The biggest news from South Africa today is Thabo Mbeki's interview with the ANC, which naturally aroused controversy among many who believed the interview and the timing to be an inappropriate allocation of public resource. In his talk Mbeki tried to sound a note of party unity, arguing that whatever happens in Polokwane will not represent “the beginning and the end of everything” and that the parties involved “must not see themselves as enemies” and that “all of the structures of the ANC … have the right to make nominations… We must accept [the] process that come[s] out of that” because there “will be a tomorrow there must be an ANC.” Mbeki thus wanted to remind the candidates and those who support them that “we have a responsibility to the future.”
In the least surprising news of the day, Mbeki and Jacob Zuma have formally confirmed that they are candidates for the role of party leadership. Mbeki remains puzzled by the relative lack of support for his candidacy among the ANC provincial leadership, which might explain his conciliatory tone in parts of his interview. But he might also be trying to outmaneuver Zuma, who is believed to be planning to exclude key figures (read: Mbeki supporters) in the party hierarchy from the National Executive Committee of the ANC.
