What our politicians can learn from Brexit

AS world markets plunged into turmoil this week following Britain’s decision to quit the EU, countries around the world worried about the implications for their own economies.

Across Europe, the success of the Brexit campaign has provided encouragement to those who want no part of the union. Right-wing politicians in countries such as France, Italy and Germany have called for votes in their own countries on the issue.

Within Britain itself, the outcome has revived calls for Scotland to break away and there is talk in Northern Ireland doing the same.

Here on the southern tip of the African continent, the Brexit decision will have major, mostly negative, economic consequences.

On a political level, the outcome of the referendum and subsequent developments caused many South Africans to draw comparisons between the countries.

On social media networks and radio talkshows, South Africans remarked on how quickly British prime minister David Cameron — who had campaigned to remain within the union — fell on his sword.

On the same day Cameron resigned, the High Court in Pretoria ruled against giving the National Prosecuting Authority and President Jacob Zuma leave to appeal against the court’s decision on the “spy tapes” case. The ruling paves the way for the president to be prosecuted on more than 700 counts of corruption and fraud.

The latest court setback for Zuma, like many before it, has not persuaded the president to step down, despite the fact that South Africa could now be faced with the embarrassing prospect of having a head of state who shuttles between the Union Buildings and the dock of a criminal court.

Instead of falling on his sword, Zuma is almost certain to try and further delay the case by directly petitioning either the Supreme Court of Appeal or the Constitutional Court.

Cameron’s defeat in the referendum carries another important lesson for South Africa, where the ruling party often puts its own short-term, internal considerations above the country’s longterm interests.

Lest we forget, the whole referendum debacle was Cameron’s own doing. In an attempt to fend off rightists within his Conservative Party, the Tory leader promised them a referendum on Europe if he won an internal leadership race.

His gamble has now backfired and the man some had begun calling Teflon Cameron, because of his survival skills, will soon be out of a job.

In recent years there have been many instances in South Africa of decisions being taken and appointments to key posts being made, not because they were in the best interest of the country, but because they helped those in power manage their own party’s complex internal dynamics.

The decision to disband the crack anticorruption unit, the Scorpions, is but one example. That step may have helped ease tensions within the ANC, for a very short time, but it had devastating consequences for the broader fight against graft and organised crime.

The violence that engulfed Tshwane this week can partly be blamed on this tendency to use access to public office and resources to manipulate intra-party processes.

Our politicians would do well to consider Cameron’s case, and draw from it the important lesson that such tactics ultimately backfire.