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 has very important implications for South Africa’s future. Whoever leads determines the kind of leader the country will get, and what policy trajectory will be taken.
The race for the presidency of South Africa’s governing ANC will go down to the wire. Exact calculations for the frontrunners are impossible and the result is likely to be known by 17 or 18 December.
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.
The unfolding misfortunes of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe hold key lessons for his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma who faces the possibility of a forced exit.
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma’s loss in the Appeals Court forms part of three milestones in his recent history dominated by corruption, unethical conduct and a knack to avoid criminal charges.
Britain’s Labour under Corbyn is smelling power, and the making of a new social revolution. In contrast, in South Africa’s governing ANC is in disarray, with no moral compass or credible leadership.
For the first time since its unbanning the ANC needs to find a new direction. Its supporters and South African voters are no longer content with resolutions that promise to end to corruption.
Instead of ignoring his accusers, South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa entertained them, tried to silence them through court, and then revealed a long-past affair of little interest.
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.
It would be no surprise if Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s claims of the state spying on him turn out to be true. After all, state spy agencies have been abused before in ANC factional battles.
Five years on, no-one has been held to account for the Marikana massacre where 34 miners were shot dead by members of the South African Police Service in a single day.
The bitter attitude of ANC leaders who spoke inside and outside Parliament before and after the no confidence vote added fuel to already existing public anger at the arrogance of the governing party.
The huge hype ahead of the vote of no confidence in President Zuma made the result anti-climactic. However, the fact that the motion was defeated by only a 21 vote margin is unprecedented.
All three female contenders for the presidency of the ANC and South Africa have strong liberation struggle credentials and have also contributed to democracy. But, are they up to the job?