South Africa: New political party - full text
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A South African court ruled on Feb. 5, that African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma would stand trial on charges of corruption, fraud, money-laundering, and racketeering on Aug. 25. The controversial case against Zuma had been a major factor in the formation of a new political party, the Congress of the People (COPE), as a splinter group from the ANC.
Immediate Context
COPE spokesperson Siyanda Mhlongo commented on Feb. 5 that senior ANC members should not support any leader facing criminal charges, saying: "there are many, many questions that Zuma must answer even before he becomes the face of the ANC in elections".
COPE, formally launched on Dec. 16, 2008, was founded by ANC defectors loyal to Thabo Mbeki, the deposed president who had been forced from power in September 2008.
Mbeki's former defence minister, Patrick Mosiuoa Lekota, was COPE's first leader. The new party claimed to have attracted 428,000 members at the time of its founding.
Mbeki had been forced to step down as president by supporters of Zuma, following the controversial dismissal of corruption charges against Zuma. A high court judge ruled on Sept. 12 that Zuma had been the victim of "political meddling", for which Zuma's supporters blamed Mbeki. The charges against Zuma had been brought just days after he ousted Mbeki from the ANC leadership in December 2007. However, in January 2009 an appeals court ruled that the charges should be reinstated.
Reaction and Outlook
COPE presented itself as party of reform, using as its campaign slogan "a new agenda for hope and change". Commentators speculated that a multiracial opposition coalition to the ANC could emerge, because COPE drew much of its support from liberal whites.
ANC party president Jacob Zuma insisted that "only the ANC can deliver true unity and prosperity in this country". He was reported by the BBC in November 2008 to have considered the splinter group to have betrayed the ANC, referring to members of the faction as "snakes". Zuma stated that the new party's convention on Nov. 3 was "nothing more than a gathering of rich people," and by contrast his party was "thinking of people at the grass roots".
Historical Context
Early humans lived in the area that became South Africa at least 100,000 years ago, with more recent inhabitants including such peoples as the Bushmen and Khoikhoi, and, later, Bantu peoples who migrated from further north. The region was known to Portuguese explorers by end of the 15th century and it subsequently became an important stopping place for Dutch traders following the spice route between the Netherlands and India and the Far East. Dutch people had started to settle and farm around the coast during the 17th century and imported slaves from Indonesia, India, and Mozambique. During the 18th century some Dutch settlers began to migrate inland, fighting the local people, seizing their land and cattle, and forcing captives into slavery. These wandering farmers became known as Trekboers or Boers and began to see themselves as a separate nation, calling themselves Afrikaners.
Against a backdrop of wars in Europe, the British captured the Cape of Good Hope in 1806. Meanwhile a powerful Zulu empire rose (1816-26) under the leadership of Shaka Zulu. With the discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1886, increasing European immigration led to a dramatic rise in the oppression of the original inhabitants. The British defeated the Zulus in 1879 and fought two wars with the Boers (1880-81; 1899-1902), but after defeating them in 1902 went on to form in 1910 the Union of South Africa under joint UK and Afrikaner rule.
In 1912, representatives of people's organisations and religious bodies, as well as prominent individuals, clergymen, and other community leaders gathered at Mangaung in Bloemfontein and formed the South African Native National Congress. Its aim was to bring together all Africans as one people to defend their rights and to fight for freedom. In 1923 the organisation changed its name to the African National Congress (ANC).
The Afrikaner Nationalist Party (NP), formed in 1914, came to power in 1948 and passed the Population Registration Act of 1950, which put all South Africans into three racial categories: Bantu (black African), white, or Coloured (of mixed race). A fourth category, Asian (Indians and Pakistanis), was added later. This policy was known as "apartheid" (from the Afrikaans word for "apartness"), a term that first came into use during the 1930s as a political slogan of the NP. In protest, the ANC launched a campaign of civil disobedience, led by a young lawyer, Nelson Mandela.
In accordance with apartheid laws, huge numbers of people were forcibly moved to new settlements or townships. The townships were plagued by poverty and neglect and were the focus of increasing civil rights protests, which were brutally repressed. One of the worst incidents occurred in the township of Sharpeville in 1960. During a non-violent protest organised by the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), the police fired on the crowd, killing 67 people and wounding 186. In protest against the Sharpeville shootings, African workers launched a strike, and serious outbursts of rioting and arson occurred in many cities and towns. Official statements maintained that the police had fired in self-defence when an armed crowd of 20,000 Africans tried to storm the police station.
In 1962, after a two-year police search, Nelson Mandela was arrested, put on trial, and found guilty of inciting Africans to stay away from work and of leaving the country without valid documents. Mandela was sentenced to a total of five years' imprisonment.
In June 1964 Mandela was again tried (along with seven other activists) and convicted on charges of sabotage, aiding banned organisations, and other security offences. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The ANC was banned, but continued its anti-apartheid campaign, becoming increasingly militant. In 1976 violence erupted in Soweto (South-Western Townships), South Africa's largest urban concentration of Africans. By September 1976, the disturbances had spread to other areas throughout the country. These outbreaks were followed by further incidents mainly in the Johannesburg and Cape Town areas, although on a less widespread scale.
Following calls by Black South Africans for the government to release Black political leaders from prison and enter a round-table conference with them, a campaign commenced in March 1980 for the release of Nelson Mandela.
In February 1990 President F. W. de Klerk announced in a radical speech at the state opening of the legislature, both the impending release of Nelson Mandela and the "unbanning" of both the ANC and the PAC.
One month later, the ANC elected Nelson Mandela to the position of deputy president of the organisation.
Exactly one year after the unbanning of Black opposition groups, President F. W. de Klerk announced his intention to scrap all remaining apartheid legislation.
The remaining vestiges of apartheid legislation formally disappeared from the South African statute book at the end of June 1991. In a "whites-only" referendum, 68.6 per cent of voters responded positively to the question: "Do you support continuation of the reform process?" State President F. W. de Klerk was triumphant in the result, declaring that "today we have closed the book on apartheid".
South Africa's first multi-racial democratic elections were held in April 1994, ending more than 350 years of white domination over the majority Black population. South Africa completed its transition to full democracy in May 1994 when Nelson Mandela was elected the first President of a "united democratic, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa".
In 1997 Mandela stepped down as president of the ruling ANC at the party's 50th national conference. As expected, Mandela was succeeded by Thabo Mbeki, previously deputy president of the party and vice president of South Africa.
