20 Sep. 08
Jacob Zuma scares the hell out of me. Although Mbeki had a bit of a bad start with some of his public statements, the place has been moving on; it’s been way too slow for the people in the townships – who have shown the patience of stones – but progress nonetheless. Mbeki had a tough act to follow.
South Africa had bright prospects yesterday. They will be hosting the World Cup in 2010, there has been more investment and the knowledge base – key to success and still largely white – has mostly stayed in place. Apparently this bully boy, and that is the way they paint him, doesn’t just have a closet of skeletons, the rumours suggest he needs a shipping container to hold them.
I worry that Zuma could be another evil-minded populist like Mr. Mugabe in Zimbabwe. What I hold on to is that the hope of progress in the townships, the patience of its people and the roots of democracy and justice are deep enough in the fertile soil of that beautiful land that it can survive what looks like just another demagogue.
International sport is politics. Maybe the 2010 World Cup will help to preserve the best chance for the conversion of that continent, the victim of a millennium of exploitation, into all that it should be.
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