Wow, what a hefty title...If I could think of a better way to sum up these thoughts with a one word title, I would.
Since I moved to South Africa, as you may have read, the country has been digging through democracy trying to redefine some elements in its current government. A brief timeline (forgive me for glossing over details), to give you a sense:
*Sept. 20th: African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party, recalls Thabo Mbeki's presidency due to past issues of his challenging Jacob Zuma, the leader of the ANC
*Sept. 21st: Mbeki agrees to resign after all constitutional requirements are met
*Sept. 23rd: Eleven members of Mbeki's Cabinet step down alongside him.
*Sept. 24th: Mbeki's last day as President of South Africa
*Sept. 25th: Kgalema Motlanthe (pronounce KG as a guttural "hhha" sound, the TL as a clicking "kla", and THE as "tay"), Deputy President of the ANC, is sworn into office as interim president until the fall elections of 2009
*Oct. 9 - today: SA's former defense minister, Mosiuoa Lekota, and other ANC members loyal to former president Thabo Mbeki begin speaking publicly about splitting away from the current ANC to form a new political party.
Within a week of my arrival, all of this began to unfold. At first it seemed rather scary and dangerous - especially with the recent violent struggles in neighboring Zimbabwe still fresh on the mind. It seemed confusing, too, because their electoral process differs from America - we vote for a person, while they vote for a party who appoints a president. If at any point, like now, the party deems the person holding presidential office must leave, they have the constitutional means to recall him/her. I must say, many South Africans applauded the peaceful changeover to the new Pres. Motlanthe as a real show to the world of the current strength of its democracy.
The split in the ANC is also huge. The ANC was developed as an organization in the early 1900s to bring all Africans together as one people to defend their rights and freedoms. Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and many other important forces in the anti-apartheid movement helped bring it to power in 1994 when Mandela assumed role as president of the new South Africa. Basically the ANC formed as a community organization and became a political party...since 1994 it has remained the ruling party with overwhelming popularity. While there are many other political parties that continue to have representation in Parliament, the ANC has over 60% representation. It has no other real competition and many South Africans no longer feel represented by this mass party.
The possibility of a split, once again, means for many South Africans that democracy is at work in the best possible way. If all goes well, they may have a real choice in the next election to "chose" a party, instead of feeling like they must contribute to what has become a one-party system. I have tried to gauge from many SAs what their thoughts or fears are regarding this split...many are hopeful, many are unhappy with Jacob Zuma's leadership of the ANC and are ready for a new face, and many are fearful that violence will ensue between rivalling tribes.
I bring this to Cheney because I had an interesting talk with Miriam....seeing that I was only 4 at the time, I didn't know that current VP Cheney voted against a 1986 resolution asking for the release of Mandela from prison and a formal recognition of the ANC. Unbelievable. But then again, Cheney still defends his vote saying that, "the ANC was then viewed as a terrorist organization....I don't have any problems at all with the vote I cast 20 years ago." Wow, maybe not so unbelievable. The result of the resolution in Congress was 245-177 in favor (so obviously not all shared the view that the ANC was terrorist), but was still shy of the 2/3 needed to override Reagan's veto - go figure. Miriam was saying South Africa was lucky the world was ready to take it on as a free nation in the 90's - just think if Mandela were still in prison today, asking the world to help justify his release. This African nation would be a goner. (specific info for this paragraph was obtained at http://www.commondreams.org/views/080300-102.htm)
Today I visited an AIDS/HIV/Cancer Hospice center in Viljoenskroon. I hope to be able to do some art workshops there as well, though I am feeling pinched for time between so many schools already. I feel I can barely even touch upon the issues AIDS presents this country as I haven't really been here to realize the full impact. I will at least make note of a few of the things I've observed...
:: the cemetaries are endless, as are the lines of cars in the funeral processions over the weekend
:: the graves are ultimately heaps of rock covering overpriced coffins
:: people go into debt to pay for the costs of a funeral - including the heaps of food (cows) that are served to the funeral guests
:: in the small town of Viljoenskroon there are at least 4 undertakers - this does not include the number of caretakers for the adjacent township, Ramulotsi, where most of the black people live
:: at least one teacher every week at every school has had to miss school to attend a funeral; note there are no more than 7 teachers at any school, so this is quite a huge percentage
:: not one child at Niekerksrus high school will admit to knowing someone with AIDS/HIV - it is here, but no one wants to acknowledge that it is this virus that is affecting the people THEY know
:: there is roughly 60% unemployment in South Africa & most of the children come to school hungry. I'm assuming people are probably hurting from HIV even more so because they don't have proper food to keep themselves going
-- and some stats from http://allafrica.com/stories/200805040006.html --
:: 7.6 million people are living with HIV in South Africa as of May 2008
:: more than 27 percent of men and women aged between 20 and 64 are HIV positive
:: nearly 722 000 people have died of Aids-related diseases in the past year, bringing the total number of such deaths since 2003 to more than 3.7 million
:: 1.2 million of the country's 1.49 million orphans have lost their parents to Aids and this number is expected to increase by more than 336 000 this year alone.
This is staggering, is it not? I've been storing up all this information in my head to write and am sorry not to put this toget her in a more cohesive way...but for the sake of making sure this information makes it to your computer, I thought the sooner the better! For now, it is Friday night and I plan to give my head a rest from some of this information as I've had the chance to give it some air and word life. adieu adieu, my friends
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