Why South African politicians campaign at funerals

TO BECOME a leader of South Africa's ruling party takes a talent for speaking sideways. The African National Congress (ANC) forbids open campaigning for leadership positions, a holdover from more secretive times as an underground resistance movement. Instead, during ANC election years such as this one, politicians turn up at a succession of Sunday church services, memorial lectures and funerals of party stalwarts to give thinly disguised stump speeches. The trick is saying enough, but not too much, since flagrant campaigning can mean disciplinary action.The outdated rules will be challenged at an ANC policy conference in late June. But for now, ahead of a five-yearly leadership vote in December, where Jacob Zuma will be replaced as party president (though his term as the country's president lasts until 2019), covert campaigning persists.The queen of the non-campaign event is Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former head of the African Union who hopes to succeed her ex-husband. She pops up at everything from an 'Israeli Apartheid Week' lecture in the mining-belt city of Rustenburg to the opening of a megachurch in Thokoza township. Though jobless at present, Ms...Continue reading
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