Meet Zuma’s new friend: He’s worse than Mugabe

Hmm, it is comforting to know our next prez pallies with dictators just like Mbeki. A good start for Zuma - taking off where Mbeki left off - except this guy, Nguema, makes Mad Bob look like a Sunday school teacher. No doubt Zuma is tapping him for a 'donation'.

While his party was descending into anarchy this weekend, ANC president Jacob Zuma was visiting Equatorial Guinea with the SACP’s Blade Nzimande and Cosatu’s Zwelinzima Vavi. Yes, he did watch Bafana play that country’s awful football team and beat them, he even remarked that Bafana might keep the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

But what was he doing in the notoriously corrupt domain of Teodoro Obiang Nguema? He’s not a head of state, so it couldn’t have been government business.

Maybe he decided that Mbeki had his Mugabe and Zuma will have his Nguema.

For Nguema is the one African statesman who can outrank Mugabe in the dictatorship stakes.

For one thing, he ascended to power in 1979, one year before Mugabe took office. For another, he did it like a real dictator should - via a coup. And when he was in power, what did he do with the former ruling class? That’s right, he executed them. Sends a strong message about how you feel about democracy, no?

Since then he has consolidated his power by stealing elections. No-one, not even a South African government sponsored observer with a political mandate would find the Equatorial Guinea elections free and fair.

Writing in Slate, Peter Maass put it like this:

But Mugabe may not be Africa’s worst. That prize arguably goes to Teodoro Obiang, the ruler of Equatorial Guinea whose life seems a parody of the dictator genre. Years of violent apprenticeship in a genocidal regime led by a crazy uncle? Check. Power grab in a coup against the murderous uncle? Check. Execution of now-deposed uncle by firing squad? Check. Proclamation of self as “the liberator” of the nation? Check. Govern for decades in a way that prompts human rights groups to accuse your regime of murder, torture, and corruption? Check, check, and check.

One thing is for sure. Nguema has a lot of US dollars in oil revenue to throw around. He is reckoned to be worth US$600 billion - three times King Mswati’s measly US$200 m.

There’s the controversial US account which holds hundreds of millions of dollars. You see, there was corruption in Equatorial Guinea. To protect the state coffers, Nguema decided to move the entire country’s treasury into his personal bank account where it would be safe. The Los Angeles Times exposed the goings on:

Multiple sources, including another Guinean government official, have since told the Los Angeles Times about the Riggs account. Several sources familiar with the account said it was controlled exclusively by Obiang and its balance has ranged from $300 million to $500 million during the last two years.

Well at least the money was safe and sound, ready to be called on to finance good works.