Africa News blog

Violence and tension come at worst time for World Cup

World Cup organisers probably dreamed of a placid, trouble-free final countdown to the soccer spectacular, with all the fears about crime, bad transport and accommodation shortages pushed to the background for Africa’s biggest sports extravaganza. Sadly for them, they are getting the opposite. It would be difficult to conjure up a more unfortunate set of events less than 60 days before the tournament. Simmering racial tensions have burst into the open because of the murder of white supremacist Eugene Terre’blanche and the diatribes of Julius Malema, leader of the youth wing of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, who refuses to pipe down despite tough reprimands from President Jacob Zuma and other party officials. Even before what must be looking to hapless officials like a perfect storm, scenes had become commonplace of township residents rioting around South Africa against lack of improvements in their lives some 16 years after the end of apartheid. To add to the torture for World Cup officials while the spotlight is fixed on South Africa, municipal workers have declared an indefinite strike over wages, threatening the chaotic scenes seen last year when rubbish was strewn over the streets. South Africa’s biggest labour federation has threatened strikes during the tournament to protest against big hikes in power prices. All of this illustrates the point that countries or cities staging major world events suddenly become fixed in an often uncomfortable glare of world attention as the big day approaches. But even by these standards, South Africa looks unfortunate. World Cup officials, led by chief organiser Danny Jordaan, have spent literally years fending off suggestions that soccer fans will be in mortal danger in South Africa, which has one of the globe’s highest rates of violent crime. Jordaan and others have repeated a familiar mantra– the country has staged 150 sports and other events since the end of apartheid with little problem, millions of tourists have enjoyed South Africa’s many attractions for years without major criminal attacks and protecting a finite event is a lot less complex than overcoming the national crime wave–especially since 40,000 police have been mobilised to do only that.

Nevertheless, many foreign fans and even visiting journalists are anxious about security and alarmist media reports have undoubtedly deterred some, especially it seems in Germany–hosts of the last event. What could be worse then, as the final countdown begins, than the events of the last week or so? Terre’blanche was hacked and bludgeoned to death on April 3 in a killing whose brutality seemed almost calculated to set off new anxiety about visiting South Africa, even though police believe it was a simple criminal, rather than racial, attack. Terre’blanche’s own fringe AWB party lost no time in telling foreign journalists that overseas fans would be in danger during the World Cup and most reports on the killing mentioned the tournament’s approach. The most extreme reaction came from the U.K. tabloid the Daily Star which said English fans risked a “machete race war” –sparking howls of protest in South Africa. All of this has been made a lot worse by Malema, a firebrand demagogue who had hitherto been apparently used by some of the ANC to hit at leftwingers in the party and to mobilise the youth vote, but who now seems to have got out of control. Terre’blanche’s supporters say that Malema’s insistence on reviving an apartheid-era song “Kill the Boer” — which has now been banned by the courts –was the direct cause of the murder. Zuma said on Sunday, in an unusually strong reprimand, that Malema’s comments and actions, including calling a BBC journalist a bastard and throwing him out of a press conference, were alien to the ruling party. Malema remained defiant despite the rebuke.

Can things get any worse? Well the impact of even these events is debatable. The timing is undoubtedly deeply unfortunate, but reports that foreign fans are newly anxious about violence are matched by others saying they remain unmoved. One of the more surprising statistics in FIFA’s latest bulletin on ticket sales is that Americans–usually sensitive to reports about overseas danger spots– are the biggest foreign buyers of tickets and have grabbed nearly 120,000 of the 2.2 million seats sold, way above the 67,000 purchased in Britain. Jordaan, clearly deeply frustrated by repeated questioning about security, looked bemused last week when he was besieged by questions about Terre’blanche and Malema at a press conference. He told journalists the murder was a simple criminal act that had no relevance to the World Cup. “I don’t think you must completely misconstrue it in this manner, it is just not correct,” he said. Let’s hope he is right. There seems more chance that he is than the contrary. Negative reporting has abounded about the World Cup with European journalists, particularly in Britain, queuing up to say nothing would be ready on time and the competition would be chaotic. As Jordaan points out, they have already been wrong about many things. The stadiums have been finished well ahead of time and many of them are stunning. Whatever happens, the stakes are high. A successful World Cup will boost the image not just of this country but of Africa as a whole, bringing more investment and more tourists. Failure would have an equally damaging effect.

“Kill the Boer”: History or hate speech?

The African National Congress has defended the singing of an apartheid-era song with the words “Kill the Farmer, Kill the Boer”, saying it is no incitement to violence but a way of ensuring a history of oppression is not forgotten.

That does little to assuage the concerns of the white minority, however, in a country branded the “Rainbow Nation” after the relatively peaceful end to apartheid 16 years ago and the government’s message of “unity in diversity”.

The singing of the song by the ANC’s firebrand youth leader Julius Malema recently has strained race relations. Afrikaner farmers feel particular offence, pointing out that 3,000 white farmers have been killed since the first democratic elections in 1994.

A regional high court ruled last week that the song amounted to hate speech.

The concerns of minorities were further fuelled by fact that students at two of South Africa’s top universities enthusiastically joined in singing the song with Malema. ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe said he had sung the song at rugby matches.

Malema articulates the anger of many in the black majority at the relative prosperity of most whites and their influence over the economy while millions of black South Africans are marginalised and live in poverty.

South Africa prides itself on having one of the most progressive constitutions in the world and entrenches free speech which was barred under apartheid. But it also depends on harmony between its various groups.

Support slumps for rival to South Africa’s ANC

It would be hard for the leaders of South Africa’s COPE party to put a positive spin on its latest poll rating of just over 2 percent. If the breakaway group from the African National Congress gave the ANC a bit of a jolt before elections in April, the ruling party doesn’t seem to have much to worry about from that quarter now.

In terms of electoral success, it hasn’t been a good year for parties trying to challenge the former liberation movements that run most of southern Africa.

In Namibia, a breakaway group from the ruling SWAPO party emerged as the main opposition, but still only won just over 11 percent of the vote and complained of foul play. In Mozambique, Frelimo won another resounding victory, beating both old rival Renamo and the new MDM – which complained at the barring of some of its candidates.

Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos signalled to his MPLA party that he would wait another three years before a presidential election he is almost certain to win.

The picture is somewhat different in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe was forced into a power sharing deal with rival Morgan Tsvangirai, a former union leader, but even there the one-time guerrilla told his ZANU-PF recently to stop bickering and mobilise to win ‘uncontested victory’ in the next election.

There is a big difference between South Africa and some of its neighbours in that nobody is challenging the fairness of the electoral system.

But the same question arises here as elsewhere as to when, if ever, opposition parties might be able to seriously challenge the hold of the movements that came to power through their victories over colonial or minority rule.