They will pose for photographs. Zuma will insult the British with his mouth full of banquet food, and various officials will look on politely, pretending not to hear. Perhaps Peter Hain will make an entrance in order to praise this Great Chief. But Gordon Brown won’t get it, because he understands almost nothing about African culture, Chinese aspirations, human nature, and the power that comes with global commercial dominance.

The one thing I omitted to mention about Zuma is that he is a worse racist and misogynist than any European you’re ever likely to meet. Yet he has appointed a white woman to run the money side of things. That (and a fondness for gross privilege and sex) tells everyone all they really need to know about Jacob Zuma.