A real rival in S. Africa?

Two months ago, a group of disgruntled officials from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress announced that they were serving “divorce papers” on the ANC and splitting off to form their own political party. Last week, the Congress of the People was formally launched, and delegates selected former Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota as its president. It’s not clear what exactly the new party stands for, but its emergence is a positive development in South Africa’s still young democracy.

The ANC deserves a stiff challenge. Founded in 1912, it led the struggle against white-majority rule, galvanizing world opinion over a period of decades and ultimately toppling the apartheid regime. The party’s charismatic leader, Nelson Mandela (finally released after 27 years in prison), became the first president of a black-ruled South Africa in 1994.

But the story of the ANC since then has been less uplifting. The tenure of Mandela’s successor, Thabo Mbeki, was tainted not only by his bizarre opinions about the AIDS virus but also by extraordinarily high crime rates and burgeoning political corruption. Mbeki’s successor as ANC president (but not yet as president of South Africa), Jacob Zuma, threatens to be even worse. He has been dogged for years by allegations of corruption, and in 2006 stood trial for rape (although he was acquitted).

South Africa is in peril of slipping into what is effectively one-party rule. The ANC won nearly 70% of the vote in 2004 and 2006, while the leading opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, can’t seem to break 15% and attracts little black support.

Enter the Congress of the People. The party, which is expected to run a slate of candidates in next year’s elections, talks about inclusiveness, is expected to work cooperatively with business and says it will fight unemployment. Observers of all political stripes say its creation could mean a viable opposition and true electoral choice for the first time in post-apartheid South Africa.

Many questions remain. It’s unclear, for instance, whether the party will attract voters. Or whether its members will drift back into the ANC fold. Some observers suggest that the split is not about policy differences, but that the Congress of the People is merely a path back to power for supporters of Mbeki who lost their influence when Zuma took control.

Either way, meaningful multiparty politics are healthy for a democracy, especially one still finding its way in a region with little democratic tradition. The case of Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe clings brutally to the presidency 28 years after the end of white-minority rule, should stand as a cautionary tale.