THREE weeks ago the Mail & Guardian attempted to provoke public debate with a front page editorial advocating the introduction of something along the lines of the United States primary elections to choose a successor to Nelson Mandela as leader of the African National Congress and – by implication – president of South Africa.
The proposal itself has drawn little support, particularly among politicians. But events this week do tend to support our belief that public debate is overdue where the succession is concerned. We refer to the fuss over The Star’s front page report on Monday which suggested that Mandela had dumped Deputy President Thabo Mbeki as his favoured candidate.
Briefly, the row was triggered by an interview Mandela granted to the New York Times, The Times of London and the Sowetan last week. The interview seems to have been fairly unexceptional (The Times, for example, only got around to publishing it on Tuesday). But the succession issue was canvassed, the president assuring the three newspapers that he had not chosen a successor, who would be elected by the ANC at its congress next year.
The Star then reported Mandela had warned the national executive committee (NEC), at a meeting over the weekend, that this “Mbeki bombshell” was about to break in the press. It quoted an “NEC source” as saying that “everyone was shocked” and that it was taken to mean “the race is on”.
The report drew furious denials from the ANC’s Department of Information and Publicity (“superficial sensationalism signifying nothing”) and an indignant rebuttal from The Star’s editor, Peter Sullivan (“… they do not dispute any facts in our report, only the way we played it”).
Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of the report, we would suggest that the row proves a point for us.
Mandela’s assertion in the Friday interview – that he had not chosen a successor and that it would be done by congress – received scant attention, because nobody took him seriously. When The Star got word (rightly, or wrongly) that he had meant it seriously – and that it was being taken seriously by the NEC – the assertion justifiably became a bombshell.
The point we would make to Mandela, with all due respect, is that he cannot have it both ways. Either next year’s ANC congress will see a real exercise in democracy. In which case we will applaud it. Or they will merely go through the motions. In which case it is time for public debate on the issue.