IN THE excitement leading up to America's presidential election, and the euphoria that greeted the victory of Barack Obama, it is hardly surprising that another significant, if not as momentous, global event has passed with relatively little attention in Jamaica.
A week ago, several thousand mainly disaffected members of the African National Congress (ANC) met at the instigation of South Africa's former Defence Minister, Mosiuo Lekoto, to form a new political party. That party is expected to contest next year's general election, under the name Congress of the People (COP).
The stark reality is that the ANC, the liberation movement that fought and ultimately defeated South Africa's white, racist system of apartheid and has led the country for 14 years, has split, raising the inevitable question of whether the development is good for South Africa. We believe that, on balance, it is - although we are under no illusion that this new party has been launched with the high-mindedness or the big conceptual vision that should attend such things.
Coalition of the disaffected
For, the truth is, the leading figures in the COP essentially represent a coalition of the disaffected supporters of the former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who, with less than a year of his term remaining, the ANC humiliatingly recalled in September. Mr Mbeki's fall from grace was similarly engineered by ANC opponents in the party, who eventually gained the upper hand, symbolised by Jacob Zuma, his one-time deputy, who had been ousted from the government when he faced charges of corruption over an arms deal.
A year ago, the popular Zuma defeated the studious, aloof and suspicious Mbeki for the leadership of the ANC. Then came Mbeki's ouster from government, when he was followed by several ministers, including Lekoto, an ex-chairman of the ANC.
A heady dose of personality politics marks the formation of the COP, which is yet to articulate a substantive platform, except criticism of the ANC for allegedly breaching its principles and, according to Lekoto, stifling dissent. Nonetheless, we believe, limited though its chances are, it would be a good thing for South Africa if this new party helps to break the ANC monopoly on politics and power - if South Africans are afforded a viable alternative.
A new beginning?
In post-apartheid South Africa, the ANC controls 70 per cent of the parliamentary seats and the mostly white opposition is weak and ineffective. Many ordinary South Africans believe that their government has not delivered on its promises. Neither do they believe they have credible alternatives to the ANC. The recency of apartheid makes the existing parties unacceptable and unviable.
As former members of the black and ANC political elite, Lekoto and his fellow disaffected bring to the process, legitimacy and with it the possibility for forging a credible 'rainbow' coalition that would avoid a politics based on either ethnicity or race, which many people, rightfully, fear.
Monopoly power can be comforting and cosy, but it is, in the long run, corrosive, as had begun to appear with the ANC. Real democracy can be difficult and messy, but it is the best cure for arbitrary action and the intoxication of power. Which is why a viable alternative to the ANC is good for South Africa.
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