The Saturday Star scoop that the ANC is replacing Johnnie Walker Blue Label as (Luthuli) house whisky with Chivas Regal is yet another purge of Mbeki influences in the ruling party. Ignoring the inconvenient truth that Jacob Zuma is the only member of the party who does not drink, Jacob’s image as a ladies’ man, a Sir Lancelot Lovemachine, ties in with the global Chivas “Age of Chivalry” promotion. Johnnie Walker’s Striding Man is so nineties, echoing the Long Walk to Freedom of Mbeki predecessor and protector, Nelson Mandela. Thabo himself was famously a bottle-of-blue-label-a-day man and when Johnnie Walker King George V was launched in Cape Town, the venue was Tuinhuis, the president’s official residence in the Mother City.