South Africa's Future

The South African presidential election took place yesterday amid acute tension and uprising.  Having lived here for ten months, I can now appreciate why South Africans have grown so angry, uncertain, and jaded over the last twenty years, particularly around politics.  Though Apartheid officially ended a quarter century ago, the corruption that followed has, to a large extent, economically (and psychologically) paralyzed this country.  Nelson Mandela, the mastermind behind the dismantling of Apartheid, needed and deserved so much more time - it’s that simple.  He possessed uncanny abilities to unite SA at its most volatile state.  To achieve this, he included everyone in the conversation - blacks, whites, coloreds - to ensure that no one exploited the process.  The ANC, African National Congress, of which he was the longstanding leader, unthinkably abandoned Mandela’s teachings and principles for quick money as soon as he stepped down.  The Zuma regime, SA’s last administration for almost a decade, systematically destroyed most of Mandela’s accomplishments.  Currently, that is the tragic reality of South Africa, the fact that those who succeeded Mandela focused on money-grabbing rather than healing the nation.  You can’t say enough about Mandela’s talents as a leader; his measured approach to life (including his almost 30-year incarceration), coupled with his forceful, uplifting political rhetoric, gave all of South Africa a common identity.  Rather than move steadily toward revenge, furthermore, Mandela eased conflict by promoting a new world mentality, one in which everyone pulled together.  What a simple, yet priceless, message.  And now SA, still shrouded in the smoke of Zuma’s corruption, must choose its next President.  Let’s hope that the frontrunner, Cyril Ramaphosa, in whom most South Africans hold considerable faith, can revive a crippled land.  If not, the future of this wonderful place and all that Mandela stood for could easily dissolve into even more unhappiness and chaos.