Emerging opposition leaders signal positive change, but we’re gonna need a bigger name - Moeletsi Mbeki

Another big name from the business sector has thrown his name in the hat as a presidential candidate for the opposition in South Africa. He is Roger Jardine, the former PRIMEDIA CEO and FirstRand chair. Jardine was also reported to have had discussions with the Democratic Alliance’s John Steenhuisen and Helen Zille as the Multi-Party Charter is seeking an alternative presidential candidate. Political analyst, Moeletsi Mbeki said the problem he had with candidates like Roger Jardin and Songezo Zibi from Rise Mzansi is that they were the employers of big businesses, they were not the owners of capital. To really make an impact, what is needed is that one of the captains of industry, the owners of the banks, retail companies and mining industry stand for elections and challenge the ANC. Moreover, South Africa, he said, did not have an electoral system that allowed a central figure to rise like businessman Sam Matekane from Lesotho who won an election seven months after forming a political party. He said he believed that individuals can’t solve South Africa’s problems and that there will be no miracles that will come out of South Africa’s 2024 elections. Mbeki also commented on President Nelson Mandela’s legacy 10 years after his death and said the deal that the ANC got from the National Party was much better than expected if the ANC’s real strength on the ground is taken into account. He said the negotiated constitution is a good constitution and people who criticise it know nothing about the reality of South Africa at the time. He again blasted the ANC’s black empowerment policies saying it is the result of an elite riddled with an inferiority complex who think they should get wealth from white people and that they cannot create wealth through their own risk-taking and hard work.