The enduring power of the legendary political party to steer southern Africa’s most populous nation and the continent’s second-largest economy is both good news and bad.
Formed in 1912, the African National Congress fought a sometimes violent battle (alongside other parties and organisations) to dismantle the racist regime that kept non-whites from power, restricted their movement and denied them equal access to employment and education. Its moral leadership is wrapped up in the towering achievements of the late Nelson Mandela, who was the first president elected in the post-apartheid era. It remains a source of pride for many black South Africans and others who worked to bring in the multi-racial era.
Yet it was the ANC that led Zuma to power in the first place, helping him to oust Thabo Mbeki (another ANC stalwart) and then protecting the new president against challenges by rival parties through nearly a decade of turbulent governance.
Charges against him included rape (he was acquitted, although at the December party conference, Ramaphosa said he believed the alleged victim). Zuma also has been accused of, but not criminally charged with, 783 instances of corruption stemming from an arms deal.
The sorry state of affairs has made South Africa resemble some of its more marginally democratic or outright dictatorial neighbours and has deterred international investment.
What’s more, poverty remains rampant in South Africa. The ANC has much to work on. Still, Zuma’s resignation suggests that the institutions of democracy, though battered, remain intact.
South Africa has a system, party-dominated though it may be, that worked, albeit in the fullness of time. There is a strong and independent (and majority black) judiciary and, government corruption notwithstanding, a respect for rule of law.
Ramaphosa brings with him some good will that may remind South Africans of the ANC’s less compromised days. He fought white minority rule in the 1970s and 1980s. He was close with Mandela, who wanted Ramaphosa to succeed him as president. He is a welcome change from Zuma.
He’s also a wealthy man. After losing to Mbeki in the post-Mandela election, Ramaphosa entered the private sector and became a successful businessman, owning and later selling South Africa’s chain of McDonald’s restaurants, and becoming a director of New Africa Investments Limited, a holding company that among other things produces television programs and movies. Investments include banking and mining interests. According to a 2015 Forbes estimate, his fortune is worth about $450mn.
That might make him an odd choice to inspire poor South Africans. But amid all the talk of corruption in the Zuma regime, there has been no suggestion that Ramaphosa built his business empire on anything other than good sense and good fortune. It’s just possible that he is an honest yet rich revolutionary. Welcome to the new, new South Africa.
