democracy

At present there's quite a heated debate going on in South Africa over a cartoon that appeared in the Sunday Times last Sunday.  The cartoon depicts Jacob Zuma, the president of the ANC and the man most likely to be the next president of South Africa. Zuma is seen undoing his trousers, while people representing the ANC, SACP, Cosatu and the ANC Youth League are holding down a woman, representing the justice system. The men are urging Zuma to rape the woman.

Inspired by the example of an American Congressman, and two Kenyan bloggers, I decided to make use of my democratic right as a South African. This week I attended a parliamentary committee meeting, to listen to submissions on a proposed amendment to the Broadcasting Act. I used my phone to take photos and short video and sound recordings. It was a powerful reminder of what democracy is all about.

I'm hopping mad. Zacob Zuma, the man who is likely to be South Africa's next president, is in court today, to try and ward off a corruption case against him. It's the latest in a long series of court appearances, as Zuma's lawyers try every tactic to avoid or postpone his corruption trial. That's not why I'm mad. I'm mad about the stance that Zuma's party, the ANC, is taking on the case.

It seems that all our state institutions in South Africa are being tested at the moment. They're all in crisis or under attack -- from the Human Rights Commission, to the Judiciary, to the national broadcaster. It's the toughest test our teenaged democracy has had, and its clearly time for us all to grow up and become adults.

I am becoming disillusioned with democracy. Elected leaders, all around the world, seem to be getting worse and worse. In London they've just elected Boris Johnson, a bigoted buffoon, as mayor. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi was recently re-elected as prime minister. This is a man who is notoriously corrupt, and who in his previous terms in power ran the government like his private business empire.

I was quite disturbed to read two opinion pieces in the SA Sunday papers, on Zimbabwe, where the authors were basically defending Mugabe. The thing is, these writers have some valid points to make - but they go on to draw unjustifiable conclusions.

It goes like this: Snuki Zikalala is known as an Mbeki man, and he was suspended by Mpofu, who perhaps used to be an Mbeki man but is now apparently in the Zuma camp. Mpofu was then suspended by the Board, which is believed to be loaded with Mbeki supporters, and the board has been censured by the Parliamentary committee, which is full of Zuma's people.It's all rather like one of the SABC's own soap operas -- but any script-writer who wrote this plot would be told to change it -- it's too far fetched to be believed.