By Bryan Britton
Since 2007 South Africa has descended into the deep, dark valley of African Kleptocracy.
Many investigations being conducted by civil society inside the country and many being pursued by US and UK investigators from outside South Africa, will need to be completed before the extent of the damage, caused by ten years of dysfunctional Jacob Zuma and ANC rule, is finally known.
In the meantime, South Africa must go forward despite the prospect of another ANC period of mismanagement, post the 2019 ANC elective conference, being a distinct possibility.
The current economic and political status begs the question: ‘is South Africa a failed democracy?’
And with the regional dynamic changing in Africa and the nature of the world workplace becoming ever more complex, through the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is South Africa even at the race?
I have assembled a few informed articles, written by experts in their respective fields, to assist readers in judging for themselves the enormity of the way forward for South Africa.
If one is to be guided by Professor William Woodruff’s ‘A Concise History of the Modern World’ and specifically the chapter ‘The Decolonization of Africa’, then South Africa’s history since 1994 looks ominously like those of the fifty-three other African countries post de-colonization.
It may take decades to repair the damage suffered by South Africa.
Professor Woodruff about Africa: ‘The Western idea of freely held multi-party elections is not widespread. Too many governments do not have a ‘loyal opposition’; they have political enemies. Elections are a means of conserving power, not introducing democracy. In a continent where power is personalized, few presidents have ever accepted defeat in an election. Concentrated, rather than shared power, is the ‘African Way’.
Having removed the colonial yoke, Africans now bear a yolk of their own making.
Independence from colonial powers has not only brought widespread violence; it has brought a deterioration of Africa’s economic lot. It is the world’s poorest, most indebted continent; the debt repayments of some countries exceed the amount being spent on health and education.
By holding the West responsible for the continent’s extreme poverty, internal wars, tribalism, fatalism and irrationality, autocracy, disregard for the future, stifling of individual initiative, military vandalism, staggering corruption, mismanagement and sheer incompetence, Africans are indulging in an act of self-deception.
A similar colonial background has not prevented certain Asian countries from achieving rapid economic development. Africa cannot hope to escape from its present economic and political dilemmas by placing the blame on others.’