Friday,
November 22, 2013
No one needs fear anything for
saying that South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma, is a very good example of a very
bad African leader in contemporary times. He is self-acquisitive and mindlessly
profligate. Talk about the sweetness of the flesh, and you will have him in
focus. His life style is on the loose!
Now, he has added another feather
to the collections in his cap. He has caused 20 million dollars of public funds
to be spent, refurbishing his private residence (See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25049641).
To worsen his public image, he
seems to be manipulating the Establishment to gag the press and prevent that
profligacy from being exposed. But he has misfired because the media have
published the picture of that house (a house equipped with a helipad and a
bunker, among others!)—all for his personal comfort while the millions of poor South
Africans supporting his political cause languish in squalor as the country’s
economy lags.
Only a lame-brain will support
such a project for self-gratification at the expense of the state and citizens.
President Zuma emerges as the
latest example of African leaders who give the wrong name to self-government.
He is one case of a walking contradiction, viewed within the context of what
the ANC and the moderate anti-Apartheid whites and Asian minorities that put
him in power stand for.
Africa abounds in such walking
contradictions. Tell me which African country hasn’t produced any self-seeking
leader like Jacob Zuma, and I will revise my notes. With such leaders, our
plight is sealed tight!
The sad commentary is that most
of these leaders spent many years in obscurity as nonentities only to be
favoured by Lady Luck to head their countries and run into fortune in the
corridors of power. There is very little to their credit as turning away from
such fortune or using it to improve governance for the benefit of the citizens.
A lot exists to confirm that they relish all that enters their domain and do
all they can to remain in power until swept away by irresistible forces. And they
can be vicious in attack too!!
Since the immediate
post-independence area to date, almost every African country has had the
unfortunate experience of being ruled by such characters—walking examples of profligacy
and wickedness.
While they amass wealth and
wallow in opulence, the millions of their compatriots have no option but to
face the scourge of excruciating poverty only to put in office at election time
worse dolts.
Some of the worst cases have
since died but their nasty legacy endures as a painful reminder of
self-government gone wrong!
A parade of such dead profligate
African leaders exists: Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire); Hastings Kamuzu Banda
(Malawi); Jean Bedel Bokasa (Central African Republic); Zambia’s Frederick Chiluba;
Gabon’s Omar Bongo; Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi; and Uganda’s Iddi Amin. Many more!
Many others are still alive and
in power, fleecing their countries’ coffers and colluding with foreign “vampire
systems” to exploit their own people: Equatorial Guinea’s Mbasoko Obiang and
his son Teodoro
Nguema Obiang Mangue; Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville and his son Christel Sassou
Nguesso; and many others whose names conjure revulsion.
Ghana’s
John Agyekum Kufuor caused millions to be spent on his private residence and
got away with the shame, even when a Kumasi-based Kofi Marfo (so-called farmer)
couldn’t stand the humiliation and offered the amount 41 million Cedis to make
up for what was at issue. The national coffers suffered.
Some
have been accused of high-level corruption but no one has been able to expose
their loot—whether saved at the Swiss Banks or secured in impenetrable vaults
on earth or under water! They are walking about, portraying themselves as
paragons of propriety, morality, and incorruptibility. They know themselves
just as we know them.
Others have lost their grip on
power and are paying dearly for their greed and wickedness: Liberia’s Charles
Taylor (languishing in jail to serve 50 years for crimes against humanity); Egypt’s
Hosni Mubarak (suffering much anguish and harvesting hatred for himself and his
family); Tunisia’s Zine Abedine (secure in the safe haven that Saudi Arabia has
given him after fleeing from the anger of his own people); and Chad’s Hissene
Habre (facing the grueling spectre of being returned to his homeland to face
justice); Malawi’s Rupiah Banda is being tried for corruption; and there are
many more.
Some have adroitly shifted the
burden of exploiting the system to the family members. Isabel Dos Santos, the
daughter of Jose Edouardo dos Santos of Angola, comes to mind. Gabon’s
Omar Bongo groomed his son (Ali Bongo, now the President of Gabon) to
protect his wealth, including the Presidency. Happenings in other countries
such as Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon,
among others, can’t be left out.
Now, the
troubling question is: Why are African leaders so unconscionable as to go this
way?
One clear
answer: Because they are more committed to cushioning themselves than using
their offices for the common good. They are more adept at manipulating the
system to personal advantage than using the enormous powers at their disposal
to implement policies and programmes for nation-building. And through trickery,
treachery, and chicanery, they always have their way.
Take the South
African case, for instance. The Establishment is being used to intimidate the
press so that the huge expenditure made on President Zuma’s private residence
will remain a secret. How could the project and the siphoning of all that money
not be known to the Legislature or anybody else?
What is
particularly unfortunate about this South African case must be clear to all.
Considering the history behind the rise to power of the ANC, one will not
struggle to adduce reasonably sound arguments that present President Zuma and
those supporting his run-away lifestyle as wayward self-seekers.
How much blood
didn’t the African natives shed to pave the way for a government chosen by the
citizens in a democratically determined manner to serve their needs? And to say
that it took them more than a century to have that power to elect their own
leaders, not to talk about the agonizing phases of all the forms of struggle
(peaceful protests to be met with brutal force from the racist Apartheid
system; acts of civil disobedience to be met with more stringent race-based
laws; and armed struggle to be met with the most ferocious power at the
disposal of the Nationalist Party government of the Afrikaners).
Anybody who has
his head properly screwed on his shoulders will grieve at the profligacy and
uncaring manner in which President Zuma is running South Africa.
What about the
self-denial and exemplary leadership demonstrated by Nelson Mandela to be
emulated by those at the helm of affairs? Has his self-sacrifice gone to vain
even as he gropes about in the twilight of his life?
Yet, this
President Zuma quickly snuggles to Madiba Mandela, especially in his frail
health situation, just to prove that he is still imbued with the nationalist
spirit that has occasioned the activities of the ANC since its formation in
1912. Jacob Zuma is a classic example of the leader that South Africa doesn’t
need at this time, especially not before Nelson Mandela passes on.
He is the only democratically
elected President in the world with 7 “legitimate” wives, married according to
tradition and custom. Apparently, he has an extra-ordinarily high libido that
sends him in all directions for the ultimate that he can’t ever satisfy. Now,
he has gone beyond reasonable bounds. Shameful.
He and King Mswati, III of Swaziland,
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, have set unenviable records for
which they stand condemned. Forget about the peculiarities of their ethnic
group’s norms on marriage. They don’t spend their own resources sustaining
their out-of-control lifestyles. Now that their appetites have spiraled out of
control, they endanger the very system that they head.
Marrying so many women and spending state resources on them is
inexplicable and unjustifiable. It is an atrocity against the people to be
punished, an insult that must be met with the contempt it deserves.
Much so for Jacob Zuma, knowing that much about his background. Beyond
the libidinal range, his interests in material things give him away as a
traitor of the ANC’s cause. I say so without any reservation but with a lot of
misgivings against a President whose machinations led to the removal of his
predecessor (Thabo Mbeki) from office under dubious circumstances. Talk about his
bribery and corruption trial too.
Considering the context within which he ascended to the highest office
of the land, one expects him to exercise his power judiciously to improve
conditions in the country. One expects him to outdo his predecessor(s) and make
a positive difference in life for the millions of South Africans (especially
the African natives who have over the centuries been deprived of decent living
standards just because they lack the clout to determine governance). The
contrary is stunning.
The recent mineworkers’ agitations, the rumpus within the ANC itself,
leading to the dismissal of the youth leader (Julius Malema), the disquiet at
the labour front because of low remunerations, the high crime rate, and near
despondency in the citizenry suggest that not much is being done under
President Zuma’s watch to solve the problems that the ANC has focused on as a
justification for its quest for power.
So, where do we stand as far as President Zuma’s leadership style is
concerned? Nowhere admirable. His is a sad commentary on self-governance gone
awry. Unless he seeks intelligence to redirect his efforts toward better things
to improve his own personal standing and straighten the line of governance, he
risks plunging the ANC into turmoil. And South Africa itself will be at the
crossroads!
The ANC breakaway faction might not have made gains at the previous
elections but it did send a disturbing signal across that the fault lines in
the ANC are deepening. Such fault lines cannot be sealed with the sordid
examples being set by Jacob Zuma and those supporting his self-gratification.
For as long as he turns to self-acquisition instead of a level-headed
use of national resources and political power, the time bomb that his rise to
power has set will continue to tick off toward a disastrous end. And when that
moment strikes, no one should blame the European colonizers or Apartheid for
the doom.
The power given the African nationalists is being misused. There are
many Jacob Zumas all over the place. And it is a curse to have them in charge
of national affairs.
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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