South African politics has always been a mess - perhaps excepting a period while Nelson Mandela was in power, although even then there were moments - and the latest African National Congress elections is a good exposition of that underlying fact.
Cyril Ramaphosa won another term as leader, beating out former health minister Zweli Mkhize, although with an unconvincing 57% of the vote.
Ramaphosa is still under scrutiny after a corruption scandal in which a mysterious US$580,000 was discovered under his sofa. Mkhize was forced to resign from cabinet last year after allegations that his associates profited from contracts under his ministry. The man Ramaphosa replaced, Jacob Zuma, is facing continuing corruption challenges of his own, despite the fact that he is also pursuing his own private prosecution of Ramaphosa for not doing enough to extricate him from those same corruption charges.
Like I said, a mess. Corruption and grift are endemic in South Africa, and nowhere more so in the upper echelons of the African National Congress. And we think our politics is sleazy!
No comments:
Post a Comment