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Africa: Foreign Ironies and Cape Changes

Rhoda Kadalie

20 November 2008

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Johannesburg — TIME magazine's commemoration of Barack Obama's victory as the first black president of the US is quite excessive. One cannot help but feel a bit queasy about the hagiography that engulfs one as one reads it.

One story in particular is worth noting. A town in western Kenya, from whence Obama's paternal ancestors come, slaughtered a bull in his honour. The Kenyans identified with a president whose lineage traces back to the region. (Never mind that his white mother single-handedly raised him and provided him with the education that catapulted him into the presidency.) The ironies of their adulation were lost on the authors of the article. Unable to claim their own president, Kenyans rejoiced in the election of Obama because their own was so messy, ending in an ethnic conflagration.

That story aside, why did Obama win, given that many of his policies were more conservative than John McCain's? The overwhelming vote was clearly against George Bush -- and that masked the conservatism of Obama's policies. My daughter conducted an experiment with her fellow economics students at Harvard (all of whom supported Obama), asking them 10 policy questions:

1. Did you support the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement? "Yes."

2. Do you support the Colombia Free Trade Agreement? "Sure."

3. Do you support the South Korea Free Trade Agreement? "Yeah."

4. Do you support drastically increasing tariffs on Chinese goods? "No."

5. Do you support huge US farm subsidies? "No."

6. Do you support corn ethanol subsidies? "No."

7. Are you against importing more efficient sugar ethanol from Brazil? "Nope."

8. Did you support the Byrd amendment, which rewards US companies for filing pricing complaints? "Of course not."

9. Do you want to abolish the secret ballot in the certification of unions? "Who in their right mind would vote for that?"

10. Do you want to cut the number of visas for skilled foreign immigrants? "No way."

Their answers were 10/10 in favour of McCain's Senate votes, 10/10 against Obama's Senate votes.

THERE are lessons for us here. With an election upon us in SA, do we know what we are voting for? The media gives undue attention to Julius Malema, and is missing the changes in the African National Congress administration since Kgalema Motlanthe took over. I have already observed a refreshing modus operandi from the new appointees in my province.

Western Cape Premier Lynn Brown is cleaning up financial administration in ways we have not seen before. Getting rid of the cabals, she focuses on areas that need attention and allocates finances according to the priorities of the government. Mending fences between her and her political competitor, executive mayor Helen Zille, to put the people first and consolidate good governance, she demonstrates a maturity of spirit sorely lacking in the former premier.

Health Minister Barbara Hogan, equally, has taken the bull by the horns: firstly by admitting that HIV causes AIDS; secondly, by trying to get to get to grips with the pandemic at the national and local levels and trying to find innovative ways to deal with limited resources of hospitals and clinics.

Three days ago I asked for a meeting with education MEC Yousuf Gabru and was immediately given an audience. Gabru received our delegation graciously, listened to our concerns, and promised to find solutions -- a far cry from his predecessor.

The new regime, at least in Western Cape, gives the impression that they are indeed more people-centred and serious about delivery. Brown, Gabru and Hogan, appointees of the Zuma regime, prove that they can and will raise standards.

Kadalie is a human rights activist based in Cape Town.

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