S Africa opposition to field black candidate

South Africa’s main opposition party is to field anti-apartheid activist Mamphela Ramphele as its presidential candidate in this year’s election, giving the Democratic Alliance (DA) a prominent black figurehead to challenge the governing ANC.

It is the first time that the DA has named a black presidential candidate in an election, in an attempt to dispell persistent charges the party is a vessel for white interests.

The move comes as Ramphele’s political party, Agang, joined forces with the DA, which came a distant second in the 2009 election. 

But the choice of Ramphele is unlikely to turn popular support against the African National Congress (ANC), which led a decades-long struggle against the racially divisive apartheid system, the Reuters news agency reported.

Ramphele, a medical doctor and former World Bank managing director, commands considerable respect among the black majority as the partner of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, beaten to death in apartheid police custody in 1977.

Despite this, her year-old Agang party has struggled to gain traction despite growing disaffection among voters with President Jacob Zuma’s ANC, in power since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.

“I can think of no better person to be our presidential candidate in this crucial election,” DA leader Helen Zille told a news conference in Cape Town, before embracing her new political ally.

‘Changing landscape’ 

Ramphele, also a successful businesswoman who made millions as a senior mining industry executive, alluded to the death in December of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, as a symbol of the changing political landscape.

“I believe this decision is in the best interests of South Africa as we head into turbulent waters,” she said. “The death of Nelson Mandela has changed many things for South Africa.”

However, the immediate public reaction suggested some voters see the move as a blatant attempt by the DA to win black support, while some accused Ramphele of cynical opportunism.

“The DA doesn’t represent black aspirations, the hierarchy of the DA is white male,” said independent film maker Sindile Mnguni, smoking a cigarette next to a six-metre bronze statue of Mandela outside the Sandton City mall.

“(Ramphele) is opportunistic, that’s my take on it. Why did she even bother starting a party in the first place? It’s a cop out.”

Papi Thomas, a 25-year-old financial advisor in Johannesburg, said the move appeared to be a bid by Agang to get into parliament through the back door, since it might not make it alone.

“That changes my opinion on who I might have voted for. Who knows? The ANC might get my vote now,” Thomas said.

Romp to victory

The ANC is expected to romp to victory in this year’s polls, despite seeing its support waning over the years over charges it has failed to lift millions of blacks out of grinding poverty, and some officials having been implicated in corruption.

The party won nearly two thirds of the vote in the last elections in 2009 and its overall majority this year is not in question.

Ramphele has described the ANC as “authoritarian, intolerant of criticism and unaccountable,” and in 2012 accused Zuma of leading an assault on the post-apartheid constitution.

But her supporters will likely be worried that her voice might be drowned out in the DA, which remains largely white-dominated.

“She will be seen as a ‘weak’ joiner, more likely to be shaped by where she is going than to be the shaper,” said independent political analyst Nic Borain.