South Africa: The Fugitives And The Reformer

SOUTH AFRICA

The Fugitives and the Reformer

The Guptas own coal and uranium mines, steel mills and other enterprises that made them one of the richest families in South Africa.

Today, after allegedly fomenting corruption in the administration of ex-President Jacob Zuma, they live in self-imposed exile in Dubai.

Zuma left office in 2018, but the Guptas’ influence has tainted the African National Congress, the political party that Nelson Mandela led in the fight against apartheid, the New York Times reported.

The country he left behind faces enormous challenges, along with a legacy of politically motivated violence that the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town lamented in his Christmas Eve sermon.

“We welcome the changes in government” since Zuma resigned, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba said, according to SABC News, a South African news outlet. “But how far will good, clean government take us when people are being killed on picket lines, stabbed in our schools, beaten up in service delivery protests and assassinated in disputes over who will hold public office?”

Slow economic growth is dogging South Africa. More than a quarter of the population is unemployed. Starbucks recently announced it was scrapping plans to expand in the country, citing high costs and lack of disposable income, wrote Agence France-Presse.

If Starbucks doesn’t want to open next to the outstanding Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, the country has a problem.

Zuma’s successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, has been clearing Zuma allies out of government and state-owned businesses and launched a campaign to attract $100 billion in foreign investments in an effort to restore confidence.

“South Africa swims in a sea of darkness right now,” argued Branko Brkic, editor of the Daily Maverick, a South African online news magazine. “For the sake of the country’s survival, it’s crucial that there is at least one person who can see the light. For the first time in many years, that person happens to be the country’s president.”

But Brkic noted that Ramaphosa needs the support of African National Congress officials in rural areas if he wants to win what is sure to be a tough election in May 2019. Those leaders are often less than aboveboard and will expect to gain from aiding the president.

Without Zuma on the ticket, however, noted Bloomberg, Ramaphosa’s rivals have less to complain about, especially if the new president continues to don the mantle of a reformer.

Critics have accused Ramaphosa of graft, too, though for now he appears to have avoided an inquiry because a formal complaint has yet to be filed, reported South Africa’s City Press.

South Africa’s journey from segregation to democracy inspired the world. The hopes of people around the world now ride on Ramaphosa’s shoulders.