The Big Men Roll In
As we near the ANC AGM, the big guns are starting to roll into town. Tokyo Sexwale has officially "announced" his arrival on the presidential nominations board. As only you do in the ANC, he has stated that he would "consider" nomination and would take any "instruction" the ANC gave him, which is basically as good as flying a jumbo jet over the Union Buildings with "Sexwale 2009" painted on the side. Expect more to follow... Cyril Ramaphosa, paging Cyril Ramaphosa.
posted by Jonty at Monday, May 14, 2007
8 Comments:
Yep, it's a very interesting development.... What do you reckon Tokyo's chances are, Jonty?
12:32 PM
James, it all depends on how he can converse with the Lefties of the ANC. He has impeccable struggle credentials and was largely seen as one of the few successful Premiers when he took charge of Gauteng, so there is huge pedigree there. However, his recent success in the business world may have put him out of touch with unionised labour, which makes up a huge portion of the ANC electorate.
Look for him to come out with some statements that pander to the left in ther next few weeks, which will give some hints of his potential. If he can not neccessarily win over, but just be palatable to the left, I think he has a fantastic chance.
2:36 PM
Tokyo's chances are nil. He's not even a member of the ANC NEC. He's the Athol Trollip of the ANC leadership race (no disrespect to Athol).
7:55 AM
I don't think Tokyo has a chance to become President of the ANC either. At least not as long as the ANC retains the byzantine process for the election of its leaders. I critique this process here.
5:25 PM
Pierre, Mal,
I'm working under the assumption that overtures have been make towards Tokyo by the Mbeki-ites in the NEC. I think it's highly, highly unlikely that Sexwale would have made such statements unless there had been interest in him as a 2009 candidate from power sources. Sexwale is an incredibly shrewd man with intimate knowledge of the ANC structures and processes (let's not forget this is not the first time he's been mentioned as a presidential option).
There is simply no way Sexwale would be foolish enough to put himself out there without this tacit approval If we know how the ANC "nominations" processs works, you can be assured that he does too.
8:19 AM
My 2c is that he stands a reasonable chance... Given his background and closeness with Chris Hani I don't think he will have to do too much to become palatable to the left again. And I think he would be a perfectly acceptable candidate to business, and one would probably find that he is quite popular with most (non-ANC supporting) South Africans. I don't think the comparison with Trollip is logical - who had heard of Trollip before he announced his candidature? It's not like he could get an interview on BBC's Hard Talk to announce it....
Also, given Jonty's comment on Sexwale being approached by Mbeki-ites, I was really interested to read this piece in The Spectator (http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/30648/shame-on-mugabes-stooges.thtml) which mentions that Sexwale was hosting Mbeki in Franschoek over the recent Freedom Day weekend.
5:01 PM
Mr Sexwale doesn`t stand a chance in hell in becoming ANC president and that of the country come 2009.He simply doesnt have a constituency to deliver him at the forthcoming ANC conference.He is further perceived as somebody who jumped ship at the most crucial moment in order to make mega-bucks for himself.
Those who may habour a rabid hatred for Mr Jacob Zuma will obviously hope that Sexwale becomes their De La Rey...but like we all know Gen De La Rey is long day and we don`t believe in reincarnation!
10:11 AM
Reviewed in Last Week's Pambazuka News
6:57 PM
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