More vexing issues for South Africa

The New York Times recently printed an article on the lavish lifestyles led by the politicians in this country. This isn’t precisely in line with the problems South Africa is having in undertaking hosting of the World Cup, but it’s not entirely dissimilar, as it deals with a lot of the underlying wealth gap and poor governance issues.

One of the issues highlighted in the article is how much public money is being spent to allow Jacob Zuma and his 3 wives, 1 fiancé, and 20 children a comfortable lifestyle. But the issues are much bigger than that. Politicians in this country have a terrible reputation when it comes to corruption (Zuma himself has been on trial for this before), and the prevailing attitude about politicians in this country seems to be that they don’t get much accomplished nor care that much about the people, but rather they just want the chance to drive around fancy cars.

It does make one wonder about power sometimes. Of course South Africa’s problems are nowhere near those faced by Zimbabwe, for example (where the former leader of the opposition movement who once fought admirably for his people’s freedom subsequently managed to essentially turn into a dictator once he himself came into power). Even so, the people who come into power in this country, despite often coming from humble backgrounds, similarly seem to forget about the people who are still living in such poverty and instead only want their share of a fancy new car in the end. Ok, so that’s an extreme over-simplification of the political scene here, but I can say that “politicians” and “Mercedes” are two words that are used together ubiquitously, of course in a negative context, representing a public sentiment that cannot be entirely overlooked.

Aside from Zuma, who has been rather slow to declare his earnings and family expenditures despite the law requiring him to do so, the ANC Youth League’s president, Julius Malema has also come under intense scrutiny of late. (The ANC is the major political party here, largely responsible for instigating the transition to democracy in this country.) Malema originally was a proponent of having politicians declare where their money came from…until recently, when he doesn’t want to take part in such scrutiny himself. It was recently revealed that he owned shares in a number of companies that received large government contracts, though he said he was “unaware” he still held those positions with those companies. That’s certainly an interesting defense. Ugh…I guess power truly is corrupting and there’s no way around it?

Well, what all of these issues speak to is growing dissatisfaction with the ANC in general, and frankly, I don’t see that as an entirely bad thing. With the transition to democracy, the ANC was afforded near universal support in this country, and as such, they haven’t had to defend themselves too much. But I don’t think what essentially is a one-party system is the best route – I think it’s beneficial to have people call each other into question, and I do think South Africa is getting there. After all, the country is only 20 years old in its current form. Let’s just hope it keeps going down the right path.