After this column’s recent heavy West Africa focus, it comes as an interesting adventure to contemplate once again the condition of South Africa. The wave of emotion that washed over global consciousness after the passing in December of Nelson Mandela – Madiba – has subsided. Cooler analyses are now being made of the present political situation, with more probes into the national mood at this auspicious moment. Indeed Madiba’s departure already provoked a measure of national stock-taking in the week of his funeral celebrations. I use the word ‘celebration’ deliberately, as many others did, saying that here was a life that above all had to be celebrated. Nothing jarred the joy and reverence of the orations, such as the eloquent one of President Obama, in the stadium in Johannesburg more than the persistent booing of President Jacob Zuma. This appeared to be a spontaneous expression of disgust and disappointment, rather an orchestrated show – an expression of the widespread feeling that the African National Congress, one of Africa’s greatest political parties, was, sadly enough, in the process of abusing Mandela’s heritage, although not, it is sincerely hoped, irredeemably, in view of its historic role in Africa.
The focus has now dramatically switched to the forthcoming general elections to be held in April- July. The vote will be for a National Assembly as well as provincial assemblies in all nine provinces. The new National Assembly will elect the president. The elections will come twenty years after the celebrated 1994 elections, the first multi-racial elections in the country, which marked its arrival for the first time at full democracy. I was in South Africa at that time as an observer for the European Union, which meant that I spent two months divided between Kwazulu-Natal (where I was an observer) and Johannesburg, where I spent ten days helping with media relations in the EU offices. Nearer the anniversary I may delve further into my memory bank, but here I only want to recall what a profoundly moving thing it was to see people queuing up at polling stations for the precious voting experience, dreamed of for so long.
The memory also floods back because for me twenty years ago was a very different place and time, a critical moment in my own Africna itinerary. I was coming out of a period of acute demoralisation atWest Africa magazine in 1993, when I had suffered critically from a management that President Babangida, in his Machiavellian cynicism, had installed at the Daily Times in Lagos. It was the late Tunji Oseni, the estimable Managing Director installed after Babangida left power, who let me take two months off in South Africa as part of me rehabilitation. The transforming experience was important to rebuild my confidence, even if my return to authority was followed by more ordeals.
The trigger for these thoughts was a meeting held here at the Business Council for Africa with Mamphela Ramphele, leader of a new opposition political party, called Agang SA, launched in South Africa in June 2013. For the BCA this was an important event as it has been trying to raise its South Africa profile as part of its continental stance. Dr Ramphele first entered politics some forty years ago in the Black Consciousness Movement with Steve Biko (assassinated by the apartheid regime in 1977) but her career has taken her to other pastures, including Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town (1996) and as one of four Managing Directors at the World Bank (from 2000). She returned later to business appointments in South Africa, but felt increasing pressure to enter politics because of a growing sense of crisis in the country. Agang (the world means ‘build’ in Sesotho, one of South Africa’s eleven languages) is committed to constitutional democracy and describes herself as a “social entrepreneur”.
Asked why she has decided to enter politics in her mid-sixties she says that “twenty years is too long to stand on the sidelines and watch a beautiful country slide into crisis”. The ANC had ceased to “care for ordinary people” and her purpose was to “restore dignity”. This was the first election where the ANC did not have the shield of Mandela, with no “assurance of winning” and its alliance with the workers was beginning to break down. Her programme was based on fighting corruption and restoring standards in education.
Speaking with great clarity, she accepts that she can only concentrate effectively on five provinces. Most observers recognise Agang is not aiming to win, but, since others are campaigning against the ruling party from different quarters, such as the extreme radical Julius Malema, there may be a chance that the present ANC majority may be eaten away sufficiently to trigger a wider fragmentation. The odds, however, are still on a ruling party victory, using not just incumbency but their enormous hold on the South African psyche. Optimists hope, however, that the present post-Mandela mood could trigger rethink and even reform. Perhaps.
By: Kaye Whiteman
