Showing a Rough Side
Once known for good government, Mbeki is proving ever more authoritarian as his term comes to an end.
These are good days for South Africa's newspaper vendors. Open up any broadsheet and lurid details of government squabbles spill out—usually fueled by highly placed leaks. If one element unites the crises, it's the invariable presence of Thabo Mbeki, the country's president, at their center. TELL US THE TRUTH, MR. PRESIDENT! screamed one headline last week. Increasingly, however, that's something Mbeki seems reluctant to do.
The African National Congress, which Mbeki leads, has always put more emphasis on loyalty and obedience than on open debate in its ranks. But Mbeki long seemed a powerful advocate for democracy and good governance within the party. As Nelson Mandela's deputy, he built a reputation for honesty, helping build up the National Prosecuting Office and establishing an elite team of lawyers and investigators, called the Scorpions, to root out corruption and graft.
More recently, however, analysts say the president has drifted toward a dangerous kind of authoritarianism. Why? In December, the ANC will choose his successor as party leader, and the power struggle is revealing deep splits within the ANC. It's also revealing a rarely seen rough side in Mbeki's character as he seeks to consolidate his legacy. Some South Africans now speak of a brewing constitutional crisis. "The president has said 'trust me,' but everything he's done has made us question whether we can," says Helen Zille, leader of the opposition party, Democratic Alliance.
Until recently, Mbeki did a deft job of balancing the country's many ethnic, religious and linguistic constituencies while governing and holding his party together. When his deputy president, Jacob Zuma, was accused of corruption in 2005, Mbeki lost no time in sacking him. Since then, however, his moves have become harder to justify. In August, he fired the wildly popular deputy Health minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. The ostensible cause was her disobedience, but the real reason may have been Routledge's increasingly strident criticism of her boss, the controversial Health minister and close Mbeki crony Manto Tshabalala-Msimang—who earned international derision for promoting the use of beetroot and African potatoes to treat AIDS. The firing of Routledge, a respected public-health expert, sparked an immediate outcry. ANC allies accused Mbeki of abusing his powers to protect his followers.
In fact, his moves may be nothing more than the normal political jockeying that precedes a leadership change. Some claim that the mere fact Mbeki is being criticized so bitterly is proof of his democratic bona fides. "Where else in the world have you heard a party argue that the president is imperial and operates like a dictator?" asks Adam Habib, of the Human Research Council. Habib and others insist that Mbeki's gaffes—including his bizarre approach to HIV/AIDS (he has cast doubt on the link between the two), his lethargic response to Robert Mugabe's oppression of Zimbabwe and South Africa's spiraling crime statistics—may be serious errors but have created space for dissent within the ANC.
Still, his behavior is getting harder to defend. Though he's always been somewhat ruthless, in the past he was careful to avoid impropriety and was known as a careful strategist. Now analysts and intimates are bewildered by his refusal to explain his actions and political fauxes pas. Fresh suspicions surfaced recently when the country's chief prosecutor, Visu Pikoli, issued an arrest warrant for the national police chief, Jackie Selebi. Mbeki immediately suspended Pikoli, citing administrative problems supposedly unrelated to the case. But critics have pointed out that Selebi is a longtime Mbeki supporter and a powerhouse within the ANC. Moreover, there were plenty of reasons for his prosecution. Selebi has previously confessed to maintaining a friendship with an accused murderer and is suspected of racketeering and suborning justice.
As criticism over Pikoli's suspension began to spread, Mbeki ordered an independent investigation—but made sure to appoint a friendly ANC supporter to head it up. "Democracies are designed to deal with leaders [who are] less than democratic," says Paul Graham, director of the Institute for a Democratic Alternative in South Africa. "This will be the first real test."
A coalition of opposition parties has begun arguing that Mbeki has done irreparable damage to the independence of South Africa's judiciary and that he should publicly explain his actions. Even some Mbeki supporters, such as trade-union leaders, now admit that his behavior has provoked a "serious crisis" and undermined the democratic process. That may be a stretch: South Africa is still a beacon for democracy. But that's something Mbeki may sometimes need reminding of these days.
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.
Scott Johnson was named Africa Bureau Chief in April 2007, after serving two years as Baghdad Bureau Chief since the spring of 2004. In the summer of 2007, Johnson co-authored, with Sharon Begley, Newsweek's July cover story "Slaughter in the Jungle," about a spate of rare mountain gorilla killings in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has also been covering, for the magazine and Newsweek's Web site, the economic collapse of Zimbabwe, health initiatives across the continent and the rise of China in Africa.
Prior to coming to Africa, Johnson worked on assignment in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. He was on assignment in Iraq during the invasion and returned several times during 2002 and 2003 to report on the post-invasion occupation. During his two years as Baghdad bureau chief, Johnson covered the rise of Iraq's sectarian war, the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein and the American military's attempt to quell the insurgency in places like Ramadi and Baghdad. He contributed exclusive reporting on the growth of death squads in Baghdad, Iran's growing influence in Iraq and American military and political developments in Baghdad.
Before coming to Iraq, Johnson covered the war in Afghanistan from October 2001 to April 2002, reporting on the fall of the Taliban from the front lines of Kunduz and Taloqan. Later on, Johnson traveled across Afghanistan reporting on the hunt for Al Qaeda and the resurgence of the Taliban as American forces drew down its presence. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, Johnson has done exclusive war reporting, often under fire and in the most dangerous situations. In Iraq, he covered the hunt for Saddam Hussein with exclusive access to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 4th Infantry Division. He also contributed extensive exclusive reporting early in 2003 on the nascent Iraqi insurgency from Fallujah.
In between posts to Baghdad, Johnson was provisionally based in Mexico City from 2002 to 2006. When not covering the war, Johnson reported on political and economic developments across Latin America. In 2002 he authored a Newsweek International cover story on the rise of China in Mexico. In 2004 he received an Overseas Press Club Honorable Mention for "Best Reporting in any Medium on Latin America" for "Latin America Lags Behind," about economic trends across the hemisphere. In Latin America, Johnson also covered violence along the U.S-Mexico border, the creation of Mexico's freedom of information act and an experimental drug treatment center in Peru.
Previously, Johnson reported for Newsweek out of Paris, France, since October 1998. During that time, he has reported on many of the biggest stories to come out of the continent, including Europe's mad cow scare, the backlash against globalization, and Newsweek's military coverage of the Kosovo war out of southern Italy. He has also developed in-depth investigative pieces from Europe, and he contributed heavily to Newsweek's worldwide report on pedophilia and the Internet. He has also covered North Africa, covering terrorism pre-and-post 9/11.
Johnson is a frequent contributor to radio, most recently from Iraq where he has interviewed on NPR, The World and other national stations, and he has been seen on MSNBC, Fox and CNN. In addition to Newsweek, his writing has appeared in Le Courrier International and Letras Libres. Johnson was also part of the Iraq team that contributed to Newsweek's 2003 National Magazine Award.
Johnson is a 1996 graduate of the University of Washington, where he received double degrees in Comparative Literature and Comparative History of Ideas. Postgraduate work included Arabic language and Middle Eastern Studies in Fes, Morocco. He is a member of the Anglo-American Press Association in Paris.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
Comments