Liberation movements met for what sounded like a whingeing session last week. They spent the whole time unburdening themselves as though still stuck in the bush fighting for their emancipation. Look how awful this world is to us, they groaned.
At least missing this time was the usual complaint about the duplicitous Western imperialists and their running dogs. That sort of language was tempered somewhat. Donald Trump was the elephant in the room. They sounded more like victims than people who have been in power for decades. It seems they’d found power — or even democracy — not to have been an easy ride. Even the people — the masses of our people, as they’re often called — are deserting them. Have they already forgotten who liberated them from the yoke of oppression? Ungrateful sods, they are. But of course they didn’t say so in so many words. That seemed to be the drift though.
But before we get to talk about what they babbled on about, was such a confabulation even necessary? Don’t they have more pressing issues on their plate? The hunger. The poverty. Unemployment. Crime. Corruption. The region has got them all by the bucketload. They should know a bit about these pathologies. After all, they’re the chief architects. But they thought it prudent to take some time for some navel-gazing. The cost of putting together this worthless ego-stroking exercise must have been huge. And don’t tell me that we, the taxpayers, didn’t pick up the tab.
Almost the whole of Southern Africa has been reduced to a wasteland. Sadly, the good that they have done in the past has been overshadowed by the stealing and the utter destruction they wrought in government.
They turned up in their best finery, exuding all the trappings of power — the MPLA from Angola, Swapo of Namibia, Mozambique's Frelimo, Tanzania’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). The ANC, the new kid on the block as far as duration in government is concerned, played the generous host. Overzealous flunkeys must have worked overtime, ushering leaders to their seats and making sure they were comfortable, with their ever-present security details keeping a beady eye as though would-be assassins were lurking.
That they even deemed it necessary to hold such a meeting is in itself quite telling. It’s an admission of failure. Their singular achievement was fighting and winning in the bush. It happened years ago. Since then, all of them have done a thorough job of wrecking their respective economies. Almost the whole of Southern Africa has been reduced to a wasteland. Sadly, the good that they have done in the past has been overshadowed by the stealing and the utter destruction they wrought in government.
The template has remarkably been the same. Take over power and shut everybody else out. Divvy up the spoils among themselves. The masses — extras in this horror movie — can do with a few crumbs. Jails in some of these countries are teeming, not with criminals but with government opponents. Loot, and loot some more. Anybody who protests is locked up. The media is the enemy. Running the place down is almost like the icing on the cake.
For years one-party rule was the norm. Liberation movements had won the war, and they therefore felt entitled to rule, by any means necessary. And when they were finally forced to relent, they saw elections not as a contest but more as a coronation. It was a means to legitimise and perpetuate control.
“Blair, keep your England. Let me keep my Zimbabwe,” Robert Mugabe thundered some years ago, amid ululation from the audience. He was not far from the truth. He genuinely, like most of his fellow leaders, regarded Zimbabwe as his own fiefdom. His wilful destruction of his once-prosperous country doesn’t bear repeating. CCM — and TANU, its predecessor — has governed Tanzania since its independence from Britain in 1961, probably one of the oldest ruling parties in the world. It’s fair to say the party’s performance has not been stellar. Tanzania remains one of the poorest countries in the world with a per capita income of about $1,220 (R22,173.50) in 2024.
Angola of course is almost embedded in the South African psyche, with many of its young men having perished in that country trying to stop the MPLA from staying in power. The South Africans, betrayed by their Western friends, came back home with their tails between their legs. The MPLA has been in power — and wrecking the country — since. Even a ruinous civil war against Unita wouldn’t dissuade them from looting the place. Former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s daughter, Isabel, used to strut around the world as Africa’s first black woman billionaire — all from stolen money. Like the Guptas, she’s now in hiding in Dubai as the government pursues her and her stolen millions. This week, as the country’s leaders were being wined and dined in South Africa, 22 people died in violence in Angola after a taxi strike to protest a government-mandated 30% fuel increase. Running a country is not a cakewalk.
Mozambique is still unstable after the disputed outcome of October’s elections. Frelimo’s claim that it won the poll provoked violence throughout the country, and for a while even traffic to and from South Africa was affected. Many people lost their lives, to no avail. Frelimo is still in power. President Ramaphosa was quick to offer his congratulations. Once again, the government, instead of using its political influence to drive change for the better, is happy to applaud wrongdoing by its friends.
For the ANC, meanwhile, Jesus unhappily made an unexpectedly early return. Their grip on power hangs by a thread. The prognosis for all the liberation movements doesn’t look good, both at home and abroad. It’s a double whammy. The mood internationally has chilled, borne out by Trump’s return to power in the US, and his eagerness to use tariffs as a blunt instrument.
Back home, the older generation who idolised these parties for their heroics in the struggle against white rule are dying and disappearing from the scene. The younger generation is not interested in sentiments. They want jobs, clean government, a safe environment, trains that run on time, hospitals with clean linen and medicines, and an education system that can prepare them for a brighter future — the basics of good governance.
These things aren’t going to be attained by leaders dancing and chanting slogans, or reminiscing about the past as if they’re scared of facing the future.
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