Silence at the top allowed Zuma to run amok
President’s capture of leadership is clear to voters, who no longer stake all on ANC as polls have shown
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is wearing green as she walks slowly to the podium at a decidedly red event. There is a celebratory atmosphere in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg, on a day that the sun and rain tag-team each other, leaving the air warm and moist. The "Mother of the Nation" is introduced by EFF commander-in-chief Julius Malema at the graduation ceremony of party spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi. Malema’s fondness for Madikizela-Mandela is unmistakable, but he admits that she is solidly black, green-and-gold — she is and will always be an ANC member, despite her closeness to the EFF’s young leadership. On the podium, she jokes about her party: "I know we are captured." Madikizela-Mandela touches on the ANC’s 54th national conference, describing it as a "captured conference". Despite her professed loyalty to the governing party, she tells the EFF: "I am hoping that in the near future this youth that is here will be the leadership of SA. We are hoping for a SA that will not be ca...
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