Museveni portrayed as Africa’s pariah in South Africa
By M. Suleman
23rd May 2011:
Museveni: Is he a pariah or a statesman?
For a President who had just won a general election with “a resounding 68% margin”, the inauguration was expected to be a momentous occasion, given especially, that Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was starting the journey to complete his three decades in power.
Indeed, not less than 30 African Heads of State were invited. Museveni and his government no doubt wanted to make a serious statement in the face of the damaging fact that all the leading opposition parties had roundly rejected the result of the presidential contest and refused to recognize Museveni as President-Elect as well as any government that he shall purport to appoint.
As the government publicized its expected extravaganza, it also unconsciously provoked Ugandans in both Uganda and in the Diaspora to embark on anti-Museveni campaigns. Given that the theatre was in Uganda, one would have under-estimated the impact of the campaigns. But the campaigns turned out to be successful and played a very big role in watering down the inauguration celebrations.
In Britain and in the United States, though far from Africa, the anti-Museveni campaigns were a success. The demonstrations were well covered by the international media which was already following the Ugandan story; a story that had been forced on the international airwaves by the brutal, uncivilized, and callous behaviour of Museveni’s security operatives; especially the way they brutalized Dr Besigye.
The biggest scoop was however in South Africa. While President Museveni was confident of having South African President Jacob Zuma bless his inauguration, little did he know that there was a strong Ugandan lobby in South Africa which worked tirelessly, day and night, to make sure President Zuma doesn’t attend Museveni’s inauguration.
The FDC Secretariat in Johannesburg approached both President Zuma’s office and the Ministry of International Relation to lobby President Zuma to snub Museveni’s inauguration in tear gas and blood drenched Kampala. Standing side by side, Ugandans from all walks of life decided to organize a demonstration with a petition demanding that President Zuma doesn’t attend the inauguration.
They turned out in big numbers and well accompanied by police and other security organs which, unlike their Ugandan counterparts, did nothing more than clear the route that the demonstrators were scheduled to follow. In an orderly and civilised manner, they descended on State House Pretoria where they were well received. Their petition was handed over and they were exalted to learn, almost immediately, that a decision had been taken for President Zuma to snub the inauguration.
Another factor which contributed to Zuma’s decision to shun the inauguration is the consistent coverage of the Ugandan story since Feb 2011 by South African Media. The FDC and other Ugandan opposition organisations based in South Africa had been active in the South African Media exposing President Museveni’s dictatorship at its very worst.
Top among these media houses was E-News TV, a 24 hour international news channel which covered Uganda since Feb 2011. It even produced and aired special programmes on Uganda. Given that South Africa is a functioning democracy, its media houses inevitably took an anti-dictatorship stance and portrayed Museveni as Africa’s pariah politician.
As a result, there is now a tacit resentment of Museveni among many South Africans, a phenomenon which might have permeated to State House Pretoria. Even here in South Africa, the “icing on the cake” was the return of Dr Besigye on 12th May from Nairobi where he had gone to get medical attention after he was attacked, shot, and injured by Museveni’s security operatives.
The South African media gave Besigye’s return full coverage and only, for good measure, gave a mere cursory mention of Museveni’s inauguration which took place on the same day. The other negative incident [for Museveni] that got good coverage in South Africa was the reported stoning of Nigerian President Jonathan Goodluck’s vehicle as he travelled to Entebbe.
[The president’s spokesperson denied this; Ed]. END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
