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Karm Farrugia reporting from Johannesburg gloats over the social progress achieved in South Africa and remembers to call on Lawrence Gonzi to reverse Malta’s adverse economic trends
So many times I have visited South Africa, the nomenclature ‘tourist’ definitely does not fit me any more. It did during the three years before the republic became the “rainbow nation” as Nobel prize-winner Archbishop Tutu described it in the aftermath of its transition from a (white) minority rule to a democratic peaceful majority one.
That was a mere decade ago. By then I had already toured by car (the road networks here make me think that Malta is in the third world, not South Africa) all its regions. A huge inland plateau fringed by a narrow coastal plain on three sides, separated by an escarpment of mountains and hills, dominated by the mighty Drakensberg range where I have just spent a few days of relaxation and scenic beauty before returning to Johannesburg for Easter.
It is not my first Easter vacation here, so I knew what to expect in a country with a population of 45 million. 80 percent of South Africans embrace a Christian faith of sorts, and occupy a landmass equivalent to a combined Germany, France and Italy, but with only a quarter of their total population.
Maundy Thursday was spent with members of a particular congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in a ceremony similar to a Jewish Passover. Each family is assigned to cook a meal and bring it over to a large communal kitchen in the church’s annex for warming and distributing among the many round tables in the hall. The first course is already there by the time the congregation arrives, to be consumed after the initial religious ceremony, conducted by their pastor. Drinks are structured to the religious sessions which follow intermittently between buffet dishes.
A very happy evening combining Christian devotion with a social gathering that is hard to better. The ‘rainbow’ is clearly there in terms of culture, race and even in language, except that everyone speaks English. A similar ‘rainbow’ will certainly be visible again when I attend Catholic service on Easter Sunday.
No single Christian denomination seems to predominate here and people often inter-marry without any problems, respecting each other’s faith and admitting their children to both churches. One of the happiest days in my life was when I carried my weeks-old grandson from the annex to the Dutch Reformed Church to be received and formally baptised.
There is a general election here this coming Wednesday. The streamers I saw on the highway from the airport lamented the shortage of jobs, the need to intensify the war on poverty and AIDS, and, from the Opposition, the reluctance to actively condemn neighbouring Zimbabwe on its failure to respect human rights there.
South Africa’s Constitution, modern and democratic and successfully negotiated after years of strife, resistance and violence, was finally signed into law two years after the election of the first-ever majority-backed government in 1994. Embracing South Africa’s hopes, it is perceived as a barricade against any form of racism or infringement of individual rights. It is understandable why the ‘whites’ here would want their government to denounce and condemn, possibly even impose economic sanctions on Zimbabwe for fear that Mugabe’s doctrine might rub off on some future South African leader.
But isn’t it also understandable that one should avoid any form of confrontation with a neighbouring country unless provoked, even if the latter is smaller, poorer and, in particular, bordering the country with a high risk of intensifying the refugee problems? The more so when one has other massive problems of one’s own, notably galloping HIV/AIDS and a plethora of socio-economic ones, mainly lack of jobs, insufficient direct foreign investment (doesn’t this sound familiar ?), education, housing and, still in a few remote areas, also basic human needs like clean water?
Nelson Mandela, undoubtedly Africa’s Man of the 20 Century, possibly the world’s as well, engendered in just a handful of years a political stability in South Africa which could otherwise have taken a full generation or two to accomplish. Still, the invisible hand of evil attempted to undermine his country’s stability via its currency, the Rand.
Barely two years ago I was delighted for myself to receive 30 Rands for my Maltese Lira. Previously, the best I had ever experienced was 22. Just imagine how strong external forces must have been to tumble the currency that extent. What would we feel today if we wake up suddenly one morning to find that our central bank had to succumb to such a catastrophe? Thank heavens for our external reserves which, however, though still strong have not kept pace with our economic growth and, worse, could start on a depletion slope unless the Gonzi administration manages to steer the economy away from the path it was pushed into during the previous administration. And before we are able to make it into Euroland when we won’t then need the reserves any more.
In South Africa nobody then expected the Rand to recover, with the only consolation being that it was at least good for tourism, exports and foreign investors, even if bad for the residents. A Commission was immediately set up to inquire as to whether there had been international manipulation of the Rand for crass commercial gain through speculation. I remember during my study days in London mid-sixties when a similar phenomenon occurred with the pound sterling, premier Harold Wilson blamed it all on the ‘gnomes of Zurich.’ And again in 1993 when George Soros even managed to push the pound sterling out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism.
Today, in South Africa nobody really knows for sure whether it was such gnomes or unfounded nervousness on the part of currency dealers/investors. It doesn’t matter either now because the Rand over-recovered, this time to the embarrassment, not chagrin, of the authorities.
Last week I only managed 17 Rands to my Maltese lira!! Perhaps the only negative aspect of my Easter holiday. Nevertheless, it still is definitely good value-for-money holidaying here, despite the unduly high airfare between Malta and every connecting European city, which accounts for over a third of the total travel fare.
A Happy Easter to all.
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