South Africa: A marvelous country

South Africa, a marvelous country with an uncertain future.

I am sitting in the British Airways lounge here in Johannesburg after a two hour flight from Cape Town. I have a five hour wait to board my flight to London, tack on another 11 hours, then a two hour wait in London to catch the London -Miami flight which is around 9 hours, two hours in Miami, two and half more Miami- San Juan and I am finally home.
I hope that in the future flights could be shorter and more direct, who knows.

I fell in love with Cape Town and its people. It is a vibrant city, full of life, very modern and with beautiful sights. There is so much to do, so many places to see that I will need a follow up trip to be able to do all I wanted to do.

I came here to speak at the Global Speakers Network, people from all over the world meeting here in South Africa to learn new skills, concepts, ideas and of course to network. So, my off time was limited and I only had a chance to visit a few great restaurants and Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent the majority of the 27 years locked up in a prison cell. It was a very interesting experience, which I might write about in a future article.

South Africa doesn’t have a good reputation in the outside world and it is unwarranted. The people I met were very nice, very courteous; the service was excellent everywhere and they treat tourists extremely well.

I had a very interesting experience. Three friends and I went to dinner at a very African like restaurant called Marco. The restaurant had a band playing and excellent food. After spending a couple of hours there, one of the guys wanted to leave so we told him that he better wait for us because it might not be safe to walk six blocks all by himself. (This feeling is part of the negative programming I had previous to my trip here.) He listened to us and waited until finally we all left.
A couple of blocks from the hotel we heard music and we looked down the street and we saw a bunch of people milling outside a night club. W. Mitchell, a good friend and excellent public speaker who had terrible accident years ago, was left paralyzed from the waist down and his face totally burned, is absolutely fearless. It seems that after going through what he went through, nothing scares him and nothing holds him back.

Do a search in Google for W. Mitchell and you will see who this guy is. Well, he says, “Let’s go where the action is” and off we went, three of us, to that night club. We went in and we noticed that every one was looking at us. We were the only white people in the place. There was a band from Congo playing Congo music, which is different than South African music, very loud and with plenty of rhythm.
I asked for a Bacardi and rum and they didn’t know what Bacardi was. They didn’t have any rum either so I had to settle for vodka and orange juice.
We spent about an hour and nobody bothered us. When we finally stood up to leave, the lead singer thanked us for being there and said good bye.

Everyone said we were crazy going to that kind of place, late at night, all by ourselves, yet we didn’t have any fear, just a little bit of caution, and it turned out to be a great experience.

One of the other speakers I met is Roelf Meyer. He is the co author of the South African constitution and he gave an excellent speech on the transformation that South Africa has had going from an apartheid regime to a democracy. They could have gone the way of Zimbabwe, a disaster by all accounts, ruled by Mugabe, a dictator, but instead went for democracy and you can now see the difference between the two countries.
The elections in South Africa are taking place tomorrow and the leading candidate I don’t think is the type of candidate that is capable of the world leadership required of any South African President. Remember, South Africa is the only African country in the G-20, the twenty top economies in the world.

Why do I have such misgivings about the candidate that will surely win the election?

To be the leader of a country, a man or woman should have impeccable credentials, a well earned reputation for honesty and transparency, charisma, a desire to solve the problems the country faces and a willingness to include all segments of society. Who is Jacob Zuma? He has been charged with rape (was recently acquitted) claims homosexuals are an offence against God, thinks Aids can be prevented by showering after sex, and suggests that the best way to tackle crime may be for people to take the law into their own hands. He was also implicated in a financial scandal of great magnitude. He is a polygamist, yes, this means many wives, has fathered 20 children by nine women and he is still on the lookout for more wives. If he ever visits Puerto Rico, with our beautiful women, we must keep an eye on him. So, shouldn’t South Africans be concerned? Some are, but an overwhelming majority is still going to vote for him. Why? Well, he is very charismatic, he is a leader of course and Dalibunga, the most respected political figure in South Africa who could have opposed him, made a surprise appearance at the party’s final meeting and gave him his endorsement 100%. Who is Dalibunga? The African name of Nelson Mandela, the man responsible for leading South Africa into a democratic world. The other important leader, Desmond Tutu, opposed Jacob Zuma and because of it, has been severely criticized and humiliated.

If Mr. Zuma gets over 66% of the vote, he will be in a position to be able to change the South African constitution, the continent’s most advanced constitution, and try to remain in power forever. This is the danger that democracy brings to countries that don’t have a democratic culture. People like Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, once in power; they want to use democracy to keep them in power forever.



.


So, my question is, out of millions of South Africans, couldn’t that party have found a better candidate?
It doesn’t cease to amaze me how parties choose candidates that don’t have the qualities and characteristics needed to be able to lead a country the right way. They simply believe all their promises without an explanation on how specifically they will be able to achieve what they promise. And populist candidates know exactly what they need to promise even though they have no intention of doing what they say they are going to do.

Let’s hope that South Africa will not make the mistake of giving so much power to one individual and that he doesn’t go over 66% of the vote.

They say that politicians are like diapers, they have to be changed often and for the same reason. Often people can’t vote for the best candidate but for the one that can do the least harm. Mr. Zuma, in my opinion is not the candidate that can do the least harm; on the contrary, he is the candidate that can do the most harm.

South Africa will hold the soccer world cup in 2010. That will bring billions of dollars to the economy and will open the country to the whole world. They are building a beautiful stadium in Cape Town, very similar to the one built in Beijing for the Olympics.

That is an event that soccer fans shouldn’t miss because it is going to be magnificent. I had the pleasure of meeting Gary Bailey, the man in charge of the event and he gave a wonderful presentation on how South Africa will be ready for the greatest test in their history.

It will be very interesting to see what will happen after the election. I will try very hard to maintain an optimistic attitude in such a negative environment. As of now, I already have my next trip to South Africa planned and I hope that things will not change for the worst.