South Africa goes to the polls next month. In all previous
elections, the African National Congress has won big majorities in
parliament.
There is no doubt that the ANC will win the
forthcoming election too, albeit with a diminished majority. But to
what end the expected win?
The ANC has a unique
character in African political history. It is the oldest political party
in Africa, having been formed in 1912.
It is the only
party in Africa that has an ideological grounding. In its 1955 Freedom
Charter, the party advocated equitable distribution of wealth, equality
of races, ethnicities and genders.
Unlike parties in other African countries, the ANC is a party of intellectuals and people of great moral authority.
Contestation
for leadership in the ANC is a contest of ideological positions.
Winners are those able to successfully lobby for the support of the
different ideological shades within the party.
Thus,
for instance, Zuma won leadership by getting the support of the powerful
left-leaning Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
His predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, won by gaining the support of the intellectuals and business friendly groups.
Cyril Ramaphosa was supported by the pro-business caucus and, because of his former trade union role, by Cosatu.
In
contrast, parties in Kenya are tribal outfits cobbled together in order
to capture power for their leaders and, according to coded party
propaganda, for the leader’s ethnic group.
The war
cry, “It is our turn to eat,” expressed in a variety of ways, rallies
the tribe to come together to capture power in order to gain exclusive
“eating” rights.
Contestation for top leadership is a mockery of human intelligence as the outcome is pre-determined.
There
was no doubt William Ruto would head the United Republican Party, or
that Uhuru Kenyatta and Kalonzo Musyoka would lead The National Alliance
and Wiper Party respectively, etc.
And yet despite the unique character of the ANC, voting in South Africa has come to resemble that in other African countries.
Elections
have become a social calendar event with no relationship to welfare of
people. In democratic theory, elections give citizens the opportunity to
weigh various competing policies and vote for people and party who will
best advance their interests.
Prior to the last
election in Kenya, a political observer said that even if the cost of
bread increased six-fold, those who had woken up at 3am to vote for
Uhuru Kenyatta in the previous election would wake up at the same hour
to cast their vote for him again.
Elections in Africa
have become divorced from their purpose. That is why millions will vote
for Museveni no matter that their situation has not improved.
And
before he was ousted by the army, millions would vote for Robert Mugabe
despite painful evidence that he had no agenda other that
self-perpetuation in power.
When he was deposed, tens of thousands, many of whom had no doubt voted for him, danced in the streets.
Compare
this with the UK in 1945. Winston Churchill had just won an apocalyptic
war with Nazi Germany. He had rallied the British and the world against
an unstoppable Nazi war machine when all seemed lost.
People
still respected him and recognised him as one of the greatest figures
of the 20th century, but in their estimation, his politics and policies
did seem apt for the post-war challenges. They voted him out.
By
any measure, the ANC has been a failure. The South African economy
continues to contract. Unemployment remains one of the highest in the
world.
There seems to be no solution in sight for power
outages and water shortages. Crime continues to claim thousands of
lives every year, and the country has the dubious distinction of being
the “rape capital of the world.”
South Africa has also
failed to be a significant player in world diplomacy. For years, the
country gave material and moral support to the dictatorship of Robert
Mugabe.
South Africa opposed the International Criminal
Court’s efforts to hold African leaders accountable for crimes against
humanity. Corruption in South Africa is so crippling, citizens have
devised a new term for it – “state capture.”
The ANC
has likewise failed to transform itself into a post-nationalist party in
order to deal with the challenges of post-Apartheid South Africa.
Bereft
of hope, South African see African migrants as the problem and lynch
them. The world watches with horror as South Africa begins to take a
familiar trajectory.
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