Associated Press - December 17, 2007
Celean Jacobson, Associated Press Writer

Late Monday -- a day later than expected -- President Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma were formally nominated for party president, with voting by some 4,000 delegates to start Tuesday. Zuma, a former guerrilla fighter backed by the left, was expected to win, putting him in line to run for, and likely win, the presidency of South Africa in 2009.

Mbeki has faced sharp rejection during the party congress, with delegates calling for a change from his aloof manner and what some say is his failure to satisfy a black majority still awaiting housing, jobs and services 13 years after the end of apartheid.

The divide has been played out so far in debates over procedural matters. The ANC Youth League, for instance, proposed that ballots in the leadership race be hand counted, expressing skepticism about computer balloting set up by a party election committee seen as close to Mbeki. ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said a hand count had been agreed to in order to avoid the "specter of mistrust."

During the decades it was an underground movement fighting apartheid, the ANC took pride in presenting a united front, and the top party post hadn't been publicly contested in 55 years. That makes what elsewhere might be seen as the typical hurly-burly of democracy seem shocking.

As the conference began Sunday, delegates loyal to Zuma booed leaders seen as Mbeki allies, carried pictures of Zuma despite a ban on partisan displays and called for the removal of national chairman Mosiuoa Lekota. Zuma's supporters broke into the anti-apartheid song, "Bring me my machine gun," which has become his anthem, as soon as Mbeki finished an address Sunday.

Former President Nelson Mandela, 89, who has retired from politics but is still seen as a unifying figure, expressed his concern.

"It saddens us to see and hear of the nature of the differences currently in the organization," he said in a message to delegates distributed by the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation.

Speaking at a news conference Monday, Jeff Radebe, a member of Mbeki's Cabinet and of the party's national executive committee, acknowledged the opening day atmosphere was not what "we are used to in the ANC."

On Monday, delegates sang and chanted the praises of their candidates during rallies as they made their way into the huge white tent erected for the conference. Some waved their hands in three-fingered salutes, indicating they wanted a third term for Mbeki, while Zuma supporters signaled their desire for change by rolling one hand over another, as if to call for a substitute during a soccer game.

Cabinet minister and Mbeki supporter Mluleki George told one rally that Zuma supporters' actions the day before showed that even "before they get to power that there is going to be anarchy."

Solomon Zwane, a Zuma supporter, laughed with friends over a newspaper headline Monday that read: "ANC Defies Mbeki." Zwane said Zuma supporters were not being disrespectful, but were "showing that this movement belongs to all of us, not just the leaders."

The ANC is a democracy in which people are welcome to express their opinions as long as they follow the rules, said Mogale Malatji, a delegate who supports Mbeki. But he added that no matter who wins, ANC discipline would prevail.

"We are going to walk out united," he said, a sentiment many expressed despite the evident tension.

During the initial nomination process last month in the ANC's provincial and other internal bodies, Zuma was far ahead of Mbeki.

It was a remarkable political comeback after a rape trial -- which ended with Zuma's acquittal but left lingering questions about his judgment -- and a pending corruption inquiry.

Mbeki had relied on pro-market policies to lift South Africa's economy, and in so doing help the poor. His moves toward greater investment in health and social welfare may have come too late. However, Zuma is unlikely to radically change the economic agenda for fear of scaring off foreign and domestic investors.

Zuma has called for AIDS and crime to be "treated as national emergencies," something many South Africans have criticized Mbeki for failing to do. On foreign policy, Zuma has challenged Mbeki for insisting on quiet diplomacy over confrontation with neighboring Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe is accused of ruining the economy, undermining democracy and threatening the region's stability.

Much has been made of the personality and class differences between Mbeki and Zuma, former allies who are both 65 and spent years in exile during apartheid.

Mbeki is a foreign-educated academic who sprinkles his speeches with Shakespeare. Zuma had no formal schooling, was a leader of the exiled ANC's military wing, and, like Mandela, served time at the Robben Island prison.

If Zuma wins, he would be in line to be the party's candidate for president of the country in the 2009 elections. The ANC candidate would likely win, given the party's wide support.

Mbeki is barred by the constitution from seeking a third term as president of Africa's political and economic powerhouse. But remaining at the helm of the ANC would give him a say in who succeeds him and in the policies his successor adopts.

Mbeki fired Zuma as the country's deputy president in 2005 after Zuma's financial adviser was convicted of trying to elicit a $70,000 bribe for Zuma to deflect investigations into an arms deal. Charges were withdrawn against Zuma, but the National Prosecuting Authority has indicated it may revive them.

Last year, Zuma was acquitted of raping a family friend. During the trial, he outraged AIDS activists by testifying that he had unprotected, consensual sex with the HIV-positive woman and then took a shower in the belief that it would protect him from the AIDS virus.
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