South Africa’s ANC needs to rebuild reputation

As a passer-by in the upscale Johannesburg suburb of Saxonwold observed, the South African police would never have raided the enormous, high-walled compound of the Gupta family if President Jacob Zuma were not on the brink of removabl. But the police did exactly that.

The Guptas, three Indian immigrant brothers who became extremely rich due to their close partnership with Zuma, used to be untouchable. They were accused of "state capture" in the media, but they were safe because of their alliance with Zuma. He did very nicely out of the deal too.

All that is over now. One of the Gupta brothers was arrested in the raid, and the other two cannot be far behind. It was a signal to Zuma that the gloves were coming off, and fifteen hours later, he was gone. He had clung desperately to the presidency since the African National Congress (ANC) voted him out as its leader in December, but on the evening of February 14th , he resigned “with immediate effect”.

Jacob Zuma joined the ANC, the country’s main liberation movement, in 1959, and had an illustrious career. He served ten years’ imprisonment on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela, fled abroad in 1975 and became chief of the ANC’s Intelligence Department during the 1980s.

A man who served as his chief of staff in those years, a white South African now living abroad who has no reason to seek Zuma’s approval, told me recently that he was a brilliant strategist. He had admired Zuma greatly, he said, and like many others, he was as much puzzled as dismayed by what Zuma became during his later years. After the decades of sacrifice and dedication, it has been a tragic fall from grace.

Technically, Zuma still had a year left in his second term as president, but the ANC wanted him out because he was blighting the party’s chances of winning next year’s election. Friendly hints and subtle pressures were not shifting him, so the ANC’s newly elected National Executive Committee ordered him to resign from the state presidency.

Zuma was still telling various media outlets that he would refuse to quit until late afternoon on February 14th, although it was clear that there was no way he could win. The state president is elected by parliament, not by popular vote, and parliament can also remove him by a non-confidence vote. The ANC has a majority in parliament, and such a vote was already scheduled for the 22nd of February.

Why did he hang on so long if he was bound to lose in the end? Probably because he was hoping to negotiate some sort of amnesty deal in return for going quietly. But that is a hard thing to do in South Africa, as the government does not control the courts.

Until recently, Zuma’s exit plan involved getting his ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chosen to succeed him as ANC president. She would then protect him from the many corruption charges that awaited him after he left the state presidency, at least in theory. But the ANC elected Cyril Ramaphosa as its president instead.

After that, Zuma’s only hope, if he wanted to stay in South Africa after leaving office, which he clearly does, was an amnesty deal. But if the ANC is to rebuild its credibility with the voters, there must be no amnesty, and Ramaphosa has said publicly that it is not on the cards. That is probably true.

In any case, it’s over now. Ramaphosa, a former trade union leader who became a very rich businessman, will probably take over the state presidency only briefly now, choosing some other ANC member worthy to serve out the last year of Zuma’s term. He would prefer to be elected state president next year in his right. But in fact he will already be running the show behind the scenes, and much will be expected of him.

South Africa’s economy has stagnated during Zuma’s nine-year reign, in large part because both foreigners and local people were reluctant to invest in a country whose government had become so corrupt. There needs to be a massive cleansing exercise within the ANC, and it needs to start now if the results are to be visible before the election.

Zuma may stay to face the music, or, more likely, he will move abroad and live in the $25 million palace that the Guptas reportedly bought for him in Dubai. He has categorically denied owning any property abroad himself, but the denial was carefully phrased.

The ANC has fallen a long way from its glory days, but it is a legitimate and democratic political party that still commands the loyalty of many, perhaps most South Africans. Now that Zuma has finally quit, Ramaphosa, a competent and by all accounts an honest man, can get started on rebuilding the party’s reputation.

If he succeeds, the ANC could still win next year’s election and another five years in power. Whether that is the best thing for South Africa, given that the ANC has already been in power for a quarter-century, is another question.