ANC Election Was a Lose-Lose Situation

The ANC's national convention in Polokwane has been watched with nervous faces around the country over the last few days. It's pretty clear that the media shares the views of many South Africans that there is a cloud hanging over an ANC-led South Africa.

I was caught between the two candidates. Jacob Zuma is very clearly not the right person for presidency. Anybody with a nose can sniff that all is not well with his candidacy, and the immunity from prosecution which presidency would grant him is a frightening prospect. However, I believe it would have been almost as bad if Thabo Mbeki had been given a shot at a third presidential term. For that kind of power to entrench itself in the long term makes the future of South Africa look more and more similar to that of Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, etc, etc.

Honestly though, a change in the ANC's leadership positions has a small side benefit for the ACDP in that it's good for South Africans to get used to change. By voting Mbeki out of his position, there are signs that the population is accepting that all is not well. That is good news. We are now just a few stepping stones away from realising that the real problem was not Mbeki, but the ANC itself.