Mbeki versus Zuma in South Africa for ANC leadership -The iPINIONS Journal

In their most important election since the end of Apartheid 13 years ago, South Africans will vote today for either President Thabo Mbeki (right) or former Deputy President Jacob Zuma to head the country’s ruling African National Congress (ANC). And no one doubts that the man they choose will either determine who leads or will himself lead South Africa as president for the next decade.

However, if one were to judge from the rousing applause that greeted Zuma at the opening of this ANC conference on Sunday – especially compared to the heckles that greeted Mbeki, Zuma would appear to be the overwhelming favorite to win. And there’s the rub for South Africa.

But let me hasten to clarify that Mbeki finds himself in this untenable position because, having already served two terms as president, he is constitutionally prohibited from serving a third-consecutive term. Nevertheless, as leader of the ANC, he could do in South Africa what President Vladimir Putin, himself term limited, is doing in Russia; namely, to serve as the leader of the country’s most dominant political party, which would give him the power to effectively appoint his successor as president.

Yet it says more about the gullibility and restiveness of its members than it does about Mbeki’s wish to remain relevant that the ANC is having its first open leadership contest in 58 years. Moreover, it’s an insult to Mbeki’s distinguished career of public service that he’s being so unceremoniously upstaged today by the man he fired as deputy president in 2005 – after South African prosecutors made it clear that Zuma faced imminent arrest not only for financial corruption but also for rape.

Alas, despite his legal woes, the only people who seem to regard Zuma as a hopelessly compromised leader are South African elites and any non-South African with half a brain. In fact, after Zuma got off with rape last year, I was so certain it would come to this that I expressed my despairing hope for this country as follows:

“Let’s hope the judge assigned to render the verdict in Zuma’s trial for corruption is more judicial, not paternal, in his legal reasoning than the one who acquitted him today of rape. Because, with so much evidence arrayed against him, if he’s acquitted of corruption as well, Zuma – who is arguably a morally-bankrupt rapist and thief – will become South Africa’s next president in 2009.”

But my despair pales in comparison to that which Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Laureate and South Africa’s foremost moral authority, expressed on behalf of his more enlightened compatriots. Because here’s the national plea he made to Zuma’s supporters on the eve of this historic ANC conference:

They should please not choose someone of whom most of us would be ashamed. Our country deserves better. We’re very worried that this leader had relations with a woman who regarded him as a parent and, although he is very likeable, we have to ask ourselves: ‘What is happening in the ANC?'” [South African Mail and Guardian newspaper]

(Not to mention the fact that Zuma still faces trial on charges of corruption.)

Unfortunately, many South Africans are criticizing Archbishop Tutu for pleading so publicly for national sanity. Although, the irony, if not hypocrisy, is not lost on me that those criticizing him for saying he would be ashamed to have Zuma as his president are the very ones who praised the Dixie Chicks for saying that they’re ashamed to have George W. Bush as theirs.

Meanwhile, , given his apparent failure to exert any influence over this contentious conference, I feel inclined to say here that Nelson Mandela (89) must be rolling over in his grave. But he’s still kicking, and saying only that:

“It saddens me to see and hear of the nature of the differences currently in the organization.”

At any rate, I fear that Archbishop Tutu’s plea may have been drowned out by the sound of Zumanistas proudly singing the anthem of Zuma’s campaign, which is forebodingly entitled Bring me my Machine-gun, as if it were the new national anthem of South Africa.

I shall update this post with official results by 5 pm GMT on Monday….

UPDATE 9:28 pm GMT: Due to the fractious and chaotic nature of proceedings, the vote for party leader has been postponed until tomorrow.