Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of SA Trade Unions, is not a buffoon like ANCYL president Julius Malema, but they are both rather muddled chaps.
Vavi for example counts his chickens before they are hatched. To judge by his superior airs, and blundering arrogance, he is almost, not quite, South Africa's president. According to City Press (September 27 2009), he behaves already "as if he is President Vavi." The newspaper says that at Cosatu's congress in September, "he threw his hat into the political ring". City Press thinks he "would like the presidency". Vavi is reported as saying that when he quits Cosatu and enters politics, he does not want a cabinet job.
Is he after something higher? It can't be the secretary general-ship of the ANC, where Gwede Mantashe (SACP chairman) is installed, because the street talk is that deputy minister of Police, Fikile Mbalula, wants the job for himself. Mbalula denies this furiously.
If Vavi aspires to become ANC/South African president, he is not alone. The story is that Blade Nzimande, SACP general Secretary and newly appointed Minister of Higher Education, also has his eye on the position. He denies it, of course, but politicians' denials usually are taken with a pinch of salt. Vavi has raised the question of "our cadres" in public office who think they have a right to R1m cars and weeks in five star hotels. If ANC cadres, why not also SACP cadres? Among those who think they have a right to the "obscene perk" of a R1m car is Nzimande. Why pick on Blade in this way unless he is a contestant for a top job that Vavi wants?
Anyway, if hats are being thrown into the ring now, then Jacob Zuma must know that his own shelf life as president is guaranteed only to 2012 (at best) when the ANC either confirms him as president, or ousts him in the way it ousted Mbeki, coldly, clinically, just by voting. Vavi of course has been insulting about Zuma for a few years now, so when he demands that Zuma be given a second term as president it is not because his heart has warmed to Zuma, but because he does not want Zuma displaced by someone who will rearrange the Left's newly-created structure of ambitions. Succession is the name of the new game.
There is a third possible candidate in the presidential field: Jacob Zuma has been telling Julius Malema that he is "a leader in the making" and someone who would be worthy of inheriting the ANC. At ceremonies organised by the ANCYL, Malema has been introduced as "president," alongside Zuma. Malema, of course, is president of the ANCYL, but when he stands next to Zuma, and the crowd bays "president" - well, the word undergoes a qualitative, more embracing meaning. Zuma after all said older ANC leaders were "happy" to leave the party to leaders like Malema - "Here you have a leader in the making." (Pretoria News October 26 2009).