Retired Bishop Desmond Tutu, one of South Africa’s leading moral lights and a champion of the county’s struggle for democracy, took the latest swipe at the ruling Africa National Congress (ANC) by saying he will not be voting for the post apartheid party during the coming election on May 7.
Referring to the numerous scandals that the party leader has had to grapple with during his first five year tenure, Tutu said the ANC under President Jacob Zuma had “failed to fill the shoes” of Mandela and his colleagues who fought for the end of white-minority rule.
“I won’t vote for them (ANC). I say that with a heavy heart,” Reuters quotes Tutu telling reporters in Cape Town, adding that South African Voters should thing before voting “mindlessly” and should not become “voting cattle”.
Tutu’s attack on the ANC adds to building public anger at corruption within President Jacob Zuma’s administration, which has been blotted by a series of scandals and turned many would be “born-free” voters – a term bestowed on the first generation to grow up with no memory of apartheid – against the party.
A recent anti-graft report accused Zuma of unduly benefitting from an “excessive” $23 million state-funded security upgrade to his rural home, Reuters said.
Political Analysts however say ANC will comfortably win the nationwide election despite all evidence of corruption displayed at its highest level of leadership and wide allegations of the party’s collusion with big corporations that are directly involved in the killing of poor workers in Marikana last year.
Zuma is expected to be re-elected by parliament for a second five-year term as president after the vote, riding on the popularity the party has among the majority poor black community that only know ANC as the party that delivered the country from the oppression of the whites.
A recent study by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) estimates that nearly half of South Africa’s population live below the upper poverty line, which is set at just over 600 Rands ($60) per person per month.
These voters remain firmly wedded to the glorious but ever more distant past of the liberation struggle that ANC’s leader championed.
Throughout his career, Zuma, who is popularly known for his singing and dancing talent, has mastered the art of escaping serious scandals, including rape charges, corruption charges and now misuse of state funds for developments at his private home.
“He has tight control over the Justice Department, the National Prosecuting Authority, the Intelligence Services and there has always been a suspicion that he is so interested in those parts of government because he is worried the charges that were withdrawn against him could be lodged against him again, in other words he could still face a trial,” Stephen Grootes, political reporter at Eye Witness News, told Voice of America.
Grootes said the charges will certainly catch up with Zuma someday. “I think that they will certainly hang around him until he has his day in court which he said so many times he wanted and yet he has tried not to have.”
As South Africa celebrates 20 years since the end of apartheid this Sunday, the mood will be more about the upcoming election rather than taking stock of what progress the country has made under the ANC’s rule.
Amidst a slowing economy, reduced foreign direct investment, and crippling mine workers strikes, South Africa has had to yield its prestigious position as the continents leading economy to Nigeria, but these seem to have done little to disillusion the masses of the downward spiral the African giant has taken.
