Big Shoes to Fill: the ANC and Zuma’s Leadership Deficit

This introductory chapter guides the reader through South Africa’s major political developments in the post-apartheid era and provides an important overview of the main motives behind the current deterioration of the country’s political and economic situation. Building on an in-depth dissection of the milestones, lights and shadows that have shaped the ANC’s more than two decades of unchallenged dominance, the author stresses how this long “reign” resulted in the party losing touch with the needs and urgency for better distribution of the dividends of democracy and, eventually, in a broader falling apart of elite consensus in the country. The author also argues that the ascent of a questionable leader like Jacob Zuma to the forefront of South Africa’s – and the ANC’s – political scene has seriously contributed to the rapid jading of the long-term legitimation capital the ANC had gained by guiding the country’s transition to democracy under Mandela, hence opening the way to the increasing success of contenders that are now seriously challenging the ANC’s hegemony.