OP-ED: Politicians falling on their own swords

South Africa’s Jacob Zuma is getting his comeuppance, but he isn’t the first political leader to bite the dust
All power is evanescent. All glory approximates twilight beyond the waves of the sea.

With South Africa’s constitutional court ordering former president Jacob Zuma to surrender himself to the police and serve 15 months in prison on charges of corruption, the reminder comes once more to people around the world that the powerful, when they violate the norms of proper social behaviour, will one day bite the dust.