ANC culture for Cyril to become president
THE gloves are off and the knives are out in the ANC succession battle.
The incumbent Jacob Zuma was the first to fire a salvo. He has endorsed his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, saying the ANC is ready for a woman president. At the weekend, deputy president of the ANC and of the country, Cyril Ramaphosa, addressed a gathering in Eastern Cape, criticising those who cling to leadership positions because of the money and power that goes with it.
An endorsement of Dlamini-Zuma’s candidacy by Zuma is a poisoned chalice but it also smacks of ethnicity, nepotism, regionalism and political dynasticism and all the negative isms one can think of. I said after Zuma became president that he was not only a liability to the ANC but also to the country. When did he realise the ANC was ready for a woman president? The ANC has always been ready for a woman president. He lied with a straight face when he denied the tradition of a deputy succeeding the president. That tradition is there, especially in the 1990s. Nelson Mandela took over from Oliver Tambo and Thabo Mbeki from Mandela and Zuma from Mbeki. After Mbeki’s recall from the country’s presidency, the ANC deputy at the time, Kgalema Motlanthe, became president. The line of succession of a deputy succeeding the president in the ANC is more than a tradition, it is now a culture. The reason Zuma wants his ex-wife to become ANC president is that he wants to rule by proxy to continue to dodge his day in court and the many scandals littered in his way. This is always a problem of having a president with skeletons in his/her closet.
There must be a provision in this country’s constitution and those of political parties that a potential candidate who has outstanding cases should not stand for office. The president should also not be succeeded by any member of his family, extended family, a relative or ex-wife.
There should also be a law against a person vacating an elected position and the next week doing business with government. A revolving door policy must be put in place.
Zuma should not be the one to decide who should succeed him but ANC branches and structures. And some people are saying the ANC president should not be from KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape but other provinces. Zuma and his supporters may not realise it, but denying Ramaphosa an opportunity to lead the ANC comes across as the most virulent tribalism of preventing a Venda from becoming president.
Didn’t they say this country is about diversity? This jockeying for positions is unnecessary. Let Ramaphosa lead the ANC and try his luck at becoming president of the country. Sam Ditshego, Kagiso