Professor Henry Srebrnik

Professor Henry Srebrnik

Friday, February 16, 2018

South Africa After Zuma

By Henry Srebrnik, [Saint John, NB] Telegraph-Journal

On Feb. 11, Cyril Ramaphosa, deputy president of South Africa and head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), took advantage of the 28th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison by the country’s apartheid government.

He called on the scandal-ridden president, Jacob Zuma, in office since 2009, to step down as head of state. Four days later, Zuma did so.

His own party had turned against him, asking him to step down a full year and a half before the end of his second term. Ramaphosa is now acting president, and likely to be elected to that office in the next South African election, which takes place next year.

Zuma had what we might call “street cred”: the son of a widowed maid and a former member of the ANC’s military wing in the days of apartheid, he had joined the party in 1958 and was later imprisoned for a decade on Robben Island along with Mandela.

Perhaps that’s why the ANC stood behind him until the end of December, when Ramaphosa was chosen as party leader in his place. Once that had happened, his days as president were numbered.
He leaves office with South Africa’s economy in dire straits. Unemployment in the country topped 25 per cent, and the nation has remained one of the world’s most unequal societies.

Corruption under Zuma had become so blatant that it was impossible to ignore. He has been linked to various scandals, including his construction of a lavish mansion in his rural home town. 

He is already facing further charges related to a 1999 arms deal and  has been accused of 783 counts of corruption.

Zuma allowed state enterprises to be run by family, friends and business associates, including the Guptas, an Indian family with widespread business interests. They have been implicated in the alleged looting of state resources.

It was reported that the family wielded such influence over Zuma that they were able to decide who got appointed to the cabinet. Zuma’s downfall has been followed by police raids on their family residence. 

Also, the police massacre of 34 miners involved in a wildcat strike in Marikana in 2012, the worst act of official violence since the end of apartheid, intensified the widespread belief that the ANC no longer cared about the people it claimed to be representing.

The ANC felt that it might lose so much support in next year’s presidential election among the country’s Black majority that the unthinkable might happen: the loss of power it has held since the dismantling of apartheid in 1994.

The call for Zuma to step down reached a crescendo when the Nelson Mandela Foundation released a statement calling for him to go immediately. 

Ramaphosa, a onetime labor leader and protégé of Mandela’s, is himself a former anti-apartheid leader, who went on to made a fortune in business.

Clearly, South Africa’s increasingly fragile economy was a major factor in ousting Zuma.
In January, Ramphosa had led a South African delegation to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Those attending were told that with him now in control of the party apparatus, South Africa would provide a renewed sense of political stability and economic prospects.

Implicit in his pitch was the importance of deposing Zuma. “For the first time in many years, I see a great deal of optimism” among investors and business leaders in Davos, remarked Jeff Radebe, a senior government minister and ANC veteran. 

This “positive sentiment,” he claimed, could be attributed to “the political situation now unfolding in South Africa.”

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