New York Times

Opinion | South Africa Is Falling Apart
July 28, 2021
A man fired a handgun in the air in the Vosloorus township of South Africa to
disperse suspected looters on July 14. The events of the past weeks demonstrated a
bleak truth about the country. Credit... Guillem Sartorio/Agence France-Presse —
Getty Images
By William Shoki
Mr. Shoki is a South African journalist who writes extensively about the country’s
politics and society.
JOHANNESBURG — In the past few weeks, South Africa was gripped by the biggest
explosion of unrest in decades. Shopping malls and warehouses were looted, supply
trucks attacked and businesses destroyed. At least 337 people died.
Initially, as families loaded up on consumer goods they would otherwise be unable to

afford, the tumult seemed like an organic expression of popular discontent. After all,
with unemployment over 30 percent, hunger widespread and inequality spiraling,
there’s ample cause for anger. But far from a spontaneous social revolt, the rioting
seems to have been politically orchestrated.
After Jacob Zuma, the country’s former president, was arrested on July 7 — to serve
a 15-month sentence for contempt of court — his supporters and allies vowed to
make the country ungovernable. Coordinating a campaign of economic sabotage
through WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter and other social networks, they succeeded.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has since sought to calm the country, suggesting the
worst is over. But it doesn’t feel that way. In fact, the events of the past weeks have
demonstrated a bleak truth about the country. The deep rot of South Africa’s social
and political order — rife with racial tension, communal mistrust, injustice and
corruption — is now on full display. The rainbow nation, supposed beacon of
reconciliation, is falling apart.
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At the heart of the discord is the ruling African National Congress. In the 27 years
since it steered South Africa to democracy, it has carried the hopes of millions of
South Africans. Drawing on its reputation as the party of liberation, it has strong
support and remains electorally unassailable. But it has now become squarely a
source of division. A devastating battle for its soul is underway, with the country as
the battlefield.
Driving the conflict are the forces loyal to Mr. Zuma, mostly composed of disgraced
politicians who seek to be returned to their former positions of privilege. Though the
A.N.C. always promoted the rise of a Black elite, Mr. Zuma’s presidency, beginning in
2009, changed the focus: The state, rather than the market, became the main site for
opportunity and enrichment. A spurious ideology of “Radical Economic
Transformation,” spun as a radical challenge to South Africa’s white-dominated
private sector, provided rhetorical cover for corruption and patronage. Now removed
from power, the beneficiaries of Mr. Zuma’s rule are determined to wreak havoc.
In their sights is Mr. Ramaphosa, who rose to power in 2018 on an anti-corruption

platform. His efforts to root out endemic graft in his party — and by extension, the
South African state — have been mixed at best. Before the drama of Mr. Zuma’s
arrest, the country was stunned by the news that Zweli Mkhize, the well-liked health
minister, played a role in awarding a contract worth $10 million to a communications
company run by two associates. Though Mr. Ramaphosa recently escalated his anti-
corruption push — not least by suspending the A.N.C.’s secretary general this year —
Mr. Mkhize’s example underlines how widespread the looting of state resources has
been. It’s clearly not just a case of bad apples. The batch is rotten.
And yet no political force looks able to hold the A.N.C. to account. The two major
opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters,
have retired any ambitions of becoming mass parties capable of challenging the
A.N.C. After some years of growth as the anti-Zuma opposition, the Democratic
Alliance has doubled down on its identity as a party of white liberals; the Economic
Freedom Fighters has reduced itself to an extension of Mr. Zuma’s faction of the
A.N.C. Tellingly, in his last days as a free man, Mr. Zuma was flanked by Dali Mpofu,
a former national chair of the E.F.F.
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In the absence of effective opposition, the A.N.C. is coming apart at the seams.
Never a party of ideology, it has always been a broad coalition united in opposition to
minority rule. Since the end of apartheid, it has struggled to develop a stable political
identity. Given the party’s enduring popularity, the challenge is less regaining public
credibility than finding internal coherence. But until another party rivals the A.N.C.,
we can expect it to rest on its laurels. That spells a future of more factional strife
and poor governance, at great cost to the country.
The president, for his part, is using the unrest’s aftermath as an opportunity to
rebuild. As one of the key negotiators of South Africa’s liberal Constitution, Mr.
Ramaphosa hopes to tap into the spirit of that time — a moment also marked by
violence, when things felt equally on a knife’s edge. But these reserves are low. Back
then, at the end of apartheid, the promise of democracy filled many with hope. Now,
after nearly three decades of things remaining mostly the same, many people just
feel despair.
An uneasy calm has settled. How long it lasts is anyone’s guess. Yet the past few
weeks have conclusively dispelled many illusions about the country, none more so
than the myth of South African exceptionalism — of a South Africa more peaceful
than its African neighbors, more developed and with a future that bends inevitably
toward good and triumph. The reality, as we await the next outbreak of violence, is
much uglier.

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Opinion | South Africa Is Falling Apart

July 28, 2021

Initially, as families loaded up on consumer goods they would otherwise be unable to

In their sights is Mr. Ramaphosa, who rose to power in 2018 on an anti-corruption

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