Journalists from southern Africa attended meetings in Johannesburg
recently to focus on media development in the region and to
re-establish the Southern African Journalists Association
(SAJA).
In three years, South Africa will have to decide on who will be its third President after the glory days of the legendary Nelson Mandela and his successor Thabo Mbeki.
The two personify the country's struggle for a 'democratic, non-sexist' South Africa. In very few post-independence African countries has a struggle for the presidency been so anticipated, owing, not least, to a crisis not so much with the sitting leader, but with the deputy.
South Africa spent the better part of 2006 and part of this year contemplating the implications of very serious accusations against former Vice President, Jacob Zuma. This year he survived a rape case with serious damages and he still has to deal with corruption accusations. In pedestrian terms, he is accused of taking money by irregular means from people referred to in official circles as his 'advisers'.
Hardly had the time arrived for him to face that allegation before he was dragged before the courts to face an even more damning charge that highlighted the moral dilemmas of the new leadership of the non-sexist South Africa: rape.
No ordinary rape it was. The allegation was put to him by, in African terms, her 'daughter' and protege in the freedom struggle. The courts found that he was not guilty. The nation - taking away the Zulu constituency and the astonishing judgment of the leaders of the labour movement at COSATU - found him worthy of the charge of incest in the least. In anticipation of the impending controversy that would be caused by Zuma's sex scandal, Mbeki removed him from office and affirmed the country's commitment to a non-sexist South Africa by appointing Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to the vice presidency.
Having beaten the sex charges, Zuma reclaimed the deputy leadership of the ANC, so strengthening his position in the race for president in 2009 on the eve of the soccer World Cup, which will no doubt attract the world's attention to the evolution of South Africa's 'non-sexist' democracy.
Zuma takes back the ANC vice presidency against a backdrop of waning popular support - even inside the ANC - for Mbeki, accused of intellectual arrogance by a good number of people. He holds himself aloof from the general membership of the ANC, which brought the organisation to power, some say.
Journalists speculate that Zuma, who commands reverence among the fighting cadres of the ANC from exile, a good portion of the Zulus across gender lines, the leadership of COSATU and perhaps even the Communist Party of South Africa, could beat Mbeki in a head on contest for the presidency, now. COSATU and the SACP, it is said, are displeased with the diminishing role that Mbeki and the ANC have shaped for them in the tripartite governing alliance since 1994.
Zuma, hardly reputed as a labour activist or communist in his own right, offers the populist alternative that seeks to undermine - perhaps even spite - the arrogant elite at the ANC. Only a conviction at the corruption trial would so damage his chances that he would decidedly fall out of the presidential race in2009, the journalists say.
His presidential ambitions, for now, are only held in abeyance by the imminent court case which, more than any other factor, will determine his viability as a candidate for the future presidency of South Africa. Mlambo-Ngcuka is perceived as a lukewarm candidate, whose only shine is derived from her husband's investigation at the Scorpions of Zuma's wrong-doings. She has also been tarnished by media reports that she travelled abroad at government expense to visit sites in the Emirates countries associated with the construction industry in which her husband has an interest.
Toe to toe, she would have no chance against a cleansed Zuma, who will hold her an enemy by association on account of her husband's job at the Scorpions. Even as Mrs. Ngcuka would have been the ideal candidate through whom Mbeki could continue his legacy after his retirement from office, it appears that the President will be forced to look elsewhere for a competitive successor.
Mbeki does not want Zuma as the next president. He is not alone. Civil society, most particularly the women's and anti-AIDS movements, remain unimpressed by the rape case and the embarrassing jokes that came from it.
They do not regard his utterances that a shower would prevent AIDS infection as funny. Neither do they find humour in the suggestion that a Zulu man would be accused of negligence if he refused to oblige a woman who was ready for sex.
More than that, Zuma's detractors believe that he does not command the 'depth and sophistication' that is required to manage an economy that is placed strategically at the heart of western capitalist interests on the African continent.
He does not command the same moral and intellectual stature to meet the expectations of the African continent and the international community as Mandela and Mbeki did, they say.
Zola Skweyiya is named as the kind of king-maker who will be assigned by the Mbeki camp to seek out a worthy successor.
Inevitably, the name of Cyril Ramaphosa surfaces. Mandela confessed that he had regarded him as a worthy candidate for the presidency after him. He is a lawyer. He represented the best in the crop of anti-apartheid trade union activists who fought the beast from inside the country.
He commands the necessary intellectual equipment that drove the negotiation process in the run up to the 1994 election. Ramaphosa also has a sensitivity to grassroots politics due to his experience with the labour movement, the UDF and the broader mass movement leading to the demise of the apartheid regime. Now, his supporters believe, he has acquired the necessary hands-on experience in business to handle the demands of the South African economy.
He would also break the stranglehold of the Xhosa's on the leadership of the ANC in the spirit of the 'new' South Africa.
But, even his promoters point out that he nurses a timid disposition towards the whites that Mbeki is struggling to rid the ANC of.
Foreign Minister, Nkosazana Zuma, comes across as a woman grounded in the customary traditions of womanhood in the countryside but also possesses the intellectual sophistication required of a 21st century states-person, the commentators say. Were it not for her occasional brash manner, she would stand out well above her competitors as the likeliest candidate for the Presidency in '09, her critics point out. She has represented South Africa and herself well at the AU and other international for a whilst holding on to the core traditions and culture of the ANC.
More than her competitors, she would most likely be the best compromise between the old and the new, ascertaining adaptability to the modern whilst keeping the tested tenets of the ANC in tact.
Robben Island graduate, Tokyo Sexwale, has gained practical experience, like Ramaphosa, in the business world.
He was the first premier of Gauteng at the very hub of the business centre of the country. Sexwale is credited with an erudition rivalled only by the likes of Ramaphosa, Mbeki, Pallo Jordan and the small club of the ANC intellectual elite.
He falls among those who were 'delegated' to other sectors of the economy to strengthen black representation, leaving the ANC political leadership, and that of the government, somewhat depleted. Who then, will be the next president of South Africa? Watch World Cup 2010!
In three years, South Africa will have to decide on who will be its third President after the glory days of the legendary Nelson Mandela and his successor Thabo Mbeki.
The two personify the country's struggle for a 'democratic, non-sexist' South Africa. In very few post-independence African countries has a struggle for the presidency been so anticipated, owing, not least, to a crisis not so much with the sitting leader, but with the deputy.
South Africa spent the better part of 2006 and part of this year contemplating the implications of very serious accusations against former Vice President, Jacob Zuma. This year he survived a rape case with serious damages and he still has to deal with corruption accusations. In pedestrian terms, he is accused of taking money by irregular means from people referred to in official circles as his 'advisers'.
Hardly had the time arrived for him to face that allegation before he was dragged before the courts to face an even more damning charge that highlighted the moral dilemmas of the new leadership of the non-sexist South Africa: rape.
No ordinary rape it was. The allegation was put to him by, in African terms, her 'daughter' and protege in the freedom struggle. The courts found that he was not guilty. The nation - taking away the Zulu constituency and the astonishing judgment of the leaders of the labour movement at COSATU - found him worthy of the charge of incest in the least. In anticipation of the impending controversy that would be caused by Zuma's sex scandal, Mbeki removed him from office and affirmed the country's commitment to a non-sexist South Africa by appointing Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to the vice presidency.
Having beaten the sex charges, Zuma reclaimed the deputy leadership of the ANC, so strengthening his position in the race for president in 2009 on the eve of the soccer World Cup, which will no doubt attract the world's attention to the evolution of South Africa's 'non-sexist' democracy.
Zuma takes back the ANC vice presidency against a backdrop of waning popular support - even inside the ANC - for Mbeki, accused of intellectual arrogance by a good number of people. He holds himself aloof from the general membership of the ANC, which brought the organisation to power, some say.
Journalists speculate that Zuma, who commands reverence among the fighting cadres of the ANC from exile, a good portion of the Zulus across gender lines, the leadership of COSATU and perhaps even the Communist Party of South Africa, could beat Mbeki in a head on contest for the presidency, now. COSATU and the SACP, it is said, are displeased with the diminishing role that Mbeki and the ANC have shaped for them in the tripartite governing alliance since 1994.
Zuma, hardly reputed as a labour activist or communist in his own right, offers the populist alternative that seeks to undermine - perhaps even spite - the arrogant elite at the ANC. Only a conviction at the corruption trial would so damage his chances that he would decidedly fall out of the presidential race in2009, the journalists say.
His presidential ambitions, for now, are only held in abeyance by the imminent court case which, more than any other factor, will determine his viability as a candidate for the future presidency of South Africa. Mlambo-Ngcuka is perceived as a lukewarm candidate, whose only shine is derived from her husband's investigation at the Scorpions of Zuma's wrong-doings. She has also been tarnished by media reports that she travelled abroad at government expense to visit sites in the Emirates countries associated with the construction industry in which her husband has an interest.
Toe to toe, she would have no chance against a cleansed Zuma, who will hold her an enemy by association on account of her husband's job at the Scorpions. Even as Mrs. Ngcuka would have been the ideal candidate through whom Mbeki could continue his legacy after his retirement from office, it appears that the President will be forced to look elsewhere for a competitive successor.
Mbeki does not want Zuma as the next president. He is not alone. Civil society, most particularly the women's and anti-AIDS movements, remain unimpressed by the rape case and the embarrassing jokes that came from it.
They do not regard his utterances that a shower would prevent AIDS infection as funny. Neither do they find humour in the suggestion that a Zulu man would be accused of negligence if he refused to oblige a woman who was ready for sex.
More than that, Zuma's detractors believe that he does not command the 'depth and sophistication' that is required to manage an economy that is placed strategically at the heart of western capitalist interests on the African continent.
He does not command the same moral and intellectual stature to meet the expectations of the African continent and the international community as Mandela and Mbeki did, they say.
Zola Skweyiya is named as the kind of king-maker who will be assigned by the Mbeki camp to seek out a worthy successor.
Inevitably, the name of Cyril Ramaphosa surfaces. Mandela confessed that he had regarded him as a worthy candidate for the presidency after him. He is a lawyer. He represented the best in the crop of anti-apartheid trade union activists who fought the beast from inside the country.
He commands the necessary intellectual equipment that drove the negotiation process in the run up to the 1994 election. Ramaphosa also has a sensitivity to grassroots politics due to his experience with the labour movement, the UDF and the broader mass movement leading to the demise of the apartheid regime. Now, his supporters believe, he has acquired the necessary hands-on experience in business to handle the demands of the South African economy.
He would also break the stranglehold of the Xhosa's on the leadership of the ANC in the spirit of the 'new' South Africa.
But, even his promoters point out that he nurses a timid disposition towards the whites that Mbeki is struggling to rid the ANC of.
Foreign Minister, Nkosazana Zuma, comes across as a woman grounded in the customary traditions of womanhood in the countryside but also possesses the intellectual sophistication required of a 21st century states-person, the commentators say. Were it not for her occasional brash manner, she would stand out well above her competitors as the likeliest candidate for the Presidency in '09, her critics point out. She has represented South Africa and herself well at the AU and other international for a whilst holding on to the core traditions and culture of the ANC.
More than her competitors, she would most likely be the best compromise between the old and the new, ascertaining adaptability to the modern whilst keeping the tested tenets of the ANC in tact.
Robben Island graduate, Tokyo Sexwale, has gained practical experience, like Ramaphosa, in the business world.
He was the first premier of Gauteng at the very hub of the business centre of the country. Sexwale is credited with an erudition rivalled only by the likes of Ramaphosa, Mbeki, Pallo Jordan and the small club of the ANC intellectual elite.
He falls among those who were 'delegated' to other sectors of the economy to strengthen black representation, leaving the ANC political leadership, and that of the government, somewhat depleted. Who then, will be the next president of South Africa? Watch World Cup 2010!
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