South Africa’s new rage
The words were simply stunning.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s latest tirade against the ANC government rocks so much that we have assumed about post-apartheid South Africa.
Comparing the ANC to Libya’s Gaddafi and Egypt’s Mubarak he slammed the party that delivered freedom to South Africa as worse than the old regime.
At least you expected them to behave badly, he raged, adding: “You, President Zuma and your government, do not represent me. I am warning you, as I warned the nationalists, one day we will pray for the defeat of the ANC government.”
It is a sense of anger and betrayal that chimes with much of what I found while filming for the new series of Unreported World (Friday, Channel 4 at 1930 and on 4OD).
To see Tutu, aged 80, so angry and let down is quite something. He is the living icon who added verve, wit and passion to the Free Nelson Mandela and Free South Africa movement.
And what was it that enraged him so? The failure of the government to grant a visa in time to Tibet’s Dalai Lama because, it is suspected by Tutu, of South Africa’s new deep business relationship with China.
Betrayal was a word I heard a great deal of in two weeks in and around Johannesburg’s poorest townships and squatter camps.
Much of it is to do with the expectations – perhaps unrealistic – the people at the bottom had of democracy. They believed it would deliver them from a fearful existence in squalid conditions – from living in metal shacks surrounded by appalling levels of crime and insecurity.
And while hundreds of thousands, millions according to the government, of families have been rehoused millions more have not. Many of those who have been given a roof over their heads are still living in appalling circumstances of overcrowding, zero or intermittent electricity and poor sanitation. The rest are victims of shocking unemployment rates – between 40 and 70 percent for men in some areas.
Their politicians, they believe, have failed them. There is a bling culture in South Africa of consumer goods, flashy cars, expensive houses that has infected much of the political class.
We encountered the bizarre world of Julius Malema, the President of the ANC Youth League, who is both wildly popular and disliked. He is a swaggering young politician who wields considerable power – the ANCYL will be important in selecting the next presidential candidate. He is even talked of as a future president himself.
Yet he is dogged by allegations about how he funds his lifestyle and how he affords to build a lavish new house on a private estate on an ANC salary.
And right now he is facing internal party disciplinary action for bringing the party into disrepute with words and speeches about South Africa’s and Botswana’s leaders. He was due to be at the hearing today but didn’t appear – his lawyer said he was suffering from flu-like symptoms.
While Malema is controversial he also continues to gather new supporters – even this week he won the backing of Winnie Mandela.
So this feels like a very turbulent period in South Africa – and we will hear much more of that in the coming months.
Already this year we saw riots in many townships from people frustrated at their lives and the authorities’ response to their problems. Many of those we met on our travels warned us there could be more such mini-uprisings soon.
Could Tutu be right sooner than he thinks?
There are 15 comments on this post
With friends like Winnie Mandela need one say more!
Another relic of a corrupt era.
Where are the voices that were raised against apartheid? The new apartheid is alive and well in the form of corrupt rich politicians and corporations. The poor are once again abandoned to even lower levels of poverty.
The usual minority groups will be made scapegoats as in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
I lived in South Africa for a number of years
before returning to the UK,I have for the past 5 years been holidaying in Cape Town.During these visits I have seen the arrival of 4 new submarines and four new frigates which allegedly cost four billion rand each. I also heard that there had been 40 billion rand spent on new aircraft for the S.A.Airforce. When a female MP was asked why these were needed, her reply was “In case we get attacked by America”.
Watched Friday’s Unreported World, a program C4 can be proud of for sure. I felt your concentration on low level corruption showing how it eats into an individual’s ability to trust political communities and paves a road that enables violence was spot on.
“Let me tell you something else that belongs to you in your rich African heritage.Back home we speak of something which is difficult to translate into English. It is called Ubuntu or Botho. It is th essence of being human.It speaks abouth that which we are aware when you don’t have it. You could be wealthy in all material goods but you could still be without Ubuntu for it is a deeply spiritual thing and not dependent on material possessions.It speaks about hospitality, an open and willing attitude to share, to be generous and caring…We say a person is a person through other persons.”
This is a snippit from one of Tutu’s speeches at Morehouse medical school 1987.
and
“True reconciliation does not mean crying,’Peace peace’ where there is no peace. No, it is to confront people with the demands of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for justice and peace and compassion and caring. It means taking sides on behalf of the weak and the downtrodden- the least of Christ’s brethren- to be the voice of the voiceless ones. You can’t utter neutral in a situation of injustice and oppression and exploitation.”
TUTU
Won’t those statements justinfuriate the people with other, differing, faiths such as islam and buddism and the like?
if you look at it in the wider context with an open mind about humanity then the bigger person it appeals to will understand. The smaller minds may not.
Religious conviction by default is a close-minded system. Why do you think there have been so many wars based on the promise of a better life under a new religion?
NO it is not. Compassion , caring, hospitality, being the voice of the down trodden, justice peace, openess , willingness, denoting person worthiness , to those who do not have material possessions ,is not closed to a religious perspective. I am sure that many will understand all those concepts and not hide them under the umbrella of religion . Spirtuality for some is a way of expressing these, what most open minded people would call, better aspects of humanity.
So why are Islamic fundamentalists waging a war of oppression, intimidation and fear against us in the western world? They are using their own version of nirvana to openly justify their tenets!
Misuse; you are right. That is people not religion.
A priest is still a priest even if he is also called a cleric!
Thankyou Rowan Williams for making the point of divine love being open to all and not just religious beings. I do not believe in the divine in any way and therefore, although confirmed as a Christian , do not believe; BUT the central messages move me to tears.
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.’
An ex-Pat, I left 10 years ago knwoing exactly what to expect from the ANC. Why is publicity junkie Peter Hain not making noise now?
(Black on White) Racism is vastly more rife in SA today than ever was the case during Apartheid. Many blacks now yearn for the good life they enjoyed during white rule. If the family silverware is not being stolen, it is squandered and dispensed with contempt as if there is no tomorrow. But then in truth, there really isn’t a tomorrow, is there?
I left after a 5th shooting incident, ranging from two taxi drivers having a shootout with AK47′s at a traffic intersection, to a cash-in-transit heist in the banking hall of upmarket Sandton City Shopping Centre to a hijacker on the run having penetrated my ultra-secure home in upmarket Sandton which could almost be likened to a prison. Imagine that as a quality fo life. And life is cheap in SA, just ask Shrien Dewani – around £1000, or a mobile phone.
I raised vast amounts of money through foreign investment after Nelson Mandela took power. All flushed down the toilet by the ANC now. Nelson Mandela’s freedom meant one thing: A nation imprisoned! Even the townships have become havens for robbing stealing murdering criminals. THAT is Nelson Mandela’s legacy. And Desmond Tutu… what did he expect? Now he wants to point fingers?
And publicity junkie Winnie? Well, a leopard does not change its spots. How soon the world has forgotten Stompie Seipei who was cruelly murdered by her gang of thugs, and she was spared jail by the ANC. Jacob Zuma never faced justice for his criminality that was simply swept under the carpet, and his brother-in-crime Shabir Shaik, continues to live the life of Riley with his ill-gotten gains in freedom, when he was supposedly on his deathbed and discharged from prison on “humanitarian grounds”? The little “time” he did, was in opulent luxury in hospital enjoying the fruits of his theft and corruption.
And now, power crazy Julias (Idi Amin) Malema wants to overthrow the ANC goverment so he can become SA’s Robert Mugabe…
South Africa, is simply another Zimbabwe in the making. A desolate land run by savage mentally disturbed dictators.