The cartoonist, aka, Brandon, could not have drawn the nation's collective despair more accurately when he this week likened South Africa Inc to an aeroplane in flames, nosediving out of control, ever downwards to the envitable deadly crash.
The South African state is imploding in front of our eyes. Although there is not a moment to spare, we can still avoid the coming crash, if we act quickly enough. But firstly, there has to be an official acknowledgement that there is a crisis. Astonishingly, denial of the crisis remains the mainstay of President Thabo Mbeki and leading officials in his Pretoria bunker. The terrible xenophobic violence sweeping the country, is but one deadly symptom of the leadership vacuum, in the ANC, government and the country. The ANC is now almost functioning like two seperate parties: Mbeki in charge of government, and Jacob Zuma heading the party proper. But unless, the leadership in the ANC is sorted, there is little prospect of fixing the country's mountain of problems.
Because of the failure of the state, whether to protect ordinary citizens against crime, provide electricity, or to help families living in desperate poverty, the very legitimacy of the state is now being undermined.
Just the mere fact that citizens are taking the law into their own hands on such a scale as the horrific attacks against African immigrants, is an indication that although pockets of government are seemingly working, the state is quickly losing its authority. Even in the response to the xenophobic violence, it has been individuals, non-governmental organisations and civil groups that have quickly responded. The government has been paralysed. President Mbeki's authority has long been eroded. The ANC's hold on its members are also loosening fast. In the provinces, branches and affiliate structures of the ANC, ordinary differences have now turned into violent conflict. The ANC Youth League's shamefully violent, chaotic conference, with its dodgy elections, early this year, where even the national ANC leadership present could not stamp their authority, is a case in point.
This is a nothing but national emergency, which calls for extraordinary steps. Parliament must be dissolved. Next year's general election must be brought forward to give government a new mandate. Mbeki must step down as president immediately. The ANC must call a special national conference to make the leadership decision, rather than wait for the provincial conferences to be completed by spring or for a list conference thereafter. Because this is a national emergency, the ANC leadership must offer the job as South African President to ANC deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, who is since last week a Member of Parliament, making it a practical possibility. If not, the job must be given to ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa or ANC NEC member Cyril Ramaphosa, both who have been elected to the inner sanctum of the ANC at the party's national conference last December. Zuma can remain president of the ANC. This will be an extraordinary step, but not an unprecedented one for the ANC. When the ANC was banished in the early 1960s, and its core leaders, such as Nelson Mandela sent to Robben Island Prison by the apartheid government, Oliver Tambo, was lifted into the presidency of the ANC. All three leaders, Motlanthe, Phosa and Ramaphosa, present not only a clear generational change, but a clean break from the two factions currently paralysing government and the ANC.
What cannot be disputed anymore is that South Africa has arrived at a ‘tipping point' in its post-1994 history. The black majority has now reached the point where they want the democratic dividend of the democracy. Their much talked about patience has to come to an end. They are not prepared anymore to listen patiently to ANC leadership injunctions to wait for the benefits of the post-1994 economic growth spurt to trickle down to them, while comrades who are more politically connected flaunt their new found riches. They want jobs, food, affordable education, healthcare, electricity, public transport and other social services. They want it now.
The devastating cascading effects of high interest rates, rampant food and fuel inflation, combined with poor delivery of basic services and public corruption, is a ready catalyst for a volcanic eruption by those left out of the country's prosperity, unless there is immediate action. Furthermore, the majority want their voices to be heard by government, democratic institutions and the ANC. This is the clear message from the wave of local protests against poor service delivery that has preceded the xenophobic violence. The terrible xenophobic violence is yet another outlet, if misguided, for the anger of the masses. So far, Mbeki and the government have ignored these voices. The signs from the Union Building are still not very encouraging. If government remains deaf, we must expect the crash of SA inc.
Yet, Mbeki and his leadership have remained astonishingly insular, arrogant and bullying. Only the other week Finance Minister Trevor Manuel stone-heartedly played down the real-life urgency of high food prices. Manuel astonishingly said the government is reluctant to provide emergency relief to families struggling desperately to make ends meet, because of the effects of the food, fuel and other crises, because the recipients will spent it on alcohol. We have lost our humanity.
The jumping ship of Mbeki's key allies: deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, public enterprises minister Alec Erwin, minister in the presidency Essop Pahad, and director-general in the presidency, Frank Chikane, who have all announced the past weeks they are retiring, is a clear sign for the president, to rather than wait until his mandate expires next year, to leave now. If not, further crises looming on the horizon, combined with his lame-duck status, may bring a crash of SA inc closer.
In some circles, at home and abroad, many are now, understandingly, in sheer desperation, willing for Zuma to take over as quickly as possible. Yet, this will not end the leadership vacuum in the ANC and the country, but merely prolonging it. Whatever the reasons for Zuma's election as president of the ANC in December, whether it was a protest vote against Mbeki or whether he is geniunely popular, is not the issue. What is more important, is that in spite of his popularity, the opposition within and outside the ANC against Zuma is intense. In spite of all his merits, it is difficult to imagine, a leader as morally compromised as Zuma, effectively leading the rejuvenation of democracy within the ANC and South Africa.
Even if Mbeki is gone, Zuma's continuing legal battles, will continue to paralyse government, erode public confidence and undermine democratic institutions. Zuma, must now take his cue from Oskar Lafontaine, the former popular leader of the German Social Democrats, when he, although at the time the most widely supported among the party's feuding factions, sacrificed himself for the sake of the country and the party, when he stepped aside, for a less divisive, and more unifying leader.
In the ANC's near century of existence, the Left, have often come to the movement's rescue whenever it's morall compass went astray. Now, the Left itself appears to have no broader, comprehensive and imaginative vision for the totality of SA inc. The need for the rejuvenation of the country's democracy, stagnant political culture and democratic institutions, demands for more imaginative ways, fresh ideas and leaders, to deal with poverty, unemployment and inequality. Zuma is too compromised, Mbeki too discredited. And the Left currently too consumed by capturing the ANC, seeking revenge and adolizing flawed leaders.
*William Gumede is the author of Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC - Published by Zed Books (http://zedbooks.co.uk [1]). His latest book, 'The Democracy Gap - Africa's Wasted Years', will be published later this year.
First Published on Pambazuka News 6/5/2008 (http://www.pambazuka.org/ [2])