One of the shameful achievements of the African National Congress (ANC), which has ruled post-apartheid South Africa for 25 years, is that it has left behind what is wrong with post-colonial Africa: an unethical and corrupt African leadership that runs a movement. It follows the political stereotypes of people who are political leaders. Power through patronage.
The rampant corruption in post-apartheid South Africa is symbolized by what is now called 'state capture'. The effects of deep-rooted corruption are exemplified by frequent power outages that are devastating to the economy. Another example is the government's failure to keep trains running.
Democratic South Africa appears to have turned into a full-fledged predatory state. Lobby group Corruption Watch reported last year that more than half of South Africans believe corruption is getting worse. They also think the government is doing a terrible job fighting corruption.
It is characterized by the use of public office and resources to further the private interests of ANC politicians and their associates. This includes a deep-rooted culture of being untouchable.
The events in South Africa reverberated in countries across the continent. The stories range from the Dos Santos family in Angola to Mobutu Sese Seko's decades of thievery in Zaire. Mobutu is considered to have invented modern African kleptocracy.
Of course, African leaders are not the only corrupt political leaders in the world. For example, Noah Bookbinder, a former trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice's Public Integrity Division, recently argued that President Donald Trump's increasingly egregious abuses made 2019 one of the most corrupt years in U.S. history. .
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But the truth is that sub-Saharan Africa is in a league of its own. It ranks last in the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International. A report published alongside the index said the region had “failed to make real progress in anti-corruption efforts”. In 2019, the region again appears at the bottom of the list. Transparency International stated:
Sub-Saharan Africa's performance highlights a bleak picture of inaction against corruption.
moral decline
The ANC once represented an anti-apartheid political tradition rooted in altruism. But events that have occurred since it took over running the government in 1994 suggest that it has become a corrupt machine.
The party appears to be planning to follow in the footsteps of the late Mobutu and others.
State corruption took root in a cynical exploitation of the post-apartheid transformation agenda, with complete disregard for ethical and democratic norms. For example, large-scale corruption is often framed around the rhetoric of liberation struggles to empower black people.
In reality, black elites enrich themselves and their families through government bidding and other dubious and unethical means.
Former President Jacob Zuma is the poster boy for this black kleptocracy. He and his fellow Guptas took control of the post-apartheid state with the sole purpose of exercising power, shaping policy decisions and controlling the political system to their advantage.
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Dishonest politics has become a feature of post-apartheid politics, while the legitimate fight against corruption is equated with racism. This is a politics characterized by a lack of ethics, morality and logic and has no legitimate place in a democratic society.
However, it continues to spread to other social organizations. Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula recently described the country's Passenger Rail Authority as a broken organization struggling to provide efficient and dedicated passenger rail services. Meanwhile, South African Airways has been forced into voluntary business rescue after running out of working capital and the National Treasury refusing to provide further relief.
Of course, the private sector is not free from corruption. Companies linked to state capture include Deloitte, McKinsey, KPMG, and Bain & Company.
The collapse of social order reveals the dysfunction of a political system that rewards sycophants, fraudsters, thugs, greed and anti-social attributes. The development of this patronage network is a product of the ANC's cadre deployment policies. This values party membership over ability and authenticity.
Lessons not learned from history
The history of democratic South Africa shows that the ANC has failed to learn from the postcolonial African experience and has therefore avoided its unfavorable parts.
Instead, it chose to follow in the footsteps of other corrupt post-colonial African leaders. No wonder dissatisfied citizens took to the courts to force the government to govern in their interests.
The latest example of this is the Makana High Court's decision to dissolve Makana Municipality and place it under administration for failing to meet its constitutional obligations to its residents. The court found that the ANC-run municipality had failed to “promote a healthy and sustainable environment in the community” as required by the constitution.
More such political clashes between the country's cherished democratic norms and corrupt postcolonial political elites are needed to change the current political course of corruption and incompetence. That is the only antidote.
Mandisi Majab is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Rhodes University.
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