South Africa at risk of becoming a failed African state – Selwyn Milborrow

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)