WHO’LL SUCCEED CYRIL?
The ANC should skip the Lindiwe Sisulu and David Mabuza generations and elect a younger set of people with fresh ideas
The ANC’s current leaders are tired. They hardly ever present anything new, fresh or revolutionary. They are recycling policy ideas from the 1990s. They should make way for fresh, new, young and innovative blood.
Last week someone asked me who is next in line for the throne, and I had to hum and haw a bit. My interlocutor was looking for hope. I had none to give, because, well, the next level of leadership is pretty much the same as the current lot.
The ANC should seriously consider asking those who are contemplating a run against President Cyril
Ramaphosa next December to forget the idea. The party should ask him to step aside too, while they are about it.
There are several reasons for this. First, the people considered most likely to succeed him are all products of the factions that have riven the party these past 16 years — and they will likely continue to be factional as the ANC elective conference in December 2022 approaches.
Second, they have no new ideas. Have you managed to get health minister Zweli Mkhize to tell you where funding for the National Health Insurance scheme is going to come from yet?
Third, they have zero idea of what young people need now.
It is worth remembering that arguably the two most dynamic ANC leaders throughout the party’s years of exile — Chris Hani and Thabo Mbeki — became national executive committee members in 1975 at the age of 33. The United Democratic Front’s leaders were youngsters when they shook up the apartheid state in the 1980s. Ramaphosa was 35 when he led the country’s biggest and longest-ever strike against mining houses in 1987. Nelson Mandela was 42 when the ANC was banned and he led it to take up arms.
Look at the current party leadership field. Suspended secretary-general Ace Magashule figured he was going to be ANC president, but he wasn’t even on the trajectory.
Others considered themselves to be ahead of him in terms of seniority. Magashule is 61. His competition for the job to replace the 68year-old Ramaphosa would most likely have been human settlements minister Lindiwe Sisulu, 67, Mkhize, 65 and similar ones from the struggle era. A single term for any of them, starting in 2024 if the ANC won, would keep them in office well into their 70s.
Ramaphosa will be 70 next year. If he is given a second term by the electorate in 2024 it means he will leave the Union Buildings aged 77 in 2029.
The layer of leadership below the
Sisulus/Mkhizes includes treasurergeneral Paul Mashatile, 59, deputy president Mabuza, 58 and (perish the thought) the likes of former minister Nomvula Mokonyane, who is 57. If this scandal-racked lot await their turn patiently they will ascend to power in about seven years’ time – aged around 65 for most. If Mabuza succeeds Ramaphosa as president in 2029 — this assumes that no other party challenges the ANC in the meantime, which I fervently hope is not the case — the man known as The Cat in The Hat will be 68.
In the past, one would look at the ANC Youth League for rising stars. No more. Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu, now EFF leader and deputy leader, were expelled in 2013. Malema is now 40 and would have been promoted to the senior ANC ranks.
Malema’s predecessor at the youth league, Fikile Mbalula, is in the cabinet now as transport minister. His predecessor as youth league chief, former finance minister Malusi Gigaba, was a rising star in the early 2000s. He has soured.
Gigaba and Mbalula are 50. That is the age range where, ideally, the
ANC’s next set of leaders should be were it seriously thinking about leadership that breaks with the current factionalised, uninspired, clueless, nostalgic and largely corrupt incumbents.
The party should skip the Sisulu and Mabuza generations and elect a younger set of people with fresh ideas to lead its rejuvenation.
One of the brightest ANC stars is Northern Cape premier Zamani Saul. He is 48. Gauteng premier David Makhura is 53. The acting minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, is 44.
The ANC should listen to an old geezer like me. Look to the young — or wither and die.
The likely candidates are all products of factions. They have no new ideas or understanding of what young people need, and should step aside