Yesterday marked a ‘new dawn’ in South Africa when Jacob Zuma was inaugurated as the president of the country. As I woke up yesterday, the weather was terrible, it was grey and overcast and I wondered what was going to happen at the inauguration if it rained. I switched on my TV to tune into the live coverage of the inauguration and you could see the rain coming down and those already gathered at the Union Buildings had their umbrellas and raincoats. At that time I started to receives text messages and emails saying that this rain and gloom is a bad sign! “How can our next president be sworn in on a day that is so dull and gloomy?” I too was getting very worried. But I was sure that the organisers of this event had made provisions for rain. In African culture, rain is a sign of blessing so even if it rained it would be a blessing for that day, whilst some would say the rain is a sign of the infamous Jacob Zuma ’shower’!
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Baleka Mbete will not be the deputy president of South Africa and instead will take up a role at Luthuli House as chairperson of the ANC. No one knows exactly what is happening behind the scenes at the ANC with regards to Mbete but this is the most likely explanation:
Mbete wanted to remain as the deputy president of South Africa when Jacob Zuma was appointed president of the country. But it looks like Zuma has decided to go with caretaker president Kgalema Motlanthe as the deputy president of the country. A move that Mbete was clearly not happy with.
On Wednesday in parliment, Mbete ‘refused’ to be sworn in as an MP. I use the word refused in inverted commas because some circles say Mbete refused to be sworn in on her own terms whilst some people say that Mbete and the ANC were not yet clear on what role Mbete would take up by the time Wednesday came thus she was not sworn in.
But now it looks clear that Mbete refused to be sworn in after being snubbed of the deputy president position. But as a former deputy president, Mbete is entitled to her R1.8 million pension for life and other perks such as bodyguards, an official car and staff at taxpayers’ expense. Not bad money at all!!
Reports in todays Sunday Times suggest that Mbete “behaved like a school girl” when she snubbed being sworn in as an MP, a move they say embarrassed the ANC. One would be tempted to say there is already infighting in the new ANC administration ‘before a ball has even been kicked’. This is politics after all and nothing will ever be clear and smooth sailing from here on out.
South Africa’s fourth democratic elections since 1994 exposed some key fissures in the country’s body politic yet also confirmed some long-standing trends. Domestic party politics has always been largely the domain of the African National Congress – fighting to either increase its monolithic dominance of public support within a single-dominant political party structure or fending off smaller and less significant opposition entities usually from minority communities. This election was no different – yet the unique circumstances following last year’s un-ceremonial early dismissal of outgoing President Thabo Mbeki together with the ascent to the power by Mbeki’s successor, the controversial Jacob Zuma., dominated the campaign.
In fact, the entire poll was dominated almost entirely by the persona of Jacob Zuma. Acquitted on rape charges three years ago and implicated in an ongoing graft and corruption scandal involving a very controversial and questionable arms scandal, Zuma was bound to illicit howls of derision from intellectuals. The ‘chattering classes’ were quick to laugh him off as eminently unsuitable for public office and to denigrate him for his lack of formal education. Coupled with his now infamous views on unprotected sex and the transmission of HIV/AIDS, Zuma’s every word and deed became the focus of the campaign – to the detriment of most other policy debates.
All South Africa’s political parties produced glossy and detailed election manifestos that dealt in varying degrees of detail with the perennial issues of ‘service delivery’ – particularly in education, health care and poverty alleviation. But, it was still Jacob Zuma and his suitability as future President that continued to occupy the minds of the media and analysts alike. Few voters would’ve been able to articulate policy nuances of the differing parties – but most had a view on Zuma.
I watched with interest Koos van der Merwe’s comments this morning on E-TV’s New Channel on the reasons behind the IFP haemorrhaging both nationally and in its stronghold of KZN. As an ex-IFP spokesman, the IFP’s further slide does not surprise me. I think the two key factors can be summarised as follows:
1. The ‘Zuma factor” removed one of the key reason d’ etre’s of the IFP’s existence. No more could it mobilise on the strength of its “Zuluness”; no more could it tap deep into overt or latent feelings of Zulu pride and nationalism. To use a traditional metaphor, Zuma thrust a Zulu short-stabbing spear into the IFP’s heartland. The IFP were caught off-guard by the ‘Zuma’ drawcard, and seemingly were unable to mount a viable and enduring challenge to his sheer magnetism. In effect, style (Zuma’s political charisma as the champion of the “everyman”) won over substance - not for nothing was Zuma voted SA’s most “sexy” politician. The body language and even some public statements by IFP leaders before the election spoke volumes of a party of despair – in contrast to the robust optimism of previous elections, that sometimes resembled the pre-fight hype of a prized fighter, an air of realism (some less charitable may say resignation and defeat) crept into some of its public utterances, as it contemplated an erosion of its traditional support base that in previous years would have been considered unthinkable. This support base has been ebbing away since the ’94 election, and despite Prince Buthelezi threatening to crack the whip on its activists, and threatening to purge its ‘dead wood’, it seems that, based on the election outcome, the KZN electorate has spurned the IFP as an “anachronism” that has failed to reinvent and re-define itself convincingly in the modern era.
2. Unforgiving minority communities continue to “punish” the IFP for its previous dogged insistence on making Ulundi the capital. Although the capital issue was not an election issue this time round, it was still fresh in the memory of voters from minority communities. Unfortunately, the IFP has not been able to shed this ‘liability’ in the minds of minority voters, as it has neither repudiated this stance - which clearly alienated significant sections of KZN – nor has it publicly conceded that this strategy was counter-productive. It therefore lost an opportunity to re-capture, and build on, the goodwill it previously enjoyed from some minority communities in KZN.
Personally, I’m disappointed that the IFP has squandered the opportunity it had since the last election to re-position itself as a “sexy” antidote to the ANC juggernaut and as a credible government-in-waiting. As our democracy matures, it’s inevitable that the number of competing voices whittles down, but the stronger the plurality our political voices are, the more vibrant our democracy.
Notwithstanding the above, I don’t believe the IFP will enter into a coalition at this stage. Like the Freedom Front Plus, diluting its identity is anathema to it. The most I see at this stage is strategic voting with the DA on issues of mutual interest.
In terms of the realignment and strengthening of opposition politics, it would make sense for the UDM and ID to absorb themselves into Cope, with Bantu Holomisa and Patricia de Lille perhaps put forward as Cope’s premier candidates for the next election. I hope that, with time, voters increasingly move away from ‘identity’ to ‘interest’ politics and that minority communities in particular embrace parties whose support bases are significantly rooted in the black majority.
Post submitted by
Ed Tillett
It must have been the hardest thing for COPE’s leader Mosiuoa “Terror” Lekota to endorse Reverend Mvume Dandala as the party’s presidential candidate for the upcoming elections. Lekota, who started up COPE, is said to have been unhappy about the party’s decision to make Methodist bishop Dandala the face of its election campaign. At first it was a battle between Lekota and Shilowa for who would lead the party and Lekota got the vote as the party president. Then it was now a matter of deciding if the party president will also be the presidential candidate. Lekota must have thought that he will by default be the presidential candidate but it was not meant to be.
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According to reports, former president Nelson Mandela had a meeting with Julius Malema last weekend at the former Presidents Qunu home, near Umtata. This meeting took place the same weekend that Madiba made an appearance at an ANC rally. Former ANC Youth League leader, Fikile Mbalula who is thought to be one of the architects of getting Madiba to the ANC rally in the Eastern Cape, says that “Malema had not met Mandela before. When I introduced him as the president of the ANC Youth League, Madiba said: ‘Oh, this is the man who talks a lot and is very famous’.” Your guess is as good as mine as to what Mandela and Malema talked about. How I wish I was a fly on the wall in that meeting.
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Barack Obama will take his place as President of the USA on January 20 this year. Millions of people across the continent of Africa are ecstatic about the election of Barack Obama as America’s next president. Parties were thrown after Obama won the election with many just happy to see ‘one of their’ own taking up the most powerful position in the world. But many also have high expectations after eight years of neglect under the Bush administration. The relationships between Africa and the USA were not that great during the Bush reign and many hope now that Obama is in control the relationships between the USA and Africa will be better. But are things really going to change for Africa now that Obama is President?
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Compliments of the season. Hoping you had a great holiday period and you have started off 2009 on a great note. 2009 is set to be a big year for South Africa and we at InTheNews.co.za are set to bring you all the news that matters straight to you as we see it. Of major note this year will be the Presidential elections to be held in South Africa. Obama will also be taking over as president in the USA and that will be interesting to see how it pans out. We also have the FIFA Confederations Cup taking place in South Africa as a build up to the FIFA World Cup in 2010. On the sporting front we also have the British Lions rugby touring South Africa and Australia cricket also playing in South Africa after we successfully beat them in Australia. We also will be keeping a close eye on the developments in Zimbabwe and hopefully there will be a breakthrough in 2009 for our neighbours.
Wishing you a great 2009 again and thank you for your continued support of InTheNews.co.za .
Many of us have been wondering why former president, Nelson Mandela, has not said anything or tried to stop the divisions which have been formed in the ANC. The answer is simple, Mandela has steadfastly maintained his public silence on the ructions in the party, with aides repeatedly saying he has retired fully from public life and does not want to be drawn into politics. Fair enough. Mandela has already done a lot for the ANC and subsequently the country and he needs to rest now. It is a pitty that all his hard work over the years is not starting to dwindle.
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I was reading a Sunday Newspaper and the headline was: “Cracks appearing in Cope”. I found this a rather interesting headline so decided to read further. What they were basically saying is that all does not seem to be going as smoothly as we may be lead to believe behind the scenes in COPE. Apparently there is a struggle for power within the new party with regards to who is in charge. From what we had gathered, Mosiuoa Lekota was the leader of COPE. But now they say that there are tensions between Lekota and Shilowa with the later apparently undermining Lekota and being said not to ‘respect’ Lekota.
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