Does ANC Political Culture Stifle Leadership?
It seems to me that the culture in the ANC of placing disdain on any kind of public statement of political ambition might come back to haunt them. Due to this policy worthy contenders to the presidency are kept silent for fear of somehow offending some unnamed concensus. Now while the old saying goes that those who seek office should be the ones who are prevented from attaining it, the reality of the situation is that someone has to lead and I’d prefer to at least have an idea who is in the running officially beforehand.
Another consequence of the ANC’s policy is that the leadership news vacuum is filled with either speculation, as witnessed by the recent reports on whether Cyril Ramaphosa had declared his interest in running, or populist cheering, from Zuma’s supporters (with no doubt tacit approval from Jay-Z). With Zuma now having stated that he feels he can lead the ANC and therefore South Africa, he has become the only ANC politician to do so and no doubt this will kick his supporters into overdrive, potentially dominating the leadership debate until either the ANC NEC elections in 2007 or another candidate comes forward.
Zuma’s populist strategy could also mean bad things for the ANC should he not be chosen, especially if he is the sole public candidate. If another candidate is selected in the NEC elections (and this is assuming Zuma survives the corruption trial unscathed) especially one who has not done any public compaigning, his supporters will be ticked off to say the least and considering his base in KwaZulu, the province with perhaps the highest rate of political violence today, I see potential for a flare up.
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