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INLSA<\/p>\n
Max Du Preez<\/p>\n
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Replacing Jacob Zuma with Kgalema Motlanthe as leader of the ANC and thus as president of South Africa seems like a good place to start the arrest of the decline of our beloved country, but not if it\u2019s the only thing changing. <\/p>\n
What I have much less doubt about, though, is that seven more years of a Zuma presidency will accelerate the slide into a mess it will be hard to get out of. Only time will tell if the damage done during his tenure was permanent or if most of it can be undone. <\/p>\n
If the ANC faithful did decide to fire Zuma at the Mangaung elective conference in three months time, it could just be the shock our system needs to force a fundamental rethink of the path we\u2019ve been on since he became president in May 2009. <\/p>\n
I say \u201cwe\u201d and \u201cour\u201d because it will have to be a volte-face the entire nation is part of, but which will have to start with the ruling party. For as long as the ANC represents the majority of SA voters, its internal political culture will be mirrored in broader society. <\/p>\n
I know this is bordering on wishful thinking, but I would also suggest that we shouldn\u2019t underestimate the widespread feeling of discontent among ANC supporters and the nation as a whole. The almost daily revelations of corruption, the schoolbooks scandal and the broader crisis in education, the inability of the state to deliver basic services to the poor and the Marikana massacre have led to a deep-seated sense that we need fundamental change. <\/p>\n
Motlanthe has the potential to be the trigger that could start this rejuvenation. <\/p>\n
Cynics say he didn\u2019t exactly impress as a man of action and vision when he was caretaker president between September 2008 and May 2009. <\/p>\n
That is true. But how much space did he have to be his own man in those few months waiting for Zuma to take over? To his credit, he did start turning around the disastrous HIV\/Aids policies of Thabo Mbeki in those few months. <\/p>\n
On paper Motlanthe (63) looks like a good candidate. He is a sophisticated, urban man without ethnic preoccupations or Nkandla-esque ambitions; he has had good political schooling on Robben Island between 1977 and 1987 and after that as secretary general of the National Union of Mineworkers; his personal life appears stable and without scandal; and he is one of very few ANC leaders who is not suspected of corruption. <\/p>\n
But he will have to have good (and untainted) men and women around him if he is to succeed in strengthening the centre and return the ANC to its former glory. He would need a better secretary-general than Gwede Mantashe to start off with, and he would have to have the intellectual input of people like Joel Netshitenze, Cyril Ramaphosa and Trevor Manuel. It would have been ideal if he could have a strong deputy to act as a kind of prime minister, but that seems unlikely now. (Any chance of Thabo Mbeki playing a bigger role in the ANC\u2019s engine room?) <\/p>\n
But it will take a superhuman effort to restore the historic mission of the ANC if Motlanthe is to beat Zuma at the election on the back of people like Julius Malema, the ANC Youth League and discredited former police commissioner Bheki Cele. They will all demand their pound of flesh afterwards. <\/p>\n
If Motlanthe gets elected and does take a quantum leap, I\u2019m sure he will find the vast majority of ordinary South Africans keen to follow. There is a deep yearning in the nation for us to become a country of progress and hope once again. <\/p>\n
This broad desire for a rebirth comes from disparate corners of society, though. Minorities yearn for a sense of belonging again; the middle classes want a more efficient state; the working classes want a substantial better deal; the millions of poor urgently want to feel that post-apartheid SA means something more to them than getting the vote. <\/p>\n
I do believe a new man at the helm could bridge this widening gap if he is seen as a leader of vision and integrity. All South Africans are sick of corruption, nepotism, self-enrichment, arrogant politicians and civil servants and of the crippling infighting in the ruling party. All are desperate to be proud and hopeful again. <\/p>\n
I think the majority of South Africans, rich and poor, black and white, will buy into a vision of a more equal society and accept that significant sacrifices on the one hand and a bit of patience on the other will be needed. These are preconditions for stability. <\/p>\n
That would mean consolidating the centre of our politics, redefining the blurred line between state and party and killing the populist culture now prevalent in the ANC. <\/p>\n
We can dream, can\u2019t we? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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