As a South African woman with roots in many parts of the continent, the events of the past few weeks have filled me with a terrible sense of déjàvu. I was born in Zimbabwe of South African parents who became involved in the ZimbabÂÂwean liberation struggle from the coalface of the Mozambican border. My husband is from Ghana. As a journalist for nearly two decades I reported from several African countries.
It takes one bad leader, or leader turned bad, to destroy a country. It takes generations to rebuild. To add to Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s words of wisdom, it is not just about choosing a leader who we will not be ashamed of, it is about us choosing a leader who will not roll back the fragile gains that we have made, including gender equality.
It says something about just how fragile those gains are that on the eve of the ANC’s Polokwane conference we are down to the two proverbial bulls in the kraal. With all the talent and leadership in this country of 48-million people, we find ourselves with just two chiefs to choose from. Shackled by patriarchy — or is it greed and self-interest? — even the ANC Women’s League could not manage to vote for a woman.
President Thabo Mbeki has made many blunders, but there are a few things he has grasped from his many years in exile. One of those lessons is that you can’t end poverty by generating more poverty. Mbeki has kept his eyes tenaciously on the economy. A driving force in his vision of an African renaissance is one of a continent that bargains with confidence on the world stage. If there is anything that irks this president it is Africa’s global ”hat-in-hand” image.
Is Mbeki hanging in there as ANC president because he is power hungry or because he wants to ensure that South Africa does not go the way of so many of its neighbours? My own reading is that power and wealth do not really excite this president. Leaving a legacy does.
One of the aspects of that legacy is bringing women to the centre of power. Few modern leaders have been as vocal or steadfast on this issue as Mbeki, who has almost an equal number of women and men in his Cabinet and took the nation by surprise when he appointed Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to be his deputy after sacking Jacob Zuma.
If the ANC cannot break with a century of patriarchal leadership norms by voting for a woman president, it seems likely that, should Mbeki remain president of the party, he would push for a woman as president of the republic. That does not guarantee gender equality, but at least it keeps us on the right track.
Where would South Africa head under Zuma? Much has been said about whether a man who can’t balance his domestic budget can run this economy. Without delving into the possibility of corruption charges, Zuma’s court-proven patronage of Schabir Shaik must be of utter concern. Is this not exactly how Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko and their ilk began plundering state coffers?
The ANC Women’s League tells us that since Zuma was acquitted of rape we should stop harping on this. They miss the point. All the court said is that the state failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that sex was not consensual. It did not say that his conduct — having sex with a woman who regarded herself as his daughter, on grounds that his culture taught him that ”you cannot leave a woman in that state” — is the way a leader of a modern state that respects equality between women and men should behave.
South African women should be wary of a Zuma presidency. We need go no further than neighbouring Zimbabwe, where ordinary women can no longer afford sanitary towels, to know that patriarchy, dictatorship and economic ruin feed off each other like parasitic vines.
I am reminded of a scene in Harare. Soon after his release, Nelson Mandela paid an official visit. Two groups of women gathered at the airport: Robert Mugabe’s party faithful sporting kangas emblazoned with his likeness and South African women in exile who broke into song and burst through the yellow tape to embrace Mandela. Mugabe stiffened and distanced himself from this outpouring of comradely emotion. Mandela, on the other hand, was visibly uncomfortable with the kangas laid down by the kneeling Zanu women for him to walk on.
I am imagining Zuma on that red carpet, with the ANC Women’s League joining the Zanu-PF women in laying down their kangas like the mbumba in Kamuzu Banda’s Malawi used to do. Is this really the South Africa that the brave women and men of this land fought for?
I think not.
Colleen Lowe Morna is executive director of Gender Links