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Leadership matters in southern Africa
Jo-Ansie Van Wyk, The Namibian (Windhoek)
June 15, 2007

http://allafrica.com/stories/200706150631.html

IN 1992, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni published a book entitled 'What is Africa's problem?'.

He did not provide an answer, but for the purposes of this discussion, 'leadership' is the short answer.

Africa is, by its political leaders' own admission, in a crisis due to its loss of the spirit of its traditional leadership and post independence 'questionable leadership'.

A dynamic region

In southern Africa, in particular, executive political leadership is under considerable discussion.

A quick survey indicates that the next two to three years may see a very different cadre of executive leaders in the region.

The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which is in power since the country's independence in 1966, has since 1999 seen the rise of Lt Ian Khama as party vice president.

President Mogae indicated his intention to step down in 2008.

His appointment of Lt Khama paves the way for Lt Khama to be the country's next president.

Earlier this year, the Lesotho Congress of Democrats (LCD) was re-elected in a landslide election.

This may pave the way for a third term for Prime Minister Mosisili who was re-elected to a second term in 2002.

Angolan President Dos Santos, in power since 1979, has also indicated his intention to step down in 2009 when the country's next presidential poll is scheduled to take place.

In Zimbabwe, the region's enfant terrible, President Mugabe declared his intention to stay on until he is a hundred years old.

In South Africa, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is due to elect its new party president in December.

Constitutionally, President Mbeki has to step down after two terms in office in 2009.

In Namibia, Swapo finds itself almost in a similar position as the ANC as Swapo is also due to elect its president towards the end of this year.

Mozambique is also scheduled for presidential elections in the next two years.

Elected in 2004, Mozambican President Guebuza is prevented by the Mozambican constitution limitation on the term of the incumbent president to two consecutive terms.

In Zambia, the constitutional and succession debate is also very robust.

President Mwanawasa was elected in 2002 and some contenders are staking their claim.

Swaziland is likely to remain the exception, where King Mswati III has consolidated his absolute monarchy despite the introduction of the country's new constitution in 2006.

The legacy of liberation

In Southern Africa, compared to the rest of Africa, notable exceptions vis-à-vis the liberation struggles against colonialism occur.

Botswana and Swaziland, for example, are the only countries in the region not to have had long drawn out liberation struggles.

Second, the region has not seen any liberation struggles against African colonisers as in, for example, Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Sahrawi Republic.

In Southern Africa, liberation movements/parties turned political parties turned governing parties continue to dominate national politics.

For example, the BDP has been ruling since 1966, the ANC since 1994, the MPLA since 1979, Swapo since 1990, Zanu-PF since 1980 and Frelimo since 1986.

On average, these parties have been governing for almost 25 years.

Regionally, Presidents Dos Santos and Mugabe are regarded as the 'longdistance men', namely in power for a considerable period.

What, then, are the most notable legacies of the liberation in the region? Swapo, Zanu and the ANC are the oldest liberation movements in the region and, as such, represent a significant symbolism in Southern Africa's liberation.

The ANC and Swapo have always had a special relationship dating back to South Africa's governing of the former Southwest Africa.

Relations between the ANC and Zanu, however, have not been as cordial.

Second, apart from South Africa and Botswana, countries in the region continue to suffer from low levels of human development.

Notwithstanding the impact of global political and economic forces, most of the governments in the region have not, apart from liberation; have brought significant human development to their countries.

The dominance of any political party in a particular state signals either a consolidated democracy, a contend electorate, good political leadership, high levels of political loyalty to the governing party, economic growth and an equal distribution of wealth, or stagnation, procedural democracy (for example manipulated elections and rule by constitutional amendments), political alienation and exclusion from the political arena, regime formation, state capture or the entrenchment of, particularly, the ruling elite's interests.

Majoritarianism, as we see currently in Southern Africa, is not necessarily undesirable, or politically dangerous.

However, when majoritarianism, as it has in the region, leads to, for example, state capture, political exclusion and economic decline, where the ruling elite only benefits, it becomes both undesirable and politically dangerous.

Regionally, long-term majoritarianism has consolidated the ruling elite's interests, made the state apparatus the only source of power and wealth and enlarged the gap between the haves and have-nots.

However, democracy in Southern Africa is approximately 25 years old.

Regionally, it has survived, amongst others, colonialism, global economic crises, civil wars, apartheid and the Cold War.

Despite the 'advanced cases of stayism' in the region, political leaders are participating in the continent's unprecedented normative innovations illustrated by the establishment of the African Union (including, for example, its Peace and Security Council), the New Partnership for Africa's Development and its African Peer Review Mechanism, and the African Court on Human Rights.

The next step is to introduce these norms to countries' national agendas, implement it and, more importantly, enforce it.

Putting 'civil' back into civil society

It is easy to point fingers at 'long-distance' men and political parties in the region.

Politically, civil society and opposition parties should also be held accountable.

Civil society and opposition leaders have often been accused of being engaged in a scramble for national executive political power, rather than acting constructively and democratically internally.

The main task of civil society and opposition parties is to act as counter- factual forces visà- vis the ruling party, government and the state.

In-fighting, dependence on donor funding and personal political agendas often results in the contrary.

Pertinent questions civil society organisations and opposition parties in the region should address to themselves is: how civil and democratic are they and do they act? How active it is in the political arena of its country? How active are they in the regional and continental political arenas and avenues offered by, for example, the Pan- African Parliament, the African Peer Review Mechanism and the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union?

Rhetoric versus reality

Political amnesia vis-à-vis the political injustices of any form of colonialism should never be allowed to occur.

South Africans' experience of its Truth and Reconciliation Commission was tough, but liberating.

As wounds heal in South Africa, one wonders what the long-term impact of an event like the Matabeleland Genocide in the early days of Robert Mugabe's presidency left on Zimbabweans.

Hindsight offers the luxury of questioning reality by 'what ifs'.

What if President Mugabe was brought to book at the time? Was that genocide merely a political prelude of a regime to come? The reality is that political leaders hold, control and distribute political power, influence, authority and spoils in governments, societies, political parties and the state.

Southern Africans should move beyond liberation and post-independence liberation rhetoric and question its executive, opposition and civil society leaders.

Politics is too important to leave to politicians and leadership too important to leave to leaders only.

The next two to three years in Southern Africa will either confirm or contradict this.

* Jo-Ansie van Wyk lectures International Politics in the Department of Political Sciences, University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, South Africa. This contribution draws partly on her publication, 'Political leaders in Africa: Presidents, patrons or profiteers?' (2007). Published by the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), Durban, South Africa, available at www.accord.org.za She is a doctoral candidate at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

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