{"id":94161,"date":"2017-06-05T18:47:52","date_gmt":"2017-06-05T16:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/democracy-is-looking-sickly-across-southern-africa-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2017-06-05T18:47:52","modified_gmt":"2017-06-05T16:47:52","slug":"democracy-is-looking-sickly-across-southern-africa-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/democracy-is-looking-sickly-across-southern-africa-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracy is looking sickly across southern Africa | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democracy is looking sickly across southern Africa<\/a>: <\/p>\n

A woman votes in Zambia. Beyond multi-party systems and regular elections, many countries resemble very little of true democracies.<\/span> GovernmentZA\/Flickr<\/span>, CC BY-ND<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Politics are in shambles across the world. Populism and political gambles are making headlines from London to Washington. Southern Africa is no exception. If it\u2019s any comfort, this suggests that there\u2019s nothing genuinely typical about African versions of political populism. Nor are the flaws in democracy typically African. <\/p>\n

This might put some events into wider perspective. But it\u2019s nonetheless worrying to follow the current political turmoil in some southern Africa countries.<\/p>\n

The regional hegemon, South Africa, is embroiled in domestic policy tensions of unprecedented proportions since it became a democracy. And the situation in the sub-region is not much better. <\/p>\n

The state of opposition politics and democracy is in a shambles too. The fragile political climate and the mentality of most opposition politicians hardly offer meaningful alternatives. This is possibly an explanation \u2013 but no excuse \u2013 for the undemocratic practices permeating almost every one of the region\u2019s democracies. <\/p>\n

Beyond multi-party systems with regular elections, they resemble very little of true democracies.<\/p>\n

South African hiccups<\/h2>\n

At the end of May the dimensions of \u201cstate capture\u201d in South Africa were set out in a report published by an academic team. <\/p>\n

It shows how deeply the personalised systematic plundering of state assets is entrenched. Additional explosive evidence was presented only days later through thousands of leaked e-mails. Dubbed the \u201cGupta Leaks\u201d, they document a mafia-like network among Zuma-loyalists and the Indian Gupta family. <\/p>\n

The evidence points to massive influence, if not control, over political appointments, the hijacking of higher public administration and embezzlement of enormous proportions.<\/p>\n

Some 65% of South Africans want Zuma to resign. An all-time low approval rating of 20% makes him less popular among the electorate than even US President Donald Trump. Despite this \u2013 combined with growing demands from within the party that he steps down \u2013 the ANC still backs its president. <\/p>\n

But divisions within the party are deepening, with some in its leadership demanding an investigation into the Gupta patronage network. <\/p>\n

For his part, Zuma is focused on pulling strings to secure Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as his successor as president of the party. The other front-runner candidate is Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. <\/p>\n

Zuma\u2019s assumption appears to be that, once in office, his former wife would not endorse any legal prosecution of the father of her children. <\/p>\n

But the country\u2019s official opposition party, Democratic Alliance (DA), isn\u2019t reaping the benefits of the ANC\u2019s blunders. It has its own problems, which are constraining the gains it might otherwise be making from the ANC\u2019s mess. <\/p>\n

The party is divided over what to do about its former leader and Premier of the Western Cape province, Helen Zille following a tweet in which she defended the legacy of colonialism. The comment whipped up a storm of protest and for weeks the party had been at pains on how to deal with the scandal. <\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

DA leader Mmusi Maimane finally announced that Zille had been suspended from the party and that a disciplinary hearing would decide what further political consequences she might face. But a resilient Zille immediately challenged the decision. <\/p>\n

Whatever the outcome, the DA\u2019s image is damaged. Its aspirations to be the country\u2019s new majority party has been dealt a major blow. <\/p>\n

Regional woes<\/h2>\n

In Angola, 74-year-old Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been in office since 1979, has decided to select a successor. The scenario will secure that the family \u201coiligarchy\u201d will remain in control of politics and the country\u2019s economy, while the governing People\u2019s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) uses the state apparatus to ruthlessly suppress any meaningful social protests.<\/p>\n

In contrast Robert Mugabe \u2013 reigning in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 – shows no intention of retiring. He was nominated again as the Zimbabwe African Nation Union\/Patriotic Front\u2019s (ZANU\/PF) candidate for the 2018 presidential elections. But everyone is anxiously following the party\u2019s internal power struggles over the ailing autocrat\u2019s replacement. Fears are that the vacuum created by his departure might create a worse situation. <\/p>\n

While the regime\u2019s constant violation of human rights is \u2013 as in Angola \u2013 geared towards preventing any form of meaningful opposition, there are concerns that the unresolved succession might add another violent dimension to local politics.<\/p>\n

Zambia\u2019s democracy also looks sad. The country\u2019s main opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development (UPND) is on trial for high treason. Hichilema has been embroiled in a personal feud with President Edgar Lungu of the governing Patriotic Front (PF) for years. He was arrested in early April after obstructing the president\u2019s motor cavalcade. The charge of high treason is based on the accusation that he wilfully put President Lungu\u2019s life in danger. <\/p>\n

The trial is feeding growing concerns over an increasingly autocratic regime. The once praised democracy, which allowed for several relatively peaceful transfers of political power since the turn of the century, is now in decline.<\/p>\n

Lesotho is also in a mess. It provides a timely reminder that competing parties seeking to obtain political control over governments are by no means a guarantee for better governance. Aptly described as a \u201cGroundhog Day election\u201d, citizens in the crisis-ridden country went to the polls for the third time since 2012 with no new alternatives or options. <\/p>\n

Their limited choice is between two former prime ministers aged 77 (Tom Thabane) and 72 (Pakalitha Mosisili). The likely election result is another fragile coalition government \u2013 provided the military accepts the result. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the biggest challenge for relative political stability in the region might still be in the making: President Joseph Kabila, whose second term in office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ended in December 2016, is still hanging on with the promise that he\u2019ll vacate the post by end of this year. <\/p>\n

Despite a constitutional two-term limit, his plans remain a matter of speculation. In a recent interview, he was characteristically evasive. He refused to give a straight answer on whether he\u2019s still considering another term and flatly denied that he had promised anything, including elections. <\/p>\n

Kabila\u2019s extended stay in office threatens to exacerbate an already explosive and violent situation, with potentially devastating consequences.<\/p>\n

His continued reign would not only provoke further bloodshed at home. Any spill-over will challenge the Southern African Development Community\u2019s willingness and ability to find solutions to regional conflicts in the interests of relative stability. A stability which is at best fragile and indicative of the crisis of policy in most of the regional body\u2019s member states.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Henning Melber is a member of Swapo since 1974. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
\n<\/p>\n

Read more on The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Join the fun:<\/strong> Add Your event<\/a> | Submit a Press Release<\/a> | Add your listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democracy is looking sickly across southern Africa: A woman votes in Zambia. Beyond multi-party systems and regular elections, many countries resemble very little of true democracies. GovernmentZA\/Flickr, CC BY-ND Politics are in shambles across the world. Populism and political gambles are making headlines from London to Washington. Southern Africa is no exception. If it\u2019s any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4473,428,8890,4666,5423,26161,7407],"class_list":{"0":"post-94161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-across","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-conversation","10":"tag-democracy","11":"tag-looking","12":"tag-sickly","13":"tag-southern","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}