If you haven't heard yet, Jacob Zuma has just been elected to run as leader of the ANC in the upcoming South African presidential elections in 2009. That means that for all intense and purposes he will be our third president out of Apartheid.
If you know this man's history of corruption charges that have been filed against him you'll understand why this news is making a lot of us in South Africa rather nervous as to the country's future. Mandela was and still is an inspiration not only to South Africans, but the entire world. Mbeki, while having his low moments, couldn't have been a better replacement for Mandela. Now we have Zuma...Will all that effort over the past 15 years be neglected? I can only say I hope not.
I think I know who I won't be voting for come 2009!
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Thoughts on Rust
4 years ago
It is a bit of a Brutus vs Anthony story here. Mbeki is Brutus ... the intellectual, the son of eefectively royalty, good administrator, principled but a really bad leader of people. Zuma is Anthony ... the popular leader, the strong man, and certainly not as principled and a brilliant leader of people.
ReplyDeleteIt is no wonder Zuma won.
I think we are indeed doomed.
ReplyDeleteBut on the other hand, maybe it was a good move by Tokyo Sexwale to back Zuma through all of this.
If Zuma is found guilty of the corruption charges, maybe he will name Tokyo as his successor.
I think it's only fair to point out that are no technically no charges against him at the moment. Not that I believe for a moment that he isn't really dodgy.
ReplyDeleteIt's not his current status of no charges pending, but rather his history of charges that worries at least me. Even if he truly is innocent of all those previous charges it's just that black mark against his name that's going to cause a stir amoungst many people. Well, let's just watch this as it should be a rough indicator of international opinion.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWell, having written a long diatribe on this topic myself (if you have the patience, I would appreciate you reading it :) ) I think we can say with a modicum of certainty that we are not doomed.
ReplyDeleteThe Zuma victory at Polokwane is nothing more than a wake-up call to all South Africans who like to criticise government but have never gotten involved... Zuma won because he was the only candidate to win if we followed the rules. And we followed the rules, no thanks to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
But it begs the question: why then did we not do something to get another candidate in? Why are we not getting involved in the very government we so like to criticise?
We run the risk of the same affliction as the American political landscape; everyone is apathetic about Joe Bloggs who represents them at a local counsel level. Too busy to vote in local elections. Who cares about attending rallys to decide if this guy is actually worth backing?
All of a sudden, down the line, Joe Bloggs has worked his way up to the top of his party and is running for a post that really matters... and its too late to try and stop him. Because there are no other candidates.
We not getting in there and
supporting candidates who we feel really represent our interests and beliefs. Until we do, we cannot complain. And from what I've seen, very few of those who are 'nervous' about the Zuma result have even tried.
Oh btw: spot on! you use your vote as you see fit in 2009 :) best way to do it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/william_rees_mogg/article634949.ece
ReplyDeleteThat's frigtening stuff indeed, from an expert. Worth reading.
Up until now, we've had it easy in terms of postponing the inevitable--the looming Southern-African famine-conditions the article describes-- mostly due to Mbeki's immense diplomacy.
Mbeki is mostly seen being diplomatic toward everyone (including even Mugabe and White farmers), and he basically distances himself from doing anything radical.
Sooner or later the black people's patience will run out w.r.t. land expropriation, but not under Mbeki.
Yet it will happen under Zuma. If he is daring enough to proclaim that he will reinstate the death penalty if the public democratically votes in favour, he will definitely not continue Mbeki's silent diplomacy towards the issue of white-owned farm land.
Then the situation sketched in that article is likely to become a reality.
Looks like my link didn't get through.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/william_rees_mogg/article634949.ece
Oh my word this is rediculous.
ReplyDeleteHere are my third and fourth attempts at pasting the link
Link
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
tol/comment/columnists/william_rees_mogg/
article634949.ece
If you can correct it, Marco, please do, yet you will make life easier for everyone by using Wordpress :(
Although the link appears to be cut off in my second post, this can all be blamed on my own stupidity, For some reason I was absent-minded while typing the first post and it went downhill from there :(
ReplyDeleteI apologize for the repeated posts.
That being said, I still think Wordpress is far superior ;)
I couldnt believe this , yes if you cant beat criminal select one to run the country
ReplyDelete