This year’s G20, led by Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, should be commended for prioritising African development. 
The G20 Africa Partnership conference this week in Berlin marked a significant moment to focus on what both African and G20 governments can do to address economic and political challenges in one of the world’s most vibrant continents ready to overcome its challenges along with its partners who have often promised prosperity. 
Having shown their serious intent at the lectern and on panels, the G20 and African leaders must now move beyond speeches and pledges and take concrete, demonstrable steps to help the African continent harness its full potential. 
France, Germany, Italy and the UK have &#8211; as key European G20 members &#8211; the opportunity to do just that in the coming days as the EU moves to finalise its Anti-Money Laundering Directive. 
These countries could demonstrate a real commitment to help curb corruption in African and other countries (not to mention their own) by ensuring that the beneficial owners of companies, trusts and similar legal mechanisms are made publicly available. Nigeria is already leading by example with our current efforts at ensuring that there is no hiding place for corrupt individuals and corporations. 
This common sense measure would ensure that legal and tax authorities in Nigeria and elsewhere have rapid and easy access to this information &#8211; bypassing the myriad, complex and bureaucratic information-sharing agreements that currently impede investigations. 
Putting this information in the public realm would also ensure that African journalists, civil society organisations and ordinary citizens can analyse this information, helping to identify corruption and establishing trust in a global system that many currently feel is rigged against them. 
The Anti-Money Laundering Directive would also be a deterrent, forcing the would-be criminal and corrupt to think twice before engaging in illicit activity. 
Curbing corruption and illicit deals would help African governments secure much-needed revenues. According to a High-Level Panel led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, Africa is estimated to be losing more than $50 billion each year in illicit financial flows. My country has worked for years to recover billions of dollars of assets stolen, much of it secreted away to Europe. 
Anonymous shell companies and trusts, the 21st century’s ‘getaway cars for the corrupt’, have often facilitated these illicit flows and stolen assets. That money could help finance infrastructure and social programs in Nigeria and other African countries. 
That is more important now than ever. Africa is home to all ten countries with the highest fertility rates in the world and this population boom will further strain governments already struggling to meet the needs of their people. 
An estimated 22.5 million jobs per year will need to be created to meet the demand of this African youth explosion, a demographic with the same energy, dynamism and ambitions as their peers in developed nations. 
But our efforts to create sustainable economic growth are undermined by corruption facilitated by the legal and financial systems of G20 countries. 
If the Governments fail in this endeavour to provide for their youth, the likely political instability and massive population displacements could dwarf the refugee crisis currently impacting Europe. 
So if European countries sincerely want to help Africa succeed, they must help African governments curb corruption. They can show their commitment to a true partnership with Africa by delivering game-changing EU anti-money laundering regulations that prevent the criminal and corrupt from hiding behind anonymity and stealing Africa’s future from its people. Because failure to do so could undermine all their other efforts to help Africa prosper.

Op-ed: Nigeria’s Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to G20: It’s time to move beyond pledges to back Africa’s future

For 24 hours rumours swirled through Zambia that President Edgar Lungu <a href="https://www.zambiawatchdog.com/lungu-likely-to-sign-state-of-emergency-tonight/">planned to initiate a state of emergency</a>. When he finally took to the airwaves to <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2017-07-05-zambia">make a special announcement</a> he did something different. Invoking <a href="https://www.lusakatimes.com/2017/07/05/article-31-declaration-relating-threatened-emergency/">Article 31</a> of the <a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/26620/90492/F735047973/ZMB26620.pdf">constitution</a> – Declaration Relating to Threatened Emergency – rather than Article 30 – Declaration of Public Emergency – the president requested extra powers to prevent a state of emergency rather than actually declaring one.
In practice, the difference between the two is slim. If, as expected, parliament approves his request he will have been given considerably more powers. He will be able to restrict movement of assembly, implement a curfew, curtail parliament, ban publications, order detention without trial, and search any property without a search warrant. As respected Zambian commentator Sishuwa Sishuwa has put it, this is effectively a “State of Threatened Emergency”.
The president’s decision to go with Article 31 is significant for a number of reasons. The first is that it allows the Zambian government to ward off criticism by being able to argue that it has not <a href="https://www.lusakatimes.com/2017/07/06/president-lungu-not-declared-state-emergency/">declared a state of emergency</a>. This is important because the Patriotic Front regime is in the process of negotiating a much needed <a href="https://www.lusakatimes.com/2017/05/02/imf-bail-will-not-bring-untold-misery-zambia-mutati/">economic bail out with the International Monetary Fund</a>.
Presenting its authoritarian backsliding in a more palatable way is therefore extremely valuable. By opting for Article 31, Lungu hopes to have his cake and eat it. He will have secured powers to consolidate his political control while generating “plausible deniability” to whether or not he has fatally undermined Zambian democracy.
To some extent this strategy has been successful. Initial Facebook and twitter <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nic.cheeseman/posts/1301668219959781?pnref=story">conversations</a> about how the measure could be reversed quickly gave way to confusion and arguments about what the president had actually declared, and what it meant.
<h2>Why did Lungu do it?</h2>
The official reason behind the president’s request for extra powers is a spate of civil disobedience and arson that has seen a number of markets burnt down. The immediate trigger was a fire that destroyed the country’s largest, the <a href="http://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00053416.html">City Market in Lusaka</a>.
But the president’s claim to simply be acting in the interests of law and order has been fiercely contested by critics. Instead, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-zambia-politics-idUSKBN17Q0W8">opposition leaders allege</a> that the government has been either taking advantage of natural fires or deliberately starting them to justify the extension of authoritarian control.
This claim is lent credibility by the fact that the investigation of the City Market fire had only just begun when the decision to expand the president’s powers was taken. Rumours circulating in Zambia suggest that in fact it resulted from an <a href="http://zambia24.com/news/2017/07/04/city-market-fire-resulted-from-an-electrical-fault-onlookers/">electrical fault rather than sabotage</a>.
If this is true, it raises the question of what lies behind Lungu’s increasingly aggressive strategy. Three overlapping explanations are circulating, all of which have a degree of plausibility.
The first is that it’s simply another way of intimidating the opposition. In addition to <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-talk-about-zambia-as-it-falls-from-grace-under-president-lungu-77520">arresting United Party for National Development leader Hakainde Hichilema</a>, popularly known as HH, the government has tried various ways to clamp down on opposition to its rule. This has included the <a href="https://theconversation.com/zambia-slides-towards-authoritarianism-as-imf-props-up-government-79533">suspension of 48 opposition MPs</a>. And fears that Hichilema might be acquitted by the High Court, and subsequently released, are said to explain the timing of the president’s statement.
The second is that the president faces serious challenges within the Patriotic Front, where some question his suitability to lead. In addition to rumours that he is in <a href="http://www.zambianobserver.com/edgar-lungu-gets-more-sick-stops-talking/">bad health</a>, this makes him potentially more <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2017-07-05-zambia">vulnerable to internal opposition</a> than to the challenge of the main opposition party. On this interpretation, Lungu’s appropriation of extra powers is designed as a warning to his rivals within the party to back off.
Finally, some see his decision as being motivated by his desire to secure a <a href="http://democracyinafrica.org/zambia-president-lungu-third-term/">third term in office</a> when his current term ends in 2021. The legality of this is questionable, and the move is fiercely opposed by opposition parties.
On their own, none of these claims fully explains why Lungu has opted for such a controversial move when IMF negotiations are at a delicate stage. In reality it may be that the president’s actions are explained by some combination of all three – or indeed, an alternative explanation that has not yet come to light.
<h2>What happens next?</h2>
There’s <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2017-07-05-zambia%20%22%22">confusion</a> about exactly where Lungu intends to go from here. In a presidential address in the last hour his stance appeared to harden, rejecting international criticism and <a href="https://www.themastonline.com/2017/07/06/imf-can-go-lungu/">stating that:</a> “If they [IMF] think I am going astray, let them go.”
According to <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2017-07-05-zambia">Nicole Beardsworth</a>, a senior researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Lungu’s declaration will give him <a href="http://www.parliament.gov.zm/sites/default/files/documents/acts/Preservation%20of%20Public%20Security%20Act.pdf">additional powers</a>. Moreover, if his statutory instrument is approved by Parliament, it can be extended for a period of months.
This would seem to give the president all the time and powers he would need to further cow internal and external opposition, although it’s still possible that he will seek to apply a full state of emergency.
What may prevent this from happening is concern within the cabinet that such a move would be unnecessary and counterproductive. Not all leaders of the Patriotic Front agree with the direction that Lungu is taking his country in. Push back in a cabinet meeting is said to have prevented an even more forceful declaration.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/80628/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />Given the president’s new found capacity to control the media and intimidate the opposition, these internal constraints may prove to be Zambia’s best hope of avoiding dictatorship.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/nic-cheeseman-180800">Nic Cheeseman</a>, Professor of Democracy, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-birmingham-1138">University of Birmingham</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/lungu-tries-to-have-his-cake-and-eat-it-a-state-of-emergency-in-all-but-name-80628">original article</a>.

Zambia: A democracy thrown over the edge

International and national laws broadly recognise equal rights for all. These include the right to <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CCPR.aspx">fair and equitable</a> access to justice.
But justice for women and girls before the courts remains elusive in many African countries. This is partly because they face unique hurdles that disadvantage them from start. These include the fact that court hearings are lengthy and legal services extremely expensive. Hearings <a href="http://www.hiil.org/publication/uganda_report">can last decades</a>. The use of English and French can be intimidating and alienating given the high levels of illiteracy among girls and women.
Not all the disadvantages are necessarily unique to women and girls. But the structural conditions and cultural inequalities are loaded against them in most African societies. Court proceedings are rarely sensitive to the deep-seated <a href="http://fic.tufts.edu/publication-item/making-gender-just-remedy-and-reparation-possible/">social inequalities</a> tilted against women and girls. These include gender, ethnicity, class, culture, language, and location.
This can be seen in the case of sexual abuse cases in particular. Courts often impose very high thresholds for evidence. For example, litigants are asked to produce official documents such as medical forms, land or property titles to support or justify their claims. Yet often women and girls can’t get these documents because of <a href="http://fic.tufts.edu/publication-item/making-gender-just-remedy-and-reparation-possible/">cultural practices</a> that make owning property such as land and housing nearly impossible for them.
Women also often can’t act as surety or apply for bail for their loved ones because they don’t have a passport, national identification or proof of address.
There are other hurdles that victims of sexual abuse have to overcome. These include the fact that they are required to provide primary evidence of the abuse <a href="http://www.acordinternational.org/silo/files/uganda-an-audit-of-legal-practice-on-sexual-violence.pdf">backed</a> by a police doctor’s medical report. In reality, many victims are unable to report the abuse in good time. Police doctors are also inaccessible to the majority of victims and come with some hidden cost.
And once in court, they are subjected to painful, degrading and humiliating processes of cross examination and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2010/04/uganda-victims-rape-and-sexual-violence-denied-justice/">re-victimisation</a> due to a lack of protection.
Judicial decisions should move beyond a narrow and exclusive focus on the cases before the courts. This entails focusing on social, economic and cultural rights of women and girls.
<h2>Some lessons learnt</h2>
There are ways in which judicial processes could go beyond an exclusive focus on punishment. A landmark high court ruling in Uganda which recently won <a href="http://www.womenslinkworldwide.org/en/awards/cases/missing-baby">international recognition</a> is a case in point. While the judge provided specific remedy to a couple that had their newborn stolen in hospital, it also upheld the state’s obligations under the right to health in ways that increases access to disadvantaged women.
Justice Lydia Mugambe’s ruling could go a long way in securing better health rights for women and girls in Uganda. It also points the way to transforming systems and structures of injustices and inequalities that shapes women and girls’ vulnerabilities in the first place.
The case also highlights the importance of civil society organisations acting as intermediaries between the court and victim. These organisations can provide relevant information and ensure proper procedures in handling cases.
Another area that could be improved is improving the court experience for women and girls. The process is as important as the outcome. How victims are treated through a court process can empower or disempower them. There should be accompanying efforts to engage and empower victims as citizens with full rights. This is particularly important where experience of violations strip women and girls of their dignity and sense of self-worth.
If not, court decisions could further entrench women and girls’ vulnerabilities, especially when required evidential proofs are erroneous. A case in point is the Kenya court ruling on sexual abuse which earned the dubious distinction of the <a href="http://www.womenslinkworldwide.org/en/awards/cases/she-wanted-it">worst judicial ruling</a> against women in 2016.
The Kenyan court <a href="http://kenyalaw.org/caselaw/cases/view/121219/">acquitted</a> a 23-year-old man of the crime of child defilement of a 14-year-old girl. The ruling assumed consensual sex occurred and a possible false claim by the girl due to delayed reporting. The court didn’t accord the girl special measures provided to children. Yet in reality, the girl was a minor incapable of making informed consent without special protection.
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
Women and girls experience of accessing justice in Africa is shaped by their socio-cultural context of lower social status. It’s important that courts are responsive to these prevailing gender and generational inequalities and injustices that disadvantage women and girls.
It calls for investment in processes that create and ensure inclusive, safe, participatory spaces and dignity for victims who come before courts. This could include designing victim and witness participation and protection protocols for court use.
Clear court rules of procedures are required to guarantee confidentiality, safety, and dignity for victims of highly stigmatising cases, such as sexual abuse.
And courts should aim to adopt more flexible standards of evidence. They should also ensure proceedings are conducted in local languages and responsive to local realities – such as local taboos on sexual abuse.
Lastly, the majority of women and girls in Africa live in contexts of deeply rooted systems of socio-cultural injustices and structural inequalities. Given this, court procedures and decisions shouldn’t only enable justice. They should also change situations that exacerbate women and girls’ vulnerabilities for a just and equal society.

Op-Ed: How to stop the scales of justice loaded against women and girls in Africa

Global law firm Baker McKenzie’s latest Cross Border IPO Index shows that there were no cross-border Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) from African companies in the first six months of 2017, the first time in five years this has happened.
The Index also shows that five companies in Africa have raised a total of USD 512 million so far in 2017 from domestic listings, up from the eight companies that raised USD 492 million in H1 2016, but down from the USD 596 million raised from seven domestic deals in H1 2015. Three of five the companies that went public in H1 2017 are South African, while the remaining two are Egyptian and Tanzanian.
The fact that there were no cross-border IPOs in Africa in H1 2017 clearly shows that political and economic instability in Africa has affected the volume of cross-border IPOs on the continent.
Businesses simply do not carry out IPOs if they are unsure of the investment environment.
In 2016 there was one cross-border IPO in Africa valued at USD 130 million, and in 2015 there were four IPOs, which raised a total of USD 825 million.
The largest deal in H1 2017 was Vodacom Tanzania Ltd., which raised USD 213 million. This was the first Tanzanian company to go public over the last five years. This IPO comes after the <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__allafrica.com_stories_201706230264.html&amp;d=DwMF-g&amp;c=ptMoEJ5oTofwe4L9tBtGCQ&amp;r=rivlfh8QWsf-8Yj-9mcVikrxMXP0eooUKpECxJY0iAk8l88oLzSwOTP5bMAqYboM&amp;m=7J5UUUnU9MFscGes3A7X1ij8SWQys-0pPsiVVo5vPOM&amp;s=RQ3WG8zheXlsdiXiZACubEnY9pfpHRSpzdq0m0su35U&amp;e=">government amended the Electronic and Postal Communications Act (Epoca)</a>, stating that investors are allowed to take part in IPOs for telecommunication companies.
The IPO in Tanzania points to a future trend in the East African region, which is looking interesting in terms of the possibility of future IPOs. Although Kenya is going through election, we hope to see increased activity in the region once they have worked through this political uncertainty.”
The largest IPO from a South African company was from Sea Harvest Holdings Ltd., a deep-sea fishing, fresh and frozen fish and processing and marketing of fish products, raising USD 149 million. The company had <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.businesslive.co.za_bd_companies_retail-2Dand-2Dconsumer_2017-2D03-2D24-2Dsea-2Dharvest-2Dcasts-2Dits-2Dnet-2Dback-2Donto-2Djse-2Dafter-2D17-2Dyears_&amp;d=DwMF-g&amp;c=ptMoEJ5oTofwe4L9tBtGCQ&amp;r=rivlfh8QWsf-8Yj-9mcVikrxMXP0eooUKpECxJY0iAk8l88oLzSwOTP5bMAqYboM&amp;m=7J5UUUnU9MFscGes3A7X1ij8SWQys-0pPsiVVo5vPOM&amp;s=r8FkDncMozqiazVbMoBWyxMFzRPx4md9XV1jFxqAdoA&amp;e=">delisted from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange</a>  (JSE) 17 years ago. Sea Harvest is the second fishing company listing on the JSE in recent weeks. A few weeks before its listing, Premier Fishing made its debut on the same exchange to raise USD 41 million. The other South African IPO was private equity fund Long4Life Ltd’s listing on the JSE in April. These three domestic listings raised a total of USD 250 million. This is the highest amount of capital raising by South African companies recorded during the first half of any year since 2012.
Historically, South African companies are not actively listing outside their jurisdiction. The last time a South African company listed in a stock exchange outside of the country (cross-border listings) was in H2 2013, when MiX Telematics Ltd. went public on the New York Stock Exchange and raised USD 116 million.B
Two IPOs in South Africa’s fishing sector point to a readjustment and consolidation in the sector after recent woes.
Further, the Long4Life IPO shows that there is private equity money available for investment in Africa. If a fund can identify sufficient assets to invest in, then an IPO is a good way for them to raise capital. We haven&#8217;t seen a lot of these kinds of IPOs in Africa recently, possibly because the funds have been struggling to find assets to invest in.
Globally, IPO activity rebounded in H1 2017 compared to the same period last year as economic fundamentals in major developed markets such as the EU and US stabilized and some political uncertainties settled.
The value of issuance rose by 76% to USD 89 billion and volume increased to 728 deals, up 53% from the first half of last year. As Baker McKenzie predicted last June, domestic deals outpaced cross-border IPOs in H1 this year, rising 93% in value compared to a 41% increase in cross-border deal values. The greater popularity of domestic issuance was largely driven by the comfort of home markets and the protection against currency volatility provided by listing in companies&#8217; functional currencies.
That said, deal making has not quite returned to the levels of 2015 – total capital raised being 24% lower in the first half of 2017.
Average deal size globally (domestic and cross-border combined), has increased by 15% to USD 122 million. However, the first half of 2016 marked the lowest average deal size in more than six years at just shy of USD 100 million, so the increase is off a low base.
Baker McKenzie’s Cross-Border IPO Index dropped to 12.6, reflecting that capital raising from cross-border IPOs accounted for barely 14% of the value of global equity capital raised, the lowest level since the first half of 2012.
The London and New York Stock Exchange however, both saw more capital from cross-border IPOs than in H1 2016, with values of USD 3.9 billion and USD 1.3 billion respectively. These two exchanges, along with Hong Kong and NASDAQ, accounted for over 90% of all cross-border IPOs by value.
Although political uncertainty remains a key concern for potential issuers, the absence of blockbuster votes of the magnitude of the Brexit referendum and the US elections have made the timing of IPOs in 2017 much easier than in 2016. Meanwhile, business imperatives are driving companies to proceed with listing plans for deals that have
Koen Vanhaerents, global head of capital markets at Baker McKenzie, said: &#8220;Markets have performed well, with key indices rising to record levels. Political stability in many markets, strong performance of IPOs and sound economic fundamentals are the forces driving investor demand, while investors have also learned to live with unpredictable political developments.&#8221;
There is a correlation between global IPO predictions and African IPOs, and so the current global recovery is expected to influence a recovery in Africa as well. However, Africa tends to lag behind the rest of the world so it might be some time before we an improvement the volume and value of IPOs on the continent.
The five African IPOs for H1 2017
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<td width="164">Issuer</td>
<td width="164">Sector</td>
<td width="164">Capital Raised (in USD million)</td>
<td width="164">Exchanges</td>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="164">Vodacom Tanzania Ltd</td>
<td width="164">Telecommunications</td>
<td width="164">213</td>
<td width="164">Dar es Sal</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="164">Long4Life Ltd</td>
<td width="164">Financials</td>
<td width="164">149</td>
<td width="164">Johannesburg</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="164">Sea Harvest Holdings Ltd</td>
<td width="164">Consumer Staples</td>
<td width="164">104</td>
<td width="164">Johannesburg</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="164">Raya Contact Center CO</td>
<td width="164">Consumer Products and Services</td>
<td width="164">49</td>
<td width="164">Egypt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="164">Premier Food &amp; Fishing Ltd</td>
<td width="164">Consumer Staples</td>
<td width="164">41</td>
<td width="164">Johannesburg</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
&nbsp;
Methodology
Baker McKenzie’s Cross-Border IPO Index is calculated as a weighted average of three components based on IPO activity data: the amount of capital raised, number of IPOs and number of issuer home jurisdictions involved. Each component is calculated as the quotient of the component’s value when considering cross-border IPO activity divided by that component’s value when considering overall IPO activity. The population of data underlying each calculation is based on aggregate data of IPO transactions completed on all stock exchanges and is grouped by region. IPO activity includes priced IPO and IPOs expected to price in H1 2017 correct to 23 June 2017. All data underlying the calculations is sourced through Thomson ONE.
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What Africa’s 2017 IPOs say about investment on the continent

CHILIMO, Ethiopia, July 4 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; Ethiopia is enlisting the cooperation of people in and around its forests to manage woodland better, hoping to protect the country from the effects of climate change while boosting development prospects for its population of 100 million.
The government of Africa’s second most populous country has set an ambitious aim of reducing poverty and becoming a carbon-neutral economy by 2025, in part by transforming the way rural landscapes are managed.
Its Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy aims to meet half of its target reduction in carbon emissions by adding 5 million hectares (12.4 million acres) of forests by 2020 – just three years from now – and restoring 22 million hectares of degraded landscapes by 2030.
The government sees adding forests as a key way to both curb climate change and help the country adapt to and deal with strong climate change impacts, including droughts, said Yitbetu Moges, the national representative for REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) at Ethiopia’s Ministry of Forestry, Environment and Climate Change.
With water resources under ever greater stress due to the country’s rising population, forests are important to maintaining stable rainfall and building drought resilience, while the carbon they store reduces emissions to the environment, Moges said.
STARTING IN OROMIA
According to the ministry, the biggest forest conservation programmes are taking place in Oromia, which is home to a third of the country’s population.
The 10-year Oromia Forested Landscape Programme (OFLP), which is getting underway this year, is a community-centered programme for sustainable forest management.
The project, with an initial $18 million of funding from the World Bank, aims to reduce deforestation and lower net greenhouse gas emissions resulting from land use.
The programme’s first pilot project launched in early May in the Chilimo Forest Reserve, one of the last remnants of a dry, mountainous forest that once covered Ethiopia’s central plateau.
Located 90 km (56 miles) west of Addis Ababa, the forest currently covers about 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres), down from 12,000 hectares (29,600 acres) in the 1980s, mainly as a result of logging in the early 1990s, officials say.
Under the programme, local community cooperatives have been given the right to protect and manage the forest, which faces encroaching population pressure and illegal logging, and decide on how to use the benefits accrued from it.
The programme encourages cooperative members to harvest stalks and other crop residue from fields for fuel, instead of using wood, and cultivate wild honey and crops like green pepper, onion and potatoes, which can be grown within the forest limits without requiring significant deforestation.
Communities are also urged to plant fast-growing, non-native trees such as eucalyptus to harvest for timber or medicinal purposes as a way of generating income.
Degu Woldegiorgis, a local community leader, is a member of one of 12 forest associations, representing 3,000 residents around Chilimo, that will participate in managing the forest.
He said the community’s decision to help preserve the Chilimo reserve is the result of seeing the problems other communities have faced after destroying their forests.
“The forest is our life. We get many benefits from the forest,” he said.
Woldegiorgis said his community has committed to planting three tree seedlings per community member on deforested land each year.
BENEFITS DOWNSTREAM
Stephen Danyo, an expert in natural resources management with the World Bank’s Ethiopia office, said the forestry management scheme aims not just to secure incomes for local communities but to protect water resources for downstream communities as well.
“Forest is worth protecting and expanding because forest not only provides jobs and livelihoods, it provides water security, it provides food security, it provides climate security,” he said.
Moges said protecting forests would also help ensure more stable harvests by protecting water supplies – a major concern in a country where the government says 7.8 million Ethiopians face food shortages as a result of climate change-related drought and land degradation.
“Agriculture will benefit as it will be less impacted by climate change shocks, creating climate stability, in addition to the forest’s well-known touristic benefits,” he said.
The government estimates that about 15.5 percent of Ethiopia is covered in forests – but the country is losing 92,000 hectares (227,000 acres) of forest annually, and only 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) are being replanted, Moges said.
He said that to protect more forests young Ethiopians need to learn about the value of forest conservation in school, from primary level onward.
Woldegiorgis, on the other hand, thinks tougher punishments for illegal loggers in the Chilimo Forest Reserve are needed. He said that loggers caught by his organisation and handed over to the authorities have received what he sees as lenient prison sentences of only a few months.
POPULATION PRESSURE
Moges also thinks some of Ethiopia’s rural population needs to move to its cities to better protect forests and other land as the country’s population expands. More than 80 percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas, adding to the pressure on forests, he said.
“National planning is needed with regards to population pressure to relieve pressure on land. But we also have to ensure today’s children can migrate to cities, learn in good schools, be employed in industries, and open up business,” he said.
Danyo said such strategies need to start working soon, or Ethiopia may struggle to hold onto its remaining forests as population pressures grow.
“There’s not much left in Ethiopia of the old, native, original forest. It’s disappearing quickly,” he said. “Protecting forests is not just because people love trees and forests but because it’s important for poverty reduction, jobs, water security energy and agriculture.”
Moges said he sees protecting forests as critical to the country’s future success.
“A prosperous Ethiopia is one that protects its forest resources. Preserving forests is creating prosperity,” he said.
(Reporting by Elias Gebreselassie; editing by James Baer and Laurie Goering :; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit news.trust.org/climate)
© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved

Ethiopia’s plan to save its dwindling forests

The Public Protector released her report on the Bankorp “bail-out” on 21 June 2017. Many among us will have something to say about the remedial action she proposes on this specific issue, in essence that Absa repays the “government” an amount of R1.125 billion.
However, we confine ourselves here to her rather startling recommendation that the mandate of the SARB [South African Reserve Bank] should be changed &#8211; a matter that she was not asked to consider. One of her remedial actions is an instruction to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services to “initiate a process that will result in the amendment of Section 224 of the Constitution”. She then even more remarkably goes onto suggest what the new mandate should be:
224 (1) The primary object of the South African Reserve Bank is to promote balanced and sustainable economic growth in the Republic, while ensuring that the socio-economic well-being of the citizens are (sic) protected.
While this is an unexpected (and unwarranted) recommendation, it does raise the very interesting question about what mandate is appropriate for the central bank of an emerging economy such as South Africa. Those of us with research expertise and direct experience of monetary policy and central banking matters will acknowledge the complexities of these debates at both a theoretical and practical and policy level. Some academics economists will be pleased with the exclusive price stability mandate of the SARB as per section 224 (1) of the 1996 constitution. Others will argue for a broader mandate including growth and employment, alongside price stability. Some combination of price stability, growth, employment are in the mandates of the US Fed, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and Canada, and even the EU.
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The academic debate over central banks’ mandate is an international one and has been going on in one way or another for most of the 20thC. It became especially tense and complicated in the context of the growing dominance of new neo-classical economic thinking associated with Robert Lucas and his research collaborators since the early 1980s. Although there has been some convergence around a narrow price stability mandate in practice since then, there are also many examples of central banks which have a statutory or legal mandate that includes either growth or employment or some combination of these three elements. In NO case that we are aware of is a central bank’s mandate spared the responsibility of price stability (however phrased), whatever other objectives are included. To exclude price stability from a central bank’s objective in favour of some poorly conceived reference to ‘socio-economic well-being” is incomprehensible and plainly irresponsible.
We are not against, and many of us would positively welcome and support, the opening up of a well-informed, properly constituted and transparent debate about the mandate of the SARB at some appropriate time, and through the proper institutions, e.g. through a parliamentary enquiry at which expert testimony and international experience are solicited. Indeed, it is important not to conflate a defence of the proper process by which such debates should be constituted, with a defence of the current mandate of the SARB. It is quite possible to defend the independence of the SARB while questioning how appropriate its current mandate is to the challenges facing the country.
The crisis of low growth and high unemployment coupled with growing inequality suggests that this and other aspects of our economic policy stance should be debated in a responsible manner, designed to bring about a much needed improvement in the quality of life and work among our people, a majority of whom have not yet witnessed the dividends of democracy. There is no reason why the inclusion of growth and employment, together with price stability, cannot be an intrinsic part of such a public engagement. But uninformed and rash statements, especially ones that carry the power and binding nature of the PP, do not assist us at all. Threats to the operational independence and constitutional mandate of the SARB that come about in this manner represent a grave threat to an economy already crippled by a number of serious problems.
The likelihood that the PP’s analysis and remedial actions are designed, not as arguably well-intentioned even if plainly wrong interventions, but rather as part of the assault against the remaining institutions in the state sphere that stand for good governance is very, very high. That is why those who are opposed to such state looting, as we all are, must stand in defence of the SARB, even if we may differ on some aspects of the theoretical and policy debate about the role and mandate of central banks such as SARB in today’s world.
That was also our collective and publicly articulated view on two previous occasions over the past 18 months when two respected Ministers of Finance were unceremoniously dumped by the President.
*Signatories (alphabetical)
Matt Andrews 
Christo Auret 
Haroon Bhorat 
Derick Blaauw 
Anthony Black 
Ilsé Botha 
Danny Bradlow 
Adele Breytenbach 
Philippe Burger 
Rulof Burger 
Le Roux Burrows 
Marianne Camerer 
Daniela Casale 
Ivor Chipkin 
Nico Cloete 
Johan Coetzee 
Kenneth Creamer 
Stan Du Plessis 
David Everatt 
Olivia Ezeobi 
Frederick Fourie 
Pieter Fourie 
Steven Friedman 
Alison Gillwald 
Jannie Rossouw 
Amanda Gouws 
Duncan Hodge 
James Hodge 
Hylton Hollander 
Clare Hofmeyr 
Petronella Horn 
Gilad Isaacs 
Faizel Ismail 
Rachel Jafta 
David Kaplan 
Richard Ketley 
Murray Leibbrandt 
Anthony Leysens 
Elsabe Loots 
Neva Makgetla 
Stephen Malherbe 
Julian May 
Lumkile Mondi 
Jabulile Monnakgotla 
Mike Morris 
Eldridge Moses 
Bokang Mpeta 
Liezl Nieuwoudt 
Morné Oosthuizen 
Vishnu Padayachee 
Brigitte Pegado 
Marinda Pretorius 
Vimal Ranchhod 
Monique Reid 
Gareth Roberts 
Simon Roberts 
Ayesha Sayed 
Maxi Schoeman 
Collette Schulz-Herzenberg 
Krige Siebrits 
Simone Smit 
Mark Swilling 
Christopher Tapscott 
Nicola Theron 
Amy Thornton 
Imraan Valodia 
Theo van der Merwe 
Piet-Hein van Eeghen 
Lize Van Robbroeck 
Corne Van Walbeek 
Cobus Vermeulen 
Dieter von Fintel 
Marissa von Fintel 
Merle Werbeloff 
Martin Wittenberg 
Ingrid Woolard 
Uma Kollamparambil 
Andries du Toit

Open letter from South African academics and economists: Hands off the Reserve Bank

Democratic Republic of Congo said late on Monday that its Inga 3 hydroelectric project is not expected to begin producing power until 2024 or 2025, not 2020 or 2021 as originally planned.
The $14 billion, 4,800 megawatt project has struggled to attract financing and was dealt another blow last year when the World Bank said it had suspended funding after the presidency took control of the project, raising transparency concerns..
Last month, Congo asked the final bidders &#8211; one consortium led by China Three Gorges Corporation and another that includes Spain&#8217;s ACS (Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA) &#8211; to submit a joint bid.
&#8220;We are working for this timing (in 2024 or 2025) now that the potential developer has been identified,&#8221; Bruno Kapandji, the head of the government agency overseeing development of Inga 3, told Reuters.
The project along the Congo River will expand on two existing Inga hydroelectric dams and is part of an eight-stage Grand Inga project that would produce a record 44,000 MW at an estimated cost of $50 billion to $80 billion.
Proponents say it could one day power half of Africa but critics argue the money would be better spent supporting smaller local plants.
The project&#8217;s future is also clouded by the tenuous political situation in Congo, where President Joseph Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate last December.
That has fuelled growing insecurity in the perpetually unstable Central African country, including an increase in militia violence and a spate of prison breaks.
Of the project&#8217;s 4,800 MW, 2,500 MW are earmarked for South Africa, 1,300 MW will support Congo&#8217;s mining sector and the remaining 1,000 MW will go toward meeting domestic power demand. Only about 15 percent of Congo&#8217;s population has electricity.
(Reporting by Aaron Ross; editing by Nellie Peyton and Jason Neely)

DRC delays Inga 3 hydro project to 2024/25

HARARE, July 3 (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Monday he was donating $1 million to the African Union (AU), hoping to set an example for African countries to finance AU programmes and wean it off funding from outside donors.
For years, about 60 percent of AU spending has been financed by donors including the European Union, World Bank and governments of wealthy non-African countries.
Mugabe, who has held power in Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, has said reliance on foreign funds allows big powers to interfere in the work of the AU.
The 93-year-old Mugabe told an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he had auctioned 300 cattle from his personal herd in May to fulfil a promise made to the continental body two years ago.
&#8220;Africa needs to finance its own programmes. Institutions like the AU cannot rely on donor funding as the model is not sustainable,&#8221; Mugabe said in comments broadcast on Zimbabwe&#8217;s state television.
&#8220;This humble gesture on Zimbabwe&#8217;s part has no universal application but it demonstrates what is possible when people apply their minds to tasks before them.&#8221;
The African Union&#8217;s 2017 budget is $782 million, increasing from $416.8 million last year. African leaders in July 2016 agreed in principle to charge a 0.2 percent levy on some exports to help finance AU operations.
Zimbabwe, whose economy was devastated by a drought last year, does not disclose its contributions to the AU. The top five African contributors are Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria and South Africa. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia and Andrew Roche)

Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe donates $1mn to the African Union

<div class="event-banner"><a href="https://www.weforum.org/events/annual-meeting-of-the-new-champions-2017">This article is part of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2017</a></div>
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A diverse range of breakthrough technologies, including “artificial leaves” that turn CO2 into fuel, and a technique that harvests water from air, could soon be playing a role in tackling the world’s most pressing challenges, according to a list published today by the World Economic Forum.
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The technologies were selected by the World Economic Forum’s <a href="https://www.weforum.org/communities/expert-network">Expert Network</a> and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/communities/global-future-councils">Global Future Councils</a> in collaboration with Scientific American and its Board of Advisors. Each technology was chosen for its potential to improve lives, transform industries and safeguard the planet. The experts were also looking for indications that the technologies have reached a level of maturity that would enable widespread take-up in the coming 3-5 years.
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“New technologies are redefining industries, blurring traditional boundaries and creating new opportunities on a scale never seen before. Public and private institutions must develop the correct policies, protocols and collaborations to allow such innovation to build a better future, while avoiding the risks that unchecked technological change could pose,” said Murat Sönmez, Head of the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Member of the Managing Board of the World Economic Forum.
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The top 10 technologies to make this year&#8217;s list are:
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1. Liquid biopsies
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Liquid biopsies mark a step forward in the fight against cancer. First, they are an alternative where traditional tissue-based biopsies are not possible. Second, they provide a full spectrum of information compared to tissue samples, which only reflect the information available in the sample. Lastly, by homing in on circulating-tumor DNA (ctDNA), genetic material that routinely finds its way from cancer cells into the bloodstream, disease progression or resistance to treatment can be spotted much faster than otherwise relying on symptoms or imaging.
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2. Harvesting clean water from air
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The ability to extract clean water from air is not new, however existing techniques require high moisture levels and a lot of electricity. This is changing. A team from MIT and University of California, Berkeley has successfully tested a process using porous crystals that convert the water using no energy at all. Another approach, by a start-up called Zero Mass Water from Arizona is able to produce 2-5 litres of water a day based on an off-grid solar system.
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3. Deep learning for visual tasks
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Computers are beginning to recognize images better than humans. Thanks to deep learning, an emerging field of artificial intelligence, computer-vision technologies are increasingly being used in applications as diverse as driving autonomous vehicles, medical diagnostics, damage assessment for insurance claims and monitoring of water levels and crop yield.
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4. Liquid fuels from sunshine
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Can we mimic the humble leaf to create an artificial photosynthesis to generate and store energy? The prospects are looking increasingly positive. The answer lies in using sunlight-activated catalysts to split water molecules into water and hydrogen, and then using the same hydrogen to convert CO2 into hydrocarbons. Such a closed system &#8211; wherein CO2 emitted by combustion is then transformed back into fuel instead of the atmosphere &#8211; could prove to be revolutionary for the solar and wind industries.
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5. The Human Cell Atlas
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An international collaboration aimed at deciphering the human body, called the Human Cell Atlas, was launched in October 2016. The project, backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative aims to identify every cell type in every tissue; learn exactly which genes, proteins and other molecules are active in each type and the processes which control that activity; determine where the cells are located exactly; how the cells normally interact with one another, and what happens to the body’s functioning when genetic or other aspects of a cell undergo change, among other things. The end product will be an invaluable tool for improving and personalizing health care.
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6. Precision farming
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution is providing farmers with a new set of tools to boost crop yield and quality while reducing water and chemical use. Sensors, robots, GPS, mapping tools and data-analytics software are all being used to customize the care that plants need. While the prospect of using drones to capture plant health in real time may be some way off for most of the world’s farmers, low-tech techniques are coming online too. Salah Sukkarieh, of the University of Sydney, for instance, has demonstrated a streamlined, low-cost monitoring system in Indonesia that relies on solar power and cell phones.
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7. Affordable catalysts for green vehicles
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Progress is being made on a promising zero-emission technology, the hydrogen-fed fuel cell. Progress to date has been stymied by the high price of catalysts which contain platinum. However, much progress has been made reducing reliance on this rare and expensive metal, and the latest developments involve catalysts that include no platinum, or in some cases no metal at all.
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8. Genomic vaccines
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Vaccines based on genes are superior to more conventional ones in a number of ways. They are faster to manufacture for one thing, which is crucial at times of a violent outbreak. Compared to manufacturing proteins in cell cultures or eggs, producing genetic material should also be simpler and less expensive. A genomics-based approach to vaccines also enables more rapid adaptation in the event of a pathogen mutating, and finally allows scientists to identify people who are resistant to a pathogen, isolate the antibodies that provide that protection, and design a gene sequence that will induce a person’s cells to produce those antibodies.
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9. Sustainable design of communities
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Applying green construction to multiple buildings at once has the potential to revolutionize the amount of energy and water we consume. Sending locally-generated solar power to a smart microgrid could reduce electricity consumption by half and reduce carbon emissions to zero if a project currently under development at the University of California at Berkeley Goes to plan. Meanwhile, the same project’s plan to re-design water systems so that waste water from toilets and drains is treated and re-used on site, with rainwater diverted to toilets and washers, could cut demand for potable water by 70%.
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10. Quantum computing
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Quantum computers’ almost limitless potential has only ever been matched by the difficulty and cost of their construction. Which explains why today the small ones that have been built have not yet managed to exceed the power of supercomputers. But progress is being made and in 2016 the technology firm IBM provided the public access to the first quantum computer in the cloud. This has already led to more than 20 academic papers being published using the tool and today more than 50 start-ups and large corporations worldwide are focused on making quantum computing a reality. With such progress behind us, the word on people’s lips now is “Quantum Ready.”
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These are the top 10 emerging technologies of 2017

Emerging markets-focused private equity firm Abraaj Group said on Monday it planned to fully acquire leading Kenyan coffee chain Java House from its present owners for an undisclosed amount.
Java House founder Kevin Ashley in 2012 sold a 90 percent stake to Africa-focused Emerging Capital Partners (ECP) for an undisclosed amount. Ashley continues to hold 10 percent in the coffee chain.
&#8220;The Abraaj Group &#8230; has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase 100 percent of Java House Group &#8230; from private equity firm Emerging Capital Partners, and the company’s founder and chairman, Kevin Ashley,&#8221; Dubai-based Abraaj and ECP said in a statement.
Founded in 1999, Java House has 60 outlets in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda and roasts coffee for sale to others buyers like supermarkets, hotels and restaurants.
It also runs Planet Yoghurt brand, an outlet serving frozen yoghurt, and a pizzeria outlet called 360 Degrees.
(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Vyas Mohan)

Abraaj Group says plans to buy Kenyan coffee chain Java House

Kenya started selling another 1 billion shillings ($9.64 million) worth of bonds via mobile phone on Friday after an initial 150 million shillings issued sold out in days.
The East African nation started selling a three-year infrastructure bond, called M-Akiba, on March 23, becoming the first country in the world to issue a mobile phone-based bond without any need for a bank account.
&#8220;Today we again celebrate our leadership in mobile money innovation,&#8221; Kenya&#8217;s finance minister Henry Rotich said during an event to launch the bond at the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
The initial 150 million shillings raised was the first tranche of the bond.
Friday&#8217;s offering left another 3.85 billion shillings to be sold at a later date. The bond sale is a further advance in financial technology for the country which pioneered mobile money with M-Pesa in 2007.
Kenya has borrowed intensively in the past four years to fund an ambitious development programme, including new roads and a coast-capital railway, and the government wants to raise more cash.
However, few ordinary Kenyans bought government bonds, scared off by the minimum investment of 50,000 shillings and the need for a commercial bank account.
M-Akiba allows a single investor to put in a minimum of 3,000 shillings and a maximum 1 million shillings, earning tax-free interest of 10 percent. They will be able to trade them on the secondary market.
The bond was initially available on telecom companies&#8217; money transfer services, but has since also been opened to a similar operation run by commercial banks, known as Pesalink.
The bond will be on sale from June 30-July 21 and will be tradable on the stock exchange on July 25.
Rotich said that in future all infrastructure bonds offered by the government will have a portion of them dedicated for sale via mobile phone.
($1 = 103.7000 Kenyan shillings)
(Editing by Ed Osmond)

Kenya sells additional 1 bln shillings worth of bonds via mobile phone

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South Africa&#8217;s ruling ANC meets this week to debate the future of a country mired in recession, corruption and political deadlock, but proceedings may be overshadowed by a power struggle between rivals seeking to succeed President Jacob Zuma.
Critics charge that under Zuma, the ANC idealism and ethics epitomised by Mandela have been replaced by a relentless scramble for power, dividing the party and tarnishing the reputation of the post-apartheid &#8220;Rainbow Nation&#8221;. Popular support has slumped.
Zuma will be replaced as ANC leader at a national conference in December with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and former African Union chair and Zuma&#8217;s ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma widely viewed as frontrunners. The six-day conference beginning on Friday should offer clues to who may be in the ascendant.
&#8220;The conference will be a key event this year, with policy change used to drive a factional wedge in the party on macro, land reform and financial sector transformation,&#8221; said Nomura emerging market analyst Peter Attard Montalto.
&#8220;We expect it to represent the real starting gun for factional alignments into December’s elective conference.&#8221;
Zuma has drawn unprecedented criticism from senior ANC members in recent weeks. A shock cabinet reshuffle prompted ratings agencies to downgrade South Africa to &#8220;junk&#8221; status, the economy slid into recession and unemployment hit a 14-year high.
The party is now split between factions broadly aligned to Dlamini-Zuma and Ramaphosa. Analysts mostly think the party will hold together, although a breakaway is possible should Dlamini-Zuma lose in December.
Dlamini-Zuma&#8217;s camp is expected to push for the expropriation of land without compensation and greater black ownership of businesses as part of a broader drive to defeat the &#8220;enemy&#8221; of &#8220;white monopoly capital&#8221;.
The government says only 8 million hectares of arable land has been transferred to black people since 1994, less than 10 percent of the 82 million hectares available and a third of the ANC&#8217;s 30 percent target.
Dlamini-Zuma&#8217;s supporters also want to clip the wings of the central bank so that it focuses its mandate on growth, not inflation, and to reform the banking sector to promote black interests, including the creation of a state bank.
Ramaphosa&#8217;s supporters also prioritise wealth redistribution but believe the best strategy is through reforms that grow the economy, encourage investment, create jobs and tackle the corruption that has plagued the ANC under Zuma.
REDISTRIBUTION
Many investors and ANC members in Ramaphosa&#8217;s camp are concerned Dlamini-Zuma would continue in the mould of her ex-husband. She says opponents are trying to use her past to undermine her credibility.
Ramaphosa has warned ANC members that if corruption and infighting rife under Zuma are not tackled, the party will be unable to arrest the decline that saw it lose control of major cities in local elections last year.
An opposition coalition led by the Democratic Alliance, a traditionally white party that is becoming more inclusive, says it is confident of unseating the ANC at an election in 2019.
&#8220;Cyril&#8217;s main argument to grassroots ANC members is: if you don&#8217;t choose me, the economy will collapse and we&#8217;ll lose in 2019 and you&#8217;ll have nothing,&#8221; a senior ANC source told Reuters.
&#8220;The question is if he can win that ideological argument against an opponent with attractive populist policies and Zuma&#8217;s well-established party patronage system.&#8221;
Dlamini-Zuma, who has the support of Zuma and his powerful grassroots Zulu ANC support base, has accused her opponents of being &#8216;anti-transformation&#8217; and too cosy with rich whites.
A medical doctor and health minister under Mandela, Dlamini-Zuma has support in rural areas where Zuma is strong. Unionist-turned-business-mogul Ramaphosa has a more urban, middle-class constituency.
Zuma has tried to temper fears over land reform, promising there will be no repeat of the chaos triggered by farm invasions in neighbouring Zimbabwe. Any changes would follow parliamentary procedure.
A new charter raising the threshold for black ownership in mining companies was criticised by investors and industry players who said it was bullied through without consultation.
Signs this month that the central bank&#8217;s independence is in question have weakened the rand.
Though few major policy changes are expected to be agreed at this week&#8217;s meeting, the policy agenda will be watched for clues to whose voice &#8211; Ramaphosa&#8217;s or Dlamini-Zuma&#8217;s &#8211; feeds through more clearly in the language.
&#8220;Leadership will play its part, even if it is an official no-go area,&#8221; political analyst Mcebisi Ndletyana said.
&#8220;Even if there are no specifics, it will be interesting to see the language agreed. We may get some signals as to what is the dominant faction.&#8221;
(Editing by Ralph Boulton)

South African ANC leadership battle overshadows policy debate

South Africa’s top journalists were again honoured on Wednesday at The Sanlam Awards for Excellence in Financial Journalism. Among them were two of ABN Group’s best – Aviwe Mtila of CNBC Africa and Ancillar Mangena of Forbes Africa.
Mtila, who won Best Newcomer Award has been a broadcast financial journalist for almost two years. Seldom in broadcast financial journalism is exceptionalism displayed in such a short period of time but this is precisely what Mtila has achieved, says Monique Vanek, CNBC Africa&#8217;s Editor. &#8220;Mtila has developed an exceptional ability to tell stories visually and simply &#8211; going the extra mile to do so,&#8221; she adds.
Mtila won his award for:
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<iframe loading="lazy" title="Explaining the unrest at Zimbabwe&#039;s Beitbridge border" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3Igj_FxXtoQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Mangena who won <a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/special-report/2016/06/13/ancillar-mangena-sanlam-award/">Best Newcomer last year,</a> this year took home the African Growth Story prize. Mangena hails from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and has worked for Forbes Africa and Forbes Woman Africa for just over two years during which time she has won seven awards.
Mangena&#8217;s award was for her portfolio of work on <a href="http://www.thomsonfoundation.onlinesolutionsltd.com/assets/News_Features/2016/FPA%20Awards%202016/Finalists/Story%203Zim%20Shutdown.pdf">Zimbabwe’s economy </a>and #ThisFlag and #ShutDownZim2016 campaigns as well as <a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/special-report/2016/05/27/forbes-africa-reveals-africa-30-under-30/">FORBES AFRICA 30 under 30 2016</a>.

CNBC Africa, Forbes Africa scoop Sanlam Awards

The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) recently <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-22/congo-to-revisit-mine-law-proposals-rejected-by-industry-in-2015">announced plans</a> to reintroduce the shelved changes to the country’s mining code.
The current mining code, introduced in 2002, was based on a draft prepared <a href="http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=434e2344-7d5f-4623-b2cb-cd502f0fc076">under the auspices of the World Bank</a>. Its primary objective was to relaunch the industrial mining sector following the Congo Wars of 1996 to 2003 by opening it up to foreign investors. While it has been successful in achieving this goal, the benefits to Congolese people are more difficult to discern.
Today the DRC is Africa’s largest copper producer and the world’s largest cobalt producer. Its mining sector contributes <a href="https://eiti.org/democratic-republic-of-congo#contribution-of-the-extractive-industry-to-the-economy">22% of GDP and 28% of government revenue</a>. Yet the most recent Human Development Report ranks the DRC <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/COD">176 out of 188 countries</a>, with a life expectancy of 59 and 77% of the population living below the income poverty line.
The latest round of changes were originally submitted to parliament in March 2015, but the amendment process <a href="http://af.reuters.com/article/drcNews/idAFL5N16I5EV">was suspended</a> due to collapsed commodity prices and fierce industry opposition.
It’s now back on the agenda. As in the past a major debate will ensue between the Congolese Government, civil society and the DRC mining industry. The strongest opposition to the proposed changes comes from the large multinational mining corporations, who argue that increasing taxes will hold back the sector’s potential.
However, a review of the major tax changes reveals them to align with regional standards. The DRC’s high operating costs are offset by the equally high quality of its mineral deposits, and the current tax rate exerted over the sector is low. In addition, reviving the reform process presents an opportunity to address a number of concerns related to transparency and local development.
<h2>Debunking industry myths</h2>
In the past, propositions that provoked the most debate were those that tried to reduce the tax advantages enjoyed by mining companies. The most important proposed tax changes to the DRC’s mining code are:
<ul>
<li>increasing taxes on profits from 30% to 35%;</li>
<li>increasing the government’s stake in new mining projects from 5% to 10% and;</li>
<li>increasing royalties from 2% to 3.5% for copper and cobalt.</li>
</ul>
When compared to mining tax regimes in other African countries, the proposed changes do not place the DRC outside of the norm. Most African countries demand a 10% government stake in mining projects. The proposed copper royalty tax is also within the range imposed by many governments in the region, such as Zambia (6%), Ghana (5%) and Tanzania (4%).
Likewise, the DRC’s proposed profit tax is within the range of other countries, though it sits at the top end. Both Cameroon and Ghana impose the same 35% profit tax as the DRC is considering.
But the mining industry’s response to these comparisons is twofold. They say the DRC provides an extremely challenging operational environment, with exceptionally high transport and power costs. And they say what matters is not individual tax rates, but the overall tax burden (including both formal and informal taxes).
Both points are questionable.
<h2>Costs, and the opaque world of taxes</h2>
A <a href="https://resourcegovernance.org/sites/default/files/documents/nrgi-sortir-de-impasse-fiscale-rdc.pdf">report</a> published last year by the Natural Resource Governance Institute &#8211; which works with governments on natural resource management &#8211; shows the DRC’s production costs to be extremely favourable compared to regional competitors. In 2013 the average production cost of copper in the DRC was $3,672 per tonne. This same cost was $4,582 in Zambia and $4,931 in South Africa.
High quality Congolese mineral deposits appear to offset high operational expenses to generate low production costs (and therefore high profits). Indeed, last year <a href="http://www.miningweekly.com/article/drc-mines-still-attractive-investment-prospect-for-china-despite-risks-2016-08-05/rep_id:3650">the research firm BMI reported</a> that the DRC will remain a “destination of choice” for mining investors in the coming years due to its low production costs and high quality minerals.
The concern about the overall tax rate as opposed to individual tax changes is entirely legitimate. Yet the few non-industry studies that exist suggest this overall rate to be extremely low. Research by Professors <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stefaan_Marysse2/publications">Stefaan Marysse</a> and <a href="http://uccc.academia.edu/TshimangaMbuyiKasekaClaudine">Claudine Tshimanga</a> &#8211; prominent political economists working on the DRC &#8211; revealed a tax rate of 21% for one of the country’s largest copper mines, well below the World Bank’s recommended <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTOGMC/Resources/336099-1156955107170/drcgrowthgovernanceenglish.pdf">46% tax rate</a> for the country.
Similarly, a recent fiscal study conducted by the German Society for International Cooperation found that between 2011 and 2014, total state revenue collected by the mining sector amounted to <a href="https://www.uantwerpen.be/images/uantwerpen/container2673/files/Publications/Annuaire/2015-2016/07%20Radley.pdf">a mere 6 percent of total mining sector revenue</a> for the same period.
<h2>What’s been left out</h2>
Yet there’s a danger that the heated debates about tax rates and royalties will drown out the urgency of addressing other big issues, many of which have been left out of the draft revision. Global Witness &#8211; a non profit focused on the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict and poverty &#8211; <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/press-releases/democratic-republic-congo-plans-water-down-laws-against-mining-corruption/">has been calling attention to these omissions</a>. These include the removal of “crucial regulations banning politicians and senior army figures from owning mining rights”, an opaque tender process and insufficient beneficial ownership disclosure requirements.
In addition, many mining companies <a href="http://news.banro.com/manual-releases/Banro-s-Mining-Convention-And-Titles-Confirmed-By-">have signed “conventions”</a> with the DRC government that exist outside of the tax and legal structure established by the country’s mining code. There’s no provision within the current draft to address this loophole.
Lastly, for a number of years Congolese civil society <a href="http://www.congomines.org/reports/1247-propositions-d-amandements-de-la-societe-civile-au-projet-de-revision-du-code-minier">has been pushing hard</a> for improvements to the code on environmental and local development issues. For example, existing policy provides little guidance on critical issues such as forced displacement. Only three of the mining code’s 344 articles refer to the relationship between title holders and people living in title holders’ concessions.
<h2>Time to seize the opportunity</h2>
The DRC’s mining code is 15 years old. Extremely advantageous fiscal incentives were included back in 2002 to attract foreign investors to the country. Yet they have minimised the benefits of increased mining production to the Congolese government and people. The proposed tax changes bring the DRC up to date with today’s regional standards and should be supported.
But when the DRC’s parliament reopens in September, its members would do well to incorporate civil society concerns on key transparency, environmental and local development issues. Fail to do so, and Congolese people &#8211; particularly those directly affected by mining projects &#8211; will be locked into another decade or more of inadequate mining legislation. Change is long overdue, and the opportunity must not be missed.

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Op-Ed: The DRC is revisiting its mining code. Why reform is long overdue

The surge in the number of African students in China is remarkable. In less than 15 years the African student body has grown 26-fold – from just under <a href="http://old.moe.gov.cn//publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_850/201001/xxgk_77826.html">2,000</a> in 2003 to almost <a href="http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_gzdt/s5987/201604/t20160414_238263.html">50,000</a> in 2015.
According to the <a href="http://data.uis.unesco.org/">UNESCO Institute for Statistics</a>, the US and UK host around 40,000 African students a year. China surpassed this number in 2014, making it the second most popular destination for African students studying abroad, after France which hosts just over 95,000 students.
For years, these numbers have remained untranslated in the online archives of the Chinese Ministry of Education. But a <a href="https://breezegeography.wordpress.com/2017/06/23/stats-on-international-students-studying-in-china/">recent initiative</a> by Michigan State University researchers to translate them introduces the reports to a wider audience.
Not only have these reports revealed the growth in China-Africa ties. They also make it possible to compare China’s international education trends in a global context.
<h2>China’s targeted focus</h2>
Chinese universities are filled with international students from around the world, including Asia, the Americas, Europe and Oceania. The proportion of Asian international students still dwarfs the number of Africans, who make up 13% of the student body. But this number, which is up from 2% in 2003, is growing every year, and much faster than other regions. Proportionally more African students are coming to China each year than students from anywhere else in the world.
This dramatic increase in students from Africa can be explained in part by the Chinese government’s targeted focus on African human resource and education development. Starting in 2000, China’s <a href="http://www.focac.org/eng/">Forum on China-Africa Cooperation</a> summits have promised financial and political support for African education at home and abroad in China.
Since 2006, China has set scholarship targets to aid African students coming to China for study. For example, at the most recent 2015 summit, China pledged to provide <a href="http://www.focac.org/eng/ltda/dwjbzjjhys_1/hywj/t1327961.htm">30,000 scholarships</a> to African students by 2018.
Although China stopped publishing regional scholarship data in 2008, our data analysis using the 2003-2008 data to generate scholarship estimates suggests that this target is on the way to being met. China seems to be upholding the pledges made towards African education.
<h2>Mutual Benefit &#8211; in education and business</h2>
For the Chinese government, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/china-africa-students-scholarship-programme">providing education</a> to Africans is an extension of <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt2tt1tp">China’s soft power</a> – cultivating the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/apr/29/africa-future-leaders-china-aid-programme">next generation</a> of African scholars and elites. The experience that these students get in China can translate into a willingness to work with China and view China’s internal or external policies favourably in the future.
But what do African students gain in return? <a href="http://china-africa.ssrc.org/">China-Africa scholars</a> have <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14767724.2012.750492">found</a> that students head to China for many reasons. Some simply go to pursue an education that is affordable, even without a scholarship, while others go for the chance to develop business connections or learn the language of a country presumed to be a rising power.
Based on <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266296514_African_Students_in_China">several</a> <a href="http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/70764">surveys</a>, most students tend to be enrolled in Chinese-language courses or engineering degrees. The preference for engineering may be due to the fact that many engineering programs offered by Chinese universities for international students are <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266296514_African_Students_in_China">taught in English</a>.
The quality of education has received mixed reviews. Some studies have shown that African students are <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/614089/summary">generally</a> <a href="https://journals.co.za/content/ifepsyc/12/2/EJC38604">satisfied</a> with their Chinese education, as long as they can overcome the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smi.978/full">language barriers</a>. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14767724.2012.750492">Others</a> found that even if students were not impressed with their education, they appreciated the <a href="http://www.sais-cari.org/data-china-africa-trade/">trade</a> and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Chinas-Engagement-with-Africa-David-Dollar-July-2016.pdf">business</a> opportunities that a Chinese education made available to them back home.
<h2>The next generation</h2>
It’s difficult to know exactly which African countries are sending the most students to China. These details are not kept by the Chinese Ministry of Education. But the statistics from <a href="http://is.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/is/9281/2014/20141223111837219723176/20141223111837219723176_.html">Tsinghua University</a> provide an insight. In the 2015-2016 academic year, the majority of the university’s 111 African students came from Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Morocco, Eritrea, and Cameroon – slightly favouring East Africa.
African students in France <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20130705203103913">overwhelmingly come from</a> francophone West Africa. If Tsinghua’s profile holds true for the larger African student body in China, it means China is an increasingly important player in the education of countries outside of West Africa.
Due to Chinese visa rules, most international students cannot stay in China after their education is complete. This prevents <a href="https://theconversation.com/stemming-reverse-brain-drain-what-would-make-foreign-students-stay-in-the-us-39148">brain-drain</a> and means that China is educating a generation of African students who – unlike their counterparts in France, the US or UK – are <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt2tt1tp">more likely</a> <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266296514_African_Students_in_China">to return home</a> and bring their new education and skills with them.
It’s still too early to tell how these new dynamics might be shaping geopolitics on the continent.
Note: The original, untranslated Chinese Ministry of Education reports are available as follows: <a href="http://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_850/201001/xxgk_77826.html">2003</a>, <a href="http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A20/moe_850/200502/t20050206_77817.html">2004</a>, <a href="http://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_850/201001/xxgk_77808.html">2005</a>, <a href="http://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_850/201001/xxgk_77799.html">2006</a>, <a href="http://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s3124/201002/82570.html">2007</a>, <a href="http://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s3124/201002/82571.html">2008</a>, <a href="http://www.gov.cn/gzdt/2010-03/22/content_1562026.htm">2009</a>, 2010, <a href="http://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s5987/201202/131117.html">2011</a>, <a href="http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_gzdt/s5987/201303/t20130307_148379.html">2012</a>, 2013, <a href="http://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s5987/201503/184959.html">2014</a>, and <a href="http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_gzdt/s5987/201604/t20160414_238263.html">2015</a>. The Ministry archives were missing reports for 2010 and 2013. Student numbers for these years were calculated using the percent-growth reported in 2011 and 2014 reports, respectively.

China tops US and UK as destination for anglophone African students

When G20 leaders meet in <a href="http://www.hamburg.com/g20-2017/">Hamburg in early July</a> they face a problem not on their formal agenda: how to work around Donald Trump. The US president disdains multilateral financial cooperation, is opposed to US participation in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/time-for-china-and-europe-to-lead-as-trump-dumps-the-paris-climate-deal-78709">Paris Agreement on climate change</a> , has shown little interest in, knowledge of, or desire to partner with African countries.
These core issues frame the 2017 <a href="http://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/EN/Standardartikel/Topics/Featured/G20/2017-03-30-g20-compact-with-africa.html">G20 agenda</a> with a proposed <a href="http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2017/161130-agenda.html">“Compact with Africa”</a> slated as the summit’s big initiative. It’s aims will be to encourage private sector investment, support infrastructure development, and greater economic participation and employment in Africa.
In addition to South Africa, the G20’s only African member, the leaders of Guinea, Kenya and Senegal have been invited as guests.
The US convened the first <a href="http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/summits/2008washington.html">2008 G20 Summit</a> in Washington in response to the global financial crisis and has played a leading and constructive role ever since. Such experiments in informal global governance are an anathema to Trump, although he lacks <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/opinion/donald-trump-poisons-the-world.html?action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=opinion-%E2%80%A6">any experience</a> in such matters.
If Africa is to gain the attention in Hamburg the agenda promises, this will have to be without the support and cooperation of the US, at least while Trump is president. But can anything be achieved while this is the case?
If the G20 is to remain relevant in the quest for more inclusive and fair global governance, Africa offers an historic opportunity for collective action, despite US absence. Most urgent is alleviating <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/no-one-is-paying-attention-to-the-worst-humanitarian-crisis-since-world-war-ii/2017/06/25/70d055f8-5767-11e7-ba90-f5875b7d1876_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-e%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&amp;utm_term=.44e26a3031b">the famine in East Africa</a> while China, India, and others among the G20 are showing fresh interest in Africa’s long-term peace and development.
<h2>The Trump factor</h2>
Trump’s first and <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/trump-nato-brussels/index.html">only exposure to multilateral summit diplomacy</a> was at NATO’s Brussels headquarters on 25 May. Then immediately to a two-day <a href="http://www.g7italy.it/en/the-taormina-g7-summit">G-7 summit</a> in Sicily. Neither went well. More significant than all the negative media coverage of Trump’s performance, was German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/28/world/europe/angela-merkel-trump-alliances-g7-leaders.html?_r=0">veiled warning</a> that after 70 years, the US under Trump was no longer a credible ally and Europe
<blockquote>must be ready to take our fate into our own hands.</blockquote>
Merkel’s comments were probably intended for a global and American domestic audience as well. The US foreign policy elite and public continue to support close ties to Europe. Cooperation with Africa also has been generally popular in America. It is one area of foreign assistance that has enjoyed enduring bi-partisan support <a href="https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/01/25/u-s-africa-policy-recommendations-for-president-trump/">since the early 1990s</a>.
Trump’s antics in Hamburg could detract from the summit and his recalcitrance may complicate setting and slow implementation of the G20 agenda. But, progress on the <a href="http://www.euronews.com/2017/03/13/view-germany-the-g20-protectionism-and-the-compact-with-africa">Africa Compact</a> is still possible with support from the US private and non-governmental sectors. The same goes for climate change and economic cooperation.
How G20 leaders interact with Trump, and comment publicly on the progress or lack of progress in Hamburg will resonate domestically in the US. In deciding what to say publicly, G20 leaders may want to consider recent and escalating US domestic constraints impinging Trump’s presidency.
<h2>Trump’s domestic constraints</h2>
Trump meets all the definitional criteria of a demagogue. His appeal to popular passions and prejudices rather than reason and facts, secured him a base of support that remains loyal.
He has not broadened his popular appeal, polling favourability ratings around 36%, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/06/20/the-other-number-that-might-inspire-some-panic-among-congressional-republicans/?utm_term=.6d7e2861fbe9&amp;wpisrc=nl_finance202&amp;wpmm%20=1">lowest ever recorded</a> this early in a first term.
Trump has shown <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-leadership-traits-are-bad-news-for-democrats-in-Aafrica-69745%20Among%20G-20">authoritarian traits</a>. And the leaders he appears he will get along with best are those G20 leaders heading authoritarian regimes in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. The US still has the world’s biggest military and economy, but Trump has yet to earn the respect and deference of his G20 peers.
Politicians sometimes lie, but not all to the same degree. The Washington Post’s nonpartisan Fact Checkers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?tid=a_inl&amp;utm_term=.c1081f9b2c96">recently documented</a> 623 false and misleading claims by Trump in just his first 137 days in office.
Many Americans may be inured to Trump’s off-hand lies, or view it as a cleaver strategy to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/of-course-trump-called-comey-a-liar-thats-his-strategy/2017/06/12/6ff4b4a8-4fa6-11e7-91eb-9611861a988f_story.html?utm_term=.026ff1a843bf">keep opponents off balance</a>.
Allegations that Trump may now be under investigation by an independent special counsel for obstructing justice in the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, possibly in collusion with the Trump campaign, have put his presidency <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-would-a-real-gop-break-from-trump-look-like/?ex_cid=newsletter-top-stories">in even greater peril</a>.
If his own head of intelligence, and other senior officials of his administration, cannot trust him to keep his word, how can foreign leaders? Whatever Trump says at the G20, has to be discounted in light of this, including concurrence with a final joint statement.
<h2>Referees Matter</h2>
Trump’s mendacity points to a much bigger problem. In an era of big data and contested statistical evidence <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/19/crisis-of-statistics-big-data-democracy">how can opinion be informed</a> by agreed facts to achieve consensus at any political level?
He has ridden rough-shod over decades of research findings regarding the human causes of climate change.
To inform and help frame democratic debate, about such scientifically complicated contested topics as climate, public health, national security, and a raft of other vital policy issues, the public used at least rely on professional journalists to arrive at the <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21706498-dishonesty-politics-nothing-new-manner-which-some-politicians-nw-lie-and">best obtainable version of the truth</a>.
This is no longer sufficient. Trump has advanced politically by questioning scientific evidence, those who produce it and dismisses as “fake news” any journalistic reporting he disagrees with. G20 leaders should not be diplomatic in calling attention to this.
And a positive counter-note to Trump’s cavalier claims would be for the G20 leaders to make clear that they believe in evidence based policymaking, as well as the monitoring and evaluation of recommendations.
<h2>Cooperation without America</h2>
The leaders, individually and together, need to show their commitment to unbiased, honest, and rigorously informed judgements on such issues as the design, priorities, and implementation of their new “Compact with Africa.”
Doing so without US backing adds to the challenge, but is also an opportunity for demonstrating cooperation <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/global-leadership-successor-to-america-by-richard-n--haass-2017-06">without America playing a central role</a>. So long as Trump is US president, this is likely to also be popular in most G20 countries.
A just released Pew global survey of public attitudes in 37 countries (including six in Africa &#8211; Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Ghana) toward the US under Trump shows a 15% drop in positive views of the US (64%-49%) <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2017/06/26/u-s-image-suffers-as-publics-around-world-question-trumps-leadership/">since Barack Obama left office</a>. Confidence in the US presidency under Trump, however, fell a stunning 41%. Only in Russia, and Israel is Trump regarded more favourably than Obama.
Far more important that thwarting Trump, however, will be gaining public support for the “Compact with Africa” and the rest of the Hamburg agenda. Justifying these costly and complex commitments in positive ways will be a tougher political challenge; but one perhaps rendered easier without Trump or his representative claiming a seat at the head of the table.

Africa is high on the G20 summit agenda. But will Trump thwart progress?

South Africa&#8217;s Treasury is in talks with banks to roll over 9 billion rand (545.52 million pounds) in debt due to be paid this month by struggling state airline South African Airways (SAA), a senior official said on Tuesday.
SAA, which is reliant on government debt guarantees of almost 20 billion rand, has been cited as a threat to South Africa&#8217;s economy by rating agencies that have recently downgraded the country&#8217;s sovereign rating to &#8220;junk&#8221;.
If SAA fails to meet its debt obligations, it may have ripple effects on the government&#8217;s wider guarantee framework, Treasury Director General Dondo Mogajane told legislators.
&#8220;So we understand the urgency and importance of acting carefully and in a very responsible way, so we are seized with the matter,&#8221; Mogajane said in response to questions during a presentation by state-owned SAA to parliament.
SAA&#8217;s chief financial officer, Phumeza Nhantsi, told journalists that around 9 billion rand of debt was maturing in a few days time, with around 6 or 7 lenders involved.
She did not name any of the lenders due to confidentiality clauses, but confirmed that they were looking to the Public Investment Corporation, Africa&#8217;s largest pension fund, as a possible lender in future.
According to the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), Standard Chartered Bank has declined to renew its loan facilities of 2.3 billion rand to SAA due on June 30.
ABSA and Standard Bank are among other lenders, the DA says.
(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Joe Brock)

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Op-Ed: The DRC is revisiting its mining code. Why reform is long overdue

China tops US and UK as destination for anglophone African students

Africa is high on the G20 summit agenda. But will Trump thwart progress?

South Africa in talks to roll over $695 mln of state airline debt

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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