ANC politics over the last few weekends has been dominated by leadership elections. This weekend a man just one month below the threshold for membership of the ANC Youth League of 35 years, Collen Maine, was elected to its presidency.
He is said to have done so with the assistance of what is called the “Premier League” (the premiers of the Free State, Mpumalanga and North West) who are close to to President Jacob Zuma – unlike, for example, the Gauteng leadership.
This grouping is said to have also played a significant role in securing the victory of Bathabile Dlamini, elected as president in the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) conference.
The defeated ANCWL president, Angie Motshekga, had criticised interference as a manifestation of “patriarchy” – though Dlamini’s ticket was the need for a woman to be president of the ANC.
The election of Dlamini, with her pledge to see a woman as president, was followed by a report in the Sunday Times that Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma confirmed she was available for election to succeed Jacob Zuma as president of the ANC and ultimately of the country. This is framed within the discourse of ANC-speak.
One has the “responsibility” to accept any position for which one is nominated in the ANC, which is just “how it works”.
Any person who is a disciplined cadre, so it goes, just accepts deployment to any position, high or low, whether one likes it or not. One’s own needs are submerged in the needs of the collective to which one has pledged one’s loyalty. That is said to be what it means to be a disciplined cadre. Thus Dlamini-Zuma is reported in the Sunday Times to have said, “In the ruling party, you never refuse a responsibility. I have never refused any responsibility the ANC asked me to do.”
Likewise, Dlamini-Zuma cannot confirm that she will stand for president, for that is not how it is done in the ANC.
One just gets called to serve and the call is usually said to emanate from the branches. Answering the Sunday Times question as to whether she was in the running for the presidency, she said: “But any qperson in the ruling party knows I cannot answer the question.”
The Sunday Times claims her bid is said to enjoy the support of the Premier League, even though it stands against the “ANC tradition” for an incumbent president to be succeeded by his deputy.
There is apparently no qpolitical vision involved, no stated difference in strategies over how the problems of the country are addressed, what approaches will be deployed to remedy the various ills that beset the South African polity.
In the main we confront competing cliente list networks, promoting one rather than another set of patron/ client relationships, ensuring that one group of people rather than another will be serviced depending on who is elected.
This happens at every level of the organisation and, through it, of government.
Holding office is not about pursuing policy but about the capacity to ensure that certain individuals benefit.
But the patronage works not only to secure benefits, but also to defend patrons and clients from coming to harm.
Certain interventions may be necessary to ensure that some individuals are not prosecuted or that they should be released from prison, as with Shabir Shaik. Or that they should have their criminal record expunged, as Zuma did for Booker Nhantsi – husband of controversial National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) deputy head Nomgcobo Jiba – who had been convicted, as an attorney, of stealing a client’s trust money.
But tensions have flared within the organisation and the eThekwini ANC region has failed to hold its elective conference for some months.
In some provinces, like Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and North West, there have been intra-ANC and intra-alliance physical conflicts and in some cases deaths have resulted.
But stakes have become higher for another reason: the potential reinstitution of charges against Jacob Zuma.
It may well be that the Premier League bears some connection with this.
For if Zuma is prosecuted it may well be that wrongdoing can be uncovered in other quarters, including in the Premier League. And this may be one of the reasons why there is a sudden eagerness to ensure that “a woman” becomes president (meaning that Ramaphosa should not become president).
We can discount the possibility of a resurgence of feminism, since women’s empowerment counts q for little in the calculations of the ANCWL and the Premier’s League.
The qreinstitution of charges against Zuma will likely only be settled over some years and possibly after Zuma has completed his term as state president.
What would then become important, if the courts decide that the charges should be reinstituted or that the matter should be referred back to the NPA for review, is: who will make the decision whether or not to prosecute?
More importantly, who will then decide whether the incumbent NPA head or some other person is the right person to make such a decision? The question then arises whether Cyril Ramaphosa can be “trusted” to do the “right thing”.
Ramaphosa may have gone to great lengths to demonstrate his loyalty to Zuma. He may have demeaned himself with repeated professions of loyalty and effusive praise for qZuma. But that may not satisfy the suspicion that he may see himself as a leader who is entitled to assert an element of independence.
And that may be feared as potentially detrimental to Zuma (and in the long run others who could be prosecuted if the law were to be free to take its course).
It is not that Ramaphosa has shown any greater commitment to constitutionalism and legality than others in government who have been party to attacks on foreign migrants, defiance of the courts over Bashir and failure to provide basic needs like shelter, clean water and adequate educational facilities.
It is true that Ramaphosa was a key figure in making the current constitution. But clearly sentimental attachment to the document has been displaced by hard-nosed decisions that have been beneficial to Ramaphosa himself.
Zuma may not expect to rule beyond his tenure but he does need protection from the law. And it may be that his ties with his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma are sufficiently strong to ensure that he will not be prosecuted or at any rate they may be of a different quality than whatever ties bind him to Ramaphosa.
Raymond Suttner is a professor attached to Rhodes University and Unisa. He is a former underground operative and political prisoner. He has written extensively on the Freedom Charter, including 50 Years of the Freedom Charter (with Jeremy Cronin). This article first appeared on Creamer Media’s: polity.org.za
Leaders grub for benefits in murky Premier League
He is said to have done so with the assistance of what is called the “Premier League” (the premiers of the Free State, Mpumalanga and North West) who are close to to President Jacob Zuma – unlike, for example, the Gauteng leadership.
This grouping is said to have also played a significant role in securing the victory of Bathabile Dlamini, elected as president in the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) conference.
The defeated ANCWL president, Angie Motshekga, had criticised interference as a manifestation of “patriarchy” – though Dlamini’s ticket was the need for a woman to be president of the ANC.
The election of Dlamini, with her pledge to see a woman as president, was followed by a report in the Sunday Times that Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma confirmed she was available for election to succeed Jacob Zuma as president of the ANC and ultimately of the country. This is framed within the discourse of ANC-speak.
One has the “responsibility” to accept any position for which one is nominated in the ANC, which is just “how it works”.
Any person who is a disciplined cadre, so it goes, just accepts deployment to any position, high or low, whether one likes it or not. One’s own needs are submerged in the needs of the collective to which one has pledged one’s loyalty. That is said to be what it means to be a disciplined cadre. Thus Dlamini-Zuma is reported in the Sunday Times to have said, “In the ruling party, you never refuse a responsibility. I have never refused any responsibility the ANC asked me to do.”
Likewise, Dlamini-Zuma cannot confirm that she will stand for president, for that is not how it is done in the ANC.
One just gets called to serve and the call is usually said to emanate from the branches. Answering the Sunday Times question as to whether she was in the running for the presidency, she said: “But any qperson in the ruling party knows I cannot answer the question.”
The Sunday Times claims her bid is said to enjoy the support of the Premier League, even though it stands against the “ANC tradition” for an incumbent president to be succeeded by his deputy.
There is apparently no qpolitical vision involved, no stated difference in strategies over how the problems of the country are addressed, what approaches will be deployed to remedy the various ills that beset the South African polity.
In the main we confront competing cliente list networks, promoting one rather than another set of patron/ client relationships, ensuring that one group of people rather than another will be serviced depending on who is elected.
This happens at every level of the organisation and, through it, of government.
Holding office is not about pursuing policy but about the capacity to ensure that certain individuals benefit.
But the patronage works not only to secure benefits, but also to defend patrons and clients from coming to harm.
Certain interventions may be necessary to ensure that some individuals are not prosecuted or that they should be released from prison, as with Shabir Shaik. Or that they should have their criminal record expunged, as Zuma did for Booker Nhantsi – husband of controversial National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) deputy head Nomgcobo Jiba – who had been convicted, as an attorney, of stealing a client’s trust money.
But tensions have flared within the organisation and the eThekwini ANC region has failed to hold its elective conference for some months.
In some provinces, like Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and North West, there have been intra-ANC and intra-alliance physical conflicts and in some cases deaths have resulted.
But stakes have become higher for another reason: the potential reinstitution of charges against Jacob Zuma.
It may well be that the Premier League bears some connection with this.
For if Zuma is prosecuted it may well be that wrongdoing can be uncovered in other quarters, including in the Premier League. And this may be one of the reasons why there is a sudden eagerness to ensure that “a woman” becomes president (meaning that Ramaphosa should not become president).
We can discount the possibility of a resurgence of feminism, since women’s empowerment counts q for little in the calculations of the ANCWL and the Premier’s League.
The qreinstitution of charges against Zuma will likely only be settled over some years and possibly after Zuma has completed his term as state president.
What would then become important, if the courts decide that the charges should be reinstituted or that the matter should be referred back to the NPA for review, is: who will make the decision whether or not to prosecute?
More importantly, who will then decide whether the incumbent NPA head or some other person is the right person to make such a decision? The question then arises whether Cyril Ramaphosa can be “trusted” to do the “right thing”.
Ramaphosa may have gone to great lengths to demonstrate his loyalty to Zuma. He may have demeaned himself with repeated professions of loyalty and effusive praise for qZuma. But that may not satisfy the suspicion that he may see himself as a leader who is entitled to assert an element of independence.
And that may be feared as potentially detrimental to Zuma (and in the long run others who could be prosecuted if the law were to be free to take its course).
It is not that Ramaphosa has shown any greater commitment to constitutionalism and legality than others in government who have been party to attacks on foreign migrants, defiance of the courts over Bashir and failure to provide basic needs like shelter, clean water and adequate educational facilities.
It is true that Ramaphosa was a key figure in making the current constitution. But clearly sentimental attachment to the document has been displaced by hard-nosed decisions that have been beneficial to Ramaphosa himself.
Zuma may not expect to rule beyond his tenure but he does need protection from the law. And it may be that his ties with his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma are sufficiently strong to ensure that he will not be prosecuted or at any rate they may be of a different quality than whatever ties bind him to Ramaphosa.
Raymond Suttner is a professor attached to Rhodes University and Unisa. He is a former underground operative and political prisoner. He has written extensively on the Freedom Charter, including 50 Years of the Freedom Charter (with Jeremy Cronin). This article first appeared on Creamer Media’s: polity.org.za
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