ARTICLE: "A future of division, factionalism, stagnation and patronage: The African National Congress under Jacob Zuma shows signs of losing its way," The Economist, 9 August 2008, p. 43.

The sanctification of the ANC always amuses me. It was a lead character in my PhD diss regarding Soviet bloc security aid to national liberation movements. Hey, when you actually turn Ho Chi Minh in time, you congratulate yourself.

The ANC basically runs South Africa as a single-party state, and it shows.

No one wants to toss them out of the Core, though, and that's reasonable, because the South Africans are natural economic integrators in southern Africa.

Plus, most "new" states start off in this manner, much like the U.S. itself for about ... six decades.