Cyril Ramaphosa is likely to emphasise stability - in government and the ANC. Given his history he is likely to want to stabilise the economy rather than pursue radical interventions.
Cyril Ramaphosa has secured the leadership of South Africa’s governing ANC. But he may not be able to clean up the mess left by Jacob Zuma given the other members of the party’s leadership team.
South Africa’s ruling ANC has a new leader - Cyril Ramaphosa. But this doesn’t mean that the country is out of the woods. Political instability remains a real possibility.
Zuma’s last address to South Africa’s governing party, the ANC, as its president, betrayed his strange way of dealing with issues. He came across as delusional and self-indulgent.
Changing the South African system to allow for direct election would require the country to look carefully at how a directly elected president should be held accountable to parliament.
The ANC’s elective conference is important for the party and South Africa. This is because the person chosen to lead the governing party since 1994, has gone on to become president.
Accusations against South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa appear to be an example of the tried-and-tested trick to discredit him and his political campaign to become the next president.
Unless parliament passes a motion of no confidence in him, which is not on the cards any time soon, Zuma’s future depends on whether he’s weakened in the African National Congress, not parliament.
Even if President Zuma wins the no confidence vote, the consequences for the ruling ANC are dire. A loss would see it further divided and weakened ahead of the 2019 elections.
Democracy and good governance require politicians to engage in reasoned debate, informed decision making and measured judgements. This presupposes rationality. Is this always true?
To honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela, South Africa could do with its citizens becoming more active in driving development - particularly efforts to tackle poverty an inequality.
A combination of politicking ahead of the ANC policy conference, plus the machinations just before it met meant heightened tensions between rival factions.
Policy conferences of South Africa’s governing ANC have been about economic policy matters. But more recently organisational renewal has also dominated, as the party loses support.
The possibility that South Africa’s ruling ANC could lose power in 2019 runs like a tragic thread through its policy conference documents. It agrees that its actions have repelled many supporters.
Documents released ahead of the policy conference of South Africa’s embattled governing ANC show it hasn’t the guts or internal balance of forces, for self-correction and renewal.
The internal processes of South Africa’s ruling ANC for electing the president is distorted by money, patronage, factionalism and vote-rigging. It negates the democratic legitimacy the party claims.
South Africa’s ANC and Namibia’s SWAPO, governing parties, enter crucial leadership elections this year, with presidents Zuma and Geingob both facing challenges.
President Jacob Zuma’s grounds for appeal are surreal. He invokes the meaning of a rule set by the apartheid context he ferociously fought against, to justify his executive action in a democracy.