South Africa

Exiled from her native South Africa for her political stances for more than three decades, the African singing voice of a generation, the embodiment of the Pan-African ideal, Miriam Makeba was many things in her rich, at times tragic life. Her passing, which came right after a performance in Italy on Sunday, has inspired memories of this great woman and her myriad gifts not only to music, but also to humanity.

Here she is performing arguably her greatest song, “Pata, Pata”:

If it’s a new day in South Africa it inevitably means that the tension level has been ratcheted up another notch. The biggest story may be the rumors that if Jacob Zuma wins the ANC presidency he will get to work trying to find a way to force Mbeki out of office. One cannot help but wonder where such a move would fall on the business-personal divide.

Speaking of merging the personal and the political, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has officially thrown her support behind Thabo Mbeki, accepting a nomination for ANC Deputy President rather than take the chairmanship on her ex-husband’s campaign.

Naturally, many wonder what the overall effect of the Polokwane meetings and concomitant division, which has seeped down to (or risen up from?) the provincial level, will have on the ANC.  I’ve long argued that the ANC-COSATU-SACP coalition may not last forever and that the most viable opposition to the ANC would come from an internal splintering and not an external challenge. Are we seeing the first stages of that break today?

Mbuyiselo Botha, general secretary of the South African Men’s Forum, argues in The Mail & Guardian that “President Thabo Mbeki stands at the centre of the struggle for the liberation and empowerment of women in South Africa.” Without diminishing Mbeki’s administration much of the credit deserves to go to the South African Constitution which has entrenched rights and protections for women and others to a degree arguably unmatched in the world.