ANC Victory Is Good For the SADC Region

Winning ways while thousands of supporters attended the ANC’s rally at Coca-Cola Stadium. (Photograph: Paul Botes)
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

ANC victory good for Sadc

Reprinted From the Zimbabwe Herald

WE congratulate the African National Congress and their leader, Cde Jacob Zuma, for the resounding victory in South Africa’s last week’s general election.

With the ANC’s commanding majority in Parliament it is a forgone conclusion that Cde Zuma will be voted the next President of South Africa by the new assembly. South Africa being the big brother in Sadc, its president becomes a key figure in the region.

What we greatly appreciate with the just ended general election is the endorsement of the ANC by voters of South Africa. The heroic struggle of the ANC to free South Africa from the stubborn white minority rulers that advocated apartheid is well documented.

As a successful liberation movement, we have complete confidence in the pan-Africanist principles that have moulded the ANC.

These are principles that give identity to the ANC-led government as pro-Africa. So any leadership that emerges from the ANC can be trusted never to abandon the African cause. We don’t have to go far to confirm this.

Only recently the ANC leadership stood firm in brokering a solution to the problems of Zimbabwe that saw the formation of the inclusive Government. There were imperialist forces, formidable forces for that matter, that wanted to see the collapse of the Zimbabwean Government and the chaos that would ensue. What mattered to them was to see an illegal regime change.

South Africa together with the rest of Africa would have none of that.

Those who did not understand the pan-Africanist ethos that guides the ANC began to criticise the then SA president and Sadc chairman, Thabo Mbeki, for his role in trying to negotiate a settlement in Zimbabwe.

They thought Cde Mbeki had a personal and biased interest in the matter. Little did they realise that Cde Mbeki was being guided by the ANC principles.

Reality dawned on these malcontents when President Kgalema Motlanthe took over from Cde Mbeki and continued with the search for a solution that was good for Africa and not necessarily for the EU, Britain or America. This is exactly what Cde Mbeki had been doing.

Attempts to persuade the ANC leader, Cde Zuma, to sympathise with the advocates of sanctions and illegal regime change also hit a brick wall. This is the same Zuma who will be the next President of South Africa when Parliament convenes.

Any hopes of foreign policy shift from this ANC stalwart look doomed.

We believe Cde Zuma is no different from his immediate predecessors as far as SA’s regional policy is concerned. After all, his credentials as an ANC cadre are impeccable. He is a nationalist who was detained for 10 years because of his struggle against apartheid.

He has been very vocal in his desire to see more radical changes in the uplifting of lives of the poor Africans. Like in Zimbabwe he is also concerned about land distribution in South Africa.

So in Cde Zuma, who is expected to be the next SA president, we have a leader whose ANC credentials will ensure continued good relations with neighbours, Zimbabwe included.

We expect to see South Africa’s leading role in the region being continued. South Africa has played a major role in influencing events not only in Zimbabwe but also in the region, the DRC being a very good example.

We know attempts will be made by some powers to weaken the bonds that should bind Africa. We know that in South Africa, like in Zimbabwe, a section of some whites with nostalgic memories of the master-servant mentality will always try to reverse or slow down change.

However, with ANC’s Cde Zuma as the SA president, we are confident Sadc will remain a united region that is always cognisant of the fact that they are a part of Africa and not Europe.