South Africa morphing into a democratic autocracy

30 May 2016

We have a strange political camel that is walking in South Africa. It is a combination of some democracy and a lot of autocracy. From 2009 we have seen the emergence of a system of government in which near supreme power is concentrated in the hands of Mr Zuma. His decisions, actions and transgressions are therefore only partially subjected to parliamentary oversight as the ruling party caucus has strategically forfeited its duty of holding him accountable. The only remaining restraints on him are those imposed by the courts from time to time.

Mr Zuma sees the courts as an obstacle to be overcome using taxpayers' money to hire the most expensive lawyers in our country. That is why, in spite of his having a charge sheet of more than 700 violations of the law, he can keep the long arm of the law from reaching him. He has impunity at taxpayers' expense. Millions upon millions are squandered in legal challenges and not a cent of that comes from him.

Since 2009 parochialism has begun to manifest itself and dynastic tendencies as well are very much evident as Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is being positioned to succeed Mr Zuma. His son Edward Zuma is also fast emerging as the spokesman for the dynasty that is taking shape. Meanwhile, those who parade as ministers as can be seen from innumerable incidents are nothing but servile minions of the mutating autocrat at the top.

We now have a democratic autocracy in place thanks to the ruling party. This is half way or the staging post to South Africa becoming a full blown autocracy under further ANC rule. Mr Zuma is therefore continuously urges voters to give him a two thirds majority so that he can complete the job of finishing off our constitutional democracy as he finished off the Scorpions. He is getting there quite quickly.  

The herd instinct within the ruling party is very strong as the whole country will have witnessed. That is why not one single person from the ruling party or the SACP or Cosatu has had anything to say about Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s censorship of protests. No one in the ruling party, as Justice Malala observed today in his column in The Times, has anything to say about Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s continuation in office which is in defiance of a court order. That is why they have nothing to say about the censorship he has imposed on protest reporting.

South Africans who have been blindly supporting the ruling party in the last seven years have allowed our constitutional and democratic state to morph into a democratic autocracy. Instead of preserving and advancing our constitutional democracy, as a precious legacy for our children, ANC supporters and politicians have consented to its attenuation and dilution. We have a weakening democracy and a strengthening autocracy. People are fed up.

The failure of politics is evident in the extensive use of arson. It is so widespread in our country, that even protesters at the apex centres of learning in our country, our universities, are resorting to fire rather than reason to advance their argument. That parliament has to have security personnel to subdue MPs and that the Minister of Finance has to fight all sorts of unnecessary battles to stave off a rating agency's downgrade, reflect the corrosive autocracy of Mr Zuma.

To keep in his good books for her breach of the Constitution, the Minister of Defence , is pushing very hard to get her boss a new jet to impress him and let her off the hook.

Meanwhile billions of rand are leaving the country. The rapid destruction of our constitutional democracy is proceeding apace.

COPE urges South Africans to preserve President Mandela’s legacy and to protect our democracy from being seized by political hyenas who will gnaw at the very bones after having completed their state capture. Nothing will be left. Everyone should see that South Africa has morphed into a democratic autocracy. In due course, as in Animal Farm, the word democracy will be tippexed and all that will remain is a fully fledged and dynastic autocracy.

Issued by Dennis Bloem, COPE Spokesperson, 30 May 2016