by JJ Cornish - Political Analyst and Africa Expert

The new leadership of the African National Congress has put settling scores with Thabo Mbeki ahead of the interests of the country.

There is no reasonable argument for ousting the president six months before the constitution demands him to step down anyway.

This act of revenge has created confusion at a particularly uncertain and dangerous time in the world economy.
It has evidently pleased the party’s grass-roots supporters, who see Mbeki as aloof and out of touch with their needs.
It has also damaged investor confidence in a country that cannot overcome its socio-economic challenges without massive injections of foreign funds.

If sacking Mbeki was designed to end Jacob Zuma’s legal problems, it has not worked.
Having made a dignified exit, Mbeki is fighting back against the high court ruling that he might have interfered in Zuma’s prosection on corruption, racketeering and money-laundering charges.

The move puts to rest the uncertainty that followed Zuma’s defeat of Mbeki for the leadership of the party at its conference in Polokwane last December.

However spiteful, it has been taken with scrupulous regard to the constitution.
It is an example of how South Africa could not go down the same slippery slope as Zimbabwe.
While the latter’s top-down structure has allowed Robert Mugabe to retain power and drive the country into the sand, the bottom-up approach of the ANC would make this impossible.
Whatever view one might hold of its choices, the party likely to hold power in South Africa for decades to come has demonstrated that it can and will get rid of leaders its does not like.
 
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