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South
Africa: A Giant Rises From the Sun
With a recently
conducted poll that startles observers as one of the world's most
transparent elections, just 10 years on into the disbandment of
apartheid and the enthronement of multi-racial democracy, South
Africa gives some inkling that it is set on a path to rise, rise
and rise, writes TONY IYARE
Flashback to
a TIME magazine moving cover piece on the massive invasion of America's
real estate by Japanese business men, published in the last quarter
of 1987. Worried by the ensuing frenetic change to foreign ownership
of many sky scrapers dotting American cities, the magazine signed
off with a frightful and unpalatable verdict: the high rise buildings
will be on America's soil but Americans will not own them. . Like
the Japanese did to America where they now have a hold on vital
sectors of the economy, South Africa is sending signals it has a
capacity to redefine the face of Africa. Just 10 years into the
advent of multi-racial election, the former apartheid enclave is
blazing the trail in almost everything. Its recently concluded election
which featured 34 of the 126 registered political parties, may go
down in history as not just one of the world's most transparent
but an all inclusive and stress free elections.
A week before
the main elections, that even Americans and Europeans would glean
with some envy, South Africans residing in foreign countries including
diplomats cast their votes. This followed a few days after with
the turn of the elderly, pregnant women, the infirmed and those
slated for special duties on election day like the police, soldiers
and other security officials and journalists. It was an election
which heralded the grand entry of the country to the club of potential
world powers. The results of the elections, which pitched the ruling
African National Congress (ANC) with its main rivals like the Pan
Africanist Congress (PAC), the Inkatha Freedom Party led by Chaka
Buthelezi, United Democratic Movement and the white leaning Afrikaner
Eenheids Beweging among others, were churned out from voting centres
within few hours on the websites and could be easily monitored from
computers both by the people in their homes, journalists and international
observers. It could be described as an election without flaws.
Another feature
of the elections is its all embracive nature as the parties which
came under different names were given proportional representation
in the parliament according to the strength of their performance.
This ensures the representation of different shades of parties canvassing
multifarious views in parliament. Before the last election, 13 parties
were represented in the parliament. It virtually put to shame Nigeria's
brand of election where results will not be available for weeks
and most parties even with huge votes can hardly raise a voice in
parliament. It would be out of place to have in South Africa parties
like the All Party Grand Alliance (APGA) and the National Conscience
Party (NCP), which even with their overall third and fourth placement
respectively in Nigeria's 2003 elections, are left with virtually
no voice at the National Assembly.
For Nigeria,
the successful outcome of the South African election is significant
in more ways than one. It seem to put a lie to the growing campaign
being led by some including President Olusegun Obasanjo, that the
number of parties in the country should be pruned on the ground
that they are too many. If a country with 44.8 million people according
to the 2001 census could have 126 parties jostling for power, some
will say that Nigeria's 30 parties are far too few for its 120 million
people. While the registration of many parties in South Africa is
ensured by the very simple hurdle they had to cross, it took intensive
legal and political fireworks galvanized by Chief Gani Fawehinmi
led NCP to force the hands of the Independent Electoral National
Commission (INEC) to open the floodgate to more parties in Nigeria.
As it has shown in the bold take over of many African economies
where its business men have invested billions of dollars, the holding
of one of the world's most transparent election may just be a way
of consummating the path of South African to rise and rise. Shortly
after the resumption of democratic rule in Nigeria, its firms, MTN,
Econet (now replaced by Vodafone) bared their teeth to control Nigeria's
Telecommunications sector which is now beaming with an investment
of over $4billion in the last three years.
Apart from employing
thousands of Nigerians, this sector has also seen the jump from
the paltry 450,000 to 4.5million phone lines Exploiting the gains
of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), designed
to engender an African centred economic relationship, South African
business interest is also showing its face in the newspaper industry,
banking, aviation, hotels and tourism, fast food chain and other
sectors of Nigeria's economy. It is also investing in the film industry
as part of the bold move to reawaken the cinema culture in many
of our cities which had long gone comatose. This massive take over
of the Nigerian economy promises to open new job lines for our army
of jobless youths. Also thanks to the new programme meant to recruit
more than 20,000 professionals largely from Africa, South Africa
is likely to give succour to many more Nigerians. Even South Africa's
soap operas like Generation and others are now regular feature on
TV in our homes in a country already groaning under the weight of
Euro-America cultural invasion. It's a reason why some say jocularly
that our new colonial master could actually be lurking here.
But perhaps
the crowning success of South Africa's exploits is the recent winning
of the hosting rights for the 2010 World Cup which was conceded
to Africa by the Federation of International Football Association
(FIFA). Scaling through the hosting rights, ahead of Morocco in
a campaign spearheaded by a powerful team which included African
icon and former South African president, Nelson Mandela, his predecessor,
Frederick de' Klerk and current president, Tom Mbeki, was a clear
way of sending word that the country was not out for a tea party.
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