‘WE NEED A NEW GOVERNMENT THAT SHOWS CARE, EMPATHY AND A DEEP CONNECTION WITH OUR PEOPLE’S DAILY STRUGGLES’
and the DA, is its chief of staff.
WHERE HE COMES FROM
Change Starts Now was launched in Riverlea, the traditionally coloured neighbourhood where Jardine grew up.
His parents, Bill and Anne Jardine, were involved in the anti-apartheid movement and Jardine engaged in activism while in high school.
He earned a BSc in physics from Haverford College in Pennsylvania in the US and his master’s in radiological physics at Wayne State University in Detroit in 1991.
Jardine then returned home and at 29 became the director general of the department of arts, culture and science, making him one of the youngest DGs in Nelson Mandela’s government after the 1994 elections. In this role he contributed to policy on nuclear disarmament as well as the establishment of the Southern African Large Telescope – or SALT, as it’s widely known. The celebrated telescope can observe stars, galaxies and quasars – starlike bodies – that are one billion times too faint to see with the naked eye.
In his early thirties Jardine moved to the private sector and over the course of 25 years held a number of heavyweight roles, including CEO of Kagiso Media, Aveng and the Primedia Group, until he became chair of FirstRand in 2018.
Jardine is intensely private and doesn’t reveal much about his personal life. He’s married to businesswoman Khomotso Choma and although his LinkedIn profile states he’s a father it doesn’t specify how many children he has.
HIS CHANCES OF SUCCEEDING
André Duvenhage, professor of social transformation and politics at North West University, believes although Jardine has left it late to kick off his bid, voters might well be drawn to him.
“His track record of success in business and his experience with FirstRand makes me think that there is the possibility he can position himself where he needs to be.”
Analyst Dirk Kotze, professor of political sciences at Unisa, says Jardine may attract votes from people who used to vote for the ANC.
The biggest weakness, however, is the party has failed to fully spell out exactly what it stands for.
When he launched his movement, Jardine was short on detail and a clear political manifesto is also missing from the party’s website.
Jardine has done a lot of talking about what’s wrong with the ANC and how SA deserves better but he needs to do more than that, says Oscar van Heerden, senior research fellow at the Centre for African Diplomacy and Leadership at the University of Johannesburg.
“You don’t go into an election campaign stating you’re anti-ANC. What you should be doing is saying what you’re offering that’s different to what they’ve been doing,” he adds.
“That’s how you woo the electorate. I think his campaign is going to backfire.”
It also remains to be seen if, 30 years into democracy, South Africans are ready to vote for a president who isn’t black African, the experts say.
BANKING ON A COALITION
Duvenhage believes Jardine has arrived at a good time because there’s much change afoot on the SA political landscape with growing talk of coalitions. But he has a tough task ahead of him. Many South Africans are still fiercely loyal to the ANC despite the turmoil – they are the party that liberated them from apartheid.
To deviate from the party they’ve voted for since 1994 will be a hard ask, the analysts believe.
AND YET . . .
The fact that Jardine isn’t an experienced politician is to his advantage, Duvenhage says. “Career politicians have vested interests in the status quo and are less likely to rock the boat. We need a person with strong initiative, without any political affiliation who can take on the system and bring about change,” he says.
Van Heerden agrees. “People don’t trust politicians,” he says. “The electorate might say let’s give a businessman the opportunity as politicians have disappointed us.”