South Africa’s Youth Bear the Burdens of Corruption

Excerpt

Relations between the United States and South Africa are at their lowest point in decades. The United States has replaced trade preferences with tariffs. The Trump administration has expelled South Africa’s ambassador and suspended development aid. As a US diplomat who served in Pretoria and met my wife there, I have both a personal and professional fondness for the country, so it is distressing to see the pace at which the US-South Africa partnership unraveled. Yet that unraveling is the symptom. Pervasive and entrenched corruption in South Africa’s ruling political party is the cause.

The South Africans I know continue to share the idealism of Nelson Mandela and the struggle against apartheid. Yet Mandela’s party, the African National Congress (ANC), has spent the last quarter-century looting South Africa’s economy. While the ANC lashes out at Western criticism and cozies up to Russia, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and China, the real cost of its corruption is being paid by South Africa’s young people. They are growing up in an eroding democracy that promised dignity but delivered corruption and economic stagnation. US sanctions against ANC officials could help, but the only way to fix this generational betrayal is for young South Africans to make their voices heard.

Thanks to corruption investigator Thuli Madonsela and other brave South Africans, the scale of that betrayal was laid bare in the final report of the Zondo Commission in 2022. It exposed a sprawling web of corruption that had hollowed out South Africa’s most important public institutions—from Eskom (electric power) and Transnet (railways) to Denel (defense technology) and the revenue service. The commission issued 218 recommendations for criminal investigations, prosecutions, and asset recovery. It documented how the ANC siphoned off public money through patronage networks, fake contracts, and political protection.

And then—very little happened.

Daniel Swift is a senior research analyst for economics, finance, and trade for the Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). He is a retired US diplomat and was most recently the Acting Coordinator for Prosper Africa: a presidential-level national security initiative to increase two-way trade and investment between the United States and Africa. For more analysis from the author and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on X @FDD.