Msholozi Stage One

Jacob Zuma is the new President of the African National Congress!

Most of the recipients of this distribution are supporters of JZ, Msholozi. Words to carry their joy are flying everywhere. We cannot match them or collect them all. We can at least mention that Karl Niehaus was impressive on SAFM (PM Live). JZ himself is expected to speak tomorrow. The SACP’s statement on the victory is linked below. Also linked is the statement of the South African Security Forces Union (SASFU), with some definite suggestions about what should be done, and what wrongs righted as far as they are concerned. The next item is an interview of Cde General Siphiwe Nyanda, former chief of the SA National Defence Force, by Jeremy Gordin, which is very revealing of the situation prior to the vote that confirmed Cde JZ as ANC President. Another revelation is the Sapa story, re-told in the Business Day, showing what Trevor Manuel is like when he loses his temper. It doesn’t look like Manuel is going to be top of the pops in the NEC elections this time round.

The following table of top six results is the best one so far. It is from Politicsweb’s James Myburgh, who obviously knows how to construct a good spreadsheet. Sorry for the small size of it. Blogger doesn't seem to take tables, so this one has been made into a JPG image. You could enlarge it in your browser or download it and enlarge it in "Paint" if is not legible enough.

The last item needs some explanation. It is the last part of the last text in the first section of the Communist University 2008 Programme. As such it is a marker for where the whole initial set, titled “Can we do without a Communist Party?” is heading, and it is extremely relevant to this moment of change and rededication of the ANC. It is Rosa Luxemburg’s words on the necessity, and the nature, of Trade Union – Party unity. Please read it comrades, if you read nothing else, over the Christmas break.

Because, following the close of the 52nd Conference in Polokwane, the next step forward is the January 8th Statement, and after that we are going tohave an “interregnum” or “cohabitation” during which the difficult Cde Mbeki and his crew will continue to wield state power and patronage, and to make appointments. Yet the meaning of Cde JZ’s victory is as nothing until it succeeds in causing the executive to come under the direction of the political formations of the country.

SACP GS Dr Blade Nzimande said today that the division of authority between the government and the ANC over the next 18 months until the end of Mbeki’s term “is a period we need to manage with care. It can be fraught with all sorts of complications.”

Click on these links:

ANC Conference a platform for a fresh start, SACP (689 words)

SASFU reaction to the ANC Conference results (252 words)

Planned offensive against Zuma bloc, Jeremy Gordin, The Star (471 words)

Manuel hits at media with a brolly, Sapa, Business Day (433 words)

Rosa Luxemburg, 1906, The Mass Strike, C8, Need for TU-Party unity (5091 words)