JOHANNESBURG - South Africa’s leading opposition party has issued a scathing end-of-year government assessment, accusing top officials in the ruling party of failing the nation amid a rising tide of corruption allegations.
The African National Congress has dismissed the so-called report card as "too ridiculously subjective, illogical and flawed for anyone to take seriously."
The Democratic Alliance’s report card is the latest salvo in an increasingly bitter battle of words between political parties that in recent weeks has degenerated into actual fistfights in Parliament. ANC critics not only include the staid and established DA, but also the upstart, far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party – and a growing number of South African voters.
In the report card issued December 1, the DA gave President Jacob Zuma a grade of one out of 10. That poor mark comes from several factors, party representatives say.
They accuse Zuma of:
- Failing to meet his legal commitment to answer questions before Parliament quarterly;
- Failing to improve South Africa’s economy;
- Failing to curb fraud and corruption that lead to annual government losses of approximately 30 billion rand or almost $2.6 billion;
- Dodging accountability over his alleged use of state funds to upgrade his personal home;
- Making a "secret deal" with Russia to build a new nuclear power plant;
- Failing to fix a raging energy crisis that has caused rolling blackouts in urban areas;
- Politicizing various state agencies to his own ends.
"It is clear," the DA said in a statement, "that this is the worst performance yet by the president."
Many in Zuma’s cabinet fared just as poorly, according to the DA. Its representatives gave low grades to the ministers of communications, economic development, energy, labor, water and sanitation, and sport and recreation. The last, the report said, "has spent most of his time making ridiculous statements."
The ANC was quick to reject the report card. "We dismiss this cheap publicity stunt with the contempt it deserves," the office of the party’s chief whip said in a statement.
The party, noting the DA is not an official ratings entity, accused it of lacking political objectivity.
The ANC statement said: "As an opposition, the job of the DA has been simply to oppose. That it habitually elects to do so through endless charades and gimmicks, as this meaningless annual ritual attests, is illustrative of the bankruptcy of ideas and political strategy within its ranks."
However, 2014 was a year in which the issue of corruption rather than ideas dominated the public discourse. The most notable case focused on questions about the $23 million spent on security and other upgrades to Zuma’s personal Nkandla homestead.
The ANC has rigorously defended Zuma since Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, in her constitutional role, issued a report earlier this year concluding public funds were misused on personal upgrades and recommending the president repay a portion of those costs.
Zuma did not respond directly to the report and later refused to answer lawmakers’ questions on the matter. In the end, an ANC-led parliamentary committee cleared him of all responsibility. But the Nkandla affair has further embittered the political divide.
Despite mounting allegations of corruption at all levels of government, the ANC – which has dominated every national poll since South Africa’s democratic transition in 1994 – again scored big in the May 7 national election, winning with more than 60 percent of the vote.
But this past election did foreshadow that the ANC’s mass appeal may soon wane, as the party’s majority slipped by 3 percent in the face of emerging threats from the political far left.
The biggest surprise came from a party that was less than a year old at the time. The bold and brash Economic Freedom Fighters was formed from the ashes of the political career of an expelled ANC firebrand, Julius Malema. The party became the unlikely kingmaker when it took third place in May’s elections after appealing to South Africa’s angry youth. And the EFF’s governing style reflects the mood of those supporters, who prefer confrontation to discourse.
The EFF legislators entered Parliament wearing bright red workers’ uniforms in a highly symbolic reference to the manual laborers they represent.