South Africa has many reasons to feel optimistic about 2005, with the economy gaining momentum, society becoming more unified and the country’s politics “returning to open dialogue”, says the official opposition leader.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said in his weekly internet column, SA Today, that the “new optimism is captured by a programme called the Homecoming Revolution, sponsored by one of South Africa’s major banks, which encourages skilled South African emigrants to return and contribute to the country’s development”.
“However, South Africans at home and abroad have received mixed messages from President Thabo Mbeki, who appears to have started the new year on the wrong foot.
“This past week, he attacked the democratic opposition and accused us of conducting a cold war against the government which stopped just short of armed rebellion.”
Leon, who has been official opposition leader since 1999, said: “These deplorable remarks were made worse by the fact that the president made them in Sudan, a country whose government is one of the world’s most notorious abusers of human rights.
“Currently, the Sudanese government stands accused of conducting genocide against its own African Muslim citizens in the western region of Darfur.
“Throughout his recent visit to Sudan, President Mbeki hardly mentioned human rights at all. Instead, he expressed support for the Sudanese regime and committed our country to deeper relations with it.”
“Of course, it is entirely appropriate for South Africa to reward Sudan for its participation in the peace process that aims to end decades of civil war in that country.
“That should not mean, however, that our government should be silent about the ongoing atrocities in Darfur, where tens of thousands of people have been raped and killed, and millions have fled their homes.”
Leon noted that the Mahdist regime “which, bizarrely, President Mbeki singled out for praise [for fighting the British]” that controlled Sudan for part of the late 19th century enslaved black people, attacked Ethiopia and tried to attack Egypt.
“In the decades since independence, the slave trade has returned to Sudan, and the government has engaged in a series of brutal wars that pitted the Arab and Muslim north against the African Christian and animist south.
“So while President Mbeki tries to portray himself, his government and Africa as a whole as the helpless, angry and self-pitying victims of colonial forces and racists past and present, the truth is rather more complicated.
“And whatever argument the president wishes to make about history, it is no mark of courage to stand in Sudan today and rail against British colonial authorities (including Winston Churchill) long after they are gone and without saying a word to the country’s present rulers about their present behaviour.
“President Mbeki’s remarks are a clear indication that human rights and democracy are at the bottom of his agenda. The politics and psychology of solidarity reign supreme.
“The only ‘cold war’ in South Africa is the one in President Mbeki’s imagination. It is a war waged by the president against anyone and everyone who dares to stand up to him. He is ideologically committed to the belief that South Africa remains locked in an internal struggle.
“This belief, shared by many of the president’s ideological partisans, is often accompanied by all sorts of conspiracy theories, usually aimed at the government’s critics.
“A recent example was the African National Congress’s claim in December that the Treatment Action Campaign (which fights Aids) is really a front for global pharmaceutical companies.
“Another is the repeated accusation that the political opposition is really hankering after a return to white minority rule.”
Leon said South African leaders abroad should reflect the ideals of the country’s Constitution — particularly its values of human rights, non-racialism and democracy.
But the opposition leader said he welcomes the political debate, which is good for South Africa and democracy. — I-Net Bridge