Arresting currents of instability in South Africa

Makwaia wa Kuhenga Daily News; Friday,August 08, 2008 @09:36

Also in the News Children belong not to you! Manager in a manger to oversee 'SCRAPER DEALERS' Those budding criminals! Goodbye Bhoke Munanka Arresting currents of instability in South Africa No one is going to Dodoma ! My name is Fisadi Jones Bunge should fix pressing media failings Child development an interesting subject neglected by most parents Some African electoral systems need adjustments "Mbeki is the Head while Zuma is our Heart and Soul…" - A placard carried by striking South African workers. A FLUID but potentially explosive situation has arisen in South Africa, which may engulf that powerful African neighbouring country into feats of instability. The head of the ruling African National Congress of South Africa billed to become the next president of South Africa, Mr Jacob Zuma, is facing charges of corruption, fraud, money-laundering and racketeering, a ruling of which case will be made next month. But elections are due in South Africa next year and the ANC is billed to win those elections. So here we are presented with a situation where a presidential candidate of that party is facing criminal charges. Jacob Zuma is contesting those charges, as "politically motivated" asserting there was no case to answer asking the court to dismiss the charges. Filed side by side with these charges of corruption, Mr Zuma had earlier been tried for rape, charges of which the court found him not guilty. As former vice-president of South Africa, complete with state security details down at the residence, Mr Zuma was alleged to have "raped" a lady visitor next room in his residence who, it was alleged was HIV positive! That was the case, which attracted considerable media attention internationally because of the drama, and attendant defamation that goes to a holder of public office. After this, Mr Zuma was left still landed with the current criminal charges. In the intervening period after his acquittal, Mr Zuma proceeded to contest the presidency of the ruling ANC, rivalling the incumbent President of South Africa, Mr Thabo Mbeki. He won comfortably, presenting the country with a rather awkward situation where the president of the country does not combine with the hat of president of the ruling party. A vice-president of South Africa earlier, Mr Zuma was fired from his post when his name was linked to a corruption case. It was therefore very interesting to see the president and his former deputy contesting the position of president of the ruling party without neither of them stepping down in mutual respect of another. But both men were able to compete with a plausible level of civility, looking at each other straight in the eye, shaking hands amicably and showing no signs of enmity. But here we are. The man who defeated his former boss in the Pretoria State House is facing criminal charges, which may mean going to jail if convicted. But this man is apparently very popular, not only generally in the country and the labour movement, but with the South African ruling party, the ANC, that he presides over. The placard quoted at the beginning of this perspective puts it in a clearer perspective. But crimes are crimes -- the law has to take its cause. But and that is a big BUT. If one looks at an earlier trial in which we saw Mr Zuma acquitted in a rape case, there are a number of factors that one has to take into account, that is, going by the assertion by Mr Zuma that the charges against him may be politically motivated. It is possible, looking at the scenario of private capital in South Africa that there are powerful interest groups that are apprehensive of Mr Zuma's political disposition as someone who is bound to shake up the divide between the haves and have-nots in that country. Those private capital interest groups in South Africa are certainly allied to international private capital, which are bent to see the continuation of the status quo when a powerful minority group controls the wealth of that country. The reality, according to a South African statistics survey released this year, ten per cent of the population in South Africa earned more than 50 per cent of the national income while the poorest 40 per cent accounted for less than 7 per cent of the national economy. Which translates simply that whereas there may be majority rule in South Africa following the end of apartheid, the status quo in terms of economic landscape continues as it was in the apartheid days. What was billed as "xenophobic" attacks by blacks in South Africa against resident visitors to South Africa from neighbouring countries could be described as something of a reaction from someone receiving unexpected guests in his household when there is barely anything to eat if nothing at all in the house! There is also another factor. South Africa is not devoid of other divides such as tribal divides as in the rest of Africa. So these differences coupled with widening gap between the haves and have-nots in the country is certainly an adequate recipe for violence and instability in that country. One hopes really that while justice must be seen to take its course against anyone of whatever public standing, realities on the ground may dictate a far-sighted and balanced judgment by those vested with the pillars of state power. South Africa should be the last country in Africa to be embroiled into fratricidal instability.

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Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
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