Signy Wegener, Anne Castles | Macquarie University
Children’s oral vocabulary – their knowledge of the sounds and meanings of words – is strongly <a href="http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/24/4/322.full">positively associated</a> with their reading all the way through school. Understanding this relationship is important for making children’s reading as strong as possible.
Our <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.12577/full">new research</a> has pointed to one mechanism underlying this association: when primary school children know a spoken word, they form an expectation of what that word should look like when it is written down – and they do this even if they have never seen it before.
Using eye-tracking technology, we demonstrated that these expectations can help children to process orally familiar words more quickly when they read them for the first time.
<h2>The tech: understanding eye-tracking</h2>
Advances in technology have made it much easier to use eye-tracking with children. Unlike old systems that were mounted on participants’ heads, new systems (shown below) sit on the desk in front of the child. The eye-tracker finds a small target sticker on the child’s forehead and uses it to work out where the child’s eyes are.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-268504 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Kids-Class_Computers_Flickr.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" />
Eye-trackers are special cameras that can follow the movement of the eyes as children read in real time. They provide information about where children look and how long they look for, giving insight into what is happening <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0963721414530145">when children read</a>.
When the properties of a written word are changed (for example, how many letters it has or how frequently it occurs in written language), this influences how easy or difficult those words are to process.
Put simply, when processing is easy, looking times are shorter. When processing is hard, looking times are longer.
<h2>The experiment: from hearing to seeing</h2>
In order to form expectations about written words that have not yet been seen, children require a combination of knowledge about:
<ul>
<li>the pronunciation and meaning of a spoken word; and</li>
<li>the links between the sounds in spoken words and the written letters that represent them.</li>
</ul>
The figure below illustrates that by drawing this information together, children can imagine the written form of words they cannot see.
<div id="attachment_268521" style="width: 860px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-268521" class="wp-image-268521 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Figure_01.png" alt="" width="850" height="273" />The formation of ‘Finch’. Author provided</div>
We taught children in Year 4 the pronunciations and meanings of some made-up words. We told them the words were inventions coming from “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2010.11.005">Professor Parsnip’s</a> invention factory”. Each invention had a name and a function. A “nesh”, for example, is an automatic card shuffler (see below).
During this training period children learned some new oral vocabulary but they never saw any of the words written down.
Later we took the words the children had learned about and some other words they hadn’t learned about, and put them into some simple sentences. We then tracked the movement of the children’s eyes as they read.
<h2>Previously heard versus previously unheard words</h2>
We found that when children had previously learned about a spoken word, they spent less time looking at it than other words they hadn’t heard about. This suggested their reading was enhanced by their previous oral vocabulary.
The time spent looking at the words they had learned about was also affected by how predictable the spellings of the words were. This revealed that children formed advance expectations about how the words were likely to be spelled.
When a word was spelled in a way that was what they expected to see, this helped their reading. For example, if the children had learned the spoken word “nesh”, we showed them the written word nesh.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YgR-PKh1Ns[/embedyt]
But when we showed them a word that was spelled in a way the children probably did not expect to see, the children were surprised by this and they focused on it longer. For example, the children were surprised when they learned the spoken word “coib” but we showed them the written word koyb.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXHLKBDyik8[/embedyt]
In the two videos, there is a clear difference in reading times for the unpredictably spelled word koyb and the predictably spelled word nesh.
The fact that children’s reading was affected by whether they knew the spoken form of the word and how predictably it was spelled shows that when children hear spoken words they form expectations about what those words should look like before they see them. In turn, this can help their reading.
<h2>Building oral vocabulary and boosting literacy skills</h2>
Making deposits in children’s spoken word banks – their store of words with known pronunciations and meanings – is an important and practical way of helping to support their literacy development.
Classrooms are logical places to teach children new spoken words, but parents can create learning opportunities at home too. If an unfamiliar word arises during conversation or shared book reading, perhaps try starting a dialogue by asking your child whether they have heard it before.

Op-Ed: How building your child’s spoken word bank can boost their capacity to read

Sarah Logan | Economist, International Growth Centre
&nbsp;
Critical elections are being held in Rwanda and Kenya. In Rwanda, the incumbent Paul Kagame will face Frank Habineza, of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and independent candidate Philippe Mpanyimana.
In Kenya, Raila Odinga, representing an umbrella opposition party, the National Super Alliance, will challenge incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta of the Jubilee Party.
Some controversy already mars both polls. Victoire Ingabire, considered the strongest opposition leader in Rwanda, remains jailed for threatening state security. The Rwandan constitution was also recently amended to allow Kagame to run for a third term and to potentially rule until 2034.
In Kenya, there’s been considerable criticism of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, the body running the election. Issues have included the reliability of the technology being used and the alleged partiality of the commission’s former leadership. And the recent printing of 1.2 million extra ballot papers has raised suspicions of planned vote rigging. The torture and murder of Christopher Msando, the commission’s head of information and technology, has further increased concerns.
<div id="attachment_268267" style="width: 346px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-268267" class="wp-image-268267 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Raila_Odinga_Elections_Wikimedia.jpg" alt="" width="336" height="504" />Kenyan opposition leader, Raila Odinga: Wikimedia</div>
With their frequent irregularities, it’s easy to become cynical about elections in Africa. But we must fight our scepticism and indifference because elections continue to be an extremely important component of the continent’s growing democracy.
<h2>Elections and democracy</h2>
While elections alone are insufficient for democracy, they are nevertheless a prerequisite. This is because they promote political participation and competition needed for democracy. It’s the failure or absence of elections that largely defines dictatorships.
Other prerequisites for democracy include:
<ul>
<li>checks on executive power,</li>
<li>civilian control of the military,</li>
<li>civil rights and due process, and</li>
<li>an independent media and active civil society.</li>
</ul>
Since the early 1990s, elections in Africa have, on the whole, become increasingly free and fair. A number of factors have contributed to this. The effectiveness of electoral governance – institutions and regulatory norms – has been the most important. The legitimacy of elections depends on clear procedural rules.
Studies have found that the electoral management boards are the most significant indicators of the quality of electoral governance. In particular, whether a board is autonomous of government is crucial. Very few African countries inherited autonomous electoral management boards at independence. But, in line with global trends, their prevalence has been rising.
By 2002 more than half of African electoral management boards were fully autonomous, 29% were semi-autonomous, and only 20% weren’t autonomous.
International election observation has also contributed to elections becoming more free and fair. Their presence can reduce fraud and increase domestic confidence in the process. Inviting international observers to monitor an election has now become a necessary conditionfor an election to be considered internationally legitimate. Refusal to do so is almost akin to admitting electoral fraud.
&nbsp;
Long-term observers begin work months ahead of an election. This is because free and fair elections depend a great deal on what happens before voting day. In fact, vote buying and political intimidation before polling day are more common than disputes over vote counting or polling procedures.
&nbsp;
<h2>Free media and active citizens</h2>
A free media and active civil society continue to play an indispensable oversight role. This includes keeping institutions honest and keeping people informed.
A study in Sierra Leone showed that election debates between parliamentary candidates were very effective. Recorded debates between local parliamentary candidates were shown in numerous villages.
An evaluation of their impact showed that watching the election debates substantially increased viewers’ political knowledge. It also made it more likely that they would vote along policy (rather than ethnic) lines. Electedpoliticians who had been involved in the debates also tended to invest more in their constituencies, and to visit them more often.
<h2>Civil society</h2>
Civil society has a particular role in promoting a peaceful electoral environment. Its role is particularly crucial where tensions are high. Non-partisan citizen observers and monitoring groups, such as the West Africa Election Observers Network, are increasingly involved in election monitoring. Some of the results have been impressive. For example, a coalition of observers in Ghana trained and deployed about 4000 people to cover the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Regional blocs have also been important in strengthening democracy by enforcing electoral outcomes. A good example was when the Economic Community of West African States stepped in after the Gambian president Yahya Jammeh refused to leave office after losing the 2016 election. The regional body’s commitment to remove him by force if necessary was highly commendable.
Its influence can also be seen in the fact that 14 out of its 15 member states have presidents who have been in office for less than two terms. The Economic Community of West African States should serve as a model to other regional blocs.
<h2>Making Africans polls free and fair</h2>
A great deal of progress has been made on improving political participation across the continent. But genuine political competition in elections remains a challenge. More work is still needed to remove biases in favour of incumbents. Another area that needs work is lifting restrictions on access to state-controlled media by opposition parties.
And for democracy to be strengthened further a number of players have to take an active role. This includes governments, opposition parties, the media, citizens, civil society and the international community.

Why elections matter for democracy in Africa. The cases of Kenya and Rwanda

South Africa&#8217;s mineral resources department has withdrawn its plan to impose a moratorium suspending the issuance of new mining and prospecting rights, which had drawn a court challenge by an industry group.
The department said in a statement that based on various submissions from industry players on its proposed move it would not go ahead with the moratorium.
Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane said in July he intended to suspend the granting of applications for prospecting and mining rights. South Africa&#8217;s Chamber of Mines lodged a court application to prevent the moratorium.
The chamber has also filed a court challenge against a new mining charter that proposes to increase the required level of ownership of mining firms by black people.
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Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by James Macharia
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South Africa’s mines minister withdraws plan to suspend rights

Rwandan voters queued in long lines on Friday to cast their ballots in a presidential election that incumbent President Paul Kagame is tipped to win by a landslide after 17 years in power.
Kagame has won international plaudits for presiding over a peaceful and rapid economic recovery in the tiny central African nation since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 people Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
But he has also faced mounting censure for what critics and rights groups say are widespread human rights abuses, a muzzling of independent media and suppression of political opposition.
Some political opponents were killed after they fled abroad, in cases that remain unsolved. The government denies any involvement and the cases appear to have done little to blunt Kagame&#8217;s domestic standing among Rwanda&#8217;s 12 million citizens.
&#8220;Even if I am poor, I voted for Kagame for restoring peace and security,&#8221; said 45-year-old farmer Appolinaire Karangwa, who cast his ballot in the capital Kigali.
Kagame, a commander who led Tutsi rebel forces into Rwanda to end the 1994 genocide, banned the use of tribal terms after becoming president. He won the last election in 2010 with 93 percent of the vote and during this campaign for a further seven-year term said he expected to win nearly 100 percent.
Kagame&#8217;s main opponent, Rwandan , voted early on Friday at Kimoronko, a polling station in Kigali.
He told reporters shortly after voting that his campaign had been hobbled because it could not compete with the machinery of the state.
&#8220;All state structures belong to his party. It is not very easy but we are also strong,&#8221; he said.
If elected, Habineza has promised to set up a tribunal to retry dissidents whose convictions by Rwandan courts have been criticised as politically motivated.
Another would-be opponent, Diane Rwigara, was disqualified by the election board despite her insistence that she met all the requirements to run.
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Additional reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Katharine Houreld and Gareth Jones
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Rwandan polls open in election expected to hand Kagame third term

South Africa&#8217;s Treasury is considering a 13 billion rand ($972 million) bailout state airline SAA to keep the company going as it battles a mounting cash crunch, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Friday.
&#8220;We are in discussions about that and at the medium term budget statement in October I will make the necessary announcement,&#8221; Gigaba told Johannesburg&#8217;s Talk Radio 702.
The Treasury said on Thursday it had appointed Vodacom Group executive Vuyani Jarana as SAA chief executive. Jarana becomes the first permanent chief executive in over two years.
($1 = 13.3687 rand)
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Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Ed Cropley
</div>

S.Africa FinMin considering 13BN rand bailout for SAA

South Africa&#8217;s Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane said on Thursday that no decision had been taken to implement a moratorium suspending the issuance of new mining and prospecting rights that was announced last month.
&#8220;No decision has been taken by the Minister of Mineral Resources to implement the moratorium,&#8221; he said in a statement.
On July 20, Zwane said he intended to suspend the granting of applications for prospecting and mining rights pending a court case to review a new charter that increased the required level of ownership of mining firms by black people.
South Africa&#8217;s Chamber of Mines has lodged separate court applications to prevent the new charter and the moratorium.
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Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by James Macharia
</div>

No decision taken yet to suspend rights: Mining Minister

Nigeria will legalise currently outlawed mini refineries in the Niger Delta oil hub by the end of the year and supply them with crude at a reasonable price, the presidency said on Thursday, fulfilling demands from community leaders.
On Monday, Niger Delta leaders threatened to pull out of peace talks with the government unless their demands were met by Nov. 1.
&#8220;The Federal Government has started the process of replacing illegal refineries in the region with modular ones,&#8221; the presidency said in a statement as Acting President Yemi Osinbajo met Niger Delta community leaders in Abuja.
Each of the Niger Delta states would receive two modular refineries to start up in the fourth quarter, the statement said.
The community leaders welcomed the outcome of the meeting.
&#8220;The meeting was excellent. We met with Mr Acting President and the discussion was very honest, truthful, forthright. We are very, very satisfied. No more ultimatum,&#8221; Edwin Clark, head of the community leaders, told reporters.
The government has been in talks with community leaders since last year to end militant attacks on oil production facilities, which cut the OPEC member&#8217;s output by 700,000 barrels a day for several months last year.
But a military crackdown on thousands of illegal refineries in the southern swamps, which process crude oil stolen from oil majors and state oil firm NNPC, has raised tensions.
The refineries process stolen crude in makeshift pipes and metal tanks hidden in oil-soaked clearings deep in the southern swampland&#8217;s thick bush land.
The Niger Delta leaders had presented President Muhammadu Buhari a list of 16 demands last November to drag the southern swampland out of poverty. The militants then halted attacks to give the talks a chance.
The presidency said it was also discussing with oil majors to move their regional headquarters to the Niger Delta, another demand from communities complaining they do not benefit from the crude in their region.
&#8220;There is more consensus,&#8221; Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said after the meeting, without elaborating. &#8220;Today was an environment of peace, calm, friendliness, and mutual dialogue of issues.&#8221;
Osinbajo was appointed by Buhari to head Nigeria while Buhari is on medical leave in Britain for an undisclosed ailment.
Oil exports are now set to exceed 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, the highest in 17 months, from as little as just over 1 million bpd at certain points last year, thanks to a steady decline in attacks on pipelines.
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Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Grant McCool and Andrew Hay
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Nigeria to legalize mini refineries, supply them with crude

South Africa has appointed Vodacom Group executive Vuyani Jarana as the new chief executive officer for the state airline, the Treasury said on Thursday.
&#8220;Given that Mr Jarana has turned around a loss-making subsidiary of the Vodacom Group, Vodacom Business Africa, into profitable and growth business, we believe he will be key in turning around South African Airways,&#8221; Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said in a statement.
Jarana is currently chief officer for Vodacom Business at telecoms operator Vodacom Group.
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Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by James Macharia
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SAA_Wikimedia

SAA appoints Vodacom executive as CEO

By Madji Sock, Astou Dia and Charlotte Eddis from Dalberg Global Development Advisors
Africa’s challenge has never been a lack of good ideas. The continent’s growth story and ambitions are often crippled by the misalignment between the existing delivery infrastructure and capacity within state institutions, and the requirements of efficient programme execution.
Guinea has been no exception. The government has increasingly been able to attract donor pledges and interest. It is now in the process of building the capacity to bring proposed projects to fruition.
Against this backdrop and due to the government’s strategic partnership with the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD)*, a Delivery Unit (DU) was founded to accelerate economic growth, increase accountability and build social cohesion in Guinea. Both parties underpinned the planning for the DU which has been fully operational since January 2017.
The Guinea-ADFD partnerships and the strong modes of cooperation, on many fronts, date back decades.
Delivery units are becoming more prominent in Africa
Delivery units in Africa and other developing regions are becoming more prominent as an effective way to work within the government system to accelerate progress through private sector methods of accountability, efficiency and reporting.
These units work in tandem with key stakeholders to deliver on the government’s agenda, ensuring that well-meaning policies and ideas are implemented in a timely fashion and that citizens’ well-being is ensured. Thus, the civil service remains empowered and no parallel government structures are created.
To date, there are over 20 delivery units globally. Drawing on lessons from benchmarking twelve of these and taking into account the local context, there have been some key learnings for the Guinea DU, while considering the specificities of the Guinean environment.
Six core principles
From a global best practices perspective, there are six core principles that govern an effective and successful delivery unit, and these inform the design and decisions of the Guinea DU:
<ol>
<li>Delivery units should be close to the seat of power:</li>
</ol>
In many African countries, decision-making ability still rests with the highest authorities. This is the case with Guinea, too. It ensures that the DU gains legitimacy because it sits directly under the Prime Minister’s office, is part of the President’s vision, and maintains close linkages and reporting with the Office of the President.
<ol start="2">
<li>Delivery units should maintain a degree of autonomy:</li>
</ol>
This practice means that the unit does not get bogged down by the same challenges it is supposed to work around. The Guinea DU collaborates closely with the ministries its work affects – agriculture, commerce, mining, vocational training, higher education and others. Its mandate is not to replace ministries, but to enhance how they work.
<ol start="3">
<li>Delivery units must have a clear focus:</li>
</ol>
Spread too thin, delivery units risk not delivering at all. The Guinea DU undertook a sector prioritisation exercise to determine which sectors to focus on based on factors such as contribution to GDP and employment, opportunities for value addition and sector readiness. It is from this process that mining and agriculture emerged as high-priority sectors.
<ol start="4">
<li>Delivery units should customise their approaches based on the local context – a balance between coordination and implementation.</li>
</ol>
Based on the depth of the challenges that need to be dealt with, the Guinea DU is addressing both. For example, the DU oversees high-level tasks such as bringing together donors and implementers interested in the selected sectors, and also works directly on the ground with beneficiaries as it recently did when it oversaw the delivery of fertilisers to pineapple farmers – including supervising its sale and distribution while working with relevant cooperatives.
<ol start="5">
<li>Delivery units need to be flexible to ensure they are not missing out on any emerging opportunities.</li>
</ol>
In the agriculture sector, the main purpose is to have improvements along the pineapple value chain that completely revolutionize the sector and put Guinea on track to being a pineapple exporter. In mining, the focus is on increasing the employability of local Guineans to work in the sector and increasing the capacity of local SMEs to bid for mining work.
<ol start="6">
<li>Finally, delivery units should constantly be working towards an exit plan. </li>
</ol>
The Guinea DU, initially staffed with strategy consultants, continuously sources, recruits and cultivates top national talent that will progressively constitute 100% of the DU’s staff. Current leadership initiatives include designing and launching an innovative model of civil service leadership. Talented Guinean graduates will be placed within government ministries and agencies through a two-year fellowship.
The transition from a good idea to implementation has often been an obstacle that African governments have found difficult to overcome.
Developing delivery units that are focused on tangible results and leverage global best practices not only ensures a higher rate of success for governments but also puts power in citizens’ hands when they can call their leaders to account.
Governments such as the one in Guinea, which take bold steps to ensure the application of development policies and their measurement in practical terms, are a testimony to Africa’s greatest promise: leadership that delivers for its constituents.
&nbsp;
*The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) is the leading United Arab Emirates (UAE) national entity providing development aid to developing countries.
This article was written by Madji Sock, Astou Dia and Charlotte Eddis from Dalberg Global Development Advisors (www.dalberg.com)
The Delivery Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister, which is supported by Mubadala Investment Company, aims to achieve national agendas to boost the Guinean economy primarily in the agriculture and mining sectors. The Delivery Unit works in support of sector ministries. The Unit is also focused on strengthening governance and developing the next generation of Guinean leadership. The Delivery Unit is generously funded by Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), the leading entity in development aid to developing countries (www.adfd.ae), and run by the international advisory firm Dalberg.

Op-Ed: Global best practices to help accelerate economic growth in Guinea

By Martin van Staden
The African National Congress’ suggestion that the number of provinces should be reduced from nine to six comes as a shock. Fortunately, our Constitution and the Rule of Law do not make abusing the levers of power that easy.
It would be unfair to the ANC to imply that this is simply corruption and cheap gerrymandering to avoid losing Gauteng in 2019, as this policy was adopted back in 2007 before the Western Cape fell into the Democratic Alliance’s hands. But the ANC, the oldest and perhaps most experienced democratic political parties on the African continent, must surely be aware that wanting to reduce the number of provinces – and thereby rob the Official Opposition of its democratic mandate in the Western Cape – would be perceived as an outright attack on our constitutional democracy.
A postulate of the constitutional principle of the Rule of Law is that the law and policy must be certain and predictable insofar as it is practically possible. With the electoral – indeed, political – uncertainty currently facing South Africa, it would be reckless to fiddle with the configuration of provinces or municipalities at this stage in our history. This conduct invites uncertainty and unpredictability and is thus arguably a violation of the Rule of Law and thus the Constitution.
<h4>Legal games played by Apartheid government</h4>
South Africans would do well to remember the legal games the Apartheid government engaged in to ensure it got its way, before endorsing the ANC’s plans. Indeed, up to 1956, coloured South Africans enjoyed limited franchise in the Cape Province, but then the National Party passed legislation increasing the size of each province’s Senate representation and thereby giving the government the requisite amount of votes in Parliament to amend the South Africa Act and remove the coloured franchise.
Thankfully, however, for the government to actually decrease the number of provinces, it would need to go about a process to amend the Constitution. Section 74(3)(ii) provides that two-thirds of the National Assembly and six provinces in the National Council of Provinces must approve alterations to “provincial boundaries, powers, functions or institutions”; and section 74(8) provides that the provincial legislatures in question will need to approve such alterations.
When the government is closer to the people and people have more opportunities to participate in the daily governing of their lives, a country is more democratic. This inevitably means devolution of power to lower levels of government, like provinces and municipalities. Where there is a centralisation of power, either by taking powers from lower levels or by reducing the number of lower levels of government, democracy is being eroded.
<h4>Appropriate action to send resources in the right direction</h4>
If the ANC is truly concerned about a “concentration of resources” at the provincial level while service delivery ordinarily happens at local government level, more appropriate action might be to ensure the resources go where they are meant to go. But the real burdensome ‘middleman’ in this relationship is not the provinces, but the national government, which is the furthest away from the people.
Centralisation of power in fewer locales and, at worst, at the national level, does nothing but chip away at real democracy. It assumes all South Africans are alike, live under the same circumstances, and thus have to be governed in the exact same way. While the Rule of Law does demand equal application of the law, this does not mean all law needs to be the same everywhere.
Which laws work best under which circumstances can only be determined if South Africa embraces the cooperative federal model as envisioned by the Constitution. This would be radical transformation indeed.
Martin van Staden is Legal Researcher at the Free Market Foundation and Academic Programs Director of Students For Liberty in Southern Africa. Find out more at <a href="http://dmanalytics2.com/click?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.martinvanstaden.com%2F&amp;i=1&amp;d=3Uqobov8RHK8ecY3_gBODg&amp;e=Jill.DeVilliers%40abn360.com&amp;a=8anQTERaQWOIdsMxWJ5hsQ" data-dm-link-id="1">www.martinvanstaden.com</a>.

Op-Ed: Reducing the number of S.A’s provinces is an affront to the Rule of Law and democracy

Mills Soko | University of Cape Town
South Africa is reeling from a string of scandals involving state owned enterprises and the Guptas, a family with close ties to President Jacob Zuma. A trove of recently leaked Gupta emails exposed the involvement of prominent businesses in the extensive corruption networks. Sibonelo Radebe asked Mills Soko to explain the implications of the scandals.
What do you make of the situation?
If nothing else, the Gupta leaks have shown us how perilously close South Africa is to losing everything so many people fought so hard for. Not only does corruption divert capital allocated for public services away from the poor, it hollows out important state institutions and, ultimately, frays the social and economic fabric of the country. It threatens the hard won democracy and political stability.
The ongoing revelations around state capture and patronage are giving South Africans an unprecedented and frightening glimpse into the machinery of corruption. The most unnerving element of the emails is how many of the transactions appear blatant and almost casual. The absolute cynicism and lack of ethics revealed in this correspondence is breath taking.
What we do with this knowledge as a country is going to count for everything. As a business community we can look away and call these tales of corruption isolated incidents – or we can step up to ensure that our organisations hold themselves to a higher standard. Most critically the law must take its course.
What does it tell us about the role of business?
The emails remind us that in any corrupt interaction it takes two to tango. And while governments and public money are so often at the centre, the enablers of corruption are not in government but in the private sector.
With the Gupta’s at the centre of the rot, prominent international companies like accounting firm KPMG, consulting giant McKinsey, ICT player SAP, engineering company Liebherr and capital equipment manufacturer Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries have been implicated in the mounting scandal. It’s worrying to see that companies of such calibre can be involved in such nefarious activity.
Corruption is, of course, not a new phenomenon – and nor is it unique to South Africa, as the Global Corruption Index shows. But certainly, the scale of what is going on in South Africa right now is unprecedented.
How do you rate the responses by the implicated businesses?
Companies have scrambled to distance themselves from the reputational firestorm that the Gupta leaks have unleashed. McKinsey acted promptly to suspend Vikas Sagar, a director in its South African office, to allow an internal investigation to proceed. For its part SAP, which originally denied the allegations, has similarly suspended South African staff while launching a full anti-corruption investigation , which is to be carried out by a multinational law firm and overseen by its executive board member Adaire Fox-Martin.
It’s convenient to blame these incidents on bad apples. But this doesn’t get below the surface of what is really going on. The scale of the corruption and the apparent ease with which it has been unfolding speaks to the fact that something is very wrong with the system. And it highlights an utter lack of business ethics and governance failures. This isn’t something the country can afford.
What should be done to root out the corruption?
While all of this may seem overwhelming, what is unfolding also presents the business community with an opportunity for some introspection. Calls have been made for greater purpose and responsibility on the part of South African leaders.
But how can we make sure these fine words and intentions are internalised? How do we make sure as a country that our business as well as our state institutions are committed to not allowing this to happen ever again?
Educational institutions, business schools in particular, are positioned as a first-line duty in making sure that graduates are equipped to recognise and reject corruption in any form. The country needs business leaders who are committed to building sustainable and profitable businesses but who are also mindful of their social and ethical obligations.
Citizens as workers and consumers also have a significant role to play. As individuals working in companies and purchasing goods and services from companies, they can condemn unethical behaviour from companies. This was partly reflected in how the general public put pressure on Bell Pottinger the UK based public relations firm which did work for the Gupta’s.
By rounding on Bell Pottinger, effectively causing the company to lock its Twitter account and issue a formal and unprecedented apology to the country (even though they also blamed the fiasco on bad apples rather than the system), South Africans have shown the power they can wield when united against wrongdoing.
But the country needs to go further. While government and business have not enjoyed the best relationship in recent times, they need to bury the hatchet and come together to fix the inequalities in this country. Deep divisions have laid South Africa open to the kind of racist exploitation that Bell Pottinger unleashed.
Until the country rights this situation, it will continue to remain vulnerable to these kinds of nefarious influences. South Africa needs to be united in the spirit of building a country that works for everyone – not just a select few. Things are broken, yes – but it’s not impossible to repair the damage.

South African business must own up to its part in the corruption scandals

Daisy Maritim Maina | SMC University
There are eight candidates for the presidency in Kenya’s 2017 election. Of these, two are the main contenders; Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Raila Amolo Odinga. This is a replica of the 2013 polls where the two presidential candidates were the dominant opponents.
The running mate configuration has not changed either, with both retaining their previous partners. William Ruto for Kenyatta and Kalonzo Musyoka for Odinga. The only thing that has changed is their party identities.
Kenyatta’s 2013 Jubilee coalition is now the Jubilee Party, comprising most of the constituent parties that had been part of the coalition. The 2013 Jubilee formation was an alliance between parties loyal to the president, and his deputy William Ruto.
For its part Odinga’s camp underwent a coalition overhaul, morphing from the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy to the National Super Alliance. The coalition brings together several parties, both old and new, led by the Orange Democratic Movement, Odinga’s longtime party.
Latest polls have indicated that the two candidates are neck-and-neck. Both have factors working for and against them.
<h2>Uhuru Kenyatta</h2>
A few things are in Kenyatta’s favour. At 55 years of age, he is a young president who represents generational change. Kenyatta also comes from one of the wealthiest families in Kenya. Forbes Magazine ranks him as the 26th richest person in Africa, with an estimated fortune of $500m. This means that he’s been able to contribute financially to a vibrant campaign.
As the incumbent some would also argue that he has had access to state resources and agencies to facilitate his re-election. Incumbency has also allowed him to drive his campaign on the steam of his development record and flagship projects in infrastructure, the energy sector and public service delivery.
In terms of voting blocs, Kenyatta has the support of Kenya’s two most populous ethnic groupings: the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru (GEMA) and the Kalenjin. The registered voters in the GEMA grouping are approximately 5,588,389, in the Kalenjin are 2,324,559.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-40134 size-large" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/uhuru_kenyatta_you_tube-1024x576.jpg" alt="Death sentences commuted to life in prison - Kenyatta" width="640" height="360" />
Combined, that’s 7,912,948 votes, which is equivalent to 40% of the electorate. That’s a formidable start when you consider that presidential strongholds have historically recorded a higher voter turnout during elections.
On the other hand, Kenyatta’s four-year tenure has been riddled with corruption allegations, including the Eurobond and National Youth Service scandals.
His admitted inability to rein in corruption in his government has worked against him. Additionally, his government is also accused of ethnic exclusion.
The Jubilee presidency is seen as a two-man show. This has contributed to the perception that Jubilee is not ethnically representative.
<h2>Raila Odinga</h2>
Odinga has many things going for him. High up on the list are his charisma and strong political mobilisation skills. Historically, Odinga has always been a formidable opposition politician; not being an incumbent has enabled him to galvanise effectively.
Odinga enjoys wider ethnic support compared to President Kenyatta, comprising among others the Kamba, Luhya, Luo and Maasai tribes. These communities comprise over a third of the voting population. But the disadvantage is their historically lower record of voter turnout.
At 72 years of age, Odinga represents the older generation of Kenyan leaders who joined politics in the 1970s and 80s. And this being his fourth attempt at the presidency, there’s lethargy among some of his supporters.
He’s viewed by some as power hungry and untrustworthy, especially because of his alleged association with Kenya’s 1982 coup. His calls for mass action after the contentious 2007 election, during a period that saw the displacement and death of thousands of Kenyans, also contributed to this perception.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-41597 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/raila_amolo_odinga_-_world_economic_forum_on_africa_2008_2.jpg" alt="Kenyan court orders politicians to be held over &quot;hate speech&quot;" width="800" height="490" />
Also to his disadvantage is an association with past corruption scandals during his term as prime minister, including the maize and Kazi Kwa Vijana youth programme scandals.
<h2>The main political formations</h2>
There are two main formations in the 2017 election &#8211; the Jubilee Party and the National Super Alliance.
The Jubilee Party, formed in September 2016, followed a merger between The National Alliance and the United Republican Party representing two ethnic communities &#8211; the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin. The Jubilee Party also has the support of other political parties including the Kenya African National Union, NARC Kenya, the Labour Party and the Democratic Party amongst others.
The National Super Alliance is a coalition of political parties formed in April 2017. Its leading lights are Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement, the Wiper Democratic Movement led by Kalonzo Musyoka, the Amani National Congress led by Musalia Mudavadi, Ford Kenya led by Moses Wetangula and Isaac Ruto’s Chama Cha Mashinani. The coalition brings together the Luo, Kamba and Luhya ethnic groups, and a section of the Kalenjin community.
In this election cycle party manifestos have become increasingly important. This explains the Jubilee administration’s scramble to complete promises outlined in its 2013 document.
The Jubilee Party has made even more promises in its recently launched manifesto. Three that have caught the public attention include the creation of 1.3 million jobs a year, free public secondary education and the expansion of Kenya’s food production capacity.
The National Super Alliance’s promises are more political. They include a constitutional amendment to provide for a hybrid executive system to foster national cohesion. Two other notable promises are to lower the cost of rent by enforcing the Rent Restriction Act and to implement free secondary education.
<h2>Strengths and weaknesses</h2>
The strengths of the Jubilee Party lie mainly in its incumbency and its development track record over the last four-and-a-half years. But the party has been weakened by divisions within its ranks. These were amplified during the campaign as disagreements broke out over the leadership of campaign teams. The ruling party is also handicapped to the extent that it’s not as ethnically diverse as its competitor.
The National Super Alliance’s main strength lies in its ethnic diversity. Its five principals represent different ethnic communities.
The super alliance also creatively captures the zeitgeist of a section of the electorate, with some of its campaign slogans such as vindu vichenjanga(‘things are a-changing’ in the Luhya dialect) making their way into popular use. It is riding on the euphoric wave that usually accompanies the hope of regime change.
One of its weaknesses, however, includes a perceived predilection to violence because the opposition has previously resorted to mass action. In 2016 for example, it organised a series of protests to mobilise for the removal of key members of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries commission, the body responsible for organising the general election.
Another weakness is its close association with allegedly corrupt financiers.
<h2>Key concerns</h2>
There is a perception that historically, the presidency has been the preserve of two ethnic groups – the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin. This feeling of disenfranchisement has become a key campaign issue.
There are however, some non-tribal issues that have taken the foreground. These include corruption, economic and social stability, lower cost of living and improved security.

Explainer: a breakdown of what you need to know about the Kenyan elections

Nelson Alusala | Senior Research Fellow, University of Pretoria
President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has barely five months to save his 17-year regime from a cataclysmic ending. According to the 31 December 2016 all-inclusive political agreement, Kabila should organise elections and hand over power.
But in a recent interview, Kabila said he wasn’t going to “promise anything” on when he would leave office. This stand is in violation of the political agreement brokered by the Conférence Episcopale Nationale du Congo (CENCO).
The agreement sets clear terms for Kabila’s exit. His second presidential term ended on 19 December 2016. The agreement allowed him an extension of one year on condition that he would neither seek a third term, nor attempt to amend the constitution to remain in power beyond December 2017.
But Kabila has not implemented the reforms that would pave way for an election. In addition, the country’s national elections commission shows no momentum. The country’s national elections commissioner, Corneille Nangaa, stated recently that presidential elections would probably not take place this year because of the conflict in the Kasai region and the fact that there isn’t a comprehensive electoral register.
The opposition called Nangaa’s statement a declaration of war.
Read together, the president’s unwillingness to give a clear indication that he will step down, and Nangaa’s projection that there might not be a 2017 election, point towards a well orchestrated plan to delay the vote.
This has deeply polarised the country which is on the brink of increased violence. With just five months before Kabila’s one-year grace period expires, a number of warning bells have gone off from various corners of the globe.
<h2>Delay tactics</h2>
Even before the expiry of his constitutional mandate in 2016 Kabila employed various strategies to prolong his stay in power. His game plan dates back to early 2011 when he amended the constitution to establish a single-round, simple-majority election system.
Since then he has made numerous other attempts to manipulate the system to his advantage. Three stand out.
In January 2015, the National Assembly passed a law that called for a national census as a precursor to national elections. The opposition parties and the public saw this as a ploy to enable Kabila to stay in power indefinitely – a national census exercise had the potential to go on for years.
After mass demonstrations across the country the senate was forced to renounce the move.
The second attempt came in May 2016 when the DRC’s constitutional court ruled that if the election did not take place by the end of his second term, Kabila could stay in office until a new president was elected. This ruling exploited a constitutional loophole which states that,
<blockquote>“ …if for whatever reason, there is not a new president or a president-elect in place at the time when the current president’s term ends, then the sitting president stays in place, until there is a new president elect.”</blockquote>
The court ruling triggered mass demonstrations particularly in the capital Kinshasa.
In a third attempt, Kabila set out to placate the opposition and to convince them that organising an election within the required time frame would be impractical. In November 2015 he announced that the country would engage in national, all inclusive political dialogue bringing together the opposition, civil society and religious groups.
He highlighted five key areas of discussion. They included creating a credible voters roll, agreeing on the election calendar, securing the election process, financing the poll, and the role of international partners in the elections.
Many in the country were sceptical about Kabila’s proposal and by June 2016 it hadn’t gained support. This was despite the African Union appointing Edem Kodjo to mediate the process.
A MONUSCO (the United Nations Mission in the Congo) report stated that the main opposition groupings – Dynamique de l’opposition, and the Groupe des sept (G7) &#8211; were describing the call for dialogue as a ‘trap’ set by Kabila.
Kodjo’s facilitation finally culminated in a political agreement between Kabila’s coalition and the Union pour la Nation Congolaise, an opposition party led by Vital Kamerhe. Among other controversial decisions, the agreement stipulated that the current president would remain in power until elections were held and his successor assumed office, in line with the May 2016 constitutional court ruling.
The rest of the opposition, which had boycotted Kodjos’s mediation, denounced the AU-led agreement. The effect was to split the country in two.
In an effort to break the impasse, a mediation led by CENCO organised consultations between the signatories and non-signatories to the AU-led agreement leading to the all inclusive political agreement of 31 December 2016. As mentioned above, Kabila seems to be ignoring its implementation.
<h2>Unheeded warnings</h2>
The UN has warned that the political impasse, rising insecurity across the country, and the worsening human rights and humanitarian situation could easily plunge the country into total chaos. In particular, it has pointed to the ongoing inter-ethnic violence in the Kasai region.
The world body has called for a successful political transition underpinned by free, fair and inclusive elections.
The UK has also cautioned that unless Kabila holds elections within the agreed time lines, the political uncertainty and instability in Kinshasa will spread across the country.
And the UN Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, has also warned that there’s a risk that the gains of the last 17 years will be reversed if Kabila fails to arrange a successful transition.
A change of heart by Kabila could see him go down in history as the first Congolese president to hand over power democratically. The decisions he makes in the next five months will determine whether his 17-year rule will be worthy a legacy.

Op-Ed: Why Kabila’s bid to remain in power is bad news for the DRC

The new railway linking Nairobi to the port of Mombasa was supposed to be the crowning achievement of an infrastructure bonanza propelling President Uhuru Kenyatta to victory in Kenya&#8217;s Aug. 8 polls.
    Instead, more than two months after Kenyatta inaugurated it to great fanfare, the Chinese-built line is plagued with administrative problems, particularly the ticketing process that has made it impossible to buy tickets online or on the day of travel, for example.
    The problem, critics say, is that the $3.2 billion project was rushed to completion ahead of the elections, before proper planning for issues such as transport to the line&#8217;s terminuses on the outskirts of the two traffic-clogged cities.
    The government can claim some successes, notably 10,000 km of new roads built during Kenyatta&#8217;s five-year term.
&#8220;We have invested heavily in infrastructure because it is the driver of economic growth and a key plank of our transformational agenda,&#8221; Kenyatta told a campaign rally in central Kenya in June.
But the railway, whose price tag helped send Kenya&#8217;s debt soaring above 50 percent of economic output, is not the only project facing problems.
    Last month, a $12-million bridge in western Kenya, visited by Kenyatta while it was being built by a Chinese firm, collapsed before it was completed. A ferry ramp near Mombasa collapsed in April, a month after its inauguration by Kenyatta.
   The new Nairobi-Mombasa railway has slashed to just over four hours what was a 12-hour journey on a line built by Kenya&#8217;s British colonial rulers a century ago.
    But the hassle of buying a ticket has discouraged customers. In addition to the lack of online purchasing, tickets must be bought three days in advance and only one-way, meaning prospective travellers make multiple early morning trips to buy tickets at the stations.
    Given that Kenya&#8217;s mobile phone payment system is among the most advanced in the world, there is no excuse for the antiquated purchasing system, frustrated customers say.
<h3 data-reactid="48">    Fully Booked</h3>
    Peter Kialo had nearly reached the front of the queue at the Nairobi ticket office last week, an hour after it opened, when he discovered the 700-shilling ($7) economy class tickets had sold out, leaving only first class available at 1,500 shillings.
    &#8220;How come the train already fully booked and the office has only just opened?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;I don’t understand.&#8221;
    A spokesman for Kenya Railways told Reuters that while the state-owned company owned the railway, China Roads and Bridges Corp, the company that built the line, has the contract to manage operations, including ticketing.
    Transport Minister James Wainaina Macharia said the ticketing problems were a minor part of a major achievement. He denied the railway&#8217;s opening had been rushed to be ready for elections and said the online payment system was being tested to ensure it was safe from hacking.
    &#8220;As for ticketing, that is an administrative issue that you&#8217;d expect to happen for any major operation,&#8221; he said.
<div class="DPSlot_container_2dHIN DPSlot_inline_1oeo6 in-article-tag"></div>
    He acknowledged &#8220;middlemen&#8221; buying tickets for resale were a problem, however. A Mombasa court last month charged five people with selling tickets without permission from Kenya Railways.
    The middlemen seem to have inside help, customers complain. When a handful of men appeared within the locked gates at the head of the queue last week in Nairobi, just before the office opened at 7 a.m., security guards ignored customer protests.
    Shouts of &#8220;Who are they?&#8221; and &#8220;That&#8217;s not fair!&#8221; rose from the queue.
    Kenya Railways managing director Atana Maina issued a statement last week acknowledging problems and announcing the company hoped to launch an online payment system and a mobile application &#8220;in the next few weeks&#8221;.
<div class="Attribution_attribution_o4ojT" data-reactid="58">
Editing by Katharine Houreld and Sonya Hepinstall
</div>

Kenya’s new $3.2BN railway frustrates customers ahead of polls

Kenya&#8217;s ruling party cannot win next week&#8217;s national elections without rigging the result, opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Wednesday, adopting a hard-line stance likely to stoke public fears of violence.
&#8220;There is no other way that Jubilee can win elections other than through rigging and they know it &#8211; that is why they are making all the efforts,&#8221; he told Reuters as he left an election rally in the town of Suswa near the capital.
&#8220;I&#8217;m very confident that we are going to get a very, very decisive victory,&#8221; he said.
A veteran opposition politician, Odinga is running against President Uhuru Kenyatta in the Aug. 8 polls, in which Kenyans will choose a new president, MPs and local officials.
Many Kenyans are jittery, fearing a repeat of the 2007 polls, when Odinga alleged rigging and called for demonstrations after tallying was abruptly stopped and a winner announced.
More than 1,200 people were killed in a campaign of orchestrated ethnic violence that followed. Kenyatta and his now-deputy, William Ruto, were charged at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, but the case against them collapsed.
Odinga lost again in 2013 and alleged rigging due to the widespread breakdown of electronic voter ID machines, but he limited his challenges to the courts, not the streets, and the elections eventually passed off peacefully.
On Wednesday, Odinga running mate Kalonzo Musyoka told voters to stay near polling stations after the vote to prevent rigging.
&#8220;When you vote, don&#8217;t go home, because Jubilee is planning to rig. Watch your vote,&#8221; he told the crowd at the Suswa rally, many of whom wore bright orange and red Maasai blankets and welcomed him with shouts and waves of ceremonial clubs and sticks. Jubilee is Kenyatta&#8217;s party.
<h3 data-reactid="68">Rigging Fears</h3>
The murder this weekend of a top election official, whose mutilated corpse was found in a Nairobi mortuary, shocked Kenyans and raised questions about the security of the voting system.
Kenyan media have suggested the killing of Chris Msando may be linked to his role as head the election&#8217;s electronic communication technology.
Officials assured Kenya&#8217;s 49 million people the system was safe, but a simulation exercise for the media raised questions, especially when Odinga received slightly fewer votes than other candidates in what was meant to be an equal vote split.
Election commissioner Abdi Yakub Guliye said the discrepancies were typos by polling staff.
&#8220;Many of them have had training probably not sufficient to internalize the working of the kit. So it is possible somebody may mistype a number,&#8221; he said. &#8220;For such large number of polling stations, we are anticipating it may happen, inadvertently of course.&#8221;
The live-streaming of the simulation stopped after four outlets had transmitted their results. On polling day, there will be 40,883.
In case of any discrepancy, the final result will be taken from signed tally sheets from each constituency, photographs of which will also be transmitted to the tallying center. The portal showing these sheets is not yet ready.
Mulle Musau, the head of the largest group of domestic observers, said he hoped the glitches could be ironed out.
&#8220;They did notice a few hitches but they said they are able to deal with them. This is part of the technical issues they are testing,&#8221; he said.
<div class="Attribution_attribution_o4ojT" data-reactid="78">
Additional reporting by John Ndiso and Rajiv Golla in Nairobi; writing by Katharine Houreld; editing by Larry King
</div>

Kenya ruling party can win only by rigging vote: Odinga

Rwanda&#8217;s Frank Habineza, the only registered opposition leader competing against President Paul Kagame in Friday&#8217;s elections, pledged on Wednesday to retry political prisoners if he&#8217;s elected.
Appearing in the last day of campaigning, Habineza told supporters that he would take up the cause of many jailed Rwandan dissidents he said were &#8220;unfairly treated&#8221; in their sentencing.
&#8220;What we have decided is that we are going to put up a special tribunal to retry those political prisoners,&#8221; he told a gathering of his supporters in the capital Kigali.
Rwandans vote two days from now in an election that analysts the 59-year-old Kagame will win. He was allowed to seek a third term after constitutional changes were approved in a 2015 referendum by 98 percent of the vote, a figure the opposition and Western diplomats described as suspiciously high.
Kagame restored stability to Rwanda after its 1994 civil strife ended in genocide, presiding over rapid economic growth and a relatively corruption-free government. But his critics say economic progress has come at the expense of civil liberties.
Some of his political opponents were killed after they fled abroad, in cases that remain unsolved. Many have been arrested.
Habineza cited the case of Victoire Ingabire, who is serving a 15-year jail sentence on charges of genocide denial. She had come back to Rwanda in January 2010 from exile in the Netherlands to contest a presidential election in 2010.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has said the charges were politically motivated and that the trial raised questions about the independence of the judiciary.
&#8220;You have seen these cases. Always the international community says their cases have not been properly handled,&#8221; said Habineza, who claims his Democratic Green Party of Rwanda has two million supporters in the country of over 10 million people.
&#8220;The time has come: President Kagame is going on Friday,&#8221; he said to applause.
The constitutional changes approved by parliament could allow Kagame to rule until 2034, when he would turn 76.
&#8220;Kagame has done a lot for the growth of the country, but clinging onto power can weaken him until he is like Zimbabwe&#8217;s Mugabe,&#8221; one taxi biker who was at the rally told Reuters. He asked not to be named.
<div class="Attribution_attribution_o4ojT" data-reactid="50">
Writing by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Larry King
</div>

Rwandan candidate pledges retrial of jailed dissidents if elected

One of South Africa&#8217;s Gupta brothers said leaked emails suggesting his family used links to President Jacob Zuma to win contracts and influence decisions were fake, a rare intervention in a scandal that has rocked the government.
Atul Gupta &#8211; whose family business empire spans media, mining and technology &#8211; told the BBC he had no idea where more than 100,000 documents and emails released in the media since June had come from.
&#8220;There&#8217;s no authenticity of Gupta leaks at all,&#8221; he said, without suggesting who might have forged them or addressing specific allegations in the paperwork.
Senior members of the ruling African National Congress party have accused the three Gupta brothers of using their relationship with Zuma to wield influence and win business.
Media reports based on the emails have drawn several international firms into a scandal that has prompted politicians to call for a judicial enquiry and Zuma&#8217;s resignation.
Zuma and the Guptas have denied wrongdoing. A family spokesman last month said the allegations were false and part of a &#8220;blatantly political campaign&#8221;.
<h3 data-reactid="44">Pr Campaign</h3>
Atul Gupta said his family also had no role in a publicity campaign by London-based public relations firm Bell Pottinger that cast enemies of Zuma as agents of &#8220;white monopoly capital&#8221;.
The slogan, aired frequently on a Gupta-owned television station, quickly gained traction in a country where the white minority still wields disproportionate economic clout two decades after the end of apartheid.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and opposition members have said the campaign inflamed racial tensions.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know what this narrative comes from. White monopoly capital, if you go research any revolutionary speech in this country, always existed. I don&#8217;t know where any of these terms come from, believe me,&#8221; he told BBC Radio 4&#8217;s World at One show on Tuesday.
The leaked emails suggested Bell Pottinger worked with Zuma&#8217;s son, Duduzane, who was then a director at a subsidiary of the Gupta-controlled Oakbay company, to create a &#8220;narrative that grabs the attention of the grassroots&#8221;.
Bell Pottinger ended its work with Oakbay in April and last month apologised for the campaign and fired a partner in charge of it.
The firm is also under investigation by Britain&#8217;s Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) after a complaint from South Africa&#8217;s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA).
&#8220;It wasn&#8217;t an intention to play with race, it was an intention to highlight a very real issue,&#8221; Bell Pottinger&#8217;s Chief Executive James Henderson told the BBC.
&#8220;Knowing what I know now, clearly in hindsight, they (the team) got involved in a situation which was much more political than clearly had been anticipated by them at the time.&#8221;
<div class="Attribution_attribution_o4ojT" data-reactid="54">
Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by James Macharia and Andrew Heavens
</div>

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Kenya ruling party can win only by rigging vote: Odinga

Rwandan candidate pledges retrial of jailed dissidents if elected

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