ANC leader Winnie Mandela was arrested on May 22, 1991 whilst staging a protest in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa calling for the release of detainees on hunger strike. The US was one of the countries that supported the Apartheid regime in South Africa until the last few years of its existence helping it thwart democratic anti-apartheid movements, says the writer. Picture: Trevor SAMSON / AFP.
Prof. David Monyae
The 12th Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy is set to commence in Johannesburg, South Africa on November 20.
Established in 1999 at the height of the Western-sponsored democratization agenda, the organization was earmarked to promote democracy in the world, especially in developing countries. The upcoming gathering will bring together 600-odd civil society organizations, journalists, politicians, and academics among others to reflect on the state of democracy in the world. South Africa was chosen as the host in honour of its 30th anniversary since becoming a democratic state.
The organization pointed out that the Assembly “will be a special occasion for the global community of democracy advocates to reflect on the historical achievements of the anti-apartheid movement and join the people of South Africa in celebrating South Africa’s democratic progress.”
However, South Africa’s hosting of the gathering has divided opinion. Some have argued that coming as it does in a year when over 60 countries held elections and also on the occasion of South Africa’s 30 years of democracy, this will “be the most significant Global Assembly since the World Movement for Democracy was formed in 1999.” This is because it will bring together a variety of actors “trying to foster and sustain liberal democracy in countries around the world.”
However, others, like the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, have come out guns blazing against the idea of hosting the Assembly in South Africa.
In his tirade, Vavi fumes at the conference being organized by an organization he describes as an agent of US imperialism, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which also provides global secretariat services to the World Movement for Democracy.
He called the integrity of the US democracy into question after the election of Donald Trump in the November 5 elections in the US whom he described as a fascist. Vavi enumerated a long list of US-sponsored successful and attempted coups around the world in countries such as China, Libya, Haiti, Indonesia, and Somalia among others which makes the US unfit to be the chief-promoter of democracy in the world. He also decried the willingness of local civil society organizations such as the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation and the Defend our Democracy to associate themselves with the NED, which has a track record of advancing American foreign policy objectives and called for their withdrawal from the conference.
On balance, Vavi may have a case. In the context of the prevailing geopolitical tensions, the US and the broader West have embarked on a democracy crusade in the Global South in an attempt to isolate their geopolitical rivals, namely China and Russia.
Events such as the upcoming Global Assembly and the US President Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy, which was inaugurated in 2021, are aimed not at advancing democratic values or good governance per se but at promoting the geopolitical interests of the US and its Western allies.
The West has long peddled the narrative that China and Russia are authoritarian regimes whose global influence should be contained if democracy is to survive.
However, as Vavi pointed out in his paper, the US has a track record of ruthlessly dislodging democratically elected governments around the world replacing them with military puppets who have no brief for democracy or human rights. More than any other country, the US has been a stumbling block to the spread of democracy especially in the Global South.
The West has been inconsistent in its insistence on democratic standards. It has been happy to forge close relations with some governments with appalling human rights records as long as they do not undermine Western interests. For example, the US has channelled billions of dollars in military aid to Israel which continues to break international law by indiscriminately killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Palestine in the name of national security. Washington has blocked any efforts in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to force a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Further, the US was one of the countries that supported the Apartheid regime in South Africa until the last few years of its existence helping it thwart democratic anti-apartheid movements. The quality and integrity of the US democracy have been brought into question by among other spectacles, the continuing racial discrimination against ethnic minorities like blacks and Hispanics and the 2021 Donald Trump-inspired insurrection on the US Capitol following Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the elections.
This paints a picture of a failing democracy and does not exactly help Washington’s quest to be the global spokesperson for democracy. Further, western-sponsored democratic crusades proceed from the arrogant presumption of the universality and the superiority of Western values and norms.
These crusades push for the imposition of Western political systems on Global South countries without paying heed to national and historical circumstances. This is the reason why many of the democratic projects backed by the West in African countries failed dismally.
The upcoming conference will be of limited utility if the West, who are its main sponsors, do not change their mindsets and approaches towards the development of democracy in developing regions.
** Prof. David Monyae is the Director of the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg.
** The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The African.