Over the holidays I went to see Clint Eastwood's Invictus, an amalgamation of a sports story and a political drama. Like most Americans, I know little about rugby but I have a strong appreciation for the common ground that can be found through athletics. The film received mixed reviews from both professional critics and my peanut gallery of friends.
All the same, I was anxious to see the movie because I hoped it would illustrate a lesser known perspective of South Africa's post-apartheid reconciliation process. South Africa's underdog rugby team, known as the Springbok's, seemed to accomplish the impossible by winning the World Cup and by gaining the support of black South Africans who previously associated the team with the apartheid regime. Fifteen years after the events of the film, faulty leadership and power schisms within the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa's dominant political party, have threatened the progress of the so called "Rainbow Nation". The political landscape in South Africa has changed since the Springbok's won the Rugby World Cup in 1995. South Africa is an economic engine, which has the potential to spread wealth through Southern Africa, and the continent as a whole. Unfortunately, South Africa's stability is vulnerable due to its proximity to political and physical conflicts within the region, and its own internal issues like HIV/AIDS. The ANC's credibility has been compromised due to its failure to display effective leadership in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and because of its fruitless quite diplomacy approach to the mediation of the crises in Zimbabwe, South Africa's neighbor to the north. The beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa coincided with the legitimization of the ANC and the realization that apartheid was coming to an end. The party's failure to give a clear, consistent and correct message to South Africans regarding HIV/AIDS continues to contribute to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people on an annual basis. Nelson Mandela failed to make HIV a priority during his administration. Mandela has since formally apologized for this miss step and has spoken out extensively and raised a significant amount of money around the issue. However, the reaction of Mandela's successor, Thabo Mbeki, was tantamount to genocide. His resistance to orthodox science on the issue, based upon his own internet research, stemmed from a distrust of western pharmaceutical companies. Mbeki placed politics over science, the results were disastrous. Eventually South Africa's judiciary corrected some of Mbeki's policies on AIDS. Court decisions forced the distribution of anti-retroviral drugs and medicines which prevent pregnant women from passing HIV onto their babies.In theory, Jacob Zuma's administration has taken steps to correct South Africa's ambiguous message on HIV/AIDS. A nationwide campaign with President Zuma as the primary spokes person was recently announced. This is the first time that a current ANC elected official will be the spokes person for an HIV awareness campaign. The upcoming P.R campaign is a positive step, but Jacob Zuma's personal life makes him a less than ideal figure head in the fight against AIDS. In 2006, Zuma a polygamist with three wives, admitted to having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman, though he was acquitted of the rape charge which brought the incident to light. In a speech on World AIDS Day, 2009, Zuma shared that he had been tested for HIV, and that he knew his status. Knowing ones status is the first proactive step toward stopping the spread of AIDS, only if that knowledge leads to responsible actions in the future. President Thabo Mbeki's lack of leadership during the ongoing crises in Zimbabwe diminished the ANC's diplomatic profile. Instead of condemning the situation Mbeki was consumed by what he viewed as racist media coverage of the ongoing tragedy. The ANC and Mbeki were in a difficult situation, but there was precedence for strong action on the issue. Most of Zimbabwe's electricity comes from South Africa. In the 1970's, South Africa threatened to cut off power to Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia, in an effort to push the country's prime minister into a settlement. Mbeki opted not to utilize this or any other smart power resource. Instead he pushed toward a lackluster power sharing agreement between Robert Mugabe and the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change.The ANC is poised to remain a dominant and stable force if the party can adapt to the needs of 21st century South Africa. No longer a revolutionary party, the ANC's future depends on facilitating healthy economic growth and managing the expectations of the post-apartheid generation. The title of the movie Invictus was inspired by the William Ernest Henley poem of the same name. Now is the time for the ANC to embrace the poem's central theme, the party must take responsibility for its own destiny.
"It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll,I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul."