South Africa’s stance on Darfur may tarnish its anti-oppression legacy
By Wasil Ali*
July 22, 2007 — I was on the plane flipping through the channels trying to find a movie of interest when I came across one called “Catch a Fire”. The movie is a real-life story of an oil refinery foreman and soccer coach whose life changes dramatically after he got thrown in jail with his wife for a crime he did not commit.
The cruel treatment Patrick Chamusso experienced in prison transformed him from being apolitical person to a member of the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC).
Chamusso was sent by the ANC to blow up the oil refinery in Secunda where he used to work. The partially successful attack resulted in no casualties. He was arrested after a massive manhunt, tortured and eventually sentenced to 24 years in prison on Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned as well.
Chamusso served only ten years of the prison term and was released after the collapse of the apartheid system under the new government’s amnesty policy.
The movie was very inspiring and had me thinking on the conditions that changed an ordinary man who is not affiliated with politics to a freedom fighter. As a result of his struggle along with other members of the ANC, the apartheid regime came to an end.
But the ANC could not prevail in their struggle without the overwhelming support of the world. The story of Mandela was and still is inspiring to generations of people. The Sudanese people used to a sing a song about Mandela and his fight for the freedom of his people.
The post-apartheid South Africa was hoped to reflect upon its legacy and be a nation known to support the right of the oppressed groups around the world. However South Africa decided to throw all this aside and retrogress politically to align itself with non-democratic nations.
Back in 2005 South Africa voted with the African Group to block consideration of the human rights crisis in Darfur. The position was understood to indicate the South Africa had regional political consideration that superseded human rights ones. I believe this was the beginning of the end for South Africa’s freedom fight legacy.
Last week South African Envoy to the UN, Dumisani Kumalo said that any talk of sanctions in the draft resolution of the UN-AU hybrid force was “totally unacceptable”. The draft text threatened sanctions against any side of the Darfur conflict that obstruct peace efforts which include Khartoum and rebel groups.
Why did the South African envoy say it was unacceptable? Simple answer, because Sudan objected to it. In line with African governments mentality of “sticking together” in the international arenas South Africans took their position accordingly.
Did anyone tell Kumalo that the Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir was boasting last month that “no country in the world was able to circumvent UN Security council (UNSC) resolutions like Sudan”. So does the threat of sanctions in the Darfur UN-AU hybrid force resolution seem too harsh? Definitely not since Bashir’s regime is taking every opportunity to show the world how he can ignore the UNSC and its resolutions. By backing Khartoum, South Africa is sending the wrong message to the world which means other countries would be encouraged to do the same.
But here is what Kumalo did not say to the reporters. For South Africa it is acceptable to let the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur go on endlessly and to continue appeasing to Khartoum at the expense of the Darfurian people. We did face a similar situation when fighting the apartheid regime and with the support of the world we are now free. However now that we are in power, human right considerations are the least of our priorities so in effect supporting the oppression they were fighting back in the days.
Not only this but South Africa convinced one of the co-sponsors of the resolution Ghana to withdraw its support for the text, thus upgrading its status to become Khartoum’s diplomatic ally.
This is truly a sad story, as South Africa gave up a special status in the hearts of the world, for a minimal, short term gain. I would go as far as saying that the credibility of South Africa is eroding as it continues to go down the same path of African non-democratic nations.
* The author is a Sudan Tribune journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]