South Africa is experiencing extraordinary levels of violent crime. Since the country’s democratic transition in 1994, some 300,000 South Africans have been murdered. Much of this crime is unprecedented in its brutality and is directed at the elderly and the young. Bizarrely, much of the Western media are silent about the calamity which has befallen South Africa. Is this an intentional oversight to avoid accusations of racism or denigrating one of the few African democracies? Or, are the Western media – and, by implication, its consumers – disinterested in accounts of murder and bloodshed far removed on the southern tip of a forgotten continent?

Marinda O’Dell was a compassionate and hardworking occupational therapist at a school for disabled children in Krugersdorp, an hour’s drive north west of Johannesburg. In early August, two young men entered her house just after lunchtime, bludgeoned her 17-year-old daughter unconscious, and cut Marinda’s throat. Marinda became one of the 50 people murdered on an average day in South Africa.

Last month, Cobi Venter, a dedicated anti-apartheid campaigner, and her husband George, an 78-year-old entrepreneur, were brutally murdered in their middle-class suburban home in Port Elizabeth. Six men forced their way into the Venter’s home, which had been barricaded after a previous robbery attempt. George was struck several times with a hammer, tortured and dragged by his feet from room to room, and then killed. After witnessing the terrifying events, Cobi was gang-raped and fatally beaten to death.

The expectations among many ANC voters are unrealistically high after Zuma’s election promises. And bad service delivery will increasingly come to haunt the ANC leadership.

The recent violent protests at small towns like Piet Retief, Cullinan and Jagersfontein have signalled as much. Zuma’s honeymoon is over before it even started. ANC voters are going to hold the ANC leadership accountable.

Of course, it is mystifying how the people involved in the protests could reason that the destruction of facilities would improve their lives. The damage to the burnt-out municipal buildings in Cullinan has been estimated at R10 million.

In Piet Retief, thousands of protesters using traditional sticks (knobkieries) and petrol bombs have killed two people, also chasing several Asian traders from the township. In Jagersfontein, the city hall and municipal buildings that have been burnt down were both cultural gems, designed by the famous British architect, sir Herbert Baker in the late 19th century.

Arrogant and overfed, government officials often do not respond to citizen concerns unless there is some pressure. However, if a revival were to occur in the beloved country, it would revolve around strong personalities following a different approach: legal pressure on the ANC and peaceful self-help.

Jacob Zuma

The expansion of the cabinet has been the first sign that it is party time. In Africa, huge cabinets have often served to neutralize a whole opposition at a cheap price. In Cameroon, locals say "The mouth that eats is quiet".

It is no different in South Africa. Zuma is trying to coopt almost every faction in sight by appointing one or more of their representatives as cabinet ministers or deputy ministers.

Hardline trade unionists and Communist Party (SACP) leaders have been appointed, Zulus and Xhosas, Asians and Coloureds, and several women. Even two Afrikaners have made the cut: Marthinus van Schalkwyk, former leader of the National Party, and Pieter Mulder, leader of the Freedom Front.

History will show whether this strongly enlarged cabinet will serve its purpose well. Will the SACP members, for example, like their predecessors under Mbeki, become a mere fig leaf? After all, twenty years after the failure of the Soviet experiment, several Zuma ministers and deputy ministers still avidly wave the Red flag.

Will they be useful as a socialist front to cover the government’s neo-liberal policies and the enrichment of small black and corporate elites? Or will they be able to radicalize government policy by direct or indirect means?  

Even Pieter Mulder will have the questionable pleasure of serving under a member of the SACP central committee, Tina Joemat-Petterson. As a deputy minister, he will be unable to put forward his views in parliament. His 46-year-old minister will have to do that, probably not in Afrikaans. It remains to be seen on which officials he will have to rely.

Jacob Zuma will rule South Africa like a traditional Zulu king. This is the perceptive conclusion of Rian Malan in an interview with SA’s next president, which is reproduced elsewhere in SAReporter. Is the rainbow democracy about to become a kingdom of light?

After all, the kingdom will not be without forms of love. Zuma is a man with four wives, each now contending for the position of First Lady. Last week, speaking at a church meeting, he recommended polygamy to all of us. Unlimited loving-kindness towards others will presumably still extend to southern Africa’s millions of poor.

The kingdom will not be without hope either, if children are the sign of hope. Zuma is believed to have 22 children by six women. SA’s population has increased from 44 million to 48 million in a decade or so. However, the hope that population growth will not result in the collapse of SA’s infrastructure remains very much alive. The three million new voters during this election, largely without the skills to survive in a competitive economy, will overwhelmingly vote for the ANC as their party of hope.

The kingdom will also be full of charity. Already, 13m people depend on state grants. The grants are paid for by the taxes imposed on a tiny middle class and corporations. But charity will especially extend to the disciples of Zuma. All those partners profiting from the black economic empowerment program are now exposed to the infighting over the spoils.