Much like us, the US is in a terrible jam. Unlike us, the coming election gives it a way out
Our situation has become so prohibitively gloomy and depressing that, in a vain attempt to seek some solace, we tend to cast around the globe to see who else is in a similarly precarious position. It’s fashionable to point at a country like the US, so-called leader of the free world, and derive some morbid delight from its misfortune. On the Covid-19 pandemic, for instance, the line seems to be “we haven’t done that badly, look at America”. That gives us a false sense of comfort. Like a drunkard who resorts to the bottle hoping his problems will go away. Delusion. They don’t. Your demons will still be menacingly staring at you when you come to.
There’s no doubt that, under Donald Trump, the US has become as rotten, corrupt and incompetent as SA under Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC. The country that Ronald Reagan famously called a shining city on a hill, has, in a short time, become the laughing stock of the world, its reputation in shreds. The US could be a study on how to destroy a democracy in quick time. For a country with so much going for it — the best scientific brains and medical facilities in the world — its handling of the virus has been staggeringly stupid and nothing short of calamitous: more than 5-million infected and 175,000 dead, and rising rapidly. With only 5% of the world’s population the US now accounts for 25% of the world’s infections.
Trump has managed to change the character and the meaning of America in no time, hobnobbing with some of the most ruthless dictators on the planet — Russia's Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and the odious Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines. While he’s making common cause with tyrants, he’s turned his back on America’s traditional allies in Nato and the EU, much to the delight of Putin.
On the corruption front Trump hasn’t done badly either. Six close associates have already been found guilty, some jailed, for crimes such as tax evasion, campaign finance violation, racketeering, money laundering and lying about collusion with the Russians. The seventh, Steve Bannon, the man perhaps more than anyone responsible for shepherding Trump into the White House, was arrested this week and charged with defrauding thousands of donors through a campaign to raise money to build a wall on the US-Mexico border. The wall, with Mexico paying for it, is the promise that catapulted Trump into office.
But unlike in our case, there are consequences for wrongdoing in the US. And despite Trump’s best efforts, its institutions are intact, still able to perform optimally. People who commit crime are prosecuted, and often go to jail. We, on the other hand, either do nothing or promote them. The latest beneficiary of our charity is Zandile Gumede, the erstwhile mayor of eThekwini who resigned after corruption charges were levelled against her. She was sworn in this week as an honourable member of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature. She was quite pleased with herself and seemed to think justice has prevailed. No remorse or shame there. She’s been rewarded despite the fact that when she was sacked as mayor, her supporters harassed all and sundry, including ANC officials.
Our president keeps telling us he’s fighting corruption. We live in hope. I guess the way to do it is to get the foxes to guard the henhouse. A friend said this week he was so disgusted with Ramaphosa he could hardly utter his name. Maybe we should cut Ramaphosa some slack. Isn’t the promotion of all these rascals part of the long game that we’re told he’s a past master at?
Gumede’s elevation has understandably caused a bit of a kerfuffle. But we should be grateful for small mercies. She could have been sent to the National Assembly, with the chairmanship of a parliamentary committee as a cherry on top. That’s what happens when you steal. You get rewarded. She would have followed in the steps of other scoundrels. It’s worth naming them if only to annoy ourselves a bit. Mosebenzi Zwane, Gupta lackey and hero of the Vrede dairy debacle, chairs the transport portfolio committee. Bongani Bongo, in charge of the home affairs committee, is out on bail for corruption. Faith Muthambi, who, among a long list of scandals, took it upon herself to share cabinet minutes with the Guptas, chairs the Cogta committee. Tina Joemat-Pettersson secretly sold SA’s oil reserves at a discount and is deemed an adequate person to chair the portfolio committee on the police. These people should be in jail, not in parliament making laws. Gumede should lodge a complaint. She’s been short-changed.
But the playbook is beginning to emerge. Ace Magashule, the real organ grinder in the ANC, is circling the wagons around himself. Magashule, who’s associated with innumerable scandals and ran the Free State into the ground, would be in serious trouble if the NPA were not comatose. By appointing his lickspittles despite their misconduct, he’s not only establishing a norm but creating a bulwark so that should his day of reckoning arrive, they would either stand up for him or be some sort of mitigating factor.
The US has a way out of its jam. This week, on the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the US constitution, which gave women the right to vote, Kamala Harris became the first black woman to be chosen as a vice-presidential candidate. It’s a historic moment and, given Joe Biden’s age, Harris stands a good chance of becoming president. The US has an opportunity to repudiate Trumpism come November. Meanwhile, we will be stuck with Ramaphosa’s hyenas for a while.
What the current predicament both here and in the US — and in any other country for that matter — proves is that leadership matters. And so does voting.