Some insight, some conventional wisdom and color by Mark Gevisser, Thabo Mbeki’s biographer, on the leadership race for South Africa’s ruling party in an op-ed in the New York Times yesterday.
The African National Congress meets next week to decide on who will be its next leader and probably, by default, South Africa’s next President.
First let’s dispense with the color and stereotypes: ‘the dusty northern town of Polokwane,’ ‘neocolonial African kleptocracy,’ and ‘the deathtrap of African democracy: the ruler-for-life syndrome,’ among others.
As for the conventional wisdom: Mbeki ‘… has earned an international reputation as a voice for progress and prosperity on the African continent.’ Of course South Africa’s economy is growing at 5%, but that is to the benefit of a few (including an astonishing growth in the number of new dollar millionairs), but we are talking here about a leader of a country that ten years after apartheid is still the most unequal in the world, with more than 30% unemployment, and growing class inequality among the black majority.
Curiously there is no mention of Mr Mbeki’s dismal record on AIDS as one of the reasons for his unpopularity among ANC members and among the larger population.
Nevertheless, Gevisser does have some insights:
‘… Is there any foundation to this anxiety? Will the Polokwane conference set in motion a tragic final act to one of the world’s greatest liberation narratives? Not necessarily. Instead, the current contest is mainly an indicator that South Africa’s democracy has matured and is ready for meaningful political debate.’
Similarly Gevisser hits the mark about the fall-out for democratic politics of the open contest between Mr Mbeki and his rival, the ethically challenged favorite for next President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma:
‘… Gone … is that beguiling myth of the Mandela era: that the A.N.C. is a cathedral of morality. The truth is that it is a rowdy hall of competing interests, driven by patronage and riven by personality, grubby with politics. It is no longer a liberation movement but the ruling party of a young and healthy — messy and unpredictable — democracy.’
Full story here.
