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South Africa: What if Jacob Zuma is troubled by turbulence?
By African Bulletin on September 28, 2010
President Jacob Zuma, is in a fragile position. Two months after the end of the World Cup, the anger is still strong among the lower classes, the strikes are succeeding, and the coalition is divided.
Even within the ranks of the ANC, not all are favourable to a second term candidacy of Zuma as head of state in 2014. “His voters hoped that once President, he would succeed where the others had failed”, said Susan Booysen, a professor of political science at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. “He seems to have no long-term project. For the first time in seventeen years, growth has been negative in 2009 (- 1.8%). Zuma had promised to create one million jobs, but the official unemployment rate is now over 25% against 23% in 2008. The President had said that 2010 would be the year of “access to basic services for all . According to official statistics, 82.6% of households now have access to electricity, and 83.3% have running water. Things are progressing, but not as fast as expected because 43% of the population still lives on less than 2 dollars per day. Faced with these injustices, the protests will follow. The ANC is facing enormous difficulties to move from being a liberation movement to the government party. “South Africans are not ready to bring real competition between political parties, Susan Booysen says. The ANC still enjoys the confidence of a majority of the population, but for how long? Mr Zuma must break the old politics of patronage and temper the demands of his supporters in the unions. The path might be very long and corroding till to reach the 2014 term.