For some time now there has been a sustained discourse on ”succession”. Because Thabo Mbeki is constitutionally prohibited from another term as president of the country, the person likely to succeed him must be ”identified” in advance in order to facilitate a smooth transition. Or so we are told.
”Analysts” ready to share their superior knowledge on this so-called succession debate are in abundant supply. Many argue that because of its huge majority support, what happens within the ANC affects what happens in the country, and therefore the ANC owes it to South Africa to be more ”transparent” about choosing its leaders. That the ANC has chosen to distinguish its own internal processes from those of the countryÂÂ, refusing to conflate party and state, is of no consequence.
Linked to this is the day-to-day crystal-ball gazing about potential presidential candidates, during which the ANC is accused of stifling the career aspirations of its members by refusing to ”open the debate” on leadership.
The ludicrous notion that if the president of the ANC and the president of the republic are not the same person it will constitute ”two centres of power” shows the depth of the desperation characterising this discourse. Effectively, what is being suggested is not only that there should be term limits in the ANC, or that more ways must be found to keep Mbeki out of the ”race”, but more sinisterly, that the presidency of the ANC should be ascended to through a hereditary process.
Consider the term ”succession”. The media and its coterie of analysts have failed to point out that the very notion of succession is antithetical to democracy. It carries an implicit meaning that the population must be presented with a candidate it cannot refuse, because such a candidate would have been the choice of the wise ones among us.
This is not only an attempt to dilute our democracy, but to downright subvert it. Having failed to dissuade South Africans from supporting the ANC, the resort is to now seek pre-ballot certainties, including that the president must be known in advance, rendering the voice of the masses effectively mute. We are told that this is in the interests of democracy, that foreign investors will be comforted by not having to second-guess the identity of the country’s leadership.
What is conveniently not said is that this would help the cause of shifting the ANC from a liberation movement to a ”normal political party”. But not just any political party — a pseudo-monarchical organisation characterised by ”succession”, heredity and regency. In other words, an ANC with its revolutionary character defaced.
Monde Nkasawe, a PhD student at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management at Wits University, works in the office of the Eastern Cape premier. He writes in his personal capacity