There’s been a collective gnashing of teeth in the aftermath of the Zimbabwe elections. But people would do well to save their dentures. It’s no surprise that the elections were rigged. It was a given. There hasn’t been a poll in Zimbabwe in recent memory that has not been manipulated by the ruling Zanu-PF.
Also unsurprising has been the reaction of our so-called government, its rush to legitimise and validate what has clearly been a charade. It was a thinly veiled synchronised response from Fikile Mbalula, the Presidency and President Cyril Ramaphosa himself, all straining at the leash to bless the outcome. It was a co-ordinated avalanche, clearly designed to embolden the Zimbabwe regime and its supporters, convince doubters and silence its critics. It’s a sordid, shameless spectacle that doesn’t reflect well on the country. That they could mouth such fiction with a straight face shows the depths to which the party has sunk.
Zimbabweans obviously hold their fate in their own hands. But the ANC has been an enabler of everything that has gone wrong in that country, from the steadfast support of Robert Mugabe’s rigging of poll after poll to the torture and murder of his political enemies, shielding his regime from international opprobrium and blaming sanctions for the country’s economic woes, a canard nonchalantly repeated by Mbalula this week.
The ANC has proved a reliable guardian for Zanu-PF. Without such support Zanu-PF would have long been consigned to the trash can of history. Mugabe was almost toast after he lost a referendum for a new constitution in 2000 but Thabo Mbeki, a year after succeeding Nelson Mandela as president, used the country’s newly acquired international credibility to shore him up. Mbeki remains the mastermind of the policy of appeasement, an article of faith that his successors have followed to the letter. That policy seems unconditional. Nothing in return is demanded of Zanu-PF. A government that purports to stand for human rights has not uttered a word on the many atrocities in Zimbabwe.
But perhaps part of our surprise at the ANC’s embrace of tyranny comes from the general belief that the party has transmogrified into something it was not; that our prince has suddenly become a frog. It hasn’t changed. The ANC has always been a Hydra — made up of exiles, the prison group such as Mandela and Walter Sisulu, and those waging the struggle within the country led by the United Democratic Front (UDF), whose 40th anniversary is being celebrated this year.
But even the exiles were not a monolithic group. There were obviously the fighters and their lieutenants in the bush, who people often seemed to have in mind when referring to the ANC. Then there were the intellectuals, for lack of a better word: the diplomats spreading the word on behalf of the organisation, academics teaching and studying at universities across the globe, and those working for international NGOs sympathetic to the cause.
It stands to reason that such an eclectic group of people could not have been able to shape similar views on all things. They were all committed to a free South Africa, but they waged the struggle from different locales, influenced by different environments. Those in the bush did a bit of fighting. But they also took the time to chop off a few of their own comrades’ heads, and then went before the truth commission to dissemble and justify such murders.
Mbeki remains the mastermind of the policy of appeasement, an article of faith that his successors have followed to the letter
These disparate groups didn’t spend enough time together after the ANC’s unbanning to build or create a coherent value system before gaining power. The views the party holds and expresses are therefore often bendable, depending on circumstances. It happily signed off on the new constitution and often takes credit for its creation, and yet never hesitates to flout or even denigrate its tenets.
The ANC showed its true colours immediately after taking office when the anti-democratic and our-friends-right-or-wrong forces seemed to gain ascendancy. When Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged in 1995, a year after the ANC took power, Mandela railed against the then president Sani Abacha, and dispatched his deputy to read him the riot act in person. Mbeki, who spent part of his exile years in Nigeria, had other ideas. He proceeded to mollycoddle the tyrant.
One of Abacha’s ministers later described Mandela as a black president of a white country. It wasn’t meant as a compliment. Since then the ANC has not looked back, paying lip service to human rights while making common cause with some of the most detestable regimes. A government that is comfortable with Vladimir Putin mercilessly slaughtering innocent civilians and children cannot be expected to give a toss about the rigging of elections in Zimbabwe.
We’re now called upon to celebrate the successful hosting of the Brics summit. It’s a feather in the cap for us, we’re told — a country that can’t keep the lights on, with a sky-high unemployment rate. One of the standout achievements of the summit, apparently, is the addition of new members. A good thing, because Brics has gained yet another murderer. Jamal Khashoggi was lured to the Saudi consulate in Turkey and murdered, his body sawn into pieces that were neatly packed into a suitcase and taken to Saudi Arabia on the orders of Mohammed bin Salman. What’s interesting is that Saudi Arabia doesn’t seem too enamoured of the honour bestowed on it. The other newbies are no slouches either. Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran — it’s a gallery of rogues.
There was a collective sigh of relief when Putin decided not to attend the summit. But being stuck in Moscow seems to have suited him just fine. It meant he could always pop out to do other things, like monitor the murder of yet another of his opponents, the mercurial Yevgeny Prigozhin, his former chef.
The ANC’s dalliance with dictators and other anti-democratic forces doesn’t augur well for the future of our democracy, especially given next year’s elections where it’s likely to lose its majority.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.