As President Kgalema Motlanthe takes the podium in Parliament to address the nation in his first, and possibly last, State of the Nation address on Friday, he will be walking a tightrope.
The ANC will expect him to give a fair assessment of the past five years under Thabo Mbeki, while not stealing Jacob Zuma’s thunder. Zuma will probably deliver his own State of the Nation address after his inauguration.
Motlanthe is also torn between his personal desire to return to Luthuli House after his five-month stint in the Union Buildings and retirement as an ex-president with all the benefits.
Those around him say he would find it ‘awkward” to serve at the highest level, only to revert to the deputy presidency. But his party wants him to
continue serving in government as Zuma’s deputy.
Motlanthe has been feeling the heat from detractors in the party determined that he should not supplant Zuma in the nation’s affections.
An NEC lobby group is trying to convince Zuma to allow Deputy President and ANC national chairperson Baleka Mbete to continue in her position on the grounds that there should be a woman in the presidency.
ANC officials argue that Mbete faces a similar demotion to Motlanthe if she steps down as deputy president and have warned that Zuma must ‘think carefully” about where he places her.
Motlanthe has also come under attack from other party leaders, including ANC parliamentary chief whip Nyami Booi, who criticised him for delaying the signing of Bills.
Booi said this week that in his State of the Nation address Motlanthe will not give a glowing, uncritical assessment of the ANC government under Mbeki’s leadership.
‘We have to say that, although it’s one ANC, there was an Mbeki administration and a Kgalema administration. It has to be shown there are some areas of improvement.” Booi agreed that Motlanthe’s deployment to government has not healed ‘the tensions between party and the state”.
‘But we’ve come to realise you can never change government if it’s been built up in a certain way.
‘We never said Mbeki failed. Recalling him was not about failing, it was political,” Booi said.
Weak local government, blamed for cross-border municipal conflicts and the birth of the Congress of the People, is seen as a critical shortcoming.
Said Booi: ‘The speech must show that the ANC’s election manifesto was informed by the issues of government and that a new Zuma administration will deliver.”
Motlanthe will also need to show how South Africa will deal with the effects of the global financial crisis.
He will rely heavily on Zuma’s January 8 statement and on the discussions at the January national executive committee lekgotla where the ANC gave the government a mandate. A Cabinet lekgotla followed to let government weigh in on which targets are achievable. But the forward-looking details of the government’s delivery plans will be left to Zuma.
Earlier this year the presidency and Parliament moved swiftly to counter perceptions that Motlanthe would offer a ‘watered-down” address to avoid stealing Zuma’s limelight.