Z Mkhize: African Renaissance Conference

23 May 2007

Premier Ndebele
Members of the Provincial Government
Director-General, Heads of Departments
Mayors
Counsellors
The Leader of the delegation from the African Diaspora, Reverend James
Orange
The American delegation
Delegates from different parts of South Africa and the African Continent
Ladies and gentlemen

I have been asked to do the summation in relation to the brilliant inputs
and presentation on aspects of the economic development as it affects the
African continent. Outstanding work has been done by the presenters, Messrs
Sandile Zungu from South Africa, Meringo from Kenya and Dr Dilly Naidoo
representing the provincial government. The question we must all ask is, why
African Renaissance? It is a fact that as Africans we need to confront and
respond to the wave of Afropessimism that is prevalent in the public media
generated for the sole purpose of polluting our minds, emanating from those
quarters which will have us believe that the African continent is doomed to
failure and therefore will continue stumbling from disaster to disaster and
rolling ceaselessly to a future of self-destruction with no prospects of rescue
in sight. Everybody else has had something to say about Africa.

This is the time for Africans to speak out confidently and say something
about themselves and our African continent. A Ghanaian author Osei G Kofi in
his book entitled, 'Hello Africa - tell me how are you doing?' has this to say
about this subject, "The period of 1995-2000 was the most relentless open
season on Africa. As the old millennium drew to a close and the pundits
discussed the portents of each of the world's regions, Africa attracted
exceptional soothsaying. It 'will be one big frustrated continent of
demagogues, drug lords, displaced and dying people,' according to Time
magazine. 'Death of a continent, sick people, sick economies - Africa will
never be the same,' another American paper said, 'A bloody continent, racked by
war and disastrous leadership,' The Sunday Times chipped in. 'Since the end of
colonial era not one of the former colonies can be actively said to be a better
place to live,' The Evening Standard, quoted in West Africa said. 'No matter
how bad things are in Africa, they can get worse,' Financial Times Weekend,
added, 'Africa, a continent selfdestructs,' a new 'authoritative' book on
Africa chose for its title."

Kofi continued to observe, "What generates such angst about Africa? Why all
the bleakness? Are there many people out there who sleep better when things go
wrong in Africa? Take post apartheid South Africa. It has plenty of poverty,
yes and violence too, but few other countries in the world offer a comparable
standard of living for its active population and the potential for growth and
prosperity in the 'rainbow nation' should make any savvy investor salivate. And
yet, South Africa has been the target of unrelenting doommongering ever since
Nelson Mandela came out of prison. 'It borders on the sinister, as if lurking
under the concern by some non-Africans is a pathological craving to denigrate,
to delight in others' weakness.' Why is a continent that contributes least to
global warming, pumps least toxins into the atmosphere and manifests the lowest
rates of mental illness, paedophilia and incest and has zero stockpiles of
nuclear waste, so damned?" It is our vision for a better Africa and our
positive attitude to ourselves as the people of Africa that will save this
continent. Only when we embrace each other, working together and combine all
our intellectual and physical energies into a focused endeavour to build our
continent, shall we succeed.

Addressing this conference a little earlier, Reverend James Orange said, "We
should not turn on each other, but turn to each other, then only we shall
succeed." As South Africans, the vision we have for our country is that of a
united, democratic, non-sexist, non-racial and prosperous South Africa. We are
working hard to achieve this vision and we have the same aspirations for our
continent. South Africa will succeed only if the whole of Africa prospers. The
economic challenges we face are largely the same as other parts of the
continent and may differ only in degrees of comparison. The presentations in
this session by Messrs Zungu and others have clearly indicated the dichotomy in
the economy of Africa. Africa is amongst the poorest countries in the world
with more than 40% of the population living under less than one US dollar per
day. Poverty, underdevelopment, high illiteracy defines the continent in which
the disease burden is very high as people die of preventable diseases such as
tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria and untreated high blood pressure and many others
that the developed nations of the world have conquered.

On the other hand, Africa is potentially one of the richest regions on the
globe, holding the largest of the world reserves of precious minerals such as
gold, diamond, platinum, manganese, vanadium, copper, aluminium and many more.
The oil and gas reserves are going to be the reason for another scramble to
Africa, while the agricultural potential is not only adequate to ensure that no
African child sleeps on an empty stomach but can feed the entire globe. It is
now clear to all that the reason Africa is so poor is that the continent is a
net exporter of raw material. No beneficiation is done and everything is sold
on terms that Africa has not negotiated to the advantage of her inhabitants.
Yet Africa is an avid consumer of unaffordable, expensive finished products
from everywhere else in the world, developed and manufactured largely from raw
materials that Africa exported at ridiculously cheap prices.

One of the major challenges Africa faces is that the availability of basic,
artisan and professional skills is lowest and yet the continent is a net
exporter of skills that we need top develop the economy of the African
continent. The migration of skills further impoverishes the continent while it
benefits economies that have more than adequate resources to develop their own
skills and remunerates such skilled personnel at levels that no country in the
Africa can compete with. One of the defining features of the globalised economy
is the high rate at which it gobbles up intellectual capital, leaving the poor
nations poorer. To address this plight, Africa has to embark on a robust
educational drive to eliminate illiteracy and massive skills development
programme with contributions from both government and the private sector.
Without education, a poor individual or community has little chance of escaping
grinding poverty in any part of the continent.

Africa needs massive injection of foreign direct investments to deliver
capital and the necessary technology as well as connect with the world markets.
The focus of such investment must be the reduction of importation of what goods
each country can produce and the beneficiation of the available raw material
for the benefit of the global users, maximising the exportation of finished
products. We must dismantle the old patterns of trade developed to serve
colonisation, where each colony served its erstwhile colonial masters, with
little trade between African states. Today still, many countries have their
aircraft and communication lines routed via one or other European capital
located thousands of miles across the sea with no direct connection between
neighbours who share boundaries and are separated by a few hundred miles. It is
interesting how even in South Africa, there is virtually no trade between
villages, all roads lead to the city centre and consequently impoverish
villages in which no money circulates.

The strengthening of intra-African trade collaboration and the integration
of the African economy is what New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad)
has encouraged. This integration is what Africa needs to generate the economies
of scale necessary for Africa to survive and match the economic performance of
the major economies such as the European Union, the United States, China, India
etc. This integration is the only hope for Africa's economy. Development of
indigenous entrepreneurship is paramount. Foreign Direct Investment must be
guided to ensure local partnership to ensure the participation of African
people in the development of their economy. Significant participation at
ownership, managerial and technical levels ensures transfer of expertise.
Similarly, the development of the small businesses sector (small, micro and
medium enterprises as well as co-operatives) will ensure the participation of
large masses of the population.

In South Africa, we have a concept of Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment
to address the plight of the majority of the population who were systematically
sidelined by years of discrimination. As the presentation on Kenya indicated,
the co-operatives have ensured that most land and means of production have been
placed in the hands of the masses. In many countries, the small business sector
is the largest employer. It makes sense therefore that this strategy should be
vigorously pursued in Africa as one of the responses to poverty and
underdevelopment. Certainly, the province of KwaZulu-Natal intends to model our
co-operative movement to such examples from Kenya and other successful models
in the continent and other developing countries such as India. To achieve the
above, we must ensure that there is integration of the first economy and the
informal economy in an effort to take advantages of the benefits of
globalisation and obviate the negative impact of a globalised economy.

South Africa has defined itself as a developmental state to emphasise the
importance and centrality of planning, delivery of infrastructure and ensuring
that the state has the desired strategic capacity to lead development and
create the necessary climate for sustainable economic growth that will reverse
the rising tide of poverty and generate employment for masses of our people.
Africa has, as a continent, become aware of the central role the state must
play in ensuring good governance, the fight against corruption, protection of
environment, defending democracy and maintenance of peace as a condition for
sustainable economic development to be achieved. Osei G Kofi remarked about
these developments as follows:

* "Africans are learning to re-govern themselves, taking hard decisions,
making too many costly mistakes and omissions, yes, but are slaying the dragons
all the same, reshape imported political, economic and cultural baggage into
progressive legacies.
* "The gains in the political and economic learning curves are substantial
already. The pace to enlightened leadership has been rapid indeed, daren't we
admit! Everywhere, the old suffocating or repressive status quo is being
overthrown and thankfully.
* "Two decades ago not more than three African Presidents had been
democratically elected. By 2005 more than 30 got power through the ballot
box-no matter how flawed many of the elections were. Forty years ago, 95 per
cent of African leaders were gods. By 1985, 60% were gods or dictators. By 2002
about 20 per cent were struggling to be dictators and failing."

This realisation, ladies and gentlemen, makes the assertion reiterated by
the Premier in his opening address, that "This is the African century" to have
meaning because it is backed by words and action of the African leaders and the
peoples of Africa. May I in closing, leave you with the words of a Ugandan
poet,
Chief Nangoli:

No more lies about Africa
Once upon a time in Africa
We paid no taxes
There was no crime
There was no police
There was no inflation
There was no unemployment
There was no AIDS
There was no poverty
There was no famine
There was no corruption
There was no debt crisis
There was no prostitution
Men did not beat or divorce their wives
Then the white man came to improve things.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Finance and Economic Development, KwaZulu-Natal
Provincial Government
23 May 2007
Source: KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government, (http://www.kwazulunatal.gov.za)