PETER BRUCE: A new president must sort out the policy mess
'Be careful with your country and its future. We cannot continue the way we are. Unemployment is at record levels. Debt is at record levels. The government is literally borrowing money to pay salaries'
President Jacob Zuma had persuaded the party to vote for each individual position in the top six individually. Slate politics were to be a thing of the past. They invited corruption. Whoever lost the top job would become deputy president, or could at least be a candidate. That would have suited him. Beset on all sides by a crumbling legal fortress as judges rule against him, Zuma at least needed to know that if his candidate, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, lost to her main opponent, Cyril Ramaphosa, she would at least be Cyril's deputy, with some clout. That is now not to be, the party decided on Thursday, as delegates headed to Johannesburg. It would all take too long. They want the voting out of the way so they can concentrate on policy. The slate politics of old are back. It will be winner takes all. There'll be R200 notes floating around the hall like confetti as vote-buying reaches a climax. If Cyril wins, Zuma is in deep trouble. If Nkosazana wins, he has time to wriggle a little mor...
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