South Africa: To Move Forward, Look Back

To Move Forward, Look Back, Some South Africans Say South Africa In the township of Masiphumelele near Cape Town in South Africa, 65,000 residents, crammed into a quarter-of-a-square-mile slum, walk on beer crates to avoid the mud on their streets. A stone’s throw away, on the other side of a wall, sits a gated community complete with manicured lawns and swimming pools. Security cameras and guards in the latter prevent the two from mixing. “People were separate before,” Jeremy Mathers, a retired naval engineer who lives in the gated community, told the Times of London. “Thirty years later, they still are.” Masiphumelele, the newspaper added, represents the seething inequality and tensions that remain in South Africa since the country’s racist, segregationist Apartheid regime ended in the early 1990s. In a bid to address this frustration, President Cyril Ramaphosa recently launched a “national dialogue” to discuss sluggish economic growth and the corruption that many South Africans feel is the reason why their country’s many resources aren’t leading to widespread prosperity, equality, and inclusiveness, explained the Institute for Security Studies. “South Africans want action, and are well aware of the pressing issues Ramaphosa listed, such as poor social services, high unemployment, widespread crime, corruption, food inflation, and economic stagnation,” it wrote. “What they do not see is a plan to carry the country forward.” As part of moving forward, some South Africans want the president to put greater effort into reconciling the past. As part of that effort, Ramaphosa, under pressure, recently established a commission to examine whether previous governments under his political party, the African National Congress (ANC), prevented investigators and prosecutors from exposing and prosecuting crimes committed during the Apartheid era, reported News24. This new commission is separate from the much-praised Truth and Reconciliation Commission that South Africa’s first Black president, Nelson Mandela, formed in 1996 to expose Apartheid-era atrocities. However, few perpetrators of murders, massacres, and other Apartheid-related crimes faced justice after this older commission completed its work, Radio France Internationale wrote. These efforts to reconcile with the past and deal with the issues of the present are already hitting roadblocks. John Steenhuisen of the Democratic Alliance, a member of the ruling coalition alongside the ANC, as well as the Inkatha Freedom Party, recently pulled out of the national dialogue. “Nothing will change in South Africa for the better if we keep the same people around the cabinet table who have involved themselves in corruption,” said Steenhuisen, according to Al Jazeera. Analysts say South Africa has a lot of work to do to clean up the country and reconcile with the past. Some are turning to the courts to force the government to make an extra effort. In January, 25 victims’ families and survivors of Apartheid-era political crimes sued Ramaphosa and his government for what they say is its failure to properly investigate those offences and deliver justice. The group is seeking about $9 million in damages, according to the case filed at the High Court in the capital, Pretoria. The lead applicant in the case, Lukhanyo Calata, is the son of Fort Calata, one of the “Cradock Four” – a group of anti-Apartheid activists murdered in 1985. Despite multiple inquiries, no one has been held accountable for these killings. Most of those alleged perpetrators are now deceased. The families’ legal action highlights the enduring scars of apartheid and the unfulfilled need for justice, wrote Ghana’s Vaultz News. “As Calata and others push for accountability, their fight underscores a broader struggle to confront South Africa’s painful history and its lingering impacts on society.” Even though the plaintiffs have already managed to force the president to create the commission looking into these unprosecuted crimes, it isn’t enough, said Calata: “The prolonged delay in achieving justice has effectively ensured that our families are denied justice forever.”  That means many families are stuck in limbo for the moment, say analysts. Oscar van Heerden, a political analyst at the University of Johannesburg, told the Associated Press that the families of the Cradock Four and those of other victims of Apartheid-era crimes have not healed. “…those were cases that were supposed to be formally charged, prosecuted, and justice should have prevailed,” van Heerden said. “None of that happened.”