22 August 2024
Bearing in mind what is happening in Africa and the rest of the world, South Africa remains somewhat of an anomaly. But not in the way many people would expect.
Let’s take brief stock of what is happening right now. President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe is now the chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), while his government is locking up and torturing activists and opposition figures. Nigeria is conducting all manner of punitive lawfare against dissidents following protests over the cost of living and a 34% inflation rate. Among other pieces of slated legislation is a proposed 10-year jail sentence for refusing to recite the national anthem and three years for the vaguely worded crime of “disobeying constituted authority”.
Opposition figures have been arrested in Tanzania. More than 50 people have been killed in protests over tax hikes and corruption in Kenya. CNN reported that this discontent over government corruption swiftly spread to neighbouring Uganda and security forces detained more than 100 mostly young people who simply wanted to march to parliament. While it is a positive sign that young people in particular are revolting against ageing dictators that are literally stealing their futures, the government’s heavy-handed response in each case raises an all-too-familiar spectre of the continent’s inveterate and widespread challenges.
In the Sudan, the warring parties to that conflict do not seem interested in peace. Thousands have been left dead and millions displaced since the conflict began 16 months ago. Internecine strife in South Sudan have had the same consequences since that country’s independence in 2011. Conflict keeps raging in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, stoked by Rwanda. The Sahel region is a volatile mix of rapid coups and autocratic junta rule where elections or any form of opposition are becoming an ever-distant memory.
Freedom House summarized these dour realities in their latest Freedom in the World report, which tracks civil and political liberties: “Freedom declined across Africa for the 10th straight year in 2023. Elections in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Madagascar were marred by political violence and accusations of fraud, while conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo led to devastating human rights abuses. Military juntas ousted civilian governments in Niger and Gabon, continuing a wave of coups on the continent.” According to Freedom House’s estimates, only 7% of Africa’s population and 17% of its countries can be classified as “free”. Fifty-percent of its 1.5 billion people and 46% of its countries are “not free”, while the rest is “partly free”.
And it’s not just Africa that is beset by problems. The civil strife in the United Kingdom and France is perhaps just the beginning of a much longer and more protracted violent uprising over immigration. Wars and conflict in Ukraine (and now Russia) and the Middle East seem to be escalating, not winding down. A shortage of housing, low growth, energy woes and a cost-of-living crisis are plaguing Europe.
South Africa admittedly has its fair share of problems. Crime, corruption, lax policing, low growth and degrading infrastructure, to name a few. But if you ignore the exaggeration of the fringe (yet often vocal) minority and add a much bigger context, it is a beacon of multicultural success on a continent (and increasingly a world) not known for it. My experience is that the vast majority of South Africans get along quite well, or at least tolerate each other. They employ each other, work alongside each other, and buy from and sell to one another. The electricity challenges are easing.
Yet again, we have held peaceful elections without great shenanigans or any violence this year and it broadly reflects the will of the people. Unlike the complete absence of elections in many countries or sham ones in even more ones. The ANC did not mobilise the mobs or military after their support dropped substantially and gave way to national power-shring. Notwithstanding the negativity around the composition and Machiavellian functioning of the Government of National Unity (GNU), it is an ideologically moderate administration and there is indeed incipient reform underway. The Marxist extremists outside the GNU are riven and weakened by infighting, expulsions and resignations. Other aspiring opposition parties have sensible ideas.
Moreover, the press is free and we are pretty much free to say and write what we want. I and many others would have been arrested or even killed in scores of other countries for what we’ve written. The private sector’s size and scope is unparalleled in Africa and elsewhere. Our civil society is often self-serving, but they too are free and often fulfil a valuable role. Throw in some sporting successes such as those of the Springboks, Tatiana Smith and Dricus du Plessis and the country has some prestige and bragging rights that are the envy of most other countries. Above all, the country is home to breathtaking natural beauty and resilient and resourceful people.
If you ignore the alarmist hyperbole on social media and simply live your life, you will realise that South Africa has a lot to offer. And that it is a far cry from the dreaded “Zimbabwe scenario” or the pervasive failure and repression that obtain in the rest of Africa and other continents.
Dr Eugene Brink is a business consultant, entrepreneur and analyst based in the Cape Winelands.
