And so we hold our breath and wait for Polokwane[1].
Conference delegates will have ringside tickets to the long awaited showdown between Comrade Waboeing The Fly One and Comrade uMsholozi of Mshini Wami fame. The fight rages most vehemently in the ranks of the side kicks and even the hired hands are sticking their heads out from time to time.
Meanwhile former Gauteng premier and recent Black Economic Empowerment beneficiary Tokyo Sexwale, hoping to be the third dog in the idiom of two dogs fighting over a bone and a third taking it home, is feverishly spending his not so hard earned BEE dough buying stakes in national newspapers and romancing the grassroots in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu and who knows where else.
At the same time the only candidate truly qualified for the job remains mum amidst high level attempts to get him into the ring as well. If, and its a big “if”, Cyril Ramaphosa does decide to accept his nomination as a candidate, the moment of his entry into the succession race will be timed with cold blooded strategic precision. That is how this man does things. Mr Ramaphosa will not be lured by sentiment or emotion. He will not show his hand prematurely. He will not be drawn into the ungracious cesspool the succession saga has become. That is why he has not said a word about it. I believe he has no personal ambition to have the presidency of this country as a trophy in his CV. He will only vie for the job if there is no other way to get Mzansi back on track, to restore her dignity in the eyes of the world and to deliver her people from the unmentionable chaos that awaits her if barnyard chickens are allowed to rule her.
This week we heard that the much publicised pending corruption and bribery case against our ex-vice president may be alive and well after the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled prosecutors may use evidence obtained in a series of raids against him in a future hearing. The initial trial collapsed last year due to procedural matters. But! We must know that Zuma’s supporters will not accept this lying down. Both the ANC’s alliance partners, COSATU and the SACP, immediately voiced continued support for Zuma. Fortunately apart from delegates with overlapping membership of these organisations, neither COSATU nor the SACP has any voice at the conference. Reports about Zuma's popularity within the party itself are generally speculative, so we will only know how much support he really enjoys once the votes are cast in Polokwane.
In the meantime we are holding our breath as we wait for December while we read in the newspaper that Comrade Cyril is on his farm planting mealies.
At the same time the only candidate truly qualified for the job remains mum amidst high level attempts to get him into the ring as well. If, and its a big “if”, Cyril Ramaphosa does decide to accept his nomination as a candidate, the moment of his entry into the succession race will be timed with cold blooded strategic precision. That is how this man does things. Mr Ramaphosa will not be lured by sentiment or emotion. He will not show his hand prematurely. He will not be drawn into the ungracious cesspool the succession saga has become. That is why he has not said a word about it. I believe he has no personal ambition to have the presidency of this country as a trophy in his CV. He will only vie for the job if there is no other way to get Mzansi back on track, to restore her dignity in the eyes of the world and to deliver her people from the unmentionable chaos that awaits her if barnyard chickens are allowed to rule her.
This week we heard that the much publicised pending corruption and bribery case against our ex-vice president may be alive and well after the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled prosecutors may use evidence obtained in a series of raids against him in a future hearing. The initial trial collapsed last year due to procedural matters. But! We must know that Zuma’s supporters will not accept this lying down. Both the ANC’s alliance partners, COSATU and the SACP, immediately voiced continued support for Zuma. Fortunately apart from delegates with overlapping membership of these organisations, neither COSATU nor the SACP has any voice at the conference. Reports about Zuma's popularity within the party itself are generally speculative, so we will only know how much support he really enjoys once the votes are cast in Polokwane.
In the meantime we are holding our breath as we wait for December while we read in the newspaper that Comrade Cyril is on his farm planting mealies.
Ag, nou ja
Krokodil
[1] For those not familiar with South African politics: Polokwane is the place where the ANC’s big conference is set to take place from 16 to 20 December this year. On the agenda this year is the election of a new leader for the party and, unless the constitution of the party is changed, this person will also become the next president of South Africa if the ANC wins the next general election in 2009. It is also an almost foregone conclusion that the ANC will prevail in 2009, unless certain factional divisions that have existed for a long time in the party reach a critical point and cause it to split. Therefore the prize up for grabs is not only the presidency of the party, but eventually also of the country. The two most prominent candidates on the leadership ballot, current President, Thabo Mbeki, and former vice President, Jacob Zuma who was fired by Mbeki after being charged with corruption, represent two of the main factions in the party. Additional candidates have also been nominated who represent alternatives to these bickering factions and the most important of these are Tokyo Sexwale, former Gauteng premier and BEE businessman, and of course my beloved leader and the only man many believe fit to get us out of the mess Mbeki and Zuma got us into, namely the honorable, most reverred and highly respected Cyril Ramaphosa, who has not indicated whether he will make himself available. (See my open letter to him in an earlier posting.)
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