![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
nairiporter.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
talkpoliticsThere was an interesting 3-parts feature on CNN about Helen Zille, the leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance in South Africa, and long-time Cape Town mayor. Cape Town is currently the only big city in South Africa governed by a DA-led coalition. The ruling ANC party have been trying to push her aside for ages, using all sort of dirty tricks like re-shaping the election map of the Western Cape province and even relocating thousands of people from the Gauteng province deep in the country to the vicinity of Cape Town. They would stop at nothing to take this stronghold of political diversity and pluralism, and surely the dirty smearing tactics and using outright lies about her are not excluded from their arsenal.
Helen Zille is a great politician, always pragmatic and moderate, and the resilience that she has demonstrated in the face of all that immense pressure can only make one admire her enormously. I am sure she would be by far SA's best president. Sadly, she will never be elected. First because she is white in a predominantly black nation - isn't that ironic? And even her long history of an anti-apartheid fighter will hardly help her.
Of course there have been whites in government here even in the post-apartheid era. Just to mention the great former finance minister Trevor Manuel who is a highly respected politician who many think was responsible for the tremendous economic advancement and stability that the country has seen ever since the end of apartheid. What some had feared might turn into an economic catastrophe for the country was instead turned into an era of prosperity, and South Africans have seen his clever and responsible fiscal policies reflect on the country even today, when SA averted the dip into financial recession that many other countries in the world experienced. Of course the problems of poverty in large portions of the nation are very serious, and let's not forget the problems with education, HIV, and crime...
The second reason Helen Zille does not stand a chance to be universally approved is because since Mandela left office, the grip of the ANC on all institutions, and correlatively corruption, has been growing fast. There was some minor temporary glitch on the last election when a breakaway party named COPE was formed, but we all saw how swiftly the ANC caused havoc amidst its ranks and rendered it largely irrelevant. The fringe formations like the Communist Party on the far-left and the Freedom Front Plus on the right-wing also lack the potential to do anything remarkable, which could be a good thing really. And the legendary Inkatha Freedom party of Mangosuthu Buthelezi is more like a regional power in the KwaZulu-Natal province and lacks the capacity to go beyond the status of a merely ethnic/racial formation, the way the Democratic Alliance truly has done it. Indeed, in her interview (see the 3 videos under the link), Helen Zille explained how her philosophy was to make DA something more than just the party of the whites, to make it transcend its regional character and launch it on a new level. And despite the difficulties she has been working in that direction ever since she took the top party chair.
But ANC's grip on power is truly immense. It may look like SA is becoming less and less a free country: it looks more and more like the majority of other African countries: dominated by a nomenklatura linked to the ruling party, with multiple conflicts of interest and corruption issues, and petty backstage bickering, which gangrenes the nation's resources and economy. We could do a lot better than that. We have enormous economic resource and amazing human potential to do it, but we need a smarter and more responsible governing.
During her tenure as a mayor of Cape Town, and now leader of the DA, Helen Zille has shown that a modest and effective governing is possible when done in a smart way, and when listening to good advice from the people. She has shown that it works on a local level, so it is possible on a national level too. Cape Town is by far the most diverse city, it is a beacon of racial, religious and ethnic tolerance, and it is an example to follow. And Helen Zille has been at the core of this transformation. It doesn't matter that she is on the right-of-center side of the political spectrum, it doesn't matter that she is white, she has shown with her acts both in the past and the present that she is a lady of exceptional integrity and courage, and immense wisdom. We would do good if we tried to emulate her rather than smear her, no matter which side we are on and what our political philosophy might be. She deserves all the respect she could get.
Helen Zille is a great politician, always pragmatic and moderate, and the resilience that she has demonstrated in the face of all that immense pressure can only make one admire her enormously. I am sure she would be by far SA's best president. Sadly, she will never be elected. First because she is white in a predominantly black nation - isn't that ironic? And even her long history of an anti-apartheid fighter will hardly help her.
Of course there have been whites in government here even in the post-apartheid era. Just to mention the great former finance minister Trevor Manuel who is a highly respected politician who many think was responsible for the tremendous economic advancement and stability that the country has seen ever since the end of apartheid. What some had feared might turn into an economic catastrophe for the country was instead turned into an era of prosperity, and South Africans have seen his clever and responsible fiscal policies reflect on the country even today, when SA averted the dip into financial recession that many other countries in the world experienced. Of course the problems of poverty in large portions of the nation are very serious, and let's not forget the problems with education, HIV, and crime...
The second reason Helen Zille does not stand a chance to be universally approved is because since Mandela left office, the grip of the ANC on all institutions, and correlatively corruption, has been growing fast. There was some minor temporary glitch on the last election when a breakaway party named COPE was formed, but we all saw how swiftly the ANC caused havoc amidst its ranks and rendered it largely irrelevant. The fringe formations like the Communist Party on the far-left and the Freedom Front Plus on the right-wing also lack the potential to do anything remarkable, which could be a good thing really. And the legendary Inkatha Freedom party of Mangosuthu Buthelezi is more like a regional power in the KwaZulu-Natal province and lacks the capacity to go beyond the status of a merely ethnic/racial formation, the way the Democratic Alliance truly has done it. Indeed, in her interview (see the 3 videos under the link), Helen Zille explained how her philosophy was to make DA something more than just the party of the whites, to make it transcend its regional character and launch it on a new level. And despite the difficulties she has been working in that direction ever since she took the top party chair.
But ANC's grip on power is truly immense. It may look like SA is becoming less and less a free country: it looks more and more like the majority of other African countries: dominated by a nomenklatura linked to the ruling party, with multiple conflicts of interest and corruption issues, and petty backstage bickering, which gangrenes the nation's resources and economy. We could do a lot better than that. We have enormous economic resource and amazing human potential to do it, but we need a smarter and more responsible governing.
During her tenure as a mayor of Cape Town, and now leader of the DA, Helen Zille has shown that a modest and effective governing is possible when done in a smart way, and when listening to good advice from the people. She has shown that it works on a local level, so it is possible on a national level too. Cape Town is by far the most diverse city, it is a beacon of racial, religious and ethnic tolerance, and it is an example to follow. And Helen Zille has been at the core of this transformation. It doesn't matter that she is on the right-of-center side of the political spectrum, it doesn't matter that she is white, she has shown with her acts both in the past and the present that she is a lady of exceptional integrity and courage, and immense wisdom. We would do good if we tried to emulate her rather than smear her, no matter which side we are on and what our political philosophy might be. She deserves all the respect she could get.
(no subject)
Date: 5/2/11 17:20 (UTC)