South Africa’s turn leftward

Upon majority rule in 1994, South Africa instituted many reforms, including prohibiting discrimination, outlawing the death penalty, and establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which I wrote about in my last post. These conciliatory measures smoothed the transition to majority rule. The situation today, however, appears ambiguous, with some South Africans questioning where the country is heading. Why is this?

Although Nelson Mandela began by leading the continent in peacemaking, in recent years subsequent leaders have turned decidedly leftward. At the United Nations, South Africa now routinely sides with China, Russia and other repressive regimes in blocking resolutions on human rights and supporting dictators such as Qaddafi, Castro and Mugabe. As well, South Africans are concerned about corruption charges against the man who may become the next president of the country.

Under majority rule, South Africans now appear to identify more with other African nations and less with the more prosperous West. A recent Economist article locates the problem in “South Africa’s ambivalent sense of identity, with one foot in the rich world, where its main economic interests continue to lie, and the other in the poor one, with which many of its people identify.” Its leaders seem to be reasoning that the world’s rich nations must decline in order for the poor nations to play a bigger part in ruling the world.

Next: What does this mean for the South African church and for missionaries living there?