South Africa's leaders 'corrupt, 'arrogrant,' Tutu says

ShareThis

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- One of the most venerated people in South Africa launched a blistering attack on the country's current leaders this week, calling them corrupt, arrogant and deeply estranged from those they govern.Archbishop Desmond Tutu warned that those who rule today could soon lose power, just as the National Party leaders in the apartheid era did, because of the extravagant and vain isolation in which they live.And he said all this with the only two people who rival him in public esteem at his side -- Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu.Tutu said the country's current leaders are "arrogant ... strutting about like a proud peacock seemingly deaf to the cries of those who brought (them) to power ... like the Nationalists, thinking only they possess wisdom or knowledge," Tutu said.The archbishop's criticism was delivered in indirect terms Wednesday, but was an unmistakable reference to both South African President Thabo Mbeki and to Jacob Zuma, the newly elected head of the governing African National Congress, and their respective supporters.His outburst came as a surprise at what was otherwise a low-key gathering in honor of Sisulu, who is fondly known here as the "Mother of the Nation."Sisulu fought a quiet, dignified and determined fight against white rule, leading the national resistance while her husband, Walter, was locked away on Robben Island for decades. Her children fled into exile and she herself was repeatedly jailed and harassed.Sisulu turns 90 in October. Mandela, one of her closest friends, will reach 90 in July. Mandela's foundation is organizing a series of public events to celebrate his legacy. The first of these was the Tutu lecture and the launch of a traveling exhibit about the Sisulus' lives.During Tutu's oblique but stinging critique, Mandela, who sat just to his left, nodded in agreement at points. Sisulu kept the dignified but emotionless expression that became her public face through years of warily confronting the state during the struggle.Mandela has stayed resolutely silent on the political turmoil that has gripped South Africa over the past 18 months, as warring factions in his beloved ANC fought for its leadership. Mbeki ruthlessly purged perceived opponents and manipulated the national prosecution process in his campaign against Zuma, to whom he lost the ANC presidency in December in a ferociously contested, often ugly election.Zuma, who will stand trial for corruption in August, said last week that he, not Mbeki, now leads the country, although Mbeki has more than a year left in his presidential term. In recent weeks, Zuma has married a fifth wife and become betrothed to two more, appalling many South Africans. Contradicting ANC policy, he said he thought capital punishment should be reinstated. He also filed a lawsuit asking the government to reimburse him for the costs he incurred in defending himself from corruption charges.Recalling the years when the Sisulus directed and provided support to the apartheid fight from their tiny home in Soweto, Tutu indirectly compared them to the current leader."Imagine knowing a leader exists for the sake of the led. A servant to the people, of the country, not one eager to enrich himself or herself and not even blushing about doing it corruptly," Tutu said.Fourteen years after the end of white rule, the dream of the new South Africa is, at best, partly realized. Great strides have been made in extending jobs, health care, education and housing to the black population. But unemployment remains at about 40 per cent and hundreds of thousands of the black poor live in shacks and squatter camps.In the past few months, the racial reconciliation championed by Mandela has shown cracks.A white youth armed with a gun opened fire into a black township in January, killing four and wounding seven. Students in an all-white university dormitory produced a video, made public a few weeks ago, showing the motherly black women who cleaned for them retching as they were forced to eat stew into which one man had urinated.On Monday, South African magazine editors (almost all of whom are white) admitted they never put a black model on a magazine cover because it "wouldn't sell."(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)