Zuma succession debate overshadows ANC conference
October 10, 2015
The ruling African National Congress is still held in high regard by those loyal to Nelson Mandela’s legacy[/caption]
South Africa’s governing party is at a crossroads as it begins its policy review conference in Johannesburg – whether the African National Congress should follow its business-friendly National Development Plan, or to implement a more radical economic strategy.
But most of the 3,000 delegates from across the country will have their minds on something else. Top of the official agenda for the ANC is to find new ways to jump-start a sluggish economy and deal with the shambolic energy supply which is holding the country back. But it also hopes to dig deep into the party’s soul – looking for that great infectious optimism which swept the nation and the rest of the world when Nelson Mandela became the country’s first black president, following the end of white-minority rule 21 years ago. ANC leaders have admitted and spoken openly about the cancer of corruption and the demonic in-fighting that are plaguing the 103-year-old liberation movement. The nation’s hopes are pinned on a thorough introspection at the National General Council – the party’s mid-term policy review conference. But another issue is likely to dominate the sidelines of the conference. It has very little to do with the troubled party’s will to deliver real material change for the masses of the people. The elephant in the room is: The party’s leadership succession battle, which to all intents and purposes is already underway. President Zuma is in his second and last term as president of the country. He is not, by law, allowed to stand for a third term in 2019.
Zuma ‘endorses ex-wife’
Susan Booysen, a professor at Wits University’s school of governance and the author of The African National Congress and the Regeneration of Political Power, told me that Mr Ramaphosa is not guaranteed to be the next president. She told me: “He is the fire fighter for many of the issues for the Zuma government but he is not safe because he was a default [compromise] candidate.” She also said that President Zuma “by all indications… has endorsed Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma”. Some say that President Zuma may be endorsing his former wife in order to look after his interests in retirement. The pair remain on cordial terms. The president of the trade union federation Cosatu, which is allied to the ANC, Sdumo Dlamini, recently told a workers’ march that it was too early to talk about the ANC’s succession race, and those who did so were putting the party at risk. He said: “We say to the ANC: 2017 is two years from now, the rush to debate about the leadership in 2017 is a recipe for disaster for all of us.” [caption id="attachment_21359" align="alignleft" width="624"]
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