South Africa Leadership Under Pressure

South Africa might be sub-Saharan Africa’s most powerful nation but an extended mining strike and new allegations against the president have heightened the pressure on the ANC. The New York Times is reporting that president Jacob Zuma is now the subject of several probes investigating recent upgrades on his private home. These investigations are looking into how, “over…$27 million of government money came to be spent on upgrades to his private home, ostensibly for security (and how) tens of millions more dollars have been spent on roads around the compound and the village” (Polgreen).Surrounding villagers are complaining about how this president has not built anything for them, just for himself. Zuma claims that his family has paid for many of the renovations and that he had no idea what kind of security upgrades are being made and how much they might cost. It could be understandable if the upgrades that were put in place for security reasons, in a country where crime is out of control, were reasonable.  However, $27 MILLION worth of security is a little excessive. Especially in a country in which the inequality gap between the have and have-nots is growing wider.

I picked this issue because it is extremely relevant to class and it shows some of the cracks in the leadership of the ANC. This issue is important because South Africa is not just some little country that does not matter; it is the perceived leader of sub-Saharan Africa by most of the world and has the highest GDP on the continent. This extravagant spending reflects the high level of corruption that is rampant throughout South Africa, a country where the president can spend $27 million dollars of government money on his private home and get away with it. This is the type of behavior that one could expect from a Neopatrimonial ruler, not the head of a so called democratic state. If this investigation goes through and Zuma is found guilty, which is unlikely, it is not a foregone conclusion that he will face any repercussions for his actions. The ANC has won every election since the fall of Apartheid, and their grasp on power is firm. They tend to take care of their own and would probably help Zuma brush off the allegations. In fact, the ANC have covered the president in the past.  Zuma is not running on a clean slate: “questions about his personal finances have swirled for years; a bevy of corruption charges against him were dropped in 2009 amid allegations of prosecutorial misconduct” (Polgreen).

The timing of these allegations is bad because the ANC is already under immense pressure from the current mining strikes. They are probably going to sweep the financial issue with Zuma under the rug and end it as fast as possible. If they wanted to send a sign to the world that they are genuinely attempting to clean up corruption in government, they would hold Zuma accountable for his actions. However this is unlikely and these allegations will probably go away and the story will seize to be a serious issue.

Sources:

Peterson, Anders. Construction at Jacob Zuma's home in his birthplace of Nkandla, South Africa, in October. New York Times; October 24, 2012. 

Polgreen, Lydia. "South Africa's Zuma, Tested by Mining Crisis, Faces Crisis Close to Home". New York Times: October 23, 2012. Web. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/world/africa/south-africas-zumatested-by-mining-crisis-faces-scandal-close-to-home.html?ref=africa