ANC delegates should be guided by the country's state of affairs when electing a new leader.

ANC delegates should be guided by the country's state of affairs when electing a new leader.

When he stepped down, Madiba had his own preference because of the available pool of able leaders in the movement.

But understanding the challenges, consensus had to be reached to collectively lobby for Thabo Mbeki as head. Mbeki managed to position South Africa as an important player in world and economic affairs.

But today's challenges are different. The ANC is riddled with disunity and suspicion and lacks comradeship. It took a man of Madiba's calibre to harmonise tensions between exiles, political prisoners and the UDF, with the objective of ensuring cohesion as the struggle moves to another dimension. The ANC desperately needs the Madiba touch.

I believe that JZ is the kind of leader who can live up to the new challenge.

Besides his personal problems, his commitment to the struggle is unquestionable. He is a friend of the workers, is respected by business and minorities and is a champion of the poor.

The world wants to listen to his ideas. The ANC needs a leader who will harmonise relations among all the stakeholders to effectively carry out poverty alleviation, crime busting and its other programmes.

Matome Maponya, Pretoria