The Elm Student Newspaper
Thoughts on a South African Political Rally
Volume 80, Issue 25
May 1, 2009
By Valerie Wxler
Elm Staff Writer
The black sedans painted on both sides with the image of Jacob Zuma, the second most famous man in South Africa, current president of the African National Congress and since last Wednesday, president of South Africa, had led me to the right place.
The Rhodes University lecture hall was crowded and covered in green, gold and black, the ANC’s official colors. I sat on the steps and put my camera around my neck—trying to blend in with the many, many reporters and photographers.
Suddenly the music boomed and… an entire dance troop got up and started to perform! This was not turning out to be like any American political rally. I couldn’t understand much of what the performers were singing, as most of it was in Zulu, Jacob Zuma’s native language. But the cardboard signs the dancers held up were in English. Each one listed something the ANC had done for South Africa. “95 percent of people have access to healthcare” read one. “88 percent of the population has access to electricity.” The ANC has managed to improve some things in South Africa, though the incredible inequality left by apartheid has made progress slow.
But looking around at the black students wearing ANC t-shirts and cheering and clapping to the beat of the dancers I’m not sure how much of what the ANC has done while in power really matters. South Africans may like the ANC because it got them housing or better health care. Their intense loyalty to the party, however, comes from what it did 15 years before. The ANC liberated an entire population. It’s hard for the opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance (DA) or the Congress of the People (COPE) to compete with that.
There are plenty of problems that can be found with the ANC. The recent corruption of many of its leaders, its slow progress in improving the lives of its people, especially the lives of women and dealing with HIV/AIDS, and other management failures. As I sat and watched the dancers, a row above me a group of women sat and held up signs of their own, each with a different sexist or homophobic quote said by a leader of the ANC. “Same sex marriage is a disgrace to the nation and to God,” said Jacob Zuma, who was also accused of rape a couple of years ago. “When a woman didn’t enjoy it she leaves early in the morning,” said Julius Malema, head of the ANC Youth League. Those who had a nice time will…request breakfast and ask for taxi money.”
Eventually it ended in shouting. The protesters demanding to be heard, and the ANC supporters asking how dare they. “They fought for you” one man shouted nearly in tears. “The ANC betrayed us sir” one of the students replied before they were both separated by a security guard. This will be the issue, maybe forever. How do you vote against the party that liberated you?
Even though I admit this is one election I’m glad I’m not voting in because I have no idea who I would have voted for, I am incredibly impressed by South Africa’s political process. Not just the whole peaceful and successful transition of power from apartheid thing. But the incredible lack of apathy. People may be disillusioned or disappointed but instead of doing nothing they get angry and they vote. Protesting for what you think is right is better than sitting around any day. It took the promise of hope and change to make us in America sit up and take notice. Maybe we can learn from South Africans. They don’t need that promise of change. They just make their own.