African National Congress change in leadership: what really won it for Zuma?

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Periodical article

Title:	African National Congress change in leadership: what really won it for Zuma?
Author:	Ceruti, Claire
Year:	2008
Periodical:	Review of African Political Economy
Volume:	35
Issue:	115
Pages:	107-114
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	heads of State African National Congress (South Africa) succession
About person:	Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (1942-)
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056240802011808
Abstract:	Based on media research, conference documents and her own political observations since 2005, the author examines the question of how Jacob Zuma, in spite of having been accused of rape and corruption, won the presidency of the ANC in December 2007. She argues that, in order to understand how Zuma emerged as the alternative to President Thabo Mbeki, the interaction of three key pressures must be taken into consideration: Mbeki's pro-capitalist economic policies, which set him on a collision course with Cosatu and the electorate; the emergence of mass protests; and the strategies of the labour and communist party leaders. When the general secretary of Cosatu, Z. Vavi, spoke in support of Zuma in June 2007, presenting him as yet another of Mbeki's victims, Zuma's name became linked with the imagery of resistance to inequality, and his negative qualities were rationalized away. In conclusion, the author looks at the implications of a Zuma presidency (in-waiting) for the future of South Africa. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]