Leading analysts believe the ruling party’s claims while dismissed by some should be taken seriously and debated
Jaspreet Kindra
The South African government has wined and dined the developed world consistently. Yet, claims the African National Congress, the First World, including the European Union, is undermining the black-run government.
The party’s claim was the subject of a serious debate at the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting last weekend.
Former president Nelson Mandela, who also attended the meeting, has suggested methods to combat these “concerted efforts” to undermine African countries, particularly South Africa.
ANC secretary general Thenjiwe Mthintso told the Mail & Guardian this week that criticism on issues surrounding Zimbabwe and HIV/Aids were used as “entry points to discredit the president [Thabo Mbeki] they wish to prove that the ANC is incapable of leading … Africans are not capable.”
While the allegations were dismissed in certain circles, leading political analysts believe the claims, coming from the ruling party, should be taken seriously and debated.
Political analysts Tom Lodge and Steven Friedman, while admitting that investor countries in the developed world were influenced by the “Africa is a basket case” kind of perceptions, sought to point out that that reality should not be used as an excuse for the government’s own inadequacies.
And Lodge asked cynically: “Was Africa ever on the First World’s agenda that there should be a conspiracy to undermine it?”
Raising the ANC’s ire was last week’s criticism by a visiting EU delegation of the South African government’s handling of the HIV/Aids crisis in the country.
ANC national representative Smuts Ngonyama said: “Given the fact that they were in the country only for a few days, they were being too judgemental.”
Government representative Joel Netshitenzhe has already described the visiting EU delegation’s criticism as a sign of arrogance.
The EU’s Claude Moraes expressed concern about Ngonyama’s remarks: ” As deputy chair of the delegation, I felt that the government is doing a good job in the face of a huge problem, and I particularly felt this came across at the meeting with the new health minister. “As one of the few Members of the European Parliament [MEP] from a non-white background I am of South Indian origin my whole approach was to see how we as MEPs can help the South African government deal with the crisis, working in partnership with the ANC government.”
Endorsing Mbeki’s recent pronouncements that those criticising the government’s handling of the Zimbabwe crisis were racist, Mthintso said the “fundamental question that is in the minds of the people is: can blacks rule?”.
She said even South Africans “who ought to be looking at the bigger picture”, were like members of the developed world, unwilling to make an exception in the case of a “credible” African government like South Africa.
She said the ANC by establishing links with the other ruling parties on the continent and through bodies such as the Socialist International, where the race divide is also very obvious was attempting to “take back the agenda [of undermining the countries of the developing world] to them [the countries in the developed world].”
This strategy had flowed from advice by Mandela, who had suggested that the party devise a programme of action at the various structures to develop a political understanding of the world in relation to the ANC’s part in it.
In an obvious reference to criticism levelled by the Democratic Alliance, Mthintso pointed out that “the issue of nation-building should cross the political divide. It is quite critical. We must be able to divide and separate the issues around the ANC as an organisation.”
Friedman, who runs the Centre for Policy Studies, pointed out that the ANC’s statements are significant “considering Mbeki has hardly been a Castro or Nyerere”. Both Cuban President Fidel Castro and the first president of Tanzania Julius Nyerere ostracised the First World and tried to develop self-sufficient economies.
He referred to the effort the ANC, under Mbeki’s leadership, has put into pursuing platforms in the developed world such as the recent World Economic Forum summit in Davos and the adoption of the First World-approved macroeconomic policy.
Friedman said the ANC’s public criticism of the EU and the developed world could be due to one of three factors:
l A sign of frustration arising from the fact that the centralised system of governance Mbeki has sought to adopt has failed to keep party discipline and the government functioning efficiently. “He is running the government as he ran the party in exile when they were fraught with paranoia and had to watch out for conspiracies.”
l Development of a double conscience, as many of the members of the developing world have done mainly to appeal to the popular anti-developed world sentiment in the country and party structures while still hobnobbing with institutions such as the World Bank to maintain financial and other support.
l Or an attempt to tell the First World to leave the country alone.
Friedman said there is “overwhelming evidence of the perception that blacks are incapable of running a sophisticated country that prevails among many white people in the developed world, as well as in South Africa”.
He referred to a time when the rand plummeted because a coloured man, Trevor Manuel, was announced as the country’s finance minister. But that shouldn’t be used as an excuse to cloud the government’s failure to address issues efficiently, he added.
Lodge referred to an explanation by Minister in the President’s Office Essop Pahad that a strong stand on the Zimbabwe crisis would lead to the country’s collapse, which would have a devastating effect on the South African economy: “How can an outright condemnation of Robert Mugabe lead to such a crisis?” Lodge said investor countries from the First World are influenced by such public stands.
The problem, Friedman pointed out, also lies in criticism coming from the white sections of the community including the opposition party, the DA which is largely white.
Lodge felt that the blame lay with both the ANC and the DA. Despite the DA’s valid criticism, “the situation in Zimbabwe is very, very tricky and the DA and other critics have failed to suggest plausible alternatives”. And the opposition has often responded to the government’s inadequacies with “vindictive glee”.
He agreed with Mthintso that the opposition should be non-partisan on foreign policy issues, which are of national interest. But then, the onus lay with the ANC to invite the DA to make an input in foreign policy, he said.