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26/10/2015

Get the whole picture - and other photos from A.P.R.Mavangira

26/10/2015

Saudi Arabia’s cash reserves are in free-fall and the country could have only five years of financial assets remaining due in large part to the fall in oil prices, according to a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

26/10/2015

Saudi Arabia may run out of financial assets needed to support spending within five years if the government maintains current policies, the International Monetary Fund said, underscoring the need of measures to shore up public finances amid the drop in oil prices.

26/10/2015

The Middle East’s biggest economy, Saudi Arabia may run out of financial assets within the next five years if the government maintains its current policies, warns the International Monetary Fund.

21/10/2015

Shared with permission from Sovereign Man and written by Simon Black... When I was a kid growing up in the early 80s, the…

16/10/2015

Huge sums are flowing out of Africa through illicit means, robbing the continent of capital sorely needed for development

12/09/2015

10/09/2015

Why Steve Biko's Black Consciousness is gaining ground in SA

Black youth seek an antidote to their reality wherein blackness continues to be mocked and marginalised.

Foundation essay: Our foundation essays are longer than usual and take a wider look at key issues affecting society.
Peter Gabriel’s song characterising the influence of Steve Biko is as apt today as it was in the 1980s:
You can blow out a candle but you can’t blow out a fire. Once the flames begin to catch the wind will blow it higher.
The 38th anniversary of Biko’s death this month comes in the wake of high-pitched invocation in South Africa of the Black Consciousness philosophy he espoused.
Interestingly, the philosophy appears to have gained traction largely among the country’s black youth born after the end of apartheid in 1994. The appeal of Black Consciousness among the so-called “born-frees” is reminiscent of the way it influenced the generation that took part in the liberation struggle.
Is this a coincidence of history or a confluence of historical verities? Black Consciousness is a transcendence that connects generations, which in Frantz Fanon’s watchwords in The Wretched of the Earth:
Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it.
Born-frees and struggle generation
Political scientist Robert Mattes describes South Africa’s freedom struggle generation as that which, through the Soweto uprisings, brought to “an abrupt end in 1976, white confidence and African quiescence”. This is the generation of those who turned 16 between 1976 and 1996. It experienced the wrath of apartheid.
The first inclusive vote in 1994 marked the end of, according to Mattes, “a long trauma of protest, struggle and violence”.
As Mattes further explains, the born-frees refer to those who, starting in 1997:
… move through the ages of 16, 17 and 18 and enter the political arena with little if any first-hand experience of the trauma that came before.
Some characterise born-frees as who were born in 1994 and voted for the first time in the 2014 general elections. This discussion subscribes to the latter characterisation.
The born-frees are not a homogenous generation. There are who that are at the universities. Others, because of their socioeconomic circumstances, loiter in the streets.
The political generation’s theorists are unanimous in their assertions that the born-frees are different from the struggle generation in many ways. As Mattes explains, the born frees are “more modern, with higher levels of education”, urbanised and “cosmopolitan in their outlook” than the struggle generation.
A significant part of the struggle generation’s activism was inspired by Biko’s Black Consciousness philosophy from the late 1960s. The philosophy spawned radicalism characterised by confrontation with the apartheid machinery. The epochal June 16, 1976 students uprisings are a case in point. The students' revolt breathed new life into the moribund struggle for liberation.
But why are the born frees increasingly attracted to Biko’s Black Consciousness philosophy in post-apartheid South Africa? Why are they being radicalised when they should be enjoying the fruits of democracy brought by the struggles of the previous generations?
Long-lasting legacy of influence
To understand the reason for the growing attraction to Biko’s views and their continued relevance, we should ask: did black people attain, in Biko’s words, their “envisioned self which is a free self” in 1994 and “rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude”?
The born frees increasingly think not — especially those in the lowest strata of society, unable to afford a tertiary education, facing a bleak future and feeling alienated.
They question the very concept of freedom and being born free as an oxymoron. These concepts have failed to instil a sense of pride in their blackness. Officialdom’s response is to spew statistics that seemingly prove performance by the state, largely in dispensing the largesse.
In many ways this trivialises the complexity of the post-apartheid society, following many years of apartheid colonialism. Various instances of making blacks feel inferior challenge the state performance narrative as, in the words of critical theorist Donaldo Macedo, “the pedagogy of big lies”.
Theologian Ndikho Mtshiselwa argues that the fundamentals of the apartheid colonial social order are still in place, with the democratic regime unwittingly administering them, instead of changing or providing leadership in their destruction.
This is the irony of South Africa’s transition from apartheid colonialism, which gave the colonial matrices of power the space to, in decoloniality scholar Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s words:
… continue to exist in the minds, lives, language, dreams, imaginations and epistemologies of modern subjects.
As long as this situation exists, Biko’s philosophy of black pride continues to be relevant. As Biko said:
It seeks to infuse the black community with a new-found pride in themselves, their efforts, their value systems, their culture, their religion and their outlook to life.
Two decades into South Africa’s democracy, the rise of largely born-free movements such as and Open Stellenbosch, which transcend party-political affiliations, expose the limitations of the transitional arrangements from which the post-apartheid state was constructed.
In ways reminiscent of Biko’s Black Consciousness movement, these challenge the colonial matrices of power which eluded the making of the post-apartheid state. The matrices foster institutional racism based on Hegelianism — a body of thought that characterises the cognitive faculty of Africans as, in Senegalese philosopher Souleymane Diagne’s words in The Meaning of Timbuktu, the “other reason and philosophical spirit” is bereft of the “capacity to think and live by a consistent system of sound principles”.
This is what students at the universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch are fighting against. Their struggle seeks to restore and assert black pride — the essence of Biko’s philosophy of Black Consciousness.
The same spirit exists at the University of the Witwatersrand, where Western epistemology is increasingly being challenged in the debate on curricula transformation.
The born-frees are grappling with the question of the meaning of freedom in post-apartheid South Africa. They seek an antidote to their reality wherein blackness continues to be mocked and marginalised.
Their reality is one in which language policy is overtly used to limit the number of black students at historically white universities. They also have to contend with situations whereby white students enjoy privileged status under the guise of dual language instruction to perpetuate the falsehood of separate but equal.
This much is evident in the accounts of 32 students at the University of Stellenbosch in the online documentary .“Luister” is Afrikaans for listen.
The struggles of the born-frees beg the questions:
Hasn’t the struggle generation betrayed its children with the architecture of the post-apartheid state?
Did it err when it focused more on political transformation to the detriment of social and economic dimensions?
Hasn’t the “Rainbow Nation” invention unwittingly normalised coloniality?
The cries of black students expose a failure to adequately situate the theoretical and strategic policy orientations of the post-apartheid transformation agenda in Biko’s Black Consciousness philosophy. As long as black pride is not attained in post-apartheid South Africa, Biko’s philosophy remains relevant. Its transcendence continues to connect generations.
Maserumule is professor of Public Affairs at Tshwane University of Technology
This article first appeared on The Conversation.

08/09/2015

07/09/2015

Secrets and intrigues of Dangote's trip to Zimbabwe — worth more than its GDP, he came away with big deals

Africa's richest man is said to be looking beyond Robert Mugabe, whom a senior minister admitted could 'go soon one way or another'.

AFRICA’S richest man, Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote, whose net worth was US$17.5 billion as of yesterday, according to Forbes magazine, is looking well beyond President Robert Mugabe’s rule as he moves to invest billions in cement, power and coal projects at a time most investors are sitting on the fence jittery due to Zimbabwe’s hostile business environment.

This comes as it has also emerged Dangote — who is worth more than Zimbabwe’s annual Gross Domestic Product which stands at about US$13.66 billion and about five times its annual budget — has arm-twisted government for exemption from its controversial indigenisation laws spooking investors to secure full ownership of his investments.

Dangote on Monday met Mugabe and his ministers to get the go-ahead and assurances of security of his investments in a country notorious for trampling on the rule of law and property rights.

While investors fear Zimbabwe’s political risk — rooted in the interface between politics and business — and toxic policies, ministers said in private briefings the Nigerian business magnate was coming to Zimbabwe as he was now looking far beyond Mugabe, 91, widely seen as on the sunset of his long political career as the country sits on the cusp of a new dispensation.

“Dangote is taking a long term view on Zimbabwe,” a senior government minister who met the Nigerian mogul told the Zimbabwe Independent this week.

“He knows the president (Mugabe), given the perception he is part of the problem, is going to go soon one way or another. He has informed advisors and uses risk assessment firms to analyse the environment and make decisions.”

“We’ve already decided to invest into Zimbabwe, that’s why we are here. Any country where you see us visiting it means, yes, we’ve decided to invest,” Dangote was reported as saying while in the country.

How he got a breakthrough
The Independent has been monitoring Dangote’s behind-the-scenes manoeuvres since July and has information showing how he managed to get a breakthrough.

Dangote’s trip was facilitated by a Nigeria-based Zimbabwean and television personality, Josey Mahachi and her husband Olusegun Babajide Agbeniyi (a television producer).

Mahachi and Agbeniyi — who wedded in 2013 in Harare — have been in the country since July and managed to convince Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who they engaged privately, to lobby Mugabe to allow Dangote to invest on his terms.

In an interview, Mahachi, who is the face of Dstv talkshow programme Click Africa, said she was facilitating the investment for the love of her country. “You meet people with the potential to invest and because of the love of one’s country one is pushed to sell the investment idea to them. We are happy because something concrete is coming out of our efforts to turn around our economy,” she said adding: “I will be relocating to Zimbabwe to make sure such an investment is protected and handled properly.”

When it comes to investors seeking to navigate turbulent emerging markets and unstable countries like Zimbabwe, their main fears resolve around unexpected and arbitrary changes in government policies detrimental to their investments.

Another minister said: “Investors like Dangote know how to deal with such unstable environments like ours. Even if we have problems, Nigeria is worse from a political risk perspective. I mean there is literally a civil war going on there, with Boko Haram wreaking havoc but then there is oil and investors still go there.

First mover advantage
“So Dangote knows there are resources in Zimbabwe and the president (Mugabe) will go, so he is positioning himself. He is an investor with foresight as he wants a head start. Mind you a lot of investors have been coming here to assess the situation; from the United States, Britain, France, Denmark, China, Russia and many other countries. Dangote came to invest here so that he has a first mover advantage. In business that’s very important, not always politics and these succession stories you hear all the time.”

A leading research institute, Oxford Economics risk assessment firm, NKC African Economic, recently added Zimbabwe to its potential conflict zones or flashpoints watch list as the country’s economic situation fast deteriorates, citing Mugabe’s raging succession power struggles as a destabilising factor.

Officials say Dangote had to meet Mugabe and his relevant ministers because most aspects of the government-related policy and procedures are risks beyond his control, for example, granting of mining concessions, licences and permits, taxation, and various contracts to be signed with the government.

“Dangote is mainly concerned with risks related to uncertainties in the government policy and regulation, hence he needed to meet the president, but he is looking beyond the current situation,” one official said.

Even though some senior ruling Zanu PF officials want Mugabe to run for re-election in 2018 until 2023, insiders say he might soon bow out due to health problems or political pressure associated with the current economic meltdown. Mugabe is however known for his stubborn resistance to pressure, although he cannot defy health complications, dotage and frailty.

Cannot tell exactly when
Government ministers this week said Dangote and his advisors believe this is the most opportune time to enter the Zimbabwe market because the country is moving towards the end of Mugabe’s rule even if they cannot say exactly when that will be.

This reality though is now openly acknowledged in government as Mnangagwa and First Lady Grace Mugabe recently spoke about the situation in Zimbabwe in future-sounding terms looking beyond Mugabe.

Although Zimbabwe has signed investment agreements with Russia and China in recent months after long negotiations, Dangote came to Harare and decided to invest.

Sources that were in the closed door meetings between Mugabe and Dangote said the Nigerian industrialist would be exempted from the controversial indigenisation policy which require foreign investors to surrender at least 51% to locals and remain with 49% or less.

“Mugabe told Dangote of the various investment opportunities in Zimbabwe, in agriculture and the mining sectors especially,” a source said. “He then assured him that his investments will be protected as the indigenisation policy will be waived for him.

Dangote assured the president that on Monday next week his team which comprises geologists, engineers, lawyers and the chief strategist will be in the country to do feasibility studies as well as paperwork.

“He also said one of his intentions is to construct a plant which will employ close to 1,000 people producing 1.5 million tonnes of cement per year.”

Although China and Russia have signed multi-billion dollar investment deals with Zimbabwe, they have been treading cautiously as they fear their investments could sink in this unstable environment.

Last year in August Chinese leaders told Mugabe in Beijing he needed to resolve his succession problems and ensure leadership renewal, as well as embrace serious reforms to get game-changing investment. The same message was communicated to Mnangagwa when he visited China in July.

—First published in The Zimbabwe Independent