To the outside world, SA’s problems seem as dire as they come. But luckily, there’s no shortage of would-be, homegrown messiahs volunteering to fix the situation. Also on their own as independent presidential candidates. Disillusioned with established political parties – in some cases because they have struggled to sublimate into the collective their selfish assumptions that they personally have all the answers – they start their own, personal political movements. One of the leading lights set to vie for the presidency in 2024 is Songeso Zibi, former editor of Business Day and head of communications at Absa Bank, who announced…
To the outside world, SA’s problems seem as dire as they come. But luckily, there’s no shortage of would-be domestic messiahs volunteering to fix the situation. Also on their own, as independent presidential candidates.
Disillusioned with established political parties – in some cases because they have found it difficult to sublimate their egoistic assumptions that they personally have all the answers – they start their own, personal political movements.
One of the leading lights set to vie for the presidency in 2024 is Songezo Tsibi, former Working day editor and head of communications at Absa Bank who announced his candidacy in 2024 saying: “I am ready to lead because I know there will be no anointed messiah in the future. This includes running for president.”
These new movements are not created from the bottom up, in the traditional way, by like-minded people meeting to jointly advance a set of political goals and principles. Instead, they are loosely organized and installed from the top down.
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Like celebrity fan clubs, they are led by charismatic but often narcissistic leaders. These visions tend to be emotionally moving, but lack detail.
Likewise, the independents’ strategy for wresting power from the ruling ANC is only vaguely formulated. Their approach seems to amount to an as-yet untested belief that they will be accepted by a grateful nation and rise to power on the strength of charismatic personalities and good intentions.
A steady stream of hopefuls throw their hats into the ring. Earlier this month it was former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng. Although Mogong will be the presidential candidate of the nominally existing party, the All-African Alliance Movement, it is, despite its ambitious name, something of a one-man band that exists as a backdrop to the controversial former head of the Constitution Party. The court’s ambition to mobilize the vote of Christian fundamentalists.
Next came Makashule Gana, who resigned as a member of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Gauteng legislature “to join a new generation of leaders and activists committed to mobilizing and organizing to take power back to the people of SA”.
Ghana joins several disgruntled DA leaders – including former DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko and party leader Mmusi Maimane – who believe such one-man formations are a response to voter disenchantment and in particular the large number of former ANC voters who stopped voting for the government, but could not find a new political party in which they felt at home.
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The problem is the distortive effect that all this free vanity has on the political system. Apart from the dangers of xenophobic or racist populism, independents lack the financial and organizational clout needed to make a meaningful impact.
Although only the credulous will see independent elections as the solution to the failures of the major parties, they can nevertheless play an important role in unlocking the political gridlock.
Several independent political groupings, acting as springboards for an eventual coalition with an existing party or for the creation of an entirely new party, could unlock those votes. Perhaps this is what Zibi is referring to.
His recent book, The Manifesto, argues that it distills the political thinking of the so-called Rivona Circle of black intellectuals and could be the start of a coherent political movement that will be more than just an exercise in self-aggrandizement. In other words, a political party.
However, there is not much time for idle games. The general election is less than two years away.
