Jenerali Ulimwengu

The main opposition party in Tanzania has been claiming that Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government is illegitimate, because, they say, it was not elected by anyone. They are claiming that on that fateful day of October 29 last year what happened was not an election but a mass shooting of protesters. Of course, there will be no prizes for guessing what government people will be saying in response to that claim: Samia not only won the election but did so with a whopping 98 per centum of the votes cast.

It is rather normal in an African setting to hear complaints raised against government authorities about enforced disappearances of individuals hostile to the ruling elites of the country. To borrow a hackneyed expression from my occupation, if it’s a case of dog-bites-man, we say there is no news there. But when it becomes man-bites-dog, then that is huge news. The logic in that adage is quite simple: Man-on-dog does not happen, and if it does, then it becomes newsworthy.

South Africa’s former president, Thabo Mbeki, has been telling his people complaining about illegal immigrants that they are chasing ghosts but ignoring the devil in their midst. Mbeki has been making his thoughts known about the violent clashes between South Africans and “foreigners” who are blamed for South Africa’s economic ills, which include joblessness and increasing crime rates. Tens of people have been reported killed, and the violence seems set to escalate as the end of June approaches.