Word: anc
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...Mbeki last December, and chose his arch rival, Jacob Zuma, as party president. And that split may be playing out in South Africa's response to events in Zimbabwe. On Saturday, Mbeki visited Mugabe in Harare and declared that there was no crisis in Zimbabwe, but on Tuesday the ANC's influential National Working Committee said there should be no further delay in releasing Zimbabwe's poll results. In a clear rebuff to Mbeki, the ANC's leadership said the situation was "dire, with negative consequences for all of southern Africa...
South African president Thabo Mbeki'sfailure to get re-elected as head of the country's ruling party underlines just how much the leaders who ran the struggle against apartheid under Nelson Mandela have lost touch with their roots. At the annual conference of the African National Congress (ANC), in the northern city of Polokwane, Jacob Zuma, 65, was elected party chief with a 61%-to-39% split on Dec. 18. Now that Zuma has unseated his bitter rival and former boss, his supporters expect him to complete Mbeki's humiliation by replacing him as head of state...
Zuma's extraordinary comeback--he was recently endorsed by the ANC Women's League--is testament to the anger the aloof Mbeki arouses in the party's rank and file. At the ANC conference, delegates booed him and drowned out his allies with songs supporting Zuma, whose rejection by South Africa's élite has made him a hero to the poor. The constitution prevents Mbeki from running for re-election, but Zuma will also be barred if he is convicted of corruption. That means South Africa's leadership could hinge on whether its new top politician...
...Despite his victory over Mbeki in the race for the party leadership, it is not yet certain that Zuma will in fact become President of the country when Mbeki's term expires - despite the fact that the ANC's electoral majority remains unassailable. Although he has now attained pole position in the race to succeed Mbeki, Zuma would be barred from standing for President if he is convicted of corruption before the election. (If he becomes President before a case comes to court, he would be immune from prosecution until he left office.) A Zuma conviction would leave the ANC...
...President's aloof and distant style will soon fade into the ANC's past, but its failure under his leadership to redress the country's growing economic apartheid could dog the party for years to come. Mbeki has presided over eight years of economic boom in South Africa, and the country is predicted to grow by around 5% for the next five years. But the poor have hardly benefited. Official unemployment figures stand at 26%, and a November study by South Africa's Institute for Race Relations found the numbers of people living on less than $1 a day rose...