The Aetiology of Political Leadership Conflicts in the ANC and Implications for South Africa’s Democracy
The internal conflicts within the ANC are to a large extent about leadership contestation for power, given the possibilities that ANC Presidency carries in relation to becoming President of the country. In fact politics within the ruling party and ANC led government has become a ‘new economy’ in the South Africa. The aetiology of political conflict in the ANC needs more careful analysis since it serves as a magnifying glass of underlying possibilities for the country’s young democracy. This paper traces the evolution of conflicts within the ANC. It proceeds to cover the post 1994 period to show how internal conflicts are eroding the power and legitimacy of the democratic state. The paper will reflect on the challenge of political leadership transition, a problem in the entire African continent, and a problem which has become prominent in South Africa, post the Nelson Mandela leadership period. The politics of fracture in the governing party are in fact ‘a politics of precarity’ and have inaugurated uncertainty, instability, and moral decline in the country’s democracy as whole. It’s difficult to foresee the end point and return of inclusive democratic ‘reason’.
