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Leadership and the ANC: The Thabo Mbeki Era in South Africa

South Africa has been considered a bastion of democracy on the continent of Africa since its first fully democratic election in 1994. Yet, under its second president since apartheid, Thabo Mbeki, the consolidation of South Africas democratic gains tended to slow or even stagnate.
This thesis develops a theoretical backdrop by explaining competing theories of leadership and development in Africa. With Thabo Mbekis promotion of the African Renaissance he should be considered to of promoted a good governance model of growth and leadership within South Africa. To determine whether Mbeki actively followed through in implementing good governance practices as leader of South Africa and the ANC this thesis analyzes three aspects of the African National Congress (ANC): centralization, corruption and the 2007 leadership succession. Through this analysis of these three aspects of the ANC under Mbeki the thesis moves to determine whether the former president should be considered to have cultivated a good governance regime while in office or whether his leadership of South Africa embraced more neopatrimonial logic.<p>
This study finds that under Mbeki neopatrimonialism expanded significantly, particularly within the ruling ANC, and can to a certain extent be used to explained Mbekis actions while president of South Africa. Despite actively promoting a good governance agenda this thesis argues that Mbeki contributed to the stagnation of democratic gains in South Africa. This legacy will continue to effect future South African leaders including Mbekis arch-rival Jacob Zuma.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-07102009-120812
Date05 August 2009
CreatorsKlippenstein, Chad Ellis
ContributorsSteeves, Jeffrey, Newman, Dwight, Deonandan, Kalowatie, Michelmann, Hans
PublisherUniversity of Saskatchewan
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-07102009-120812/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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