kameraad mhambi

There has been heated debate about Jacob Zuma in and outside of South Africa.

The most sober assessment I could find has been that of the Financial Times.

It says that Zuma could be a Ronald Reagan. A popular man of the people. But as with many others doubts linger for the FT as well…

If South Africa is lucky, a president Zuma will be a Ronald Reagan. He will make the country feel good about itself after the awkward questions – over Aids and race and crime – raised under Mbeki. Zuma has assiduously courted minorities, in particular Afrikaners, and his frankness about the troubles plaguing South Africa – and also the problems in ­Zimbabwe – is refreshing after the chilly intellectualism of Mbeki. He also will, he suggests, step down after five years.

It is a charming image. After several years of trading nightmare scenarios about the implications of Zuma becoming president, members of the business world compete to tell such endearing stories; and he insists he is willing to listen to their concerns.

There is, however, a less reassuring scenario than that of a latterday Reagan: the growth of a Big Man personality cult designed to mask South Africa’s growing social and economic problems, against the backdrop of a government making ever grander promises, and a steady implosion of the ANC’s sense of purpose. Mbeki’s tenure ended in ignominy but it should not be forgotten that he bravely led the ANC away from many of its outdated statist economic views. Some fear Zuma will prove the puppet of his leftwing supporters. But the greatest danger under a president Zuma may be not of a sudden ideological lurch, but of a vacuum of leadership and authority. For all his charm, Zuma has the populist’s trait of sometimes saying what his audiences want to hear – at a time when the party and country desperately need a strong hand at the tiller.

The ideal solution to the power struggle in the ANC would have been for Zuma and Mbeki to have stepped aside, paving the way for someone from the next generation to take over, someone less scarred by the battles of the past. Instead, South Africa looks set to enter a new age of uncertainty.

And so the BBC has a good Zuma radio profile.

For another fiery perspective listen to ANC spin doctor Jesse Duarte accuse the BBC’s John Humphreys of having a “colonial mind” on Radio 4.

She also claims that the fact that many Alexandra residents have not been moved into houses is because 90% of Alexandra residents are “from other countries”.

Related deployments:

1. Rain follows Zuma – the end of the dry Mbeki season?
2. Zuma: The good
3. Don’t underestimate Zuma
4. Jacob Zuma – this is going to be an exciting election
5. Zuma: the bad