South Africa’s Geoeconomic Tumble & Rounds of Distracting Xenophobia

Introduction

South Africa has once again hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. On the face of it an apparent disavowal of history by the people or sections of the population led them to independently resort to attacking foreigners in this case other Africans, maiming and killing some.  Such narrative is inherently disabled and deficient in context, in history and at various geographical aggregations. The purpose of this piece is to dig deeper into the historical, geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics driving a post-apartheid apartheid emergence in South Africa. In contrast Nigeria’s response will be reviewed. 

Mandela’s Stumble

It is all about Nelson Mandela! The palpable rage across African capitals this week is all the more inflated by the fact that in the man’s name so much was invested to liberate an oppressed people, suffering members of an African family. No matter how much the narrative is appropriated, the polished neutral presentation of the man beaming positive outcomes is incomplete even though it is not an invitation for his total condemnation.

Nevertheless this round of South Africans-on-Africans xenophobia is triggered by the same neoliberal forces unleashed by Mandela’s inability to confront the same forces in his lifetime prior to taking political office. The expediency of time, magnification of apparent victory of majority and long prison term led to obscuration of the real power of the outgoing apartheid minority. In the euphoria of hollow triumph and questionable popular mandate divorced from the people, Mandela reduced and eliminated the real benefits of popular overthrow of apartheid as he and his team settled for political concession devoid of economic potency. By so doing apartheid was not completely defeated rather was transformed from a race-based structure into consolidated platform for economic inequality of the majority. No wonder the West continues to celebrate and adulate him!

Modification into Neoliberal Economic DNA

Neoliberal economic doctrine is very simple in its objectives, profit at any cost by default at peoples’ expense. In any case a limited government that exclusively shuns provision of social or any services for the population except infrastructure for big business. Chile is its poster child, Russia tasted its bitter pill and no one remembers that China welcomed it for ‘rich is good’. For this profit to be extracted ‘sustainably’, violence (by any means necessary) is an inevitable weapon. Apartheid South Africa operated in part on this form of violent exclusivity with capital flowing as direct investment from various condoning Western capitals while disenfranchised South Africans were violently co-opted to serve it.

It is this virulent Washington DC consensus economic agenda geopolitically projected through World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Mandela and his coterie signed up to. In doing so Mandela secured his country as a client state firm in western orbit. With flourish the ANC African Charter was consigned to history and new ugly chapter was forced upon newly-liberated South Africans. While a minority will go one to benefit from the rigged system, the majority of displaced, unemployed, disenfranchised (re-disenfranchised) and landless peoples where cast out by their own even with votes in hand.

Meeting World Bank and IMF mandates means throwing South Africans under the bus with limited opportunities, narrow investments of manpower development and disdain for starting up the real economy. It is easier for South African industries to import cheap trained professional and skill personnel than meet the inflated cost of local training of indigenous capability. This is one reason behind massive attraction and reception of many skilled/unskilled Africans to the biggest regional market. Most of the migrant workers find the income dependable and reliable compared to situations in their home countries. Another spectre of incompetent leadership haunting most of Africa! 

Manipulation of Victimhood Transfer

There is an inserted economic problem in South Africa regardless of positive annual economic growth and favourable GDP figures. The economic system is rigged against the majority hence the periodic expression of discontent by citizens. There will be another citizens’ unrest and apparently it may be re-directed against other resident Africans. These unemployed citizens and citizens of inequality are the real victims, now it is unclear how their anger is directed or manipulated towards attacking other resident Africans with viciousness.  

These unfortunate citizens cum victims who have been suffering for the past 2 decades or so are not ignorami of history as purported by the South African’s High Commissioner in London & mainstream media neither are they individually/collectively ungrateful for apartheid era support received from other Africans. History and gratitude to the external count for less, their gripe is the debt owed them internally historically and by their own government. South African government has no qualms de-historicising, delegitimising and de-ontologising her own citizens to get a pass with her geopolitical masters.

African migrant workers in South Africa are equally victims in other own countries as many of their capitals failed them miserably with economic mismanagement and questionable leaderships. These capitals will only make bland statements devoid of real action. They are double victims in South Africa’s latest re-direction of popular anger against them. There is a known pattern of xenophobic reaction of unemployed majority South Africans and the driver is the same. It is questionable that the perception of migrant worker as job-stealer by unemployed South Africans is deliberately instrumentalised & equipped with violence by the same South African independently to eliminate fellow poor & easily accessible Africans.  Who re-appropriated the anger, then organised, instrumentalised and equipped it with violence?

It is not impossible for elements in the political space and ANC to manipulate popular anger against other resident Africans. What happened to burning public and or party assets? The idea that the current Zulu king (without covert state assistance) is culpable is a shallow settlement of initiatives.  Although it is a sad state of affairs that that heroic ethnic nation is represented negatively by ignominious spectacle at critical time. The president may not be de-linked easily as he is a member of that glorious nation.

Let it not be lost on the reader that the geopolitical implications for South Africa’s geoeconomic connection to Washington DC mean a cathartic continuum of apartheid methodology, methodologies of violence. Forget about membership of BRICS! ANC government under President J Zuma oversaw the 2012 massacre of 34 defenceless &protesting workers/miners in cold blood by members the police force few months ago. Yes, feel free to compare 1960 Sharpeville massacre with 2012 Marikana massacre! So if such heinous crime could be perpetrated by South Africa state under majority rule against her own citizens, what chance have other accessible resident Africans got?

Sad Nigerian Response

Following Nigerian newspapers on the event is like reading a clash of expectations. While most outlets reported or re-pasted the report, it was obvious that beyond emotions sections of the political elite need further learning on nuanced handling of international issues and geopolitical themes. It was the right thing for Foreign Affairs Ministry in Abuja to summon South Africa’s High Commissioner to explain his country's position. It is also right that Abuja did not hasten to recall her High Commissioner in Pretoria* not because of diminished priority rather on the basis that the severity is insufficient for such drastic action. Recalling or withdrawal of the highest representing diplomat occurs only for very severe, high priority & strategic/geopolitical misunderstandings between states.

The area of most concern regards statements purportedly made by some members of the legislature calling for the incident (South Africa) to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC). What is worrying with this position regardless of its veracity is the apparent acceptance of imposed information with neutral aplomb. This is often the case with contextual self-repudiation of colonised peoples as some of their so-called elite lap at any innovation of domination imposed from outside without critical analysis. ICC in itself is a symbol of imposition and containment of Africa with the number of Africans including current Kenyan president forced to appear before it. 

ICC is a symbol of geopolitical domination of states & peoples and its court an activity space for collective humiliation of erstwhile independent states & African peoples. How many non-Africans have been hurled before it? Apart from former Yugoslavs, how many Europeans are inferior enough to appear on its summons? It is apparent that one cannot reject a neoliberal motivated outburst and simultaneously call for its adjudication through one of its biases proxies. Of course there will be calls against this position on ICC. If African elite want justice, let them apply for it in their home countries. Let ICC be an incentive to reactivate national justice systems where no one is above law and is seen/made to be so. Let national courts be compelled to try cases in their territories instead of imposing dehumanising collective judicial waterboarding in foreign lands.

Pro-Active Diplomatic Detour

One of the reasons that could be advanced for Nigeria’s puerile diplomatic performance could be the transition period. This can be countenanced on the peripheries of weak political cultures nevertheless there is a seating government and an active diplomatic service. The following steps would have represented higher quality of diplomatic response in full media for South Africa’s special attention, domestic audience and international consumption. 

With the news filtering in from Pretoria High Commission (morning) report, an emergency cabinet meeting would be called by the president with all ministers in the country present. In parallel the diplomatic track will be activated. Hyperbolic communique is issued including directive for immediate shuttle diplomacy to West Africa, Southern Africa, East Africa and Central Africa regions by the Foreign Affairs Minister (with a president jet at his/her disposal). South Africa sensitivities must be recognised while initiative is maintained.  Ghana (current ECOWAS chairmanship) and other regional headships must be stops on the shuttle to confer with them the seriousness of the issue. 

The final stop will be Pretoria including an audience with President Zuma to discuss a number of strategic and geopolitical issues include handing over a message from the outgoing president of the Nigerian republic. No demarche! All things being equal this spectacle of serious engagement and also public diplomacy will surely put Pretoria on the back foot in the short-term while forcing a rethink on their future management of related issues. Symbolically this diplomatic shuttle must avoid North Africa, avoid overt/covert meetings with EU, US & BRICS members. Let it be an African affair, another attempt to strengthen Africa’s diplomatic initiative, advance collaboration of sensitive issues and increased respectful interaction! For Abuja it will be another testament to gradual restoration of her pro-active leadership in the continent.

Conclusion

South Africa is ‘genetically’ in an economic quagmire with increasingly mismanaged economic outcomes that has created and will continue to create massive inequality unless something is done. There will be periodic outbursts of managed or re-directed protests. African capitals are challenged to invest seriously in innovative economic development while taking advantage of new global geoeconomic realities. African leadership is challenged to cease needless re-appropriation of narratives toward realistic elevation of citizens with solution-oriented economic development and positive governance devoid of neoliberal economic virus.

*3 days after this piece was published it was reported that Abuja recalled her High Commissioner & Deputy High Commissioner in Pretoria for consultation. This information was not on the Foreign Affairs Ministry website at 26/04/2015 17.58.

Europe, An Exemplary Geopolitical Representation of Weakness

Introduction

A spectre is haunting Europe! This time it is has no ideological or messianic connotation. A spectre of weakness is haunting Europe throughout all its political and geopolitical structures. There are few indicators of positive strategic progress if any on any part of the continent. Individual governments and the supranational European Union seem to be adrift and bereft of relevance. Recent refocusing of media attention on the age-long migration on the Mediterranean Sea only reopened old wounds of malaise and confusion among the ruling elite. By the way this is not a historically isolated outcome rather is the finals of a long chain of regressive profiteering and violent geopolitical enterprise. Centuries old enterprise!

Surge towards Irrelevance

The last 2 decades which coincided with first experience of a world devoid of USSR confounded European capitals in the ubiquitous absence of clear strategy of long-term effects. Rather European subservience to Washington DC reinforced robustly. This can be perceived in the number of perpetual wars joined by United States and unequivocal European support since the end of USSR. What did Europe get out of these infantile machinations? 

In the area of seeking relationship normalisation and rapprochement, it equally became obvious that Europe is in a weaker position compared to the so-called isolated states. With Washington DC rushing vigorously to re-engage with former enemies in order to dominate their markets, Europe is left wagging its tail. Cuba is almost done and dusted with US business rearing its head. Recent past deal between Tehran and P5+1 has seen immediate positive moves from Washington DC, Moscow and Beijing while Brussels/Berlin still fiddle inconclusively with Athens and Minsk 2.

Incomplete Narrative of Club Med

The storyline from neoliberal Anglo media is that southern European countries are not doing enough to stem migration as they either refuse to deploy adequate resources or that they are incompetent. Of course the job of security Fortress Europe is not about collective security but an operation outsourced to frontline states while the northern states sleep as NATO turns Asian in Afghanistan. This is testament to European poverty of history, haemorrhaging of strategic leadership and sheer abuse of geopolitical awareness.

The amnesia in Brussels/Berlin is encouraged by an equal level of hopelessness of southern state elite in Greece and Italy who refuse to position national interest through leveraging migration issue to extract concessions. A rough perusal of the Mediterranean Sea opens a vista of free movement from the east and from the south where cash-strapped coastguards can only encourage leaking boats onward and away from their country’s territorial waters. The spatial concentrations represent 2 things; medium/long-term instability and economic regression.

The fact that EU has no comprehensive and practical solutions for this critical issue is an indication of grave weakness. In summary southern Europe coastline and important coastal cities are potential targets of clouded sponsors. It shows in a crude way inflation of confusion which is explained away by inconsistencies underpinned by austerity. Fact is Europe is not competing and cannot compete positively in this climate. EU is too weak to play and may confront renewed downgrading in the face of geopolitical reconfiguration taking place. Similar game is playing out for Saudi Arabia as she embarks on ill-fated & unprovoked attack on Yemen which has only one outcome, self-demotion and self-devaluation.

Long Duree An Enemy in Europe

Emergence of the complex problem that generates migrants from the Global South was an inevitable historical development waiting to unfold at the right time. In the case of Africa the seamless continuum of colonialism almost immediately after centuries – long ignominious (west & Arab) slave trade was catastrophic. The narrative of an expectant positive delivery of so-called independence is a sham with no historical parallel and devoid of intellectual credibility. 

No power gives it up willingly as successful geopolitical voyages are not done as isolates. Independence was nothing different from debt restructuring this time between colonial project manager and the new underlines who are bereft of popular legitimacy. Where such legitimacy existed it was snuffed out with anti-communist flourish. Read Vijay Prashad The Poorer Nations A Possible History of the Global South.

Even before 1960 till 1992 different parts of Africa were lit up with liberation wars funded and managed by Europe and later by United States further destabilising the continent. This is checkmating by military means. The idea that the new independence leaders have room to maneuvere in the geopolitical jungle mastered with sophisticated élan by so-called great powers of Europe is naïve and preposterous. Read Vijay Prashad The Darker Nations A Peoples History. Surely there is enough responsibility to go round. In the last decade or so United States has booted Europeans out and inserted herself as the undisputed harbinger of instability via USAFRICOM in the bid to contain China.

Europe paid specific attention to Africa, Asia and South America as pet economic projects where resources are exploited for pittance for the benefit of European metropolis and as great disincentive discourage progressive and competitive national developments. Since the 1970s Lome Convention EU-ACP trade deals continue to be implemented today for the most part essentially blocking African access to European markets. This is economic warfare a la recent attack on Russia with greater firepower! 

Remember the 1980s concerted destabilisation with twin weapons of structural adjustment and austerity which summarily executed Africa economically by IMF & World Bank. Take a cursory look at the time line; 1960s – independence, 1970s – consolidation of friendly military rule, 1980s – structural adjustment & austerity, 1990s – HIV/AIDS settle down.

In these climates no economy/polity can develop or stabilise to retain most of her young people, her trained human resources and her future management capacity. They will seek for greener pastures where they will be procured on the cheap. Europe is the first destination. Europe never wanted to be an honest partner of progressive development of Africa. 

So Go For Ghaddafi

In 2011 Europeans led the chorus for renewed colonisation of Africa starting with Libya. From geopolitical and collective security standpoints, the project was questionable in that apart from physical destruction of a state, instability takes over. Once again you can see the strategic short-sightedness of European leadership. With direct export of democracy via F16 and Rafale bombers, the last bulwark against African insecurity is removed and North Africa coastal borders collapsed. 

It is interesting that the current leaderships across North Africa even in Algeria are committed to national security while giving free pass to moving targets; people traffickers, migrants and gun runners alike. If Europe is interested in strategic security, the capitals would have appreciated the strong positive link between stability of states and her own security. In the absence of such conclusion with rather gusto participation in destabilising North Africa, Syria, Ukraine and of course economic raping of southern Europe; Mediterranean Sea becomes an unpoliced and unprotected lake of convenience.  

Conclusion

While Europe limps around confronted with grand confusion in the face of complex problems such as migrants across the Mediterranean Sea, austerity and its merits has laid bare its contradiction. When only the powerful and rich benefit from austerity, the common suffers and states suffer geometrically. Security of Europe can only be guaranteed when her leaders appreciate the reality of strong positive link between it and other states stability.  Unfortunately, there may be no time left for Europe to rise to the challenge if Athens is a proxy or indicator of effective response of a supranational vehicle of power. Athens continues to parry Brussels/Berlin hollow demarche!