It was President Mbeki’s decision to fire Jacob Zuma from office that shaped political developments in 2005, not, as has become the norm, the African National Congress’s annual January 8 statement. The statement, spiced with revolutionary slogans and seeking to rally ANC members to political battle, sets the political tone for the country and influences the state of the nation address.
At one level the appeal to revolutionary discourse allows the ANC to behave as if it is not in power, thus enabling it to avoid taking responsibility for its failures. At another, it suggests that the ANC is unconvinced that the present democratic framework can adequately advance its political interests.
Accordingly, each year a few scapegoats are identified for attack. For 2005, the collective mindset of the judiciary was the target. This followed a series of court judgments against the ANC government since 1994.
Ironically, having led the charge against the judiciary, Mbeki would six months later cite the Durban High Court’s judgement that Zuma’s relationship with Schabir Shaik was ”generally corrupt” as the reason for his dismissal from public office. While proclaiming that Zuma should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, Mbeki nonetheless moved swiftly to remove him.
The decision tested South Africa’s fledgling democracy. Within the ANC the dismissal triggered an open revolt against Mbeki, who was accused of leading a conspiracy against Zuma. The cracks within the ANC widened. The enemy was no longer outside, but within.
Even before the Zuma affair, Mbeki’s presidency was in trouble for a number of reasons, among them an attempt to muzzle Archbishop Desmond Tutu after Tutu criticised the state of internal democracy within the ANC.
Then, Mbeki remained silent in response to the Mail & Guardian exposé suggesting that state resources were channelled through PetroSA to unfairly advance the ANC’s political interests.
Next came the Travelgate scandal. The majority of MPs implicated were ANC members. The ANC only took a firm position on the eve of the judgment in the Schabir Shaik trial — in anticipation of Zuma being implicated.
ANC councillors became the targets of countrywide protests which prompted Mbeki to acknowledge the pervasive incompetence in local government and the country’s skills shortage. However he failed to acknowledge this as a consequence of the ANC deployment policy, thus refusing to assume responsibility as head of the ANC.
How does one explain the sympathy and political support for Zuma? The clue is to be found in what the ANC has become under Mbeki’s leadership.
Under Mbeki the ANC is denuded of any democratic practice. Gone is the character of the broad church. Members can only be quoted or speak publicly on condition of anonymity unless they are singing Mbeki’s praises. ANC leaders showing a semblance of independent thought are isolated and attacked. When Mandela broke ranks with Mbeki on the need to provide anti-retroviral drugs to HIV-positive pregnant women he was accused of being an agent of the pharmaceutical companies.
When Jeremy Cronin cautioned against the centralisation of power he was castigated as a frustrated white male who could not come to terms with the loss of white privilege.
At the same time, Mbeki brought together as his advisors and confidants, through his African renaissance project, an omnibus of black capitalists, black lawyers, journalists, and academics — the very group that could become the government’s vocal critics. It was a brilliant pre-emptive strategy. Leading blacks sacrificed their political, moral and intellectual responsibility on the altar of racial solidarity. The ANC is increasingly remodelled in Mbeki’s image.
Zuma provided an alternative voice and opened a political space. ANC members have now publicly taken sides without resorting to labels. Cosatu, the ANC Youth League, the SACP and the Young Communist League have usurped the public space that Mbeki had considered reserved for himself in the Alliance. The notion of a broad church is being reclaimed.
Publicly humiliated, Mbeki sought to enlist support outside the ANC, leading the charge against incompetence and corruption within the party ‒ a welcome change even if it is self-serving.
Hopefully, ANC members have learned that democracy is about how leaders lead. It is about accountability and internal democratic practices as much as it is about having a say in electing leaders. And Mbeki has come to understand that he must rely on all his compatriots, including opposition parties, to discharge his presidential duties. Democracy is the winner.
The full version of this article appears in Focus 41 (March 2006). Focus is published by The Helen Suzman Foundation.