ANTHONY BUTLER: There are a couple of dark horses in the ‘two-horse’ ANC race
Ramaphosa may be a front-runner, and Dlamini-Zuma is unlikely to get out of the gates, but the field is bigger than some think
Ignore people who tell you that leadership succession does not matter. They are wrong. The ANC presidency matters most of all, because it leads almost inexorably to the state presidency. The ANC will probably remain the party of national government — on its own or in coalition with others — after 2019. SA has an executive presidency, housed in a parliamentary system. The incumbent combines the authority of a head of state with control of a party machine. It is true that the power of a leader to do good is limited, but their capacity to create havoc is vast. This is why the notion of prudence is — or should be — so central for those who think seriously about politics. President Jacob Zuma is a remarkable politician. His reign of destruction is proof enough that leadership really matters in human affairs. My suspicion is that Zuma is going to get precisely the successor he has planned for. And it is not Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. We have often been told that the succession struggle is...
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