Posted on 09/23/2008 8:53:14 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
South Africa's political landscape is changing faster than anyone anticipated.
The speed of events over the past few days has inevitably created an atmosphere of uncertainty, and some apprehension.
The sudden resignation of President Thabo Mbeki has drawn a welter of calls for clear and strong leadership, lest the country finds itself on the path to becoming "a banana republic", to quote the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
However, change has been on the cards since the historic African National Congress (ANC) national conference in Polokwane last December.
Thabo Mbeki, seeking a third term as party leader, was defeated by his long-time rival, Jacob Zuma - the man whom Mr Mbeki had sacked as South Africa's Deputy President in 2005.
Polokwane was a watershed, with 4,000 ANC delegates from branches all over the countries exercising their democratic right to force a change of leadership in the party.
After 10 years at the helm of the ruling party, Thabo Mbeki found himself rejected in favour of the populist, Jacob Zuma.
Within days of the Polokwane conference, the writing was on the wall for Thabo Mbeki and his allies.
At the ANC's anniversary celebrations in January, the then leader of the party's Youth League, Fikile Mbalula, signalled that the Zuma camp in the ANC was firmly in the ascendancy.
"We are the future. No-one can stop us", he declared.
Trying times
There has been a decidedly mixed reaction in South Africa to the forced resignation of Thabo Mbeki.
"He was a bad president. He divided our country", said last week's Sunday Times.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Can’t expound on this one Minority Rep. the article does not mention policies nor plans, it is dashed with “hope” but mentions communists and leftist trade unionists.
And a part of me thinks that Mbeki was sacked for opposing Mugabe the Hero...
Hard to believe if he opposed Mugabe.
Well, don’t look at it with Western Eyes MR, look at this way, it is pretty much doctrine that Colonialism was terrible in Sub Saharan Africa, and the last guy to run out the colonials was Robert Mugabe making him a sort of George Washington/Simon Bolivar figure for that area of the world.
And anyone who opposed George Washington was not looked upon kindly, no matter if a few heads were broken or a few people dismembered and tossed into burning buildings, after all, they were engaged in “thinking like the colonials”...
The Left holds grudges for a long long time, ask any leftist person you know about Gore/Bush 2000...
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