Africa's Underdevelopment: A Criminal Enterprise Enabled by Complicit Leadership

Africa's continued underdevelopment is not a mystery - it is a direct result of kleptocratic leadership, entrenched corruption, and systemic human rights abuses. The so-called liberators, once hailed as heroes of anti-colonial struggles, have morphed into mafia-style autocrats. They have hijacked the dreams of liberation, transforming people's movements into authoritarian regimes where power is inherited like royal bloodlines and dissent is met with bullets, jail cells, or forced exile.

Shameless Dependence on Aid Amidst Plunder

It is a damning indictment that, over six decades since the lowering of colonial flags, many African nations still depend on foreign aid to maintain basic services like healthcare and education. This dependency is not due to lack of resources - Africa is rich in minerals, oil, and arable land. Instead, it's because those resources are looted by political elites and their cronies. The Trump-era MAGA administration's blunt aid policies laid bare the fragile dependence of African public systems on external goodwill - exposing the betrayal of African leadership. The result? Millions left to die from treatable illnesses while the ruling classes buy luxury cars, fly private jets, and send their children to schools abroad.

Zimbabwe: A Case Study in Grand-Scale Looting

Zimbabwe stands as a grotesque example of state-sanctioned corruption. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, once touted as a reformer, now openly fraternizes with known corrupt businessmen who monopolize government tenders, delivering substandard or nonexistent services. Billions have vanished in bogus infrastructure projects and "command agriculture" schemes. Investigations and media exposés routinely trace the rot back to the President's Office and his close relatives. Yet the Southern African Development Community (SADC) remains conspicuously silent - its heads buried in the sand as Zimbabwe's economy collapses and its citizens flee starvation, persecution, and hopelessness.

South Africa: Willful Blindness and Collateral Chaos

Even South African institutions have flagged suspicious financial flows tied to Zimbabwean elites. Yet the ANC-led government has chosen cowardice over principle, prioritizing party alliances over regional stability. This deliberate inaction fuels illegal migration and intensifies xenophobic tensions within South Africa - a nation already buckling under the weight of unemployment, inequality, and disillusionment.

SADC: A Protector of Tyranny, Not People

SADC has become an accomplice to the suffering of millions. By dissolving the SADC Tribunal, the region eliminated one of the last legal avenues for justice when member states violate human rights. Now, ordinary citizens have nowhere to turn when faced with state violence, land grabs, unlawful detentions, and election rigging. In Eswatini, protesters demanding democratic reforms are met with live ammunition. In Zimbabwe, journalists and activists are abducted, tortured, or "disappear." Yet SADC offers only empty statements and photo-op summits.

No Development Without Accountability

SADC cannot speak of "regional integration" or "economic development" while shielding dictatorships. Genuine progress requires isolating regimes like those in Zimbabwe and Eswatini - through sanctions, travel bans, and trade suspensions - until they respect the rule of law and human rights. Until then, SADC remains nothing more than a club of tyrants protecting each other while their people suffer.

Author can be contacted at fikile.ntolilo@gmail.com