Foreign Policy Blogs

The ANC's Rough Week

The ANC’s week of recriminations and bad news continues. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has lashed out at both President Zuma and National Planning Commission (NPC)  head and Minister of the President Trevor Manuel for alleged transgressions against the union movement, which is angry at not having the power it expected to have when Zuma took the reins from Thabo Mbeki and seems to be implying that it might shift its attentions toward the Congress of the People (COPE). This, of course, would precipitate the dissolution of the Tri-Partite alliance, something I have been predicting for years.

Meanwhile Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille is annoyed that Zuma supporters have indicated that Zuma is immune to prosecutions during his time in office. Now such prosecutions would be a disaster for South African governance, but thinking from the perspective of a minority party, this is exactly the sort of thing she is expected to be outraged about, even if it is “fakerage.”

 

Author

Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is a Professor of history and Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. He is also Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s and on the 1981 South African Springbok rugby team's tour to the US. He is the author of three books, dozens of scholarly articles and reviews, and has published widely on current affairs in African, American, and European publications. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

Contact