While he survived the conference with his leadership intact, there is growing speculation that Mr. Zuma will be pushed aside before the next election in 2014. He is widely perceived as weak and indecisive, and he has been criticized for scandals involving his multiple sexual partners and the business dealings of his family.
The fierce debate over nationalization, which led to unruly verbal battles at the party conference this week, is symbolic of the deep ideological splits in the African National Congress, the party that has ruled South Africa since the collapse of apartheid in 1994.
In the years since the resignation of Nelson Mandela as president in 1999, the party has been nearly torn apart by factional infighting over leadership and policy. Mr. Mandela’s successor, Thabo Mbeki, sacked Mr. Zuma as deputy president during a corruption scandal in 2005, but two years later Mr. Zuma got his revenge, defeating Mr. Mbeki in a contest for the ANC leadership.
He was elected President last year, yet was soon consumed by internal feuding among factions of the ruling party and its alliance partners in the trade union movement and the Communist Party.
His biggest challenger is the ANC’s youth league, headed by the populist firebrand Julius Malema, who has been pushing hard for nationalization of the mining industry. Three years ago, the youth league played a crucial role in Mr. Zuma’s victory over Mr. Mbeki, but this year it has clashed repeatedly with the President, implicitly criticizing his polygamous lifestyle and demanding “generational mix” in the ANC’s leadership – coded language for getting its young members into the party’s top positions.
At the party conference in Durban this week, youth league members heckled and shouted and finally forced the party to put nationalization onto its agenda, despite Mr. Zuma’s efforts to sidestep the issue. The party announced on Friday that its national executive will investigate the idea of nationalizing the mining sector, with a decision to be made by 2012, despite warnings that nationalization would frighten away investors, damage the economy and cost an estimated $280-billion – more than double the annual state budget.
Nationalization has now become “an issue to be processed by the whole organization” and is no longer just a youth league issue, Mr. Zuma acknowledged on Friday. His concession was greeted by loud cheers from party delegates.
Since taking power in 1994, the ANC has generally adopted a pro-business stance, but the continuing high rate of unemployment has fuelled demands for greater state intervention in the economy. By putting nationalization onto its formal agenda, the ANC is trying to placate those demands, but it ensures that the nationalization issue will continue to divide the party for years to come.
Mr. Zuma acknowledged the factional feuding in the party and the ruling alliance, warning his critics that there would be “consequences” if they “cross the line” by disrupting meetings or intimidating their rivals. “We have agreed that an alliance that is seen to be besieged with tension, squabbling and conflict does not inspire public confidence,” he said in his closing speech to the conference.
In another controversial move, the ANC decided to ask South Africa’s parliament to hold a public inquiry into the possibility of setting up a tribunal to hear complaints about the media. The idea has sparked widespread fears that the government is trying to muzzle the media, but Mr. Zuma alleviated some of the concerns by suggesting that the tribunal would be “independent of commercial and party political interests.”
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