Division over anti-apartheid activist's decision to run as opposition's presidential candidate

Political analysts in South Africa are divided on whether renowned anti-apartheid activist Mamphela Ramphele's surprise announcement that she will stand as presidential candidate for the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) will have much effect on this year's general elections Less than a year after she launched a political party called Agang SA, Ramphele, a former World Bank managing director, stunned her own supporters when she stood along DA leader Helen Zille at a Jan. 29 media briefing in Cape Town, confirming her candidacy. Although her move was widely welcomed on social networks, Ramphele faced internal revolt within Agang SA. Senior party officials accused her of betraying what she claimed to stand for. There were also rumblings of discontent with the DA, with many claiming they had not been consulted. Political analyst Steven Friedman, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at The University of Johannesburg, said the DA had committed an error of judgement. Ramphele, he said, had no constituency and could not claim a history within South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC), which is considered a vote-catching quality. Friedman said Agang SA hand been a "non-starter". This observation is borne out by poll results published earlier in January by research organization Ipsos, suggesting that Agang SA would attract less than one percent of South African voters. According to Friedman, those who supported Ramphele's latest move were most likely DA supporters already. He said Ramphele would be unlikely to draw voters away from the ANC, which attracted 64 percent of the vote in the previous general elections in 2009. January's Ipsos poll gave the opposition DA a maxima of 19 percent of this year's vote, up from 16.7 percent in 2009. However, Jos Kuper of South African research organization Futurefact, said 43 percent of black South Africans have confidence in Ramphele. "Up to now the DA has battled to attract black support as it has lacked credible black leadership and black South Africans appear to be reluctant to vote for a party they feel is dominated by whites. Ramphele as leader of the DA could effectively prevent the ANC from playing the race card and conceivably offer voters a way- out," he said. Kuper's analysis suggests the DA has made a good strategic move. However, Gwede Mantashe, ANC secretary general, described Ramphele's announcement as a "rent a black" ploy designed to mislead voters about the nature of the DA. Ramphele, who has long been courted by the DA, has previously distanced herself from the party. In her new autobiography "A Passion for Freedom", published in January, she explains why she declined to join the DA, although she was offered leadership of that party. One of her reasons was, "I did not believe that the English-speaking white supporters of the DA understood the inequities visited on the majority in the country and the consequences of their perpetuation for the quality of our democracy". Ramphele did not respond to questions about what has changed since then. In its Jan. 30 editorial comment, The Citizen newspaper in Johannesburg said DA leader Zille has often accused South African President Jacob Zuma of using a policy of "jobs for pals" when making appointments. Yet now she might be accused of hypocrisy by doing the same thing. "Zille says Mamphela Ramphele is her friend. At Tuesday's press conference she said they'd known each other since the 1980s, they'd worked together at the University of Cape Town, and they'd brought up children together". The newspaper said this friendship must be the strongest reason for bringing Ramphele on board as the DA's presidential candidate. "There can be little else. Ramphele's fledgling party was imploding, with defections and rumblings about her leadership style and lack of consultation. Her poll ratings were abysmal. Ramphele's formal political career was almost over before it began, until her friend rescued her," the paper said. The Citizen said the DA's federal executive was divided over the approach to Ramphele, who circumvented that party's elaborate candidate selection process. "Whatever the future holds for Ramphele, 66, she won't be the president of South Africa. There is no way the DA will win the 2014 general election", The Citizen said. Ramphele bore two children by anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who was murdered by apartheid security police in September 1977. An activist in her own right, she is a medical doctor who helped develop rural medicine in South Africa's Eastern Cape province and in her home province of Limpopo. In 2000 Ramphele was appointed a vice-president and managing director of the World Bank, where she stayed in 2004. Before that she served a four-year term as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, where she was senior to Zille, who became DA leader in 2007. In South African terms, Ramphele is wealthy, disclosing in 2013 that she had a net worth of 55 million rand (now about 4.8 million U.S. dollars). In 2012 she was involved in controversy when details emerged of the involvement of convicted criminals in a black economic empowerment deal at South African mining company Gold Fields, where she had been chairman. Ramphele denied having a hand in the deal. The date for this year's South African elections has yet to be announced. It is expected to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the country's first democratic elections on April 27.