Culture of Impunity in African Governance: Who sets the Limits?

Dr. Mamphela Ramphele’s presentation at the Difficult Dialogues panel discussion at the University of Cape Town, 1 July 2008 …

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Read the other panelists’ presentations: Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Heidi Holland, Dr. Wilmot James

THE CULTURE OF IMPUNITY IN AFRICAN GOVERNANCE:

WHO IS TO SET THE LIMITS?

by Mamphela Ramphela

Introduction

Post-colonial Africa has been characterized by a tragic litany of failure of governance from the promising birth of Ghana as a free nation in 1957 to our own freedom in 1994. It is not just a failure of governance due to ignorance, inexperience or technical errors. It is sad that much of the failure of governance have all the hallmarks of violations of the rights of citizens that in some cases rival those under colonial oppression. The repeated nature of these violations within and across countries suggests a culture of impunity on the part of the leaders involved.

Impunity is defined as freedom from punishment or loss. Think of Mobutu of Zaire, Idi Amin of Uganda, Menghisto of Ethiopia, Charles Taylor of Liberia, Bashir of Sudan and closer home, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. The tolerance shown by African leaders for the prolonged abuses of ordinary men, women and children of Africa at the hands of heads of governments over the years is difficult to explain.

I would like to suggest that the root causes of this culture of impunity are to be found in Africa’s denial of the ghosts of its past that continue to haunt its present and frustrate its future. The ghosts of our pre-colonial, colonial and recent past: racism, authoritarianism, ethnic chauvinism and sexism demand much more systematic exorcism than we have permitted ourselves to undergo. We are a wounded people who are in denial about our wounds. It is this denial that makes us over-sensitive to criticism and unable to learn from our mistakes to improve our performance on the governance front.

Ghosts of Self Hatred

Racist scars have left Africans deeply wounded as a people. The equation of blackness with inferiority has created a deep sense of self-loathing that comes to the fore each time one is confronted by this image of the self that threatens whatever goal one is striving towards. How else can one explain how “war veterans” can mistake ordinary Zimbabweans as enemies to be maimed or killed with the brutality that is being visited on them across the country? How do we as South Africans explain the viciousness with which we attacked fellow Africans for the crime of being foreign and black?

The same self-hatred ghosts prevent law enforcement officers from upholding the rule of law and protecting those victimized. In many cases the very law enforcement agents are themselves the abusers. It is a short route to impunity when those charged with upholding the rule of law violate the law. To add insult to injury such officers not only get away with such abuses, but get rewarded for such behaviour. Vlakplaas is being reproduced in Zimbabwe in many places. Our own society is littered with examples of failure of our leaders to hold abusive public officials accountable.

Zimbabwe’s leaders’ impunity has been made possible by the complicity of Mugabe’s fellow leaders. South Africa has to shoulder the largest burden of promoting a culture of impunity in Zimbabwe. Remember the 2000 election that was clearly stolen that we pronounced free and fair? Remember the one after that that was also stolen that we gave a stamp of approval to? Remember our silence as the March 29th election was being manipulated and rendered meaningless? Remember the weapons that we were prepared to let through our ports to kill and maim Zimbabweans in the aftermath of Mugabe’s election defeat? The acceptance of Robert Mugabe at the AU Summit in Sharm El-Sheik is the ultimate in rewarding him for disregarding the will of Zimbabwean citizens.

Ghosts of Authoritarianism
The legacy of authoritarianism from both pre-colonial and colonial African culture lies deep within our governance systems. I have quoted Chinua Achebe before on the subject of Africa’s governance failures and will do so again today because we need to listen to words of wisdom from Africa’s best talents. Excuses that criticisms of poor governance in Africa are motivated by racism of imperialism cannot stand in the face of this very pointed critique by Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian novelist, as far back as in the 1980’s:

“The prime reason …can’t be corruption though its scale and pervasiveness are truly intolerable; it isn’t the subservience to foreign manipulation, degrading as it is; it isn’t even this second-class hand-me-down capitalism, ludicrous and doomed. All such miseries of malice and incompetence or greed could be blamed for ‘the prime failure of government.’ But they were not the cause; they were the effects. The cause was to be found elsewhere. It lay in ‘the failure of our rulers to re-establish vital inner links with the poor and dispossessed of this country.” (Anthills of the Savannah, Chinua Achebe,Heinneman, 1988.
The question is why have our leaders failed to “re-establish the vital inner links with the poor and dispossessed in our post-colonial countries? My own view is that the failure comes from an inability of leaders to envision their roles as agents of fundamental transformation of their societies. Such a transformation process entails a radical shift in the frame of reference for social relationships. In most cases it entails redefining power relationships from a zero-sum game to relationships that recognize the mutual benefits of empowerment of all to enable them to contribute their very best to their societies. Such social relationships would have no place for racism, sexism, authoritarianism or any other form of discrimination. Diversity would be celebrated not as a cliché but as an essential ingredient of success, peace and prosperity in an interconnected globalizing world.

Unfortunately, many of our leaders cast themselves in the roles of the very colonial masters they replaced. Their revolutionary fire for freedom from oppression has too often turned into a passion for emulating the same oppressors and their methods. Such emulation is both in symbolic and material terms. Just cast your mind to the installation of Robert Mugabe on Sunday after the sham election to see the symbolism of British colonialism writ large. Witness the stiff ceremony with white wigged, red robbed and solemn judges adorning Mugabe with the same type of cross band of office that was used by Governor-generals of the colonial era. It is a tragic indicator of the deep seated yearning to be the master just like the one he replaced – more British than the British.

At the material level there is no limit to opulence and conspicuous consumption at the expense of public resources. It is not just flaunting of power as demonstrated by the trappings of power and privilege, but the lack of sensitivity to the pain suffered by poor people in whose name the struggle for freedom was fought. Poor people’s aspirations become an impediment to total domination.

In our own South African brand, black economic empowerment has been corrupted to become another vehicle for empowerment of loyal well connected people to enrich themselves at the expense of poor people. The case of Tender Park in Polokwane that I cite in my book, Laying Ghosts to Rest: Dilemmas of the Transformation in South Africa, speaks to abuse of state tenders by those connected to the Limpopo Provincial government to build huge mansions with money intended for RDP houses.

They stop at nothing to demonize those whom they perceive as competitors to power and domination. They are deeply rooted in the zero-sum notion of power in which there can only be one winner and many losers. Opposition politics is not welcome in most African countries – they are regarded as illegitimate. Only liberation movement related parties are regarded as legitimate. This illegitimate label creates a climate for abuse of opposition leaders and their followers both verbally and physically.

The much promised African Renaissance is unlikely to dawn in the midst of such a culture of impunity that undermines the emergence of creative alternatives to old ways of doing politics. It is a mere few years ago that our leaders announced a New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and committed to building new institutions for Africa to govern itself and take its rightful place in the interconnected global community. Africa has yet to credibly demonstrate that it can be able to find appropriate African solutions to Africa’s problems.

Who is to set the limits?

The old adage holds true – the limits of tyrants are set by the level of tolerance by those subjected to tyranny. South Africans have over the last few decades demonstrated that no amount of terror can stop a people hungry for freedom from attaining it. The cost of freedom is high when one deals with leaders steeped in a culture of impunity, but there can be no gain without pain.

In a sense the people of Zimbabwe waited too long before challenging Mugabe’s tyranny. It was a case of for whom the bell tolls. When it tolled for the 20 000 young people of Matebeleland in the 1980’s many kept their heads down. When it tolled for the white farmers, many even cheered for the false dawn. Now that the bell is tolling for each and every Zimbabwean who might be at the wrong place at the wrong time, there is no place to hide.

There are lessons for us as citizens in the Zimbabwean situation. First, citizens are the stewards of the democracy, not leaders. We have a culture of personalized politics that vests too much power in leaders. This is part of our legacy of authoritarianism. We have to confront this tendency and compel our leaders to understand that they are the servants of the people. Leadership as service is not a strong tenet of our political culture. We love Kings and Queens as symbols of the power we crave deep down in our wounded psyches. The notion of young South Africans publicly pledging to “kill for Zuma” is a symptom of extreme woundedness. What kind of democracy can be built on such a foundation?

Second, and related to the above, is the conflation of leader, party, government and state which creates a culture of state capture. The treatment of the leader as a sovereign person coupled with the party as omnipotent and demanding of to9tal loyalty undermines accountability of government and the sovereignty of the nation state. State capture becomes a natural progression where the boundary between the party and government and state are blurred. State capture nurtures a culture of impunity.

Third, we need to institutionalize accountability mechanisms in our societies. As citizens we need to demand that Chapter 9 institutions act with vigour and integrity to hold public officials and leaders accountable. We also need to demand to be treated with respect by those serving us in public places. We have demonstrated that mobilizing for social action works. The Treatment Action Committee’s victory in demanding that Anti-retrovirals be available to all citizens who need them in accordance with the socio-economic rights provisions of our national constitution should encourage us to take on more battles. We dare not allow those in power to take us for granted.

Fourth, we also have a responsibility and duty of care for our democracy through the manner in which we exercise our vote. The 2009 elections are an opportunity to ensure that our vote is not taken for granted by any political party. We need to ensure that they earn our vote.

Fifth, we need to move away from the notion of transformation as replacing white people with black people towards true transformation of social relationships. Transformative leadership is essential to move us from empty rhetoric of non-racialism, non-sexism and inequity towards a lived experience of mutual celebration. Transformative leadership leads by example demonstrating coherence in the conduct of personal, professional and political affairs.

The limits of impunity are within our power to set. The question is whether we are prepared to do so or not before it is too late.

Mamphela Ramphele
1/7/08