South Africa’s new rage

The words were simply stunning.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s latest tirade against the ANC government rocks so much that we have assumed about post-apartheid South Africa.

Comparing the ANC to Libya’s Gaddafi and Egypt’s Mubarak he slammed the party that delivered freedom to South Africa as worse than the old regime.

At least you expected them to behave badly, he raged, adding: “You, President Zuma and your government, do not represent me. I am warning you, as I warned the nationalists, one day we will pray for the defeat of the ANC government.”

It is a sense of anger and betrayal that chimes with much of what I found while filming for the new series of Unreported World (Friday, Channel 4 at 1930 and on 4OD).

To see Tutu, aged 80, so angry and let down is quite something. He is the living icon who added verve, wit and passion to the Free Nelson Mandela and Free South Africa movement.

And what was it that enraged him so? The failure of the government to grant a visa in time to Tibet’s Dalai Lama because, it is suspected by Tutu, of South Africa’s new deep business relationship with China.

Betrayal was a word I heard a great deal of in two weeks in and around Johannesburg’s poorest townships and squatter camps.

Much of it is to do with the expectations – perhaps unrealistic – the people at the bottom had of democracy. They believed it would deliver them from a fearful existence in squalid conditions – from living in metal shacks surrounded by appalling levels of crime and insecurity.

And while hundreds of thousands, millions according to the government, of families have been rehoused millions more have not. Many of those who have been given a roof over their heads are still living in appalling circumstances of overcrowding, zero or intermittent electricity and poor sanitation. The rest are victims of shocking unemployment rates – between 40 and 70 percent for men in some areas.

Their politicians, they believe, have failed them. There is a bling culture in South Africa of consumer goods, flashy cars, expensive houses that has infected much of the political class.

We encountered the bizarre world of Julius Malema, the President of the ANC Youth League, who is both wildly popular and disliked. He is a swaggering young politician who wields considerable power – the ANCYL will be important in selecting the next presidential candidate. He is even talked of as a future president himself.

Yet he is dogged by allegations about how he funds his lifestyle and how he affords to build a lavish new house on a private estate on an ANC salary.

And right now he is facing internal party disciplinary action for bringing the party into disrepute with words and speeches about South Africa’s and Botswana’s leaders. He was due to be at the hearing today but didn’t appear – his lawyer said he was suffering from flu-like symptoms.

While Malema is controversial he also continues to gather new supporters – even this week he won the backing of Winnie Mandela.

So this feels like a very turbulent period in South Africa – and we will hear much more of that in the coming months.

Already this year we saw riots in many townships from people frustrated at their lives and the authorities’ response to their problems. Many of those we met on our travels warned us there could be more such mini-uprisings soon.

Could Tutu be right sooner than he thinks?