The African National Congress (ANC) recently announced that it would like to deploy its Deputy-President Kglema Mothlanthe to the national government. On the face of it, this is an ingenious way to deal with the problem of the ‘two centres of government’ that emerged after the Polokwane Conference. However, the cynic in me is inclined to think, why did Mothlanthe waste our time? Why did he not just run for the ANC presidency and wait a year and become President of The Republic? For those up to speed with the implications of this is that, the ANC is subtly paving the way for Mothlanthe to become president of South Africa. Why did they not deploy Mattews Phosa or other members of the Zuma camp with government experience? This is a poorly veiled attempt of mitigating what now seems to be the inevitable charge and conviction of Jacob Zuma for corruption. So the ANC leadership is preparing its replacement candidate, who is Kglema Mothlanthe for the presidency.

Are you telling me that Zuma did not know that he had a weak case? So why did he run, why did the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) support someone who would not rule the country anyway? Maybe the answers lie in the fact that Mothlanthe is not well known outside ANC circles, he does not have a national presence or name recognition. Anyway Mbeki had fired the first shots by firing Zuma from government, thus galvanising the left and thus making it easier to build a Zuma campaign as compared to Mothlanthe. So Mothlanthe backed Zuma knowing that he would eventually be president of South Africa. If you ask me, that’s pretty sneaky, the people voted for Zuma and not Mothlanthe but they are getting the guy they did not vote for.

The ANC does a lot if it’s dealing in a clandestine manner. So we never actually now what is going on and maybe we don’t care. We just want the ANC to rule period, how they rule is not a pertinent issue. We are basically giving up our democracy to people who are very clock-and-dagger. They never tell us much and on top of that they are not doing a good job running the country. I’m very disappointed by the Mothlanthe deployment. Once again there are other sinister forces at work in our democracy that seem to circumvent the wishes of the people. I’m not a Zuma or Mbeki supporter; I am a believer in transparent democracy. The people should have been consulted. In the event of Zuma not becoming president, who was the next best candidate to lead the party and the country? There should have been vigorous debate on who would be the next best leader not wait a few months and then seemly prepare for a transition not involving the people’s choice. Yes, some may argue the ANC are doing just that, Mothlanthe is being prepared for that but who will run the ANC when Zuma is on trail? Should Mothlanthe not stay within the ANC and someone else go to the national government?

The ANC leadership should have been more honest and transparent with their plans. What else are they planning without the consent of the people?

Ah! Well once again African democracy leaves a lot more to be desired.

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