The Jacob Zuma Saga reiterates time and again that forcefully removing heads of state from office however unpopular they may be always produced catastrophic consequences. First I send my support to the south African people and wish them the very best in such times of difficulty, the upheaval that has been going on over there in the last few days is nothing to be happy about whether you are a native south African or anybody else in the outside world. Things are slowly returning to normal now and hopefully long-term calm and prosperity will be restored.
In the Aftermath of the days of rioting, images and video clips coming out of South Africa are truly astounding, debris is lying all over the streets, it looks like those places had been hit by a natural disaster, some kind of tropical cyclone, tornado, hurricane or typhoon, its unbelievable that in just a few days, so much harm could come to a small developing city. We are truly sorry for the people that have lost their lives or livelihoods in the aftermath, and we therefore hope that the local economy recovers soon enough, even if its gonna take a while for people and businesses to recover from the trauma.
1.Inadequate Police response
quiet a surprising thing we are seeing in these shocking videos are the way the law enforcement failed to respond in a timely manner, from the videos we had seen on social media, a lot of the police officers appeared lethargic, they seemed unbothered by what was going on around them, they appear to have been fed up of watching out for these people creating havoc while being asked to hold them back all the time, something of which they were quickly getting tired of and trying to avoid altogether, a lot of locals are seen in the videos really shocked to see some police officers in uniform taking part in the looting spree, they are seen taking goods from the rioters and then placing them in ”their own patrol cars” for safekeeping, whoa! Plunderers putting their loot into police cars for safekeeping? That is something that no-one ever saw coming.
The fact that the army had to be sent in to quench the unrest shows that the local law enforcement is either unwilling to respond for whatever reasons like fear for their own safety or sympathetic to the arguments of the rioters, or it could be that a section of the police force are in league with the protesters themselves and secretly helping them wreak havoc they always publicly pretend to stop. It is such a sad thing to watch.
2. Saving Face of the Old Guard
What happened to Jacob Zuma was something that his fans could not take down lightly, for he was not just forced to resign over an allegation but publicly humiliated by being sent to prison, this is not just a humiliation to him and his family but a large portion of the ruling ANC Party and immensely large proportion of the Country as a whole. This is a guy that has suffered so much for his country, he spent a whole decade on the infamous and inhumane Robben island prison under the brutal apartheid Regime, if the ANC was a football club, then Zuma would be on the first team as he is an icon in his own right, he belongs to the same class of people like Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, they together helped South Africa get its first true independence.
During the Trials and court hearings, I used to tell my South African friend that they should stop the proceedings of those Kangaroo courts at once, coz they were leading to nowhere, Zuma is not a person to be publicly humiliated not unless they want to bring back the days of the Soweto uprising, those Godlike judges that had been talking down on him should have swallowed their pride and looked at the bigger picture. Politics is not just about the politicians but their impact on the Society as a whole, but those judges thought of themselves as gods and stubbornly refused to listen to the pleas of the people, many south Africans pleaded with the judges on behalf of Zuma, they told them, ”If you have anything against our former president, if he has wronged you in anyway, then you should forgive and forget, let the old man retire in peace for he has lost too much blood for this country,” but the godlike judges stubbornly refused to listen and went ahead with their prosecutions. Now they are witnessing the fruits of their arrogance.
Who exactly is to blame for this mess in SA, is it the protesters that are causing mayhem in the streets? The judges that sentenced him to serve jail-time or Jacob Zuma himself, the images and videos that are coming out of south Africa today are more horrifying than those we saw during the Soweto Uprising, Some South African politicians tend to downplay the magnitude of the problem by saying that the looting occurred in just two provinces out of the Nine administrative regions of the country, that its just a small number, well my dear politicians, two out of nine is not that small, it is a significant figure, the fact that the military has to be involved to quench the unrest speaks volumes, if it was just a small problem then the law enforcement especially the police would have solved the issue in just a few hours, the fact that the rioting, looting and plunder went on for days nonstop until the military had to be sent in to rough up the rioters clearly demonstrate that things really got out of control.
The military is usually used at the borders to defend the country against foreign threats, but when it is used within the country it means the country is under extreme political unrest. South Africa is likely going through some kind of civil war, or about to go through one in the near future. There is an internal struggle between different groups that threatens to boil out of proportion. The power struggle between the ANC and other emerging political parties like EFF, the class struggle between the Urban rich and Poor, the racial tensions between the black majority ghetto dwellers and the white minority land owners, it all looks like a powder keg that is about to blow up, all these tensions and frustrations have been building up for years, they have been suppressed for a long time, the arrest of ex president Jacob Zuma was like the flame that ignited that gunpowder that had been secretly kept away for such a very very long Time. As you can hear from some of the protesters that they are just letting go of the steam.
3.The Pride of Africa.
South Africa is ahead of most African countries in terms of economic development, it is the most industrialized country on the continent with a GDP of over three hundred and fifty billion dollars, the third largest on the continent just after Nigeria & Egypt, many African governments have been striving very hard to industrialize their own nations and grow their GDP to be as large as that of South Africa, South Africa does well in other areas such as tourism and conservation.
Tens of millions of international tourist visit south Africa every year to have a good time with themselves or their families, it is the third most visited country in Africa after Egypt and Morocco, the government has economized on this industry and reaps billions of dollars in revenue annually, south Africa’s wildlife is also one of the most conserved in Africa only rivaled by Botswana, Conservation, wildlife and tourism are industries that are playing a big role in South Africa’s economy today making it an envy of many African Countries.
4.Poor Mans’ Narrative.
The Protesters in the Streets of South Africa have been blaming their poverty on the government polices that have for decades failed to deliver on the promises they made when they came into power, many feel disappointed that even after nearly three decades since the end of the brutal apartheid regime, nothing has changed for the lives of the Poor People in the ghettos, some have even gotten worse. First of all, the ANC has failed to provide affordable education and create jobs for the young people, it is these factors of illiteracy and unemployment that creates idleness among the youth, and when you have a lot of idle youth they start stirring trouble, many of the youth that are frustrated for the lack of prospects In life have no choice but to resort to crime. South Africa is currently leading in the whole continent of Africa when it comes to violent crime, many Africans who have visited the country for tourist, business or academic purposes have always returned to their home countries with horror tales, they tell their friends and families of how gangs roam the streets of South African cities gagging and robbing people in broad daylight, and the law enforcement seems to be powerless to stop them.
I had a Zambian friend who did his degree in South Africa, he says that there are places in south Africa where foreigners are warned not to dare set a foot into. South Africa Ranks highest in Africa in these Crimes; -Robbery with violence -Homicides, -Femicide -Sexual Violence -Home Invasions -Gun Violence All these are happening because of a generation that has refused to cooperate with the state because of lack of prospects in life, illiteracy, poverty and unemployment are very much present in many other African countries, but this never seems to translate to the blatant Crimes we see in South Africa today, why? Well we have to put this into political context, a lot of young people listen to the stories their parents tell them of how they suffered under apartheid, those angers are translated down to the children born after ERA OF Mandela, these young people look at their own lives and compare it to the rich folks in the suburbs, they then come to the conclusion that they are still under the same economic exclusions their parents suffered under apartheid, they mobilize their gangs and claim to take back their right to live, work and enjoy life in their country. Many south Africans still believe that the same economic programs that were there during apartheid never went away.
5.Xenophobic attacks
Just in the past few years, dreadful scenes have been coming out of South Africa of Foreigners being targeted by local lynch mobs, these were scenes that shocked many people across the world and especially the Africans, the attacks later appeared to have been instigated by local politicians who blamed immigrants from other African countries for taking the jobs of the locals, thus causing local lynch mobs to gather themselves in huge numbers and started targeting local businessmen of other African descent, leading to the loss of lives of dozens of people.
The xenophobic violence got South Africa into a lot of trouble with other neighboring states in the region, for instance Nigerians wanted to attack south African owned businesses in Nigeria in response to the attacks of Nigerian owned business in south Africa, several Nigerians had lost their lives over unverified claims that they were engaging in illegal activity in the country and causing trouble for the locals, a treacherous act that caused so much anger back at home in Nigeria, many who wanted to avenge their fallen brothers by also taking the lives of south African business folks who lived and worked in Nigeria. You would hear many Africans say… ”I thought that indigenous south Africans had a problem with the white members of their family, we didn’t know that they are capable of attacking their own fellow African brothers. If other Africans are now the problem then we conclude that south African issues are not just about race, but something more.
6.White Genocide
There have been reports in the past few years by critics of ANC that that there is a mass killing of white farmers in south Africa by armed gangs, these claims have been aired worldwide by many international media houses, and some world leaders did comment on them negatively leading to diplomatic tensions, South Africa however dismissed those claims, they said that crime is indeed present in the country but there is no evidence of white people particularly being singled out. A group of white south African Activists have formed unions that want to arm all white farmers so that they could better protect themselves if attacked. According to their communal data, dozens of white farmers get killed every year by black gangs, to these white communities, that is a horrific data that needs immediate government action.
But when you look at the National data, tens of thousands of Black South Africans get killed every year by those same black gangs, so if you compare the stats you find out that the number of whites is just a drop in the ocean. All life is important even the loss of a single person is always devastating to the family and the community so we are not downplaying the loss of any group, what the government vehemently disputes is this wicked term that has been coined by haters of south Africa just to taint the image of the country. They are not accepting the term ”white genocide” because blacks are dying at a rate that is a thousand times that of the whites. The homicides are a nationwide issue that affects communities of all races and economic class
7.Get Off My Land
Probably the biggest issue in SOUTH Africa right now is that which revolves around Land, dispute over land ownership is by no doubt the most difficult subject matter in the country more than even the race, in fact it is the wealth disparity among different groups of the society that continually brings this subject matter to the forefront time and again, when white South Africans take a walk through the black neighborhood, they often get this blank stare, even though no harsh words are thrown at them, it is always written on their faces, the anger in their bloodshot red eyes is clearly visible, and silently echoing the words, ”What are you still doing on my ancestor’s Land, Please get off my land!” Some black Folks in South Africa have been asking, ”How can we have any kind of reconciliation between the black and white before settling the issues of the land? The white folks own all the land while we have nothing.” Several study groups then come together in order to sort out this land issue once and for all, they start a national dialogue with the good intentions of bringing peace and harmony among all South Africans despite what has happened in the past, they are young, full of vigor, their passion exudes through their voices, they ask the black Folks, ”why do you keep causing trouble for your fellow south Africans, can’t you find something useful to do other than cause trouble?” The black folks then reply angrily, ”can’t you see the misery that these aliens have put us into, we simply don’t have a starting point,” the team then turns to the white folks and say this to them, ”can’t you see that whenever the black folks become hungry the first thought is of you, when the food runs out of their homes in the ghettos they look at the luxury estates across the street and see white children playing with food, they are shocked when they see white children smashing cakes onto each others faces at birthday Parties, they have got no one else to blame for their misery other than you.
In the ghettos, black women are seen lining up all day long just for a chance to fill a Jerri can with water for their domestic use, the luxury suburb dwellers spend hundreds of liters of water a day, they allow their taps to run all day without any worry, they fill their swimming pools with thousands of liters of fresh water each day, a staggering amount that the ghetto dwellers don’t even spend in a month, you find a whole family using only twenty liters of water a day for all their domestic consumption. When you look at the townships, you find tens of thousands of people crammed in just a one acre piece of land with hardly any breathing space while on the other hand, there are white folks who own tens of thousands of acres of land that stays mostly unused, this is what angers the black people the most, how can someone sit on land that they never seem to utilize?
A single man sits on a humongous piece of land, which gets overgrown with weeds and shrubs, wild animals invade the territory and make the land their home, he then starts to pick his hunting riffle every weekend to go for a thrilling adventure, this looks very unfair to the squatter, How does someone sits on an arable land that can be used for agriculture by the poor, just to use it for the purposes of hunting? if those township dwellers could be given just a quarter an acre per family, many would certainly lift themselves out of poverty, in addition to growing food for the markets as well as their own domestic consumption, a piece of land is a place you can build your home and start life in safe comfort, there is no one poor as the one who doesn’t have a piece of land to call home. When some white folks are asked, ”why can’t you give away some of your land to these folks so that they stop blaming you for all the problems they have? Even a quarter of your land will go a long way to cooling the tensions,” they say they are not in a business of giving free handouts, that many black people are lazy and want everything for free,” this was unacceptable for their ancestors worked very hard to make those pieces of land productive.
They say they were there long before the population of the blacks had blossomed to the numbers they are today, that they found the property a barren wasteland with no inhabitants, and after a long struggle through tens of generations they finally made the land fit for human consumption, now when they sit down to enjoy the fruits of their land these lazy folks show up and claim to own a share, that is unacceptable.” They exclaim. These guys have been growing up on the game farms, all their lives have been on that piece of land and that is not something they are gonna give away that easily, tens of generations have lived on that land and the dwellers know it as their fathers homeland. Their stay goes back for centuries. They appear to be oblivious to the political wave that is sweeping across the country, they refuse to believe that other people think differently, it is this conflict of interest that has continued to keep South Africans on the edge.
8. Across the region
Issues of the indigenous communities fighting to gain a piece of land is not unique to south Africa but common across the region, the political storm in South Africa is also brewing in places like Namibia where activists are stirring up local communities to fight for a piece of land, the Minority white folks of German origin own a vast majority of the fertile land which they used mostly for keeping game, you see Namibia is a semi-arid region in which a vast majority of the land being either desert or semi-desert, the indigenous folks have been crammed in those desert areas while the white folks keep all the green fertile land which they can’t allow the indigenous people to grow their own food.
Dispute over land is picking up steam in Namibia and there are fears that if the Government doesn’t do something about it immediately, there will be a month long vandalism and looting spree. Another country in the southern Africa region where there is great disparity over the land is Botswana, just like South Africa and Namibia, Botswana is doted with millions of acres of unused private land, a lot of which are also game farms, but due to their low population and proper management of the country’s natural resources such as diamonds, the Botswana government has managed to deliver on many of their obligations such as providing affordable healthcare, education, housing and almost everything that the citizens ever need, this has kept the indigenous people happy, the government there has given the people no reason to complain about anything, and as a result there is no hatred for white people in Botswana. The Southern African country that almost all of us are aware of their current deplorable situation is Zimbabwe, in the early two thousands When land ownership issues boiled out of Proportions the indigenous people pushed the ruling party ZANU PF to confiscate all the white owned farmland, this sounded like a patriotic move of the government by the indigenous folks, but unfortunately set off a chain of catastrophic events, first of all, the agricultural economy collapsed as the indigenous people who were handed the land had neither skills nor experience to properly run the huge technical farms, Zimbabwe lost a huge chunk of its markets like Europe and many other western countries, because the farmers who were robed of their land travelled to many countries and asked them to stop buying Zimbabwean agricultural produce, so in addition to low productivity due to the poor management by the new indigenous staff, the little that was able to be produced got sanctioned in many countries where it used to have a market, this was of course devastating for the Zimbabwean economy and that’s how we came to be hearing about the ”famous trillion dollar Zimbabwean Notes.” from the mid 2000’s onwards inflation in Zimbabwe became so bad that people stopped accepting money altogether, they resorted to trading the old school way, they began to barter with one another for goods, oranges in exchange for mangoes, chicken in exchange for ducks and goats in exchange for sheep.
Many economists in the world are aware of the worthless Zimbabwean currency but very few (if there is any) are aware of the underlying issues that led to that economic catastrophe, it all began over land. The ANC of South Africa is fully aware of this possible scenario and has become risk averse especially after what they witnessed happening in Zimbabwe. even though a lot of the indigenous folks are pushing them to take on land reforms without any further delay, they are too frightened to take their country in the direction of Zimbabwe, it will be way too unbearable for South Africa as a state as well as the region, south Africa is a trade partner of many African countries, an economic crisis in that country will echo across the borders and affect a huge faction of the continent. ANC Politicians are fully aware of the geopolitical implications of their rash actions, this is the dilemma that Nelson Mandela had to wrestle with after achieving freedom for his people, he realized that the white folks even though they had treated him like an animal he had to work with them because they were needed by the country that wanted to smoothly move forward. Nelson Mandela believed that “forgiveness without forgetting” was the key to reconciling the country’s past and prepare it for the coming challenges of the future, he saw the land issue as a matter that can be solved slowly later on. Madiba was a smart gentle person who knew what needed to be done at the times of crisis, he saw no need to punish children for the sins of their fathers, he became the servant leader and had little desire to be served himself.
He gently spoke to his bitter tribesmen who wanted nothing but revenge, he asked them how they can chase away the very people that were running the country’s economy? Madiba outsmarted every vengeful folk and managed to turn them into his way of thinking, well he saved the nation great catastrophe, that is what we call wise leadership. Had Madiba not been whom he was after apartheid, there would have been a bloodbath at the dawn of the first black majority rule, south Africa would not have been the African giant it is today. Well you see people are different, every human being has their own unique personality, Mugabe is not Madiba, he ran his country the way he felt like it should be, even though he suffered less than a half the time Madiba suffered, it still a long time , ten years as a political prisoner is not a joke my friend, Mugabe came out of jail with rage and did what he had to do, even though it would mean ruin for his people. A huge proportion of South Africa’s agricultural produce goes to Europe, The ANC would not risk sanctions from the EU and other western countries for chasing white people from their country, even though there is no threat of sanctions the ANC would not risk taking action that would be detrimental to the country’s image on the continent as well as worldwide.
9.Pressure from new generations
Now in South Africa we have a generation of Politicians that don’t give a damn about mandala or anything he stood up for, all they want is to have their objectives achieved whatever the consequences may be, politicians that want their land back at all costs, however ugly things may turn, they don’t care, now this sets a disturbing trend that may lead to who knows what will happen. The six days of Vandalism have proven that if underlying socio economic issues are not properly addressed they will quietly reach a boiling point and erupt to the surface whenever an opportunity presents itself, just the same way a volcanic magma erupts to the surface after centuries of slowly boiling in the underground and spew out hot lava through a weak vent in the earth’s crust. You only get to see its its full wrath once it reaches the surface.
10. Similar arguments across the Atlantic.
What we are seeing in South Africa toady is very similar to what we are seeing in USA, the black youth of America that lack job prospects in life reflect on the suffering their ancestors went through as slaves, those horror stories of the past combined with their current deplorable economic condition is a perfect recipe for social unrest, a lot of the young black men in America have joined violent gangs and done drugs, whatever it is that will make them feel rich and powerful, whatever makes them feel good they will do eagerly, they believe the state is turning a blind eye to their suffering and therefore take matters into their own hands, they have done things that have put millions of them behind bars and in turn devastated their own black communities. a lot of black men that ended up killing white people in America were under the impression that white people are evil, wicked folks with no souls who would not hesitate to take the life of a black man.
They see them as hypocrites who carry the bible in the right hand and put a sword on the left hand, preaching the good news of Jesus Christ only when it suits their selfish interest. It is the same old story in both nations, just like the townships in south Africa separated from the lavish neighborhoods, there are a lot of ghettos in America which are occupied by predominantly the black community, and just across the streets there are predominantly white affluent neighborhoods with large mansions and spacious lawns. This situation in both countries resulted after decades and centuries of economic segregation that somehow carried on to the present environment in the twenty first century.
I believe that if the black people of America were living good lives, working well paying jobs, driving luxury cars and living in mega mansions in the countryside just like their white counterparts then there wont be any racial issues in America. Its all about the socioeconomics, it had nothing to do with the skin color, it is the economic disparities that bring all these issue to the surface, if the state had addressed this issue right when it was still very young, then there won’t be any racial issues in America today. The topic of race is a very sensitive and dividing issue in the USA just as it is in South Africa Anyone that has ever lived in South Africa knows exactly what life is like in the USA while anyone that has lived in the USA knows exactly what life is like in South Africa, the two countries share a lot in common.
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