Saturday, November 8, 2008

Split in ANC: An Elitist Power Struggle.

By Farid Abdi Mohamed Omar

After a bitter power struggle within the ANC forced former President, Thabo Mbeki out of power, ANC dissidents led by former Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota have formed a breakaway party called the South African Democratic Congress (SADEC).

But the legality of this name is being challenged by another party with a similar name. The dissidents plan to challenge Jacob Zuma, the new ANC leader in general elections scheduled for next May.

In September, Lekota, a staunch ally of Mbeki, led a number of cabinet ministers who quit the ANC government. They blame Jacob Zuma supporters for ousting Mbeki from power.

While some believe that the split is good for South Africa's democracy, it is very clear that the split in the ANC, Africa's oldest and largest political party, is more about personalities than principle. It is simply a reflection of an elitist power struggle that holds no real solutions for South Africa's rampant corruption, growing inequality and high levels of poverty.

A splinter faction in the form of a new party may not constitute a viable alternative to Jacob Zuma's ANC. While it is unlikely that the Lekota faction would defeat the ANC, it could potentially deprive it of the two thirds majority needed to change the constitution.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Communist Party of South Africa (SACP) that have a formal alliance with the ANC, both back Jacob Zuma. But it remains to be seen whether they would wield any considerable power in a likely future government led by Zuma.

The key to social progress in South Africa would be the evolution or coming to power of a truly leftist party that shuns neo-liberalism and undertakes fundamental social transformations that would progressively eradicate poverty, inequality and endemic state corruption.

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