Africa paying heavily for SA's bad choices

By Cedrick Ngalande

A couple of weeks ago we saw French troops capture and hand over the embattled Laurent Gbagbo to the Ivorian government. For several months Gbagbo had refused to hand over power to the UN-recognised winner of the presidential elections. This stand-off resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians.

In North Africa, a series of demonstrations in Libya resulted in a civil war that prompted the French and British to lobby the UN and a reluctant Barack Obama to stage a bombing campaign. Now, weeks after the campaign started, it is becoming clear that Libya is heading for a protracted civil war.

Libya and Ivory Coast are just two of the many problems our continent faces. Yet common to all these problems is the invisibility of Africans at the table where solutions are discussed. In Ivory Coast and Libya it was the French and the European Union that were at the forefront of formulating solutions. The African Union’s response was slow and inadequate. Perhaps it didn’t matter because nobody seems to take the African Union seriously. Despite the fact that Libya has, in recent times, been associated more with the African Union than the Arab League, it was the latter’s opinion and endorsement that was being sought on the Libya issue.

Many Africans are now beginning to ask: “What is wrong with the African Union?”

It turns out that the answer to this question is not complicated. The real problem with Africa today is that regional kingpin South Africa lacks a “Thabo Mbeki” at its helm.

Can you imagine Mbeki being the president of SA and somehow, some people getting UN permission to start bombing an African country without African consent? Can you imagine the French ruling the day in Ivory Coast while Mbeki is president?

Africa needs an SA that has an intelligent and competent president who will go around the world and present Africa’s vision without being intimidated. It needs an Mbeki who will argue his point with world leaders in different forums and win the argument. An Mbeki would have convinced the world not to bomb Libya before the two sides had been brought to the negotiation table. Instead of leaving Ivory Coast to the French, an Mbeki would have encouraged the two parties to explore a settlement that would have avoided the terrible bloodshed we witnessed there.

Say what you will about Zimbabwe, Mbeki’s solution averted a protracted civil war and bloodshed in that country. Zimbabwean political leaders may be at loggerheads in parliament and cabinet meetings but the economy is steadily improving and people are going about their normal lives. This is how things should be — yesterday’s enemies sitting together in the same cabinet.

Perhaps it is unfair to expect Jacob Zuma to be Thabo Mbeki. He never promised that he would be one. His campaign lacked specifics — he simply went around dancing. The South African electorate liked him for his dance moves and now all Africans have to suffer for that terrible decision.

Zuma’s responses to African crises have been sad and puzzling. In the immediate aftermath of Ivory Coast’s disputed election, Zuma joined the UN in endorsing Alassane Ouattara as the winner. A few weeks later, Zuma changed his mind and declared that SA is neutral because “there were serious irregularities on both sides”. At the same time Zuma saw it fit to position a South African warship off the coast of Ivory Coast, a move interpreted by Nigeria as intimidation. After a few weeks of being neutral, the South Africans again rediscovered that it was Quattara who won the elections. They then proceeded to freeze Gbagbo’s assets.

If you think Zuma’s response to Ivory Coast was puzzling, try his response to Libya — a total disaster. At first Zuma agreed with the African Union that there should be no military intervention before the two sides had been brought together. Then he ordered his UN representative to vote for the no-fly zone resolution. Apparently Zuma had been won over after getting a call from a Western leader. As Nato started putting the no-fly zone in place, Zuma changed his mind again! At the time of writing this article, it is unclear as to what Zuma’s position on Libya is.

South Africans have the right to choose who they want to be their leader. They have the right to choose their leaders based on dancing ability. But South Africans need to know their country is really losing credibility in Africa right now. Very soon, a permanent seat will open up in the Security Council of the UN. For a long time SA had been a clear favorite to take that seat ahead of Nigeria and Ghana. With SA taking ambiguous and weak positions on African issues in international forums, the odds for Nigeria or Ghana to take the UN seat have started improving tremendously. Africans will surely not nominate for the UN seat a country whose leadership is too timid to disagree with the EU. SA urgently needs another Mbeki at its helm!

But don’t bank on the electorate to heed this advice, after all, South African elections are simply dance competitions … and we already know who will win.

Cedrick Ngalande is an aerospace engineer and space scientist currently residing in California, US. He holds a PhD in astronautical engineering and was born in Malawi.