Constitutionalism and Leadership Renewal in the African National Congress: Lessons for Other African States

This chapter places South Africa’s smooth leadership renewalLeadership renewal in the broader debates on political transitionPolitical transition and democratic consolidationDemocratic consolidation in Africa. Unique to other revolutionaryRevolutionary political parties across the continent, the ANC preceding presidents have exhibited significant respect for the party and national constitutionConstitution and step down whenever such calls are constitutionally sanctioned. Nelson Mandela voluntarily relinquished power and constitutional provisions were successfully evoked to induce the resignation of his two successors, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma respectively. Considering experiences obtained in other African countries with regard to leadership renewalLeadership renewal, the ANC’s experience can be viewed as a success story, despite some cracks which also appear in the ANC constitutionConstitution and the tendency of the party to embrace a political culture exhibited by other revolutionaryRevolutionary parties in the region. Leadership renewalLeadership renewal has been a nightmare for many post-independent African countries. In some parts of the continent, the legitimacy crisisLegitimacy crisis over leadership metamorphosed into a socio-economic and political crisis with devastating effects on the well-being of the citizens. It is from this backdrop that this chapter examines the contribution of leadership renewalLeadership renewal to constitutionalismConstitutionalism and the promotion of democracyDemocracy in South Africa. The chapter further examines the lessons that can be learnt by other revolutionaryRevolutionary parties from the South African experience in order to democratise political transitionsPolitical transition and avert potential conflicts associated with political transitionsPolitical transition in the region. This is notwithstanding the fact that, while the ANC has demonstrated a strong adherence to constitutionalismConstitutionalism, it is also overwhelmed by its failure to address a number of socio-economic challenges that continue to afflict the country and the generality of its citizens. The findings relied upon secondary data.