{"id":14800,"date":"2023-09-08T00:58:14","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T07:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=14800"},"modified":"2023-09-15T01:04:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T08:04:05","slug":"gangs-corruption-and-collapse-the-slow-and-steady-demise-of-south-africa-der-spiegel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=14800","title":{"rendered":"“Gangs, Corruption and Collapse: The Slow and Steady Demise of South Africa”, Der Spiegel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The end of Apartheid in South Africa brought a surge of hope for a brighter future. But the ANC, the party that liberated the Black majority from oppression, has transformed the country into a swamp of corruption, mismanagement and despair. Some are trying to turn things around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Bartholom\u00e4us Grill<\/a>\u00a0und\u00a0Fritz Schaap<\/a>\u00a0in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Uitenhage, 08.09.2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every time parliamentarian Siviwe Gwarube walks to work, the anger comes surging back. Every time she lifts her gaze to the Corinthian capitals on top of the white, neoclassical pillars that line the magnificent fa\u00e7ade of South Africa\u2019s parliament building in the heart of Cape Town. This building \u2013 once built as a testament to British colonial rule and later a symbol of the dark Apartheid era before then emerging, in 1994, as a beacon of hope when the country\u2019s first democratically elected representatives from all of South Africa\u2019s ethnic groups moved in \u2013 for Siviwe Gwarube, this building has become a symbol of her country\u2019s failure.DER SPIEGEL 36\/2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Foto: DER SPIEGEL; Quelle: IWF<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 36\/2023 (September 2nd, 2023) of DER SPIEGEL.<\/strong>SPIEGEL International<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chief whip for the Democratic Alliance (DA), the country\u2019s largest opposition party, looks through shattered windows into the sky above the Cape of Good Hope. There is no roof to block her view. The stench of the soot from the two-day-long fire that ripped through the building in January 2022 still hangs in the air. Sandbags are lying in front of the portico as plaster peels from the walls. The South African flag hangs limp from a pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a camel-brown overcoat tossed over her dress on this chilly July morning, the 34-year-old heads towards her office in the undamaged administrative section of the building complex. It\u2019s quiet, with only the clacking of her high-heeled boots on the cobble stones echoing off the walls. “After more than a year and a half,” she says, shaking her head, “they still haven\u2019t even cleaned up the rubble.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three Decades of Poor Governance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Three decades have passed since the end of Apartheid and the widely celebrated introduction of democracy in South Africa. Three decades since Nelson Mandela\u2019s vision of a rainbow nation, in which people of all skin colors would live together in prosperity. Gwarube, though, now finds herself standing before the ruins of that dream. “The country is collapsing at a monumental scale.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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South Africa, the most developed economy on the continent \u2013 a nation that in the 20th century didn\u2019t have to shy away from comparisons to Europe \u2013 now finds itself, following decades of economic malpractice and political incompetence, on the brink of the abyss. The reasons for the collapse aren\u2019t difficult to find, says Gwarube. “At the top of all our problems is governance. Governance has broken down in South Africa.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gwarube is now sitting in her wood-paneled office, a portrait of Nelson Mandela hanging on the wall behind her. The leather-bound volumes of past parliamentary debates are lined up in the bookcase. Most of the representatives from the African National Congress (ANC), the party that liberated the country and now holds an absolute majority in parliament, pay little mind to the needs of the people who elected them, says Gwarube. In fact, she continues, many of them have little understanding of how parliament works and don\u2019t even know what the separation of powers actually means. “It\u2019s greed and corruption,” she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Siviwe<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Siviwe Gwarube, chief whip for the opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA) in her parliamentary office: “It’s greed and corruption.”Foto: Barry Christianson \/ DER SPIEGEL<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The failures of the ruling elite has plunged South Africa into a dire political and economic crisis. Six out of 10 young South Africans are jobless and more than half of the country\u2019s 60 million residents live in poverty, according to the World Bank. Furthermore, South Africa\u2019s murder rate is one of the highest in the world, with around 25,000 victims per year. Since Apartheid, more than half a million people have met a violent death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the fiscal year 2021-2022, the auditor-general found that 219 of the country\u2019s 257 municipalities did not have clean audits. In countless cities and municipalities, the infrastructure, administration, education system, health system, sewage and garbage collection are all subpar or completely dysfunctional. In many places, not even the trains are running, while some regions are forced to go for days without running water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An independent investigative commission recently disclosed the degree to which public officeholders have systematically plundered state-owned companies and institutions and driven them into bankruptcy \u2013 from the flagship airline SAA and the public broadcaster SABC to the national postal service. Thus far, not a single high-ranking politician has been convicted in the final appeal. And despite repeated pledges to take action, President Cyril Ramaphosa hasn\u2019t dared to do anything, likely out of concern that the kleptocrats in his own party would push him out of office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stealing Money from the Public<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The damage caused by theft, sabotage, incompetence and mismanagement has been particularly severe at the country\u2019s railway operator Transnet and the nationwide power utility Eskom. On some days, there is no electricity for 12 hours at a time in some places and large cities sink into inky blackness at night. The South African Reserve Bank estimates that such outages cost the economy the equivalent of almost 45 million euros per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A joke in South Africa these days asks what the difference is between the Titanic <\/em>and South Africa. Answer: At least the Titanic\u2019s<\/em> lights were on as it sank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A child in Kliptown, the oldest neighborhood of the Soweto township Foto: Henner Frankenfeld \/ DER SPIEGEL<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government long treated Eskom as a convenient and fecund source of easily accessed lucre. According to the company\u2019s former CEO, government ministers were also part of the cartel that plundered the utility\u2019s coffers. The executive had hoped to be able to save Eskom, but he was ultimately forced to resign and only barely managed to survive a poisoning attack. Gwarube says her party recently petitioned for the establishment of a parliamentary committee to investigate what happened to Eskom. “The ANC representatives voted against it,” she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since the fire in early 2022, the lawmaking body has only actually been operating at around 20 percent, the DA floor leader estimates. But, she adds, the bitterness detectable in her voice, the ANC isn\u2019t interested in a functioning parliament anyway. “It would not be the resting place or refuge then for people who have stolen money from the public.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To change the course of the country, Gwarube\u2019s DA party formed the “Moonshot Pact” in August together with six other parties. The goal of the alliance is to ensure that in next year\u2019s elections, the ANC \u2013 for the first time since the end of Apartheid \u2013 will lose its absolute majority. Many South Africans fear that another legislative period under the party\u2019s leadership could make the country\u2019s collapse irreversible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the most important international institution for combatting illegal money flows, placed South Africa on its “gray list,” putting it in the company of failed states like South Sudan and Haiti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How could things get so bad? The search for answers leads to the country\u2019s commercial capitals and political nerve centers. To dilapidated rail lines, indifferent officials and run-down city quarters. And to people who, despite all of the headwinds, continue to search for ways out of the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Fall of the ANC<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In Saint James, a picturesque seaside suburb of Cape Town, 64 steps lead up to a Victorian house from an alley called Jacob\u2019s Ladder. At the top, a silver-bearded man is waiting at the garden gate. Horst Kleinschmidt has amassed a comprehensive private archive of South Africa\u2019s recent history and is almost unmatched in his ability to trace the dysfunctional path the ANC has followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Political<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Political activist Horst Kleinschmidt: “The party is rotten to the core and no longer reformable. We need to start again from scratch, otherwise our country will sink into the swamp.” Foto: Tommy Trenchard \/ DER SPIEGEL<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A South African with German-Namibian roots, Kleinschmidt has collected thousands of documents detailing the fight against Apartheid \u2013 a campaign which, led by the ANC\u2019s armed wing, got started in the early 1960s. Kleinschmidt, then a university student and part of the resistance movement, joined the fight. He was persecuted and thrown in jail before fleeing into exile in London, where he managed a legal assistance fund for imprisoned activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1994, the regime of white dominance collapsed, allowing Kleinschmidt to return to his home country, where he became general director of fisheries in the Environment Ministry in 2000. His aim was to fairly divide up the catch quotas \u2013 but he soon ran up against massive resistance from criminal cartels, in which ANC functionaries were also involved. “Suddenly, they were no longer calling me Comrade Horst, but Mister Kleinschmidt.” His name landed at the top of a death list and he was even taken hostage on one occasion. In 2005, he resigned in protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now 77, Kleinschmidt says he often wonders what caused honorable fellow anti-Apartheid campaigners to mutate into such horrible politicians. A photo from 1990 hangs above his desk showing him together with Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie, the icons of the South African fight for freedom, a photo from those years of transformation. “Things have gone badly wrong,” he says. “We now see every day how the ruling elite lies, steals and cheats.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the moral decay, says Kleinschmidt, began far earlier. Even during the resistance period, he says, not all of those involved were quite as selfless as they would later seek to appear. Aid money was embezzled, there was intrigue, resistance members suspected of spying were liquidated and, Kleinschmidt says, some criminal transgressions were glorified as acts of heroism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Nelson Mandela didn\u2019t turn his back where there was personal advantage to be gained. “In 1990, he called me in London and asked for $60,000 from our aid fund for the criminal proceedings against his wife.” Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had been charged with kidnapping and was suspected of murder. “I refused, because we only supported victims of the Apartheid regime.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A squatter settlement on the outskirts of Kliptown in the Soweto township Foto: Henner Frankenfeld \/ DER SPIEGEL<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cape Town residents line up at a soup kitchen in the city center. Foto: Tommy Trenchard \/ DER SPIEGEL<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Mandela\u2019s tenure, senior ANC officials began to enrich themselves without restraint, in accordance with the motto: “Now it\u2019s our time to eat.” “They had no scruples. They saw it as their reward for the fight for freedom,” says Kleinschmidt. Under the leadership of President Jacob Zuma, from 2009 to 2018, the new power elite was particularly brazen, a time when the term “state capture” began making the rounds, referring to systematic corruption whereby narrow interest groups take control of state functions for personal gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mandela’s Party Seizes the State<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Kleinschmidt\u2019s judgment after 30 years of ANC rule: “The party is rotten to the core and no longer reformable. We need to start again from scratch, otherwise our country will sink into the swamp.” Still, though, the party continues to enjoy a “liberation bonus” among the country’s Black majority. There may be protests across the country \u2013 the data service Municipal IQ registered 193 of them last year alone \u2013 but thus far, there has been nothing resembling a popular uprising, Kleinschmidt says. “Most people simply don\u2019t know any other political leadership and would never vote for white opposition politicians.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On social media, the ANC power apparatus is now referred to as a kakistocracy, government by the least competent. This lack of competence has long since trickled down from the very top to the lowest administrative levels and ultimately encompassed the entire country. ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula even admitted recently that “if certain things are not resolved, we will become a failed state.” He also added that South Africa was facing high levels of corruption. Neither he nor other senior ANC officials responded to repeated DER SPIEGEL requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Letta knows full well that he’s harming the community. He also knows that people are furious with men like him and that he has contributed to a situation in which they must take expensive minibuses to work every morning. “But what am I supposed to do?” The 45-year-old lives in a squatter camp, the kind of slum made of wooden huts and corrugated metal shelters that can be found across the country. He last held a job, in construction, in 2008. These days, Letta and his companion plunder train stations \u2013 or what\u2019s left of them, at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wearing torn pants and a wool hat, he is standing on one of the two platforms in Jeppe Station, part of the commuter train network in the heart of Johannesburg. The building was renovated just a few years ago, painted in pleasant shades of gray and blue. Today, it is nothing but a ruin. It stinks of urine and long trenches run along the platforms. “The looters break up the concrete with pickaxes to get to the underground cables,” says Letta. All he does, he claims, is collect the leftovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Scrap<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Scrap metal collector Letta (left) with a companion at the ransacked Jeppe station: “The police don\u2019t care. They don\u2019t protect anything.” Foto: Henner Frankenfeld \/ DER SPIEGEL<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About half of sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s total rail lines are in South Africa. But the trains no longer operate regularly, if they run at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stolen Infrastructure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, in the fiscal year of 2021-2022, around 1,500 kilometers of copper cable was stolen, says Transnet, the state-owned company responsible for rail service in the country. Infrastructure theft has become a lucrative revenue stream for organized crime, and they don\u2019t just target the high-voltage lines owned by the railway. In the townships, gangs dig down to the power cables and pull them out of the ground using pickup trucks. The power utility in Johannesburg registered more than 2,000 such cases and similar that same fiscal year alone. Copper wiring is even stolen from hospitals, likely destined for sale abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa now exports more copper than its mines produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Workers<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Workers replace a stolen electric cable in the Soweto township. Foto: Henner Frankenfeld \/ DER SPIEGEL<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind the walls along the tracks in Jeppestown, the imposing skyline of Johannesburg juts into the sky, a metropolis built on gold and a place where mining magnates used to live in vast palaces. Today, many parts of the city center look little different than a slum. Opulent Art Deco facades are crumbling while homeless people are living in abandoned offices and skyscrapers, cooking over open fires. Just last week, a massive fire consumed one of these illegally squatted buildings, killing more than 70 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large sections of the city lie in complete darkness at night, the result of widespread power outages and because the streetlights on major arterials have all been stripped of anything of value. Hundreds of trains sit motionless outside the train station, rusting away. Rail travel in the city has collapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fears of crime and violence have grown widespread. Those who can afford it have moved out of the city to the affluent suburbs, living in houses surrounded by high walls and electric fences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Letta scrambles over a stoplight pole that was cut down on the street above, stripped of its insides and then thrown onto the tracks below. He walks along the railroad bed in search of metal that he can then sell for a few rand to a scrap metal dealer. But there isn\u2019t much left. Windows, doors, water faucets, tiles, roof panels, signs, signal poles, switches, overhead power cables, isolators, elevators: It has all been gutted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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