It is no secret that the masses are the basis of any manipulation in the politicized society as contemporary Africa which is under the public obloquy of a world of scavengers, opportunity makes the thief, and it’s not violence or the ignominy of acts that can prevent cold monsters to speculate on the lives of individuals for selfish gain. But what teaching carries the current situation in South Africa?

Giving a superficial explanation, would make the game of those who refuse to treat the problem at the root, for fear to elucidate the true pathogens agents, as one cannot speak of the current social violence in South Africa, without mention the years of apartheid, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War, the release of Mandela, his rise to power, and his exit from the political scene without laurels.

During the Cold War, at the height of apartheid, it is a secret only for those who do not bother to know, that the western world namely Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Germany, France, and Israel, which benefited from the South African nuclear program of Peter Botha regime, maintained privileged relations with Pretoria, an ally of the West Block, which had shown relevant in the covert operation against the East, while at the same time publicly denouncing the policy of apartheid that was raging there, just to keep their pristine white collar.

In South Africa Western spy agencies have maintained a network of connections that despite the official end of apartheid is still very active. Because in fact in South Africa nothing has changed except in appearances. In February 2015 top secret document leaks from the South African intelligence agency (SSA) made waves, embarrassing their government, an operation without doubt aimed to discredit and to create a stir in the opposing camp. A way to mark the field to launch the first phase of attack against that South Africa which wants to get away from the Western yoke. It is unclear how news organizations like Al Jazeera and the Guardian could get hold of top secret documents, without internal complicity in the heart of the South African state apparatus. Deep dissension exists between the proponents of political power in South Africa and the white minority that continues to hold the economic power and technology. The latter are more prone to stay in the Western camp, which remains its traditional ally, while the black majority headed by the African National Congress has clearly stated his intentions to join the camp of the global alternation joining the camp of Russia and China.

The trench warfare that remained secret has just come to light without clearly defining the two sides battling or the objectives. So to find the goals of the current situation in South Africa, one must analyze the consequences that will follow. Also xenophobic rants of a misguided populace, under-educated and manipulated are the result of asymmetric warfare that engages two camps in South Africa.

The Republic of South Africa has become an important ally of the global alternation, joining the BRICS (bloc composed of Brazil, Russia, India, and China); the rainbow nation is at the center of all the concerns of Western governments. It’s not a secret that Johannesburg has become the Warsaw of the 21st century, with Western powers fighting a deadly battle in the shadows. In this asymmetric warfare all shots are allowed and especially the old allies of yesterday are revamped to contemporary taste.

At the dawn of the accession of the ANC and Mandela to power in the 90 ' the bourgeois white minority and its Western allies had tried to find a third political force that would weaken the African National Congress, and the only way to reach that goal was to play the power struggle between the modern republican authority and the traditional customary power. If democracy had brought to power the ANC, the customary power held by Zulu never wanted to lose its clout, so the Zulu Inkatha party of Buthelezi was supported by the West and the white minority to counter the tidal wave of the ANC. Some can remember that the Zulu party at the time had used violence as well to be heard, it took important negotiations on the part of Mandela and the leaders of the sub region as Robert Mugabe and Sam Nujoma to calm tensions at home and advance South Africa on a more peaceful era. The source of tension calmed down at home, the new government of Mandela then faced an unprecedented shortage of capital encouraged by the Bretton Woods institutions and the international donors who felt that the destination South Africa was not a viable investment, while most of the great fortunes of the white minority had decided to stash their loot abroad, one could not have hoped for better.

It is Pan Africanism, the mortal sin that some would like South Africa pay for today which saved the head of the country and its millions of individuals of the black majority. A black majority held in near illiteracy since apartheid, cannot have any recollection of what the rest of Africa has done for her. The only country that disposed of high liquidity, free from the influence of Western cabal in its matters, and able to keep afloat the Republic rainbow was Libya of the late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who brought Mandela full support. The direct consequence of this mischief, would put a flea in the ear of South Africans and Libyans leaders. A roadmap for true Pan-African institutions would be on foot. And today as the roadmap spirits to enter its decisive phase with the current climate of the North-South and East-West relationships, it does not take a genius to understand why the xenophobic violence broke out in South Africa with a timing so perfect, especially with a configuration that recalls the protagonist of yesterday namely the Zulu monarchy that seems to be the Trojan horse of forces lurking in the shadows, and the ANC, which once again is caught between its troubled ambivalence that aim to satisfy the white minority and its traditional ambitions of Pan-Africanism.

The direct consequence of xenophobic violence in South Africa is the shock wave that comes to delegitimize the influence of South Africa on the management of Pan-Africanist affairs. A snub carefully hatched by no means, by a hand not so innocent. What will explain South Africa and the chairwoman of the commission of the African Union Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the former wife of South African President Jacob Zuma to the rest of the continent? That despite the fact that citizens of other African countries are burned alive on their country, they may continue to weigh on the affairs of the African continent and manage with confidence all those hot issues, such as the creation of an African central bank and the Unanimous rejection of the International Criminal court? Experienced handlers on this one, realized a master stroke, which could put a perpetual freeze in the relations between South Africa and the rest of the continent. Yet South Africa with its advanced technology still remains an important partner in the revival of nobility of the black continent.

Far from dabbling on conspiracy theory apology, it’s important to note that since Mandela the ruling class of South Africa has its share of responsibility. With a predominantly black population under-educated and poorly informed and who is still bearing the scars of the apartheid, South African leaders, before taking the role of Pan-Africanists, have not enough educated their population of base, to inculcate in them the feeling of African brotherhood, that themselves as refugees in foreign countries have been able to benefit from. Politicians some will say, prefer a malleable people, but a malleable people can be manipulated against those who think they have them in the bag, as long as the puppeteer is more skillful. Also a regime change now in South Africa would make the business of manipulators.

Popular movements overthrowing rulers are the trademark of the CIA, which since Operation Ajax that helped to overthrow the nationalist Iranian prime minister Mossadegh in the 50s, would not be in their first shot, especially as decades of policies of contentment of the white minority since the end of apartheid, as desired by the same forces were quick to dig a huge gap between the poor black majority, the black ruling elite and the white minority that generally earns six times more than the average members of the black community. In this situation of dilettante the scapegoat which is generally the immigrant has not escaped the scaffold as customary. It is disturbing to find that the main victims of such violence are only sub Saharan Africans, who despite the austerity prevailing in South Africa have still managed to survive in the ghetto with black South Africans, who would have done better to copy their example of genius in entrepreneurship, in spite of fighting them. These African immigrants do not get a free ride neither from the government of Zuma who did not hesitate to take more draconian immigration laws recently, nor from the racist white minority, who mistrust their promiscuity with Africans immigrants better equipped in the existentialist battle.

It would never been stated enough that, whilst coercing Africans leaders to make unpopular decisions, kings makers lurking in the shade, keep their room for maneuver that can allow them at any time to activate the levers, to drop puppets who try to overcome their games.

One can ask if this would have happened if land reform was made. If a policy of encouraging entrepreneurship of black people with micro credit as originally planned by the socialist agenda of the ANC in the fight against poverty was implemented. Instead Mandela and those who followed rather embraced capitalism, favoring the emergence of a black bourgeois minority that is eager to befriends the white minority at the expense of the black masses languishing in a distressing misery.

By Hubert Marlin Elingui Jr.

Journalist Writer