Tag Archives: Jacob Zuma

south africa steps up fight against aids

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The most embarrassing part of Thabo Mbeki’s presidency was his bizarre approach to South Africa’s AIDS epidemic. Together with his nutty health minister, President Mbeki refused to dot the lines between the HIV virus and AIDS. The Minister was known to traffic in the idea that beetroots and traditional herbs could confront the deadly virus.

It is thus encouraging that Mr. Zuma, Mbeki’s successor has taken a more rational approach. Mr. Zuma recently declared that he is HIV negative. The country is currently in the midst of a massive campaign to have at least 15 million South Africans tested by June 2011. South Africa has 5.7 million HIV positive citizens, the biggest number of any country.

Mr. Zuma himself is known to have had sex with a HIV positive woman. This particular sexual encounter was the subject of a public trial in which Mr. Zuma was accused of rape. The South African president prevailed in court in a ruling with which many were not satisfied.

the south africans cometh

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They are all over Tanzania. Kenya’s southern neighbor is even a member of the SADC and currently suffers a huge trade deficit with South Africa. Now the sons and daughters of the Continent from south of the Limpopo are eying even greater penetration into the EAC via Uganda. President Zuma just visited Uganda with a delegation of businesspeople. Uganda’s oil sector was on top of the agenda.

I hope Kenyan businesspeople, and the political class, are watching. Competition from the South Africans is, of course, most welcome – companies like the East African Breweries certainly benefited from South African competition. That said, Kenya should not give up its role as the economic locomotive of East Africa. In particular, the government should ensure that Kenyan companies in the light manufacturing, retail and banking sectors remain competitive in the region. Investment in infrastructure – roads, the ports in Lamu and Mombasa, pipelines, power generation – should be prioritized. Nairobi must ensure that the Ugandans, Rwandans, Burundians and Southern Sudanese find it cheapest to export and import through Kenyan ports.

corruption in South Africa

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South African democracy still has a long way to go. My greatest fear is that ANC supremacy might get into the heads of the party bosses and have them collapse the distinction between party and state. There are already allegations of corruption within the top ranks of the ANC. Ironically, if corruption is to be tackled head on within the ANC, Jacob Zuma is the right man for the job, his own failings notwithstanding. He seems to have a direct connection with average ANC supporters and could use this to rein in party bosses, or at least make them steal less.

It is hard being a disciplined hegemonic party. Tanzania’s CCM is a lesson in what the ANC should avoid. Botswana’s BDP might be a better example of a relatively disciplined hegemonic party. The party has ruled Botswana since 1966 without falling into the temptations of grand corruption and power grabbing.

Edit: Recent events have shown cracks beginning to form within the BDP. The world is watching what Ian Khama, son of Seretse Khama is prepared to do to secure his presidency in the face of increasing opposition.

Mandela’s dream deferred?

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South Africans marked the 20th anniversary of the release of President Mandela from prison by South Africa’s apartheid regime in 1990 with a lot of pomp and celebration. It goes without saying that President Nelson Mandela belongs in the pantheon of the great sons and daughters of the Continent, and indeed of the whole world.

But after the celebrations are over and done with, South Africans should ask themselves what the life and trials of Mandela mean for them. Is Jacob Zuma the best they could do after decades of fighting for political representation? What role do they have to play on the Continent, being that they are by far its biggest economic and military power house? Should they sit and watch as Zimbabweans suffer under the tyranny of Rob?

jacob zuma: why crash so soon?

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Update: President Jacob Zuma agrees that he fathered a child out of wedlock with the 39 year-old daughter of one of his friends. Mr. Zuma is 67. In his statement the President said that he had done the “cultural imperative” of admitting to having fathered the child. A few suggestions for Mr. Zuma and those around him:

– having three wives is bad enough. Concentrate on the job. South Africans are looking up to you

– please fire your communications director. You are really bad with PR

– you are embarrassing the entire Continent. Not just yourself and your immediate family but the entire Continent. The whole 700 million of us.

The BBC reports that Jacob Zuma may have fathered a love child last year. The South African president just recently got married for the fifth time (he has three wives). He is estimated to have about 20 children. Recently when confronted about his rather colorful matrimonial situation Mr. Zuma shot back with the claim that anybody who was against polygamy was a cultural bigot.This is total horse manure. Mr. Zuma should know that culture is not static and that an attack on his wayward habits is not an attack on Zulu culture.

Until recently Mr. Zuma had exceeded expectations. His cabinet appointments (i thought) signaled his pragmatism. He stayed clear of the incendiary demagoguery that characterizes the ANC’s youth wing leader, Julius Malema. Even the media had warmed up a bit to the man who had to wiggle out of corruption and rape charges to become president. For a moment I thought that Mr. Zuma was going to be the nice blend of populism and realistic politicking that had so much eluded the intellectually aloof Thabo Mbeki. South African land reform, a fairer redistribution and creation of wealth (through a more transparent BEE and faster job creation), a reduced crime rate, etc etc seemed somewhat doable because the core of his base was the working class. But as is fast becoming apparent, it appears that the man has decided to let his personal life interfere with his job. I hope this latest incident will embarrass the ANC enough for the party to ask Mr. Zuma to go easy on the distractions and concentrate on his job.

Update: This is the last thing that SA and its ailing economy needs. The tabloid-like headings are soiling the SA presidency.

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year to all of you out there.

Let’s start off the year by looking at the one thing that the Continent needs really badly: economic growth. Uganda’s New Vision reports that African business people have positive expectations for the new year. Responding to a survey by Africa Practice most of them believed that intra-continental trade as well as FDI would increase in the coming year. Perhaps most crucially, a plurality of those polled believed that infrastructure development – ICT and what not – would be more influential to business development than politics. For a very long time Africa’s governance challenges have retarded economic development. May be economic development might be the key that will incentivise good governance. Angola, Namibia and Kenya, to some extent, are the countries that may prove this prediction right in 2010.

2010 will also be a footballing year for the Continent. From January 10 – 31 Angola will host the 27th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN). May the best team win, and I hope none of the Continental heavyweights will pick up injuries because come June South Africa is hosting the FIFA World Cup. The Continent has good teams in the World Cup and this might just be the year that an African team wins the coveted FIFA World Cup Trophy.

And in other news, South African president – Jacob Zuma – just got married for the fifth time and is engaged to at least one other woman. I still stand by my previous comments on this matter.

mbeki’s legacy

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Partial results of Thabo Mbeki’s beetroot response to the South African AIDS epidemic are out. Life expectancy in South Africa declined between 1990-2007 (from 62 to 50). It is expected to decline even further over the next few years. Read more about this here.

It is worth noting that the new South African administration took an about-turn from Mbeki’s bizarre AIDS policy, as was articulated by his health minister. The South African Ministry of Health has on its website an HIV and AIDS and STI strategic plan designed to tackle the HIV problem. Over 5 million South Africans, out of a total population of 49.3 million, are infected.

Getting to know Zuma

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This month’s Atlantic Magazine has an interesting piece on Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president. Turns out that there are more people out there (besides yours truly) who are somewhat optimistic about a Zuma presidency. The author of the piece presents a fairly balanced picture of the man (Zuma) and is definitely worth reading. Read on ….

Somalia, the forgotten

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Oxfam, the UK-based aid agency, has declared that Somalia is Africa’s worst crisis. According to reports 3.2 million malnourished Somalis are in urgent need of food aid. Meanwhile, the fighting between government forces and Islamists rages on. Roadside bombings have become commonplace.

Somalia has not had a functional government since 1991. Warlordism has been the order of the day since then, especially after the botched UN (US) intervention in 1993 after which the international community pretty much turned its back on Somalis. In recent months Islamist terrorism and piracy off the coast of Somalia have earned the struggling millions in the country some international attention. But the 4,300 man African Union force in the country is not enough to restore peace and stability – let alone prop up the weak and largely illegitimate transitional government of Somalia.

May be it is time that regional governments considered talking to the Islamists. A BBC report shows that they control most of the South of the country and so perhaps the AU can be persuade them to stop the killing and go easy on human rights (in any case Saudi Arabia’s brand of Sharia is not that different, it still forbids women to do just about anything outside the house) in exchange for some aid or guaranteed security against US drone attacks, for now. Anything for peace and stability at this point.

It is sad that all of the international community’s attention has been focused on Darfur and the Congo, at the expense of Somalia. The AU leadership (and especially South African President, Jacob Zuma) should take the plight of Somalis more seriously and initiate the beginning of the end of the disaster in their country.

South Africa’s liberal streak…

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South Africa is the only country in Africa (and one of only five in the world) to legalize gay marriage – It did so in November of 2006. And now if some progressive politicians have it their way prostitution will become legal too in the country. The advocates of the move are arguing that if the oldest profession is made legal in South Africa, it will enable the government to regulate it, tax it and curb the spread of HIV/AIDS through better provision of health services and sex-ed to the commercial sex workers. On the other side of the argument are those concerned with morals and the effect this may have on South African family values.

I must say I am impressed by the boldness of those advocating for legalization of prostitution in South Africa. The country has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world – perhaps an indicator of a thriving albeit life-sucking sex industry – and it would make sense for the government to be able to provide healthcare to registered sex workers. The Mbeki administration was grossly incompetent in addressing South Africa’s AIDS problem. It is my hope that the Zuma administration will steer clear of Mbeki’s bizarre AIDS policies, and what better way to start than by making sure that sex workers are not spreading the disease.

As for those concerned with morals, the high HIV infection rates in South Africa should be a wake up call. Yes we should preach abstinence as the ideal and try as much as possible to instill proper family values in young men and women. But at the same time we should acknowledge the simple truth that people will always have sex, period. Pretending otherwise will only lead to more deaths, more orphans, lost productivity and a whole lot of misery for those left behind.

still waiting for Zuma’s foreign policy agenda….

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South African President, Jacob Zuma, appointed his cabinet with no surprises. The question on most people’s minds was whether he was going to retain Trevor Manuel, the man who has been South Africa’s finance minister for over a decade, in the same post. As things turned out he moved Mr. Manuel to the national economic planning commission and gave a nod to former taxman Pravin Gordhan to head the finance ministry. Zuma’s cabinet appointments were largely tame, with the main complaints being that the cabinet was too big. The appointments showed that Mr. Zuma is not going to be the crazy populist that many had feared leading up to his election. It looks like he is going to take a measured approach to solving South Africa’s economic and social problems as the country wades through an economic recession.

So much for his domestic agenda. Now let us hear about Zuma’s foreign policy, in particular what he has to say about governance in Africa. Zimbabwe, The DRC, Somalia, Sudan and Chad are all problems that require the attention of the most powerful man on the Continent. President Zuma should not allow the Libyan clown, Muamar Gadaffi, to be Africa’s spokesperson. He may be tainted domestically but his ANC credentials can still take him a long way on Continental matters. The sooner he establishes a presence on the Continental stage the better.

bring him his machine gun

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South African voters have spoken, and Jacob Zuma will be their next president. With half the votes in the ANC had over 65% of the votes, its closest rival had 18%. Now the only question that remains is whether the ANC will get more than two thirds of the votes to make it possible for it to change the constitution at will. Most people, in the interest of true democracy (including yours truly), are not particularly enthusiastic about such a prospect.

Now that he is president-elect, Mr. Zuma must clearly let the world know what he intends to do as president. Will he be a respectable statesman or will he be the clown of a leader that he fancies himself as in the eyes of the masses – initial pictures of his election victory celebrations show him on stage dancing with a group of women. (This is not really statesman-like Mr. Zuma, especially given your colorful marital history. The less of this side of you we see in the next few years the better).

Many challenges await Mr. Zuma. South Africa’s high unemployment and crime rates top the list. The other big issue will be land reform. The legacy of apartheid in South African land ownership must be dealt with at some point. Mbeki did not have the spine or the populist touch to do it. Mr. Zuma might be the right man for the job. I hope that the president-elect will not treat his presidency as an exercise in post-apartheid justice as embodied in his favorite campaign song “bring me my machine gun” but that he will do everything that he does within the confines of the law.

He may not be the wise man we would have wanted for the land of Mandela, but he will be president. Because of that I can only wish him success.

zuma may turn out to be ok

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Jacob Zuma, the man poised to be South Africa’s next president, has been getting a lot of bad press. This much married man has had to deal with pages after pages of news concerning his corrupt past and his adventures with the South African justice system. The truth be said, he is not a clean man. Where there is smoke, there is fire, and in Zuma’s case there is just way too much smoke for there not to be a flame.

That said, the fact is that he is going to be president of South Africa and by virtue of that become the most powerful man in Africa. I would like to join the few editorial pages out there who in the past week have indicated possible positives of a Zuma presidency. I am not convinced the man is as blindly populist as he wants the South African masses to believe. He is a calculating politician. He knows that he needs a viable South African economy just as much as he needs the masses to sing and dance in his name. It is no coincidence that he matches every populist statement of his with a reminder that he does not intend to radically change South Africa.

But I am not concerned with South African domestic issues. My concern is what a Zuma presidency will mean for the Southern African region and the Continent. And on this front I am hopeful. Eager to please the international community, I think that Zuma might just be the man to bring real change to Zimbabwe and some sort of sanity to the African Union. His predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, was too professorial to deal with the half-wits that run most of the Continent. Most of them did not take his (Mbeki’s) calls for an African Renaissance seriously. But Zuma, being a man of the people, might just be the one that charms them into seeing the light and actually changing the way they run their countries.Wishful thinking? Perhaps.

South African Elections

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On the 22nd of April South Africans will go to the polls to elect their new president. There are no prizes for guessing who the winner will be. Everyone expects Jacob Zuma, a man facing corruption charges, to win easily. Despite the much hyped challenge from Cope, a party of ANC dissidents, the ANC with its immense ‘struggle movement capital’ will still win a healthy majority in the South African parliament.

zumaAs I have indicated before, I am not particularly enthusiastic about Zuma’s forthcoming presidency. The much-married man has a predilection for buffoonery. He is a known populist who may mishandle South Africa’s sluggish transition from the insanity of apartheid. Perhaps most worrying is his corruption record. The last thing South Africa needs in these hard economic times is a president who sends the message that it’s OK to be corrupt, as long as you have the right political connections.

That said, it is almost ineluctable that the Continent will have its leader in Jacob Zuma after the April elections. And because of that we are left with no alternative but to search for any positives that might come out of it. For starters, Zuma’s lack of formal education and the accompanying intellectual arrogance may make him more predisposed to alternative views – especially when it comes to the AIDS situation in South Africa (Mbeki strangely refused to admit the link between HIV and AIDS).

Secondly, given that he is coming in with little international legitimacy, he may feel compelled to do the right thing about Africa’s dictators and their many human rights abuses. Lastly, even his populism might be a plus. No sane person would disagree that South Africa NEEDS land reforms. Zuma may just be the one to do it, unlike the Mbeki-ist moderates who instead have chosen to focus on empowering middle class Black South Africans while forgetting the landless masses.

Let’s wait and see……..

zuma wins another battle, more reason for africa to be afraid

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Jacob Zuma, the almost certain next president of the most powerful country in Africa, has just had a corruption case against him thrown out of court on the basis that it was politically motivated. While there might be some truth in this, it is still an affront on justice. There is no denying the fact that Zuma’s strategy all along has been one of intimidation of the South African justice system and me thinks that it is a travesty that this court bought into the politics argument against this case.

For the rule of law to prevail, there has to be a perception by all that no one is above the law. The exoneration of Zuma sends the wrong message. A message that political connections elevates one above the law. This is why, the leader of his youth wing is still running around threatening to kill people with impunity. Sad shame. And to think that in a few months this clown of a man who believes that showering after sex prevents aids infection will be the most powerful man in Africa just makes me sick. He is a populist and has absolutely no respect for the law. And worst of all, he may turn out to be the typical African leader – immensely loved by the masses but worth not even a bucket of spit in terms of policy and general vision for the country. Zuma supporters point to his popularity as a reason for his detractors to leave him alone – but they forget that Mugabe, Moi, al-Bashir, Zenawi and many other sub-grade African leaders were at one time populists in the mould of Zuma.