South Africa at risk of becoming a failed African state – Selwyn Milborrow
I speak for many South Africans when I
say that we are all dismayed‚ but not surprised by the farcical findings of the
Nkandla report. The irony is that this comes
weeks after we experienced the terrifying xenophobic attacks and the much
celebrated Africa Day.
Somali born author Nuruddin Farah,
recently said that if you throw a stone at the guilty it never reaches the
guilty party; it always reaches the innocent ones. “It's because the guilty
protect themselves with walls that you cannot go
beyond…” he said. Many believe that this was the case with President Jacob
Zuma, who was absolved by Police Minister Nathi Nhleko. He said the swimming
pool – now called a fire pool after it was queried, an animal enclosure, the
amphitheatre, and the visitor’s centre were all security features. And all this
while corruption continues to stifle growth on the African continent, and its
citizens being confronted with corruption and poor access to basic services on
a daily basis.
Inertia is one of the menaces practiced
unabated by government officials in South Africa. The Nkandla report has
subsequently become the official green light for South African and African
leaders to act with impunity, and further demonstrates a continual failure to
hold our leaders accountable‚ most often at the expense of us the taxpayers. In
1964 at the famous Treason trial, Nelson Mandela said, “Today I am attracted by
the idea of a classless society, an attraction which springs in part from
Marxist reading and, in part, from my admiration of the structure and
organisation of early African societies in this country. The land, then the
main means of production, belonged to the tribe. There were no rich or poor and
there was no exploitation.”
The
present situation is farcical in the extreme. President Jacob Zuma made a mockery of the
opposition in Parliament the day before his police minister, Nathi Nhleko,
exonerated him. He made a mockery of parties who found his plundering of
the country's finances objectionable. By implication their concerns
about overspending at Nkandla is seen by the president as upper middle-class
snobbery. Many believe that the money should have been spent on infrastructure such
as roads, hospitals, medical equipment, education and the like. The Auditor
General has confirmed that the government in its 20
years of governing the country, has spent - or is it lost - the absurd amount
of R 880 billion on irregular, unauthorized, and wasteful expenditure. Steven
Friedman
from the Centre for the Study of Democracy wrote, “Anyone who has spent any time
talking to working-class and poor citizens will know that most
are as angry about corruption and waste as anyone else - which is why they frequently appear on the
streets in actions that are wrongly labelled “service delivery protests” but are
in reality a demand for government that accounts to citizens.”
I was part of the South African freedom
struggle during the eighties, and understandably happy to have witnessed the
fall of apartheid and subsequent dawn of a new South Africa. I thought that all
of us would stand on our own feet while living out the dream made possible for
us through sacrifices. This dream has now turned into a nightmare. One would
think that the right thing to do now is to step down and allow someone - more
capable of integrity - to turn this nightmare around, but that is wishful
thinking.
South Africa longs for a president that
is at one with his own people. With the 2016 municipal elections only a few
months away, many of the older voters offended by Zuma’s caricature may stay at
home in disgust, but not enough to change election results in much of the
country. This is because, research shows, they remain loyal to its traditions. However,
there might be light at the end of the tunnel. According to a survey the “born-free” generation will make up a third of the
voting population by the 2019 general election. Whatever the outcome at the
polling stations, let’s hope that Zuma’s predecessor will apply Nelson
Mandela’s servant leadership skills by being prepared
to take the opportunity, and prevent South Africa from descending into another
failed African state. Nkosi, sikelel' iAfrika! – Selwyn Milborrow (CNN
iReporter, author)
