Zuma could be South Africa’s uniting factor
THE mid-December elections of the leadership of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC), to be held at Polokwane, Northern Province, is a process that all keen Africa observers require to objectively follow. For South Africa is Africa’s political and economic powerhouse. And literally, wh
By Kintu Nyago
THE mid-December elections of the leadership of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC), to be held at Polokwane, Northern Province, is a process that all keen Africa observers require to objectively follow. For South Africa is Africa’s political and economic powerhouse. And literally, when it sneezes, the rest of us are bound to catch a cold.
While the ANC is Africa’s oldest existing political party, having been formed in 1912. It dominates the South African political scene, mainly on the basis of the quality of its leadership, policies and historic role in the struggle against apartheid... a dominance illustrated through its commanding a more than two-thirds parliamentary majority, while concurrently governing eight of South Africa’s nine provincial local governments. This reality is not about to change, and the ANC’s next leader could be South Africa’s future president.
The two main contestants for the ANC’s presidency are front runner Jacob Zuma, and his nemesis, current party and state president, Thabo Mbeki. Zuma, a liberation struggle veteran is also ANC deputy leader. Three years ago he was also South Africa’s vice-president. Indeed a smooth post-Mbeki transition had been anticipated. Then Mbeki, amidst pomp and pageantry, fired him, on the floors of parliament, for alleged corruption. And what then seemed as the last nail in Zuma’s coffin occurred with the state’s proceeding to, apparently, file a tramped-up rape charge against him.
All this boomeranged. The charges soared Zuma’s popularity in the face of all doomsday predictions, making him the come-back kid of the century! Zuma’s support emerged from the ANC traditional constituencies, the ordinary black people in the townships, as Soweto and rural areas, the left notably, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the ANC Youth League.
Popular perception is that the amiable, charismatic Zuma, fondly referred to as ‘Comrade JZ’, is being witch-hunted by the Mbeki-led Pretoria establishment. Zuma, overnight, assumed celebrity status, to the extent that his court appearances became associated with huge crowds turning up in solidarity. Zuma has devoted all his working life serving the ANC, which in the days of Apartheid was a noble, harzadous, but never a lucrative occupation. He only managed to pay his hefty legal fees through the enthusiastic fundraising of his township supporters, who organised well-attended fanfare concerts in Soweto and elsewhere, for this end! Indeed a Zulu song recounting his ordeals, hit the charts!
The gods never banished Zuma. Court acquitted him of the rape charge and later dismissed his corruption case. This all confirmed his supporters’ worst suspicions. Hence his contending for the ANC’s leadership with a high crest of support, a move Mbeki has unsuccessfully attempted to frustrate. First, by anointing his female Vice-President as successor, a move rejected by COSATU, SACP and the Youth League as being paternalistic and out of procedure. This conditioned Mbeki’s contesting for a third term as party boss, inasmuch as he can’t rule the country beyond his current second term. The aim was ostensibly to protect his legacy, but regarded by the Zuma camp as being petty and vindictive.
Prior to Polokwane, the enduring Zuma has surged far ahead, having bagged the support of two-thirds of the ANC Branch delegates and that of five out the country’s nine provinces.
What explains Zuma’s overwhelming support? Some experts (as The East African’s Muthoni Wanyeki or the Sunday Nation’s Gitau Warigi) wrongly argue that he represents the ANC internal wing and Mbeki the former exiles. This is a wrong claim, because Zuma literally spent as much time as Mbeki in exile. Furthermore, many of Zuma’s key supporters were former exiles, for instance Mac Maharaj or Tokyo Sexwale.
Zuma’s support is rooted in his humble background and exemplary loyalty to the ANC, an organisation he has served all his adult life, hence enabling him to cultivate invaluable contacts nationally. A son of a Zulu Police Constable and a domestic maid, Zuma joined the ANC at 14 years and soon enlisted into its armed wing, Umkhoto we Sizwe, in the early 1960s. That is why he served time on Robben Island, where he graduated as a hardened ANC cadre, through the tutelage of his senior alumnus as Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu. Without much formal education, on release, the self-made Zuma went to exile, joined the struggle and grew in the ranks, under the guidance of party stalwarts like Oliver Tambo and Joe Slovo, to the extent of heading the ANC’s vital Intelligence Department, an assignment that required the most cerebral of cadres, bearing in mind the overwhelming might and organisation of racist South Africa and its ruthlessly efficient security apparatus.
Zuma is also an amiable and extraordinary coalition builder, with the capacity to bring together and work with seemingly antagonistic groups, a role he illustrated excellently in his native problematic and politically sensitive Kwa Zulu Natal. Together with then President Mandela, SACP member Zuma reconciled traditional Zulu constituencies, including King Goodwill Zwelithini, to their cause and in the process undermining Inkatha’s support base, while facilitating peace.
Not surprisingly, Zuma has weaved a broad coalition around his candidature - the ordinary folk in the townships and rural areas, COSATU, SACP, the Youth League and the real crown of this all, the vibrant ANC’s Women’s League! In the process, Zuma has also brought on board powerful ANC opinion leaders, who had hibernated into business, due to Mbeki’s alienating imperial style. These being, amongst others, Cyril Ramaposa, Matthew Phosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Mac Maharaj.
A Zuma win would further integrate South Africa. For he would be the first non-Xhosa, in 50 years, since Chief Albert Lithuli to lead the ANC. This would also further integrate problematic Kwa Zulu, in the South African body politic.
South Africa’s white liberal press are equating a Zuma win to some form of Armageddon. This is utter hogwash. Zuma is a man of enormous ability, as discussed above, and also as illustrated by his successful contribution to the Burundi Peace Process. Furthermore, the ANC and the South African state are well established organisations, capable of implementing the vision he espouses with the party leadership. Support from the left, the SACP and COSATU, points to the enforcement of ethical governance, most probably informed by the policies of growth with a more human redistributive face, a development likely to consolidate the peace in currently unequal and crime prone South Africa.
nkintu@yahoo.com
The writer is a governance
consultant
THE mid-December elections of the leadership of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC), to be held at Polokwane, Northern Province, is a process that all keen Africa observers require to objectively follow. For South Africa is Africa’s political and economic powerhouse. And literally, when it sneezes, the rest of us are bound to catch a cold.
While the ANC is Africa’s oldest existing political party, having been formed in 1912. It dominates the South African political scene, mainly on the basis of the quality of its leadership, policies and historic role in the struggle against apartheid... a dominance illustrated through its commanding a more than two-thirds parliamentary majority, while concurrently governing eight of South Africa’s nine provincial local governments. This reality is not about to change, and the ANC’s next leader could be South Africa’s future president.
The two main contestants for the ANC’s presidency are front runner Jacob Zuma, and his nemesis, current party and state president, Thabo Mbeki. Zuma, a liberation struggle veteran is also ANC deputy leader. Three years ago he was also South Africa’s vice-president. Indeed a smooth post-Mbeki transition had been anticipated. Then Mbeki, amidst pomp and pageantry, fired him, on the floors of parliament, for alleged corruption. And what then seemed as the last nail in Zuma’s coffin occurred with the state’s proceeding to, apparently, file a tramped-up rape charge against him.
All this boomeranged. The charges soared Zuma’s popularity in the face of all doomsday predictions, making him the come-back kid of the century! Zuma’s support emerged from the ANC traditional constituencies, the ordinary black people in the townships, as Soweto and rural areas, the left notably, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the ANC Youth League.
Popular perception is that the amiable, charismatic Zuma, fondly referred to as ‘Comrade JZ’, is being witch-hunted by the Mbeki-led Pretoria establishment. Zuma, overnight, assumed celebrity status, to the extent that his court appearances became associated with huge crowds turning up in solidarity. Zuma has devoted all his working life serving the ANC, which in the days of Apartheid was a noble, harzadous, but never a lucrative occupation. He only managed to pay his hefty legal fees through the enthusiastic fundraising of his township supporters, who organised well-attended fanfare concerts in Soweto and elsewhere, for this end! Indeed a Zulu song recounting his ordeals, hit the charts!
The gods never banished Zuma. Court acquitted him of the rape charge and later dismissed his corruption case. This all confirmed his supporters’ worst suspicions. Hence his contending for the ANC’s leadership with a high crest of support, a move Mbeki has unsuccessfully attempted to frustrate. First, by anointing his female Vice-President as successor, a move rejected by COSATU, SACP and the Youth League as being paternalistic and out of procedure. This conditioned Mbeki’s contesting for a third term as party boss, inasmuch as he can’t rule the country beyond his current second term. The aim was ostensibly to protect his legacy, but regarded by the Zuma camp as being petty and vindictive.
Prior to Polokwane, the enduring Zuma has surged far ahead, having bagged the support of two-thirds of the ANC Branch delegates and that of five out the country’s nine provinces.
What explains Zuma’s overwhelming support? Some experts (as The East African’s Muthoni Wanyeki or the Sunday Nation’s Gitau Warigi) wrongly argue that he represents the ANC internal wing and Mbeki the former exiles. This is a wrong claim, because Zuma literally spent as much time as Mbeki in exile. Furthermore, many of Zuma’s key supporters were former exiles, for instance Mac Maharaj or Tokyo Sexwale.
Zuma’s support is rooted in his humble background and exemplary loyalty to the ANC, an organisation he has served all his adult life, hence enabling him to cultivate invaluable contacts nationally. A son of a Zulu Police Constable and a domestic maid, Zuma joined the ANC at 14 years and soon enlisted into its armed wing, Umkhoto we Sizwe, in the early 1960s. That is why he served time on Robben Island, where he graduated as a hardened ANC cadre, through the tutelage of his senior alumnus as Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu. Without much formal education, on release, the self-made Zuma went to exile, joined the struggle and grew in the ranks, under the guidance of party stalwarts like Oliver Tambo and Joe Slovo, to the extent of heading the ANC’s vital Intelligence Department, an assignment that required the most cerebral of cadres, bearing in mind the overwhelming might and organisation of racist South Africa and its ruthlessly efficient security apparatus.
Zuma is also an amiable and extraordinary coalition builder, with the capacity to bring together and work with seemingly antagonistic groups, a role he illustrated excellently in his native problematic and politically sensitive Kwa Zulu Natal. Together with then President Mandela, SACP member Zuma reconciled traditional Zulu constituencies, including King Goodwill Zwelithini, to their cause and in the process undermining Inkatha’s support base, while facilitating peace.
Not surprisingly, Zuma has weaved a broad coalition around his candidature - the ordinary folk in the townships and rural areas, COSATU, SACP, the Youth League and the real crown of this all, the vibrant ANC’s Women’s League! In the process, Zuma has also brought on board powerful ANC opinion leaders, who had hibernated into business, due to Mbeki’s alienating imperial style. These being, amongst others, Cyril Ramaposa, Matthew Phosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Mac Maharaj.
A Zuma win would further integrate South Africa. For he would be the first non-Xhosa, in 50 years, since Chief Albert Lithuli to lead the ANC. This would also further integrate problematic Kwa Zulu, in the South African body politic.
South Africa’s white liberal press are equating a Zuma win to some form of Armageddon. This is utter hogwash. Zuma is a man of enormous ability, as discussed above, and also as illustrated by his successful contribution to the Burundi Peace Process. Furthermore, the ANC and the South African state are well established organisations, capable of implementing the vision he espouses with the party leadership. Support from the left, the SACP and COSATU, points to the enforcement of ethical governance, most probably informed by the policies of growth with a more human redistributive face, a development likely to consolidate the peace in currently unequal and crime prone South Africa.
nkintu@yahoo.com
The writer is a governance
consultant