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Little to celebrate as nations lavishly mark liberty milestones

THERE are celebrations taking place across Africa this year — and they have nothing to do with soccer. In 1960, 17 African countries gained their independence from colonial rule; this year marks the 50th anniversary of these momentous events.

The landmark occasion has been celebrated with parades, parties, football games, dancing, public speeches and publications glorifying the achievements of governments.

Some governments have not stinted on spending. In Senegal, President Abdoulaye Wade, who describes himself as something of an art boffin, spent about $70m on an African renaissance statue to mark the occasion. Some may argue that this is a fitting tribute to the independence struggle and its fruits.

However, the statue was built by North Koreans, who, ironically, have created a thriving business building monuments to mark freedom and independence for African countries. Senegalese craftsmen, who are among the continent’s finest, had a minor role in the project.

And the statue did not come cheap. Yet Senegal remains a poor country 50 years after independence and the statue towers over extreme poverty in Dakar.

In Nigeria, which celebrates 50 years of independence in October, President Goodluck Jonathan has earmarked about $66m for projects to mark the occasion — a dramatic increase from the $400 000 suggested by his predecessor, the late Umaru Yar’Adua. The list of Nigerian anniversary projects seems uninspiring and designed more to line the pockets of suppliers than make a nation proud.

The extravagance is not lost on a population struggling with virtually no power supply, rampant poverty and a depressed economy. In Cameroon, President Paul Biya, in power for 28 years, spoke at length about democracy and good governance in the presence of presidential guests from other African countries, not one of whom was democratically elected.

In Madagascar, citizens raised flags on independence day but had little to celebrate with their economy struggling and their nation diplomatically isolated since its unelected president, Andry Rajoelina, swept to power last year in an uprising that removed his elected predecessor.

Other countries marking 50 years of independence include the failed state of Somalia; the resource-rich but governance-poor nations of Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and Mauritania; and others that have experienced limited democracy or development, such as Togo, Gabon, Benin, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon.

The desire to celebrate 50 years of independence is understandable, but the occasion does raise the issue of what these countries have achieved in that time. In Africa, the vision of 1960 remains, in most cases, a vision.

The success rate in building politically and economically sustainable entities has been patchy. And many of the problems African countries are experiencing today are of their own making. Leaders spend more time trying to find scapegoats for their problems than solving them.

Fifty years after independence, most Africans are dissatisfied with their lot. Poverty is rife, there is little decent infrastructure, public finances are regularly plundered and politics is about acquiring personal power and money rather than governance.

Planning for the future is almost nonexistent, reflected in the fact that countries have preferred to mark their anniversaries with one-off events and monuments rather than with projects to take them into the future.

Africans themselves, instead of benchmarking their performance against global successes, measure their progress against the relatively modest successes of the continent.

It is often said that Africa needs more time; that developed countries had centuries to get to where they are. The success of Asian countries undermines this argument. Trotting out examples of the different growth trajectories of Asian and African countries over the same time frame — Ghana versus Malaysia or Sudan versus South Korea — may have become a cliche but the comparisons remain instructive.

There is no doubt that 50 years of independence should be marked in some way, and even celebrated. But 2010 also needs to be a year of reflection and stocktaking. The future depends on it.

African nations have not used world cup to brand themselves

ON MY first visit to Ghana more than 15 years ago, I was enchanted by the carved wooden people found all over Accra’s markets.  There were roomfuls of brightly painted soldiers, white colonials, bureaucrats, waiters, nurses and myriad other icons of human beings produced by west African craftsmen.

 Over the years, these figurines appeared in SA’s markets, with new models including golfers, jockeys and, yes, soccer players. So it was a surprise to read that the wooden souvenir soccer players licensed by Fifa for sale in SA’s shopping malls over the World Cup tournament had been made to order in Indonesia, with just their team outfits being painted on in SA.

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African success stories show need to think from the ground up

IN 1993, Equity Building Society in Kenya was declared technically insolvent; in 2010 it is a fully fledged bank, listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and claims more than half of Kenya’s banked population as its customers.  In 2006 alone, its customer base grew 82,5% and its deposits grow 80% a year. What is the secret of its success? The innovative and efficient provision of financial services to low- and middle- income groups at a good price.

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Africa has to find a new kind of leadership or face stagnation

A MINISTER in an African country that shall remain nameless was relating his experience of joining the government from the private sector at a dinner at a recent African business conference. He said the need to observe official protocol was one of the biggest challenges of transferring from an environment of informality in business to the public service.

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SA must play by Africa’s business rules

ARE South African companies damaging relationships with other African countries by not playing by the rules? 

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A bridge too far? Corporate social responsibility in Africa

THE Nigerian government is busy with legislation which, if passed, will make it mandatory for companies to pay 3,5% of their gross profit to corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. The proposed Corporate Social Responsibility Bill allows for a great deal of state meddling in companies’ affairs and suggests onerous punishments for noncompliance, including hefty fines. The move has not been well received by business — unsurprisingly.

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Making up for lost time after Zimbabwe’s lost decade

EMMANUEL Munyukwi, CE of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), has had a stressful time during Zimbabwe’s lost decade — keeping interest alive in a stock market increasingly disconnected from the rest of the world. Hyperinflation, peaking far north of the last official rate of 231-million percent, a government driven by political expedience and a currency in freefall were just some of the other headaches Munyukwi, along with the rest of the country’s business sector, had to cope with over the past 10 years.

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Zanu-PF snookers MDC on indigenisation law

It is  not every day I get cajoled to sing happy birthday to President Robert Mugabe.

The old man, guest of honour at an African tourism conference in Harare last week, looked pleased as the praise singers that surrounded him (otherwise known as government officials) cranked out the ‘happy birthday’ tune to mark his 86th birthday, exhorting, with limited success, the delegates to take part.

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Zambia and the gap between rhetoric and reality in Africa

IN 2008, after months of delays, the Zambian government finally gave in to public pressure to capture a greater share of profits from the commodity boom by introducing a windfall tax on minerals, raising mining royalties and hiking corporate taxes.

The measures, which came into effect in the April 2008 national budget, raised the effective tax rate from about 30% to 47%. The move raised a howl of protest from mining companies, which said it violated investment agreements with the government.
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Costly Beitbridge chaos could be solved with right political will

OFFICIAL discussions about how to manage traffic and people through Africa’s busiest border post — Beitbridge — have been going on for at least a decade. And yet, every major holiday begets horror stories about the experience of trying to move through this border crossing. This past Christmas season was no exception. In fact, with the mass flight of Zimbabweans to SA, the situation has become worse.

Delays of several hours for holiday- makers were commonplace. Cars queued for kilometres from the immigration buildings on either side of the border, touts milled through the crowds soliciting bribes, and the sun beat down on the crowds in one of the hottest places in the region.
Continue reading Costly Beitbridge chaos could be solved with right political will