This has been a rough period for America, (USA), South Africa, (RSA), and in fact, the rest of the world. With an uncontrollable pandemic, and the ravages of climate change as a background, their respective democracies teetered on the brink of collapse. Two democratically ousted Presidents attempted to cling to power at opposite poles of the world - Jacob Zuma on the Southern tip of Africa and Donald Trump, in the home of modern democracy itself in North America. For the most part the Southern convulsion was hardly covered in America with the general view that Africa was Africa -after all what could one expect?
Jay H. Ell will cover the insurrection in South Africa which followed the imprisonment of the immediate past President Jacob Zuma as well as make comparisons with the United America situation which culminated in the attack on the State Capitol and is still continuing to this day. These events have taken place in the USA, the cradle of world democracy and in the RSA, which has the most protective constitution of liberal values according to the late Supreme Court Justice Bader -Ginsberg.
Both of these attacks were extremely serious, rocking the very democratic foundations of their respective countries. Somehow however there is an unfounded perception that there is no hope for South Africa and it is just following the inevitable pathway to hell of any South American or African banana republic. This latter perception is firmly held while the United States’s attempted coup has been regarded as merely a blip on the screen as the country now, once again, assumes its role as the leader of the free world. In both situations the central figures, who the mobs were promoting, were populists who engendered a cult like following. Their followers being prepared to go to the ends of the earth for their leaders, While race or tribe was the central factor that led to the crises other parameters, such as economic factors and Covid were also responsible.
A brief history of the two countries might be helpful in understanding how they arrived at these cataclysmic outcomes.
HISTORICAL COMPARISONS BETWEEN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE USA ON RACE - THE CENTRAL ISSUE IN THE FIGHT OF DEMOCRACY v AUTOCRACY - HOW WE GOT WHERE ARE TODAY
Both of these countries were colonized by white settlers in the seventeenth century. From the earliest times there were clashes with the indigenous peoples of the land. In the USA they were all but wiped out as the settlers marched Westwards while in the RSA the various tribes, by and large, remained intact. The USA created yet another racial problem by the importation of slaves from Africa. In the two territories white settlers were loosely divided into two factions - one which supported the rights of those of color and those who never regarded the latter as equal citizens of the land. The latter argued that the progressives really championed those of color so as to maintain power by enfranchising them. In the USA a civil war was fought between those two factions which was won by the progressive champions. The two territories both fought wars with the colonial power, Great Britain, with differing outcomes. In the USA this resulted in an independent Republic but RSA ties were kept within the British Commonwealth.
In the USA, in reaction to the amendments to the Constitution which granted the freed slaves the vote, voter suppression followed in the form of Jim Crow laws. Following the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960’s there was a concerted effort to initiate different methodologies to thwart the efforts to nullify the franchise of the African Americans. These attempts have accelerated of late following a ruling by the Supreme Court which gutted the sixties voting acts. Central to the populist Trump’s thrust is race. While of course denying the latter fact, as leader of the Republican Party he is involved in an ongoing effort to try and regain the presidency and legislature with a minority of support. To make this possible it is crucial to make it more difficult for African Americans to vote. The rationale for the restrictions is to prevent non existent voter fraud, implicitly implicating the African Americans This moves also feed into the mantra of the defeated President in 2020 elections who claims the election was stolen from him.
South Africa’s nightmare began in1948 when the segregationist apartheid National Party narrowly won the General Election. It was an open secret that the United Party under General Smuts, who having just participated in creating the Charter of the United Nations, was about to propose increasing voting rights of those of color. He having been a leader in the Allied fight against Hitler’s racism was smarting from the attack that South Africa was racist by the Indian delegation at UNO. So in RSA not only was there no improvement in the very limited voting rights and representation of those of color the absurd cruel policy of apartheid was set into motion. Besides separate facilities for all groups the African population were told that they weren’t South Africans but were citizens of their particular “tribal’ nation. Citizens were forced to return, if they never had work documents, to work to the least productive areas in South Africa, If nothing else it made them more aware of their tribal heritage.
All this changed dramatically with the advent of the “new” democratic South Africa which was epitomized by the iconic long lines of voters stretching into the fields waiting to vote in the first election. This all came to an end when Mandela’s designated successor Cyril Ramaphosa was not elected President and soon after a corrupt regime followed. Jacob Zuma was President for eight years and corruption, graft and state capture followed on unimaginable scale. Ironically it was Ramaphosa that deposed him, like Biden, with the slimmest of majorities.
What followed both presidents defeats were attempts at insurrection to return the cult leader to power. However there were differences in the motivations and politics emanating from the two rogue leaders.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE GENESIS OF THE TRUMP AND ZUMA SAGAS
Both Trump and Zuma were accused of corruption and crime. Their cabinet ministers and administrations were implicated as well. Just two instances of Trump’s woes that were finalized while he was President - he founded a phony University where he misled students and settled the subsequent lawsuit for twenty - five million dollars while his Foundation was fined two million dollars and permanently dissolved for his usage of it for his own personal account. Zuma too was constantly accused of graft and a court finally ruled that Zuma who had spent twenty - three million tax payer dollars on his own private home in Nkandla needed to pay a healthy portion of it back. Zuma sustained a no confidence vote following this revelation but his party the ANC stood behind him. Trump was subject to the equivalent, twice, in the form of impeachment votes but the Republican Party stood firm.
Both leaders behave as if they were ruling by divine right with scant regard to convention, institutional mandates and the courts of law. While Trump used the latter with an army of lawyers to trash the rule of law. Zuma was quoted as querying why he should listen to unelected judges. There were those in fact that used this logic as an exculpatory fact as Zuma’s tradition was tribal where the feudalistic framework mandated obedience to the leaders.
Both their administrations were also in dire legal straits. Eleven of Trump’s inner circle have been indicted on Federal Crimes - four of whom he unconditionally pardoned - his former campaign mangers Paul Manafort and Steve Bannon, (also the subsequent National Security Advisor, ((NSA), Roger Stone, a life long fixer and Michael Flynn his first NSA. Trump fired his head of the FBI and several watchdogs of departments who stood in his way. His personal lawyer Michael Cohen was found guilty for committing a crime that the prosecution alleged was at Trump’s instruction. His current personal lawyer has been disbarred from practice for lying to courts that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
It has been disclosed that those that allegedly bribed Zuma employed his son at an astronomical salary skipped to Dubai the moment he lost the election. The Gupta family that used government airports counseled the President and even suggested policy and ministerial appointments and their influence was central to Zuma and his administration’s straying off the path of lawfulness. The allegations of corruption of Zuma’s inner circle are legion. His financial advisor Mr. Shaik was sentenced for fifteen years in prison for soliciting a bribe, the court found was for the account of Mr. Zuma. Zuma was just prior to ascending to the presidency found not guilty of rape. Another example of the inner circle's widespread malfeasance was when Minister Bongo was jailed for attempting to bribe commissioners into his corruption into the energy facility ESKOM. A national police commissioner was found guilty of accepting a bribe from a crime syndicate and on and on. Zuma fired a succession of Finance Ministers, who refused to go along with his using the national treasury as his personal kitty. The findings of the Zondo Commission on corruption thus far have to be read to be believed.
Both Trump and Zuma stand on the threshold of serious criminal litigation Zuma in the form of his involvement in a massive corrupt arms deal and Trump on tax evasion, fraud and the like by the Attorney’s general of New York and Manhattan. Trump has to fear that he will charged with racketeering, a crime specifically promulgated to prosecute the mob. This all as a backdrop to the attempted violent coups to return the pair to power.
So far the behavior of these two populists is pretty similar. It needs a photo finish to decide who is worse.
THE ATTEMPTS TO REMAIN IN POWER
Both are involved in ongoing concerted attempts to remain in power.. Trump to this day has refused to concede his loss in the 2020 election while there is every indication that the havoc caused by the riots and looting following the sentencing and imprisonment of President Zuma was an attempt to overthrow the Ramaphosa regime.
The invasion of the Capitol followed Trump and Giuliani’s exhortations to go to the Capitol and fight like hell. There is no need to go into the well worn details of what happened that fateful day where the “peaceful’ mob were chanting hang Pence with a gallows standing ominously outside. Five hundred arrests have been made. Block buster books about to be published quote the Chief of the Armed Forces, General Milley, fearing a coup and making allusions to Hitler’s firing of the Reichstag. In addition Milley was being contacted by members of the legislature who wished to be reassured that everything was under control. Trump has followed up the January 6 insurrection by claiming that the crowd was peaceful and the protest has been blown out of proportion. The Republicans back him to the hilt claiming that it was Nancy Pelosi the Democratic Speaker’s fault that she didn’t provide adequate protection from the “tourists”. They rejected the formation of a bipartisan non legislative commission. Trump and his Administration refused to send in troops for a situation the police could not contain.
Zuma’s supporters wreaked havoc. There have been three hundred and thirty deaths, destruction and looting in malls all over Durban. Damage is estimated at nearly three and a half billion dollars. Hundreds of small businesses were wiped out as the carnage enveloped the whole of the Kwa Zulu area in the Natal Province and in the province of Gauteng. Several thousand were arrested for looting and rioting. There are reportedly a dozen Zuma conspirators in jail on suspicion of having orchestrated the uprising. Zuma’s party the ANC roundly condemned the violence. There is overall support for investigations into the causes of the riot.
MOTIVES FOR THE INSURRECTIONS.
There is no debate about the USA January 6 sedition - the right wing white mob wanted to put Trump back in power as he himself told the Republican Minority leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, when the latter begged for military help, “They obviously care more about the election results than you”. This action goes hand in hand with the Republican State legislatures legislation to suppress the Black vote so as to put the WhiteHouse and the legislature back into their column.
The motivations for the RSA attack are more complex. There is wide spread unemployment magnified by the Covid epidemic which fed into the political objectives. The fact that Zuma was of the Zulu tribe had been ousted narrowly by Ramaphosa of the Venda tribe has to have played into it. (Incidentally there have been no allegations that the voting was rigged!). The fact that Zuma had been incarcerated and they demanded his release was an added incentive on a tribal level as there is still a feudal belief that the leader can do what he likes. (Not so feudal apparently). There was no racial motive and the overwhelming byline was a power grab and an attempt to subvert the rule of law.
AFRICAN SOUL SEARCHING
There was obviously deep disappointment amongst the African intelligentsia and media. Mandela’s South Africa had promised so much. The RSA had the potential to become the breadbasket of South Africa. There was a developed economic and institutional infrastructure. Their Constitution had been hailed and Mandela did a remarkable job at bringing the country together. The country’s electricity, airlines and infrastructure generally is in a grand mess and it is dealing with the aftermath of the endemic corruption that eight years of the Zuma administration has engendered.
Nowhere is this post Zuma despondency better reflected than in an article in the highly respected The Sowetan Times by their lead commentator Prince Machela. Akin to the biblical narrative, reminiscent of “How we wept besides the River of Babylon…”, Machela sadly opines, “What Zuma has done, is to make us come to the realization that ours is another African country, not some exceptional country on the Southern tip of the African continent”, (The destruction of American exceptionalism that Trump actually effected is more to the point).
Machela continues with his lament, “We must all thank Zuma for revealing our true African character; that the idea of the rule of law is not part of who we are and that constitutionalism is a concept ahead of as a people. How else are we to explain the thousands of people who flock to stadiums to clap hands for a president who has violated their country’s constitution?. (Mr Machela has obviously never been to a Trump rally).
Just a few more of The Sowetan Times commentator observations “…..In a typical African country, people have no illusions about the unity to morality and governance. People know that those who have power, have it for themselves and their friends and families,,,,,, ( You can add Trump, McConnell, McCarthy, Fox News and the whole Republican Party to that lot), “….The problem is with clever blacks….Zuma remains African. He is mentally in line with Boko Haram. He is suspicious of educated people: what he calls “clever blacks”. Remember Boko Haram means ‘Against Western Education’”. (Trumpism’s abhorrence of intellect and science is epitomized by the full scale scapegoating of Dr. Fauc)i. "People must not entertain the illusion that a day is coming when SA will look like the USA”….. So there is deep introspection from all sectors of the RSA population with a belief that the USA democracy is the one to aim for!
AT THE END OF THE DAY
Ramaphosa is only dealing with a tribal conflict, at worst. Biden is dealing with a totally divided country where the split, like it or not, is largely on the basis of race. Moreover Biden's opposition has a cult like relationship with their leader Donald Trump to the extent that they are prepared tp risk dying rather than being vaccinated. Zuma is in jail already while in the middle of another criminal trial for corruption. Trump is out and kicking and his indictment on criminal charges has a way to go. Biden has America’s vast fortune to right the country from the mess Trump left behind while Ramaphosa has not the resources to solve some of the economic factors that contributed to the revolt.
With regard to the pessimistic outlooks in South Africa and America the future is dependent on their institutions, both governmental and non governmental as well as a free media and how effective the rule of law proves to be. In the final analysis both attempts at revolution were thwarted by the self same factors so there has to be hope.
Americans have no right to scoff at RSA, in fact the threat to liberal democracy is far greater in the USA. Likewise the South Africans can take comfort from the fact that they are not undergoing a unique experience as democracy is indeed very brittle.
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