Jacob Zuma’s arrival at the Presidency of South Africa could hold a few surprises for Africa’s dictators – not all of them welcome.

Behind the smiles and back-slapping, Mr Zuma is expected to show little patience towards fellow leaders who might obstruct broader policy intentions.

South African diplomatic sources say that Mr Zuma has already indicated that President al-Bashir of Sudan, who has been charged by the International Criminal Court over alleged genocide in Darfur, will not be welcome at his inauguration on May 9, and that he could even risk arrest and deportation to The Hague. Were it to happen, Mr Zuma’s standing in the West would rise.

Most notably, however, the new President will be keen to change his country’s position regarding the crisis in Zimbabwe. His allies among the union movement have been far more critical of President Mugabe than the official position adopted when Thabo Mbeki was South Africa’s President.

The prickly Mr Mbeki, lambasted in the West as an apologist for the Mugabe regime, was more concerned about past loyalties to fellow leaders of the liberation struggle than to the suffering of ordinary people.

Mr Zuma, who is closer to the grass roots of the African National Congress, will push for Mr Mugabe not to renege on a power-sharing agreement that may allow the estimated three million Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa to begin to return home.

Jonathan Clayton. The Times, UK