South Africa’s ANC Election: “Limited choice between the bully and the buffoon”

“A major pitfall in African politics has been the limited choice between the bully and the buffoon as political leader. The bully pushes everybody around and gets them to do his bidding. The buffoon can sing and dance and mix with the people and he gets whatever he wants by simply saying the right things. The middle ground for the philosopher king is disappearing… “Nigerian columnist Reuben Abati writes about the recent ANC election in South Africa. Some excerpts (via Nigerian Guardian):

A major pitfall in African politics has been the limited choice between the bully and the buffoon as political leader. The bully pushes everybody around and gets them to do his bidding. The buffoon can sing and dance and mix with the people and he gets whatever he wants by simply saying the right things. The middle ground for the philosopher king is disappearing if it has not already disappeared completely. The African leader exploits the people’s timidity or their love of song, dance and festival. Jacob Zuma is one of such crowd-pleasers; he is riding to power on the back of a well-crafted burlesque. He and Thabo Mbeki and their supporters should love South Africa more….

Read full text: South Africa and Zuma’s machine gun