The ANC conference

My wife came in while I was working in my study, and said she had just seen a Sky News report on the ANC conference at Pholokwane, and ended by saying that it was very difficult to find out what Jacob Zuma stood for, and that if he ever became president, it would be a presidency more of style than of substance.

That puts it in a nutshell, I think.

Yesterday caught Thabo Mbeki's address on the radio. Not the whole two hours, but just the last half hour or so. He spoke of the movement losing its moral compass, of people who joined the ANC for personal gain and motives very different from its original ethos. Judging from the applause, he was scratching where it itches, for somo people anyway.

I don't usually listen to politicians' speeches on radio or TV -- they are usually too boring and filled with platitudes. But Mbeki spoke well. At least he has vision. One might not agree with everything in his vision, but at least he has one. But Zuma, as the TV reporter said, has style but no substance.