Oh, South African Politics…

I’ve already written about Jacob Zuma a couple of times, so I’ll refrain from talking further about him and his 20 children. Allow me to introduce you to Julius Malema, the leader of the ANC Youth League (the youth organization for the primary political party in this country). He is amazing brazen when it comes to public stunts. A few weeks ago, he was at a press conference talking about how people fighting politics in Zimbabwe shouldn’t be talking from their air-conditioned buildings in Sandton (an affluent Joburg neighbourhood), if they were serious they should be fighting on the ground in Zimbabwe. Then a white BBC reporter in the audience commented “you live in Sandton,” at which point Malema completely blew up and had the reporter thrown out, calling him a white bastard with “white tendencies” who doesn’t understand and doesn’t deserve to be in a building of revolutionaries. (It’s pretty outrageous if you want to see it.) That’s just one example. He is on record for saying many, many other things, as well as publically leading people in a song with lyrics “shoot the Boer” (the white Afrikaners) – which he claims was just a historical song, the singing of which was just meant to bring people together. The fact that he has such public backing is rather disturbing. Of course many people are starting to denounce him, including some higher-up ANC officials, but for him to have gotten where he is, you have to accept the fact that the things he believes in hit home to a significant number of people in this country. In particular, he has a lot of backing amongst the poorest people in this country. It’s hard to describe national feelings here (especially because it’s very different whether you’re talking to whites, rich blacks, or poor blacks), but I think South Africa has some very interesting years ahead of it and it remains to be seen exactly what direction it will head in. There are so many people in this country for whom life really hasn’t changed since apartheid, especially economically speaking. If Malema continues to rise through the ranks and inspire people with his hatred, having a leader who doesn’t set an example of practicing safe sex or remaining faithful may seem like nothing…

Just look at South Africa’s neighbour, Zimbabwe. What used to be the best-functioning country in Southern Africa, with a real education and health system, very productive farms, and a stable population, is now in absolute ruins. Why? Because of the appalling leadership of Mugabe (who, by the way, Malema readily supports and is even on record for saying he wants to follow the same land-seizure techniques). Mugabe, once the Zimbabwe liberation struggle’s leader, never gave up power and is running his country into the ground 30 years later. He forcefully removed all the white farmers from their land, and food production is so low that there isn’t enough food for people in a country that used to produce enough food to feed people all over Southern Africa. Of course that’s not to say white people are the only ones who suffer under Mugabe. His regime is very oppressive and his bad politics and ineptitude have meant education and healthcare are nothing what they used to be and the life expectancy has dropped significantly. Inflation is in the hundreds of thousands of percents, effectively making the currency worth nothing. Desperate people try to sneak into South Africa for work, but South Africans aren’t terribly keen on that idea (unfortunately, there are a lot of xenophobic sentiments here – in particular, people here don’t like the idea of foreigners taking their jobs when they themselves are so poor) . Perhaps most criminal is how other African countries in a position to put pressure on Mugabe to change – South Africa in particular – just don’t. Anyone who goes against Mugabe, he labels as falling in with the West and old colonial powers, which no African leader wants to be associated with. I just don’t know what’s going to happen with Zim. As Kristof talks about in an op-ed article in the Times, it’s rather disturbing that, decades after being liberated from harsh colonial rule, many people in Zimbabwe long for those times, because at least then they could eat.

This post isn’t to say that things are hopeless in Africa – quite the contrary – but obviously there are still some huge issues when it comes to leadership that cannot be ignored.