One of the reasons that I do not worry about the ANC’s stranglehold on South African politics taking the country toward the sort of one-party state that bedevils much of the rest of the continent is that there is such a vibrant, lively, and dissent-laden tradition within the ANC coalition itself. The latest contretemps involves — yet again — division between the ANC and its alliance partners in the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). COSATU has threatened to pull out of the longstanding alliance if the ruling party goes forward with disciplinary charges against its leader, Zwelinzima Vavi, who accused members of the ANC hierarchy with corruption.
I am not really a fan of the ANC pursuing disciplinary action against Vavi, but I do love their response to him, and I think it should also be their approach to the latest COSATU threats as well: Put up or shut up. The ANC has no interest in being held hostage by COSATU (or the South African Communist Party), which always seem to be threatening the ANC with withdrawal from the coalition whenever they get into a fit of pique. But the alliance partners need the ANC more than the ANC needs them. One of these days the unionists and the Communists are going to threaten to walk and the ANC leadership is going to say “good riddance. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
Meanwhile the Congress of the People (COPE) seems to have embraced all of the ANC’s internal squabbling but without all of that pesky power and influence. COPE officially approved a vote of no confidence in party president Mosiuoa Lekota, the culmination of several weeks of rising discontent with the former ANC stalwart’s leadership, effectively removing Lekota from his post. Lekota has responded with the tried and true mechanism of South African politics of late: he has taken COPE to court. COPE started off with so much promise. But right now the party is in disarray with no clear path to providing any more than a token opposition to the ANC in the near future.
