South Africa's Political
Wars Begin To Resemble Our Own
By Danny Schechter
Cape Town, South Africa: When I came to South Africa, I thought I was escaping the way our news programs are totally dominated by political coverage even though the election is months away and everyone knows none of this polling and hyped-up speculation matters until October.
The fight between the Democrats and Republicans is an obscenely costly affair which none of our political pundits care to investigate in terms of why so much is being invested and what the likely payoffs will be, and to whom.
Business Day, The Wall Street Journal of South Africa, featured an essay recently with a headline that offers insight into the motivation of politicians in both countries: "PUBLIC OFFICE JUST A WAY TO PILLAGE THE STATE."
In the US, of course, we have
two principal parties, almost like two wings on a plane. The Republicans, now
the captive of the hard right and the Democrats, firmly ensconced in the
center, partial to corporations but with some issues and positions that appeal
to liberals and even, parts of the left.
Obama is posturing at being a progressive on domestic social issues while refusing to crack down on Wall Street fraud, and promoting Bush-style war on terror military interventions. Romney is running on a one point program: blame Obama for everything wrong in the world.
Both parties are beholden to
money and the people who supply it. We are talking billions! Of course, this
immense money power corrupts the whole system. The Supreme Court has just
ratified the decision that allows it.
In South Africa, corruption doesn't grow out of the competition between two parties with more in common that you'd think. Here, there's only one party that really matters--The African National Congress (ANC) that is riven by factions, ambitious politicians and an environment of jostling for power and position. Corruption is embarrassingly all too blatant while basic needs go unmet.
No one
quite expected this when the world cheered as Nelson Mandela was swept into
office in 1994. He had an ambitious program for ending poverty and transforming
the country. People spoke of the changes in South Africa as a "miracle,"
branding the country a "rainbow nation."
Reality quickly set it. Racial division was only one of many economic and social problems all impervious to quick fixes.
The government soon found that it had
to overcome many forms of resistance to change including the vested interests
of the business sector, the status quo orientation of international agencies
like the IMF and World Bank as well as the go-slow counsel of Britain and the
US.
A long
suppressed black middle class wanted what it thought was its due and wanted it
now! Inexperienced politicians luxuriated with new perks and fancy cars quickly
putting its needs as an elite ahead of demands from its constituencies.
Corruption soon surfaced and was
largely ignored. The unity of the liberation struggle gave way to power games
of every kind.
The Mail
&Guardian reports political
scientist Achille Mbembe saying in
a debate in Johannesburg, "after 18 years of relative complacency and
self-congratulatory gestures" the ANC was realizing South Africa was an
ordinary country and not a miracle.
South
Africa's miracle of the 90s "can now be better categorized as a stalemate", he
said. " One of the main tensions in South African politics is that its
constitutional democracy did not erase the apartheid landscape."
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