Presidential succession

by Editor · December 5, 2007

On December 16, the delegates to the 52nd national conference of the African National Congress will make a decision which will likely shape the future of this country into the next decade.

It is appropriate that the leadership of the Church has not sought to influence the nomination process, even if the decisions taken at branch level will have an impact well beyond the inner workings of the ANC. The Church must not be seen as being partisan in party politics or electoral campaigns, other than in reminding politicians and electorate of the Catholic teachings as they pertain to particular issues.

It is, however, entirely legitimate for the Church to make known its concerns about individuals who present themselves for election, particularly when they presume themselves qualified to become candidates for the national presidency.

The ANC branches have concluded their nominations and their delegates head now to Polokwane to elect the party�s president. Unless there is a seismic shift on the conference floor, we may presume that the two candidates will remain President Thabo Mbeki and former Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

Neither man represents a happy choice for South Africa. Both are ethically challenged. Both are sources of a division within the ANC-led alliance, to the detriment of South Africa.

Mr Zuma�s travails are well documented. He may yet be facing corruption charges, and the rape trial in which he was acquitted revealed him to be a man of diminished moral fibre and common sense. His campaign for the leadership of the ANC has been marked by an unpleasant ruthlessness which has done little to mark Mr Zuma out as a benign leader. By not restraining the excesses in his campaign, Mr Zuma endorsed a confrontational and divisive style of politics which is of no benefit to the ANC or to South Africa. Should he win in Polokwane, as seems likely, one may reasonably be apprehensive that his leadership would do little to curb corruption and cronyism.

Mr Mbeki and his lobby have responded to Mr Zuma�s challenge with greater subtlety but no less aggression. It has been said that in his bid for re-election, Mr Mbeki is motivated not by an appetite for power, but by solemn concerns about Mr Zuma�s merits.

While there are many who share such concerns, Mr Mbeki�s ethical standing is not uncompromised either. Suspicions of corruption over the arms deal still hang over his administration. The president�s manner of protection of Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, against whom serious allegations have been levelled, has not been in the best interest of South Africa. Likewise, Mr Mbeki�s unwavering loyalty to incompetent officials suggests that his agenda does not always coincide with the welfare of the people he was elected to serve.

Should the president seek to extend his mandate to a third term, a constitutional amendment will be necessary. This would set an undesirable precedent.

There is a suggestion that the president of the ANC should automatically be the party�s candidate for the national presidency. Those who take this view are prone to justify it by reference to ANC �tradition�, an absurd notion unless one regards a precedent of three national elections as the makings of a heritage.

South Africa will be well served by the ANC divorcing the party�s presidency from that of the nation.

It is unlikely that the delegates in Polokwane will jettison their branches� mandates in favour of a compromise candidate.

However, by affirming that the ANC president need not be the person the party will nominate as its presidential candidate in the 2009 elections, the ANC will have time to identify a suitable alternative to either Mr Mbeki or Mr Zuma�a candidate who is not encumbered by doubts over his ethical integrity and who seeks to truly serve the nation.