Tribal Warfare - by any other name
South Africa, it certainly appears, hit its apogee of political and social success under the tutelage, influence and political ascent of Nelson Mandela. Its morals and ethical underpinnings sustained by Bishop Desmond Tutu; truly a formidably respected pair of celebrated heroes. They responded handsomely to the desperate needs of their country at a critical time in its development after the fall of the detested Apartheid regime, denounced the world over.South Africa's love affair with itself, with its vision of its place in the world as a defender of human rights, a surging adventure into the future of stable government ensuring fair treatment to all its people, wedded to justice and equality appears to have peaked. Perhaps the descent began as early as the ascent to the leadership of the country of the aristocratic but uninformed Thabo Mbeki.
Whose blighted understanding of the horrendous plight awaiting his people through the rampant spread of HIV/AIDS was responsible for enabling the disease to orphan so many of the country's children through ignorant neglect and deliberate governmental inaction. His support of a minister of health whose own ignorant stupidity far surpassed his own was unforgivable.
His government's slow and inadequate response to the needs of its vast impoverished underbelly, despite the fervent promises of steps to be enacted geared to meet the critical needs of decent housing and employment was another failure. And, latterly, his personal involvement in supporting the presidency of Zimbabwe's lunatic destroyer was truly unforgettable as the morally bankrupt behaviour of a failed political elder.
The election of Jacob Zuma to the party presidency of the African National Congress thumped another nail into the coffin of a responsible government. The tribal pugnaciousness that led Zulus to enthusiastically support a politician known for the level of his corruption, and besmirched irredeemably by his rape of a family friend suffering from HIV/AIDS, excused by his admission of having "protected" himself by showering, nailed the coffin lid into place.
So now, the politics of South Africa have become somewhat more complex, with the ANC split now into two, with the advent of the dissenting Congress of the People. Many of the ANC's original supporters, inclusive of founding members, have deserted their old anti-Apartheid party, to form one they describe as multiracial and multicultural, advocating a return to democratic values, lost within the current mandate of the ANC.
Where, according to the new party's leader, Mosiuoa Lekota, formerly South Africa's defence minister, dissent and liberating discussions are no longer tolerated, and where "intimidation and paralyzing fear is now gripping sections of society" illustrative of the new ANC's repressive ways of destabilizing its opposition by threat and intimidation.
Each party claims itself the rightful inheritor of the new South Africa, the stout defender of the poor and the trade unions. The party leaders cast hostile aspersions on one another, and it's clear that the two parties are conducting a public opinion war against each other's claims to legitimacy, each claiming to be the trustworthy and moral choice to reflect Nelson Mandala's inheritance.
Where some see dismal failure, in a modern apparition of tribal antagonisms and self-destruction, others, like the editor of South Africa's 'Times' newspaper, claim that these divisions are demonstrative of political maturity. "We are finally becoming the democracy we promised the world in 1994."
Guess you just have to start looking at things through rose-coloured glasses.
Labels: Political Realities, Societal Failures, Traditions
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, December 17, 2008
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