Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport (GDRT) has entered into an agreement with Steyn City Properties for the upgrading of Cedar Road. The planned improvements will add significant value to improving the transport infrastructure in the area and relieve traffic congestion at key intersections – thereby contributing to the betterment of economic sustainability in the area.
Cedar Road is an important provincial arterial, linking the Lanseria area with the Fourways Precinct passing Steyn City, Dainfern, Chartwell, Broad Acres and Lone Hill.  It also serves as the primary access route to the Fourways Life Hospital. 
As with most network linkages within Gauteng’s major residential and commercial areas, traffic volumes within the Fourways Precinct, and in particular along Cedar Road, has increase significantly over the last few years. Peak hour traffic reaches almost 2000 vehicles and is projected to grow further in the future. Associated with this, the link is under significant strain from a capacity, as well as a pavement structure, point of view.
Steyn City Properties commissioned WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, Africa, at an early stage in the project to investigate the feasibility of upgrading Cedar Road as part of the developer’s investment in the transport infrastructure for the region – for improved access and sustainability of the ecosystem of the surrounding area.
“From our initial investigations we found that the existing Cedar Road is not in a great state, particularly from a pavement structure perspective. We also identified important capacity improvements from the regional Traffic Master Plan that are direly needed – and once completed will add immense value for the area” says Francois van Rensburg, Divisional Director, Transportation and Infrastructure, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, Africa.
Taking the magnitude of the work required for the upgrading and rehabilitation of the route into consideration, WSP and Steyn City Properties approached the GDRT to assist with the upgrading of Cedar Road. The provincial Department considered this link an important one in their macro plan to support development of the Gauteng province and improved linkages to vital economic nodes like Fourways, Lanseria and those in between – and entered into an agreement with the property developer.
The project includes doubling the road to four lanes, two per direction, from Uranium road up to Valley Road. However, the section of Cedar between Witkoppen has been rehabilitated without additional lanes. At various intersections additional turning lanes will be constructed, with traffic signals upgraded at the Lombardy intersection.
The existing road will also be rehabilitated to accommodate the increased traffic loads. Furthermore, stormwater systems and non-motorised transport facilities will be provided along the route – where some current stormwater problems experienced at the intersection of Frederick and Cedar Road will also be addressed. To improve traffic and pedestrian safety, the project team is also in discussions with Joburg City Power regarding the installation of street lighting along the route.
“This will be the second phase for the upgrading of Cedar Road, as the phase for the project was completed for the section of Cedar Road from Valley Road up to Runnymead in 2016. The project was completed with great success and the Contractor met all the procurement targets. We anticipate that the second phase will achieve the same success and the new contract will certainly encourage employment, skills development opportunities, training and economic empowerment to the local community” adds van Rensburg.
The contract value for this second phase equates to approximately R67million (excl. VAT). The project will be constructed over eleven months and the specific targets have been set in the Construction Contract to secure the involvement of SMEs and the empowerment of local labour. Thirty percent of all labour on the project must be sourced locally, while forty percent of the contract value must be spent through the utilisation of qualified SMEs, BBBEE contractors and woman-owned suppliers and sub-contractors.
“The expected value that these upgrades will offer to the local area cannot be underestimated. We are conscious though that there may be some inconvenience to commenters during the construction phase, as the project is limited in available road reserves to accommodate the existing traffic. However, while construction is undertaken Cedar Road will be widened on both sides, in as far as possible, to address this challenge. Motorists however, are also asked to be patient and considerate of the conditions during the construction period,” concludes van Rensburg.﻿

Joburg's Cedar Road to get an upgrade

NEW YORK &#8211; The parlous story of African economic and social development since independence best expressed in the failure to achieve the autonomous capacity for self-actuated development and in particular to create conditions of national and continental modern mass production and prosperity is well known and need not be repeated.
It is enough to re-state that Africa’s development failure was because of the leaderships’ choice to retain, maintain and expand the inherited exocentric colonial system of development incapacitation, primary commodity export, import dependency and poverty generation.
 The progressive efforts of some African states and leaders to change the system and create self-reliant economies were stymied by the leaderships’ ideological inadequacies and dependency, the balance of payment crises of the late 1970s and 1980s and the subsequent economic crises and decline. 
This provided the avenue for Western multilateral imperialist agencies  the World Bank and the IMF &#8211; to successfully infiltrate into Africa, re-colonize African states and convert them into neo-colonial out-posts of the so-called neo-liberal consensus.This framework embodied in the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) with its destructives conditionalities: currency devaluation, trade liberalization, subsidy removal, deregulation and privatization, re-directed the African states to focus on expanded raw materials production and exports and to abandon industrialization and development capacitation.
The application of these anti-development SAP dogmas in the 1980s and 1990s ushered in two decades of deepening indebtedness, serious economic crises, de-industrialization, socio-economic decline, deepening impoverishment and political repression. On the other hand, the period also saw the upsurge of popular democratisation struggles, civil rights campaigns, the restoration democracy, and the establishment of electoral democracy and the decline of military interventions in African politics.
In the economic sphere, there were innovative dependency-reducing responses. This was because among businesses there was an increased re-orientation toward local sourcing of well-known agricultural and mineral endowments to expand production. This led to the emergence of new economic sectors and especially the expansion of cottage, small and medium scale consumer goods industries which were operationally autonomous due to the increased utilization of local resources for production and self-development.
 In addition there was relative political stability and policy and institutional the support for businesses through the creation of enabling environments for attracting investments.
 It was partly because of these new domestic conditions and the economic self-activation, and the partly because of return of better commodity prices in the first decade of the 21st century that the Western media fabricated and propagated the new view of “Africa Rising”. This became a very popular and re-assuring slogan among some African leaders, politicians and intelligentsia.
 However, it was an insecure condition because a “Rising Africa” whose upsurge is generated by increased external demand for primary commodities is essentially insecure. It does not represent genuine African development that is based on expansive domestic production and prosperity generation. It merely reinforces African dependency on primary commodity export and its dependence on the importation of manufactured goods. It is evaporating with the speed with which it was proclaimed.
 But there was a more consequential development story of this period that ushered in what this author describes as the Affirmative African Narrative phase of development. This is the progressive assumption by African businesses of the leadership role in promoting national and pan-African development. This new trend of African self-development is captured by the new concept of “Africans Investing in Africa” This is the process by which African industrial, service, and commercial enterprises began to make large-scale investments in many different African countries.
The investments involve for example the expansion of Banks, telecommunication companies, trading companies and so on. Examples of these include Nigerians Banks like UBA, Zenith, Access, First Bank; South African banks like Standard Bank and Moroccan Banks; Telecommunication companies such as MTN of South Africa, ECONET of Zimbabwe and GLOBACOM of Nigeria. Others are Shoprite, Coca cola and South African Breweries.
 While Africans investing in Africa is becoming common and commendable, it is important to emphasize that NOT ALL African investments in Africa are of equal economic importance or strategic development value. For example, African investments like Shoprite and similar companies which merely establish commercial or trading enterprises that do not add value to African economies are no different from traditional non-African FDI companies that are established to create captive markets for products from their home countries and thereby maximally exploit Africa.
 On the other hand, African companies that make investments that are decisive and transformational are those that deliberately promote and advance African development capacitation, through local resource exploitation, mass industrialization, large scale industrial, agricultural and mineral production, and beneficiation for internal use.
 In terms of investment for development capacitation through local resource utilization and valorization, the vanguard African company is the Dangote Group. In order to ensure that Africa achieves self-sufficiency in the critically important infrastructure development requirement – CEMENT – Dangote embarked on a pan-African investment strategy to establish integrated plants, or grinding plants or cement terminals in African countries according to their resource endowments. The Group’s ultimate objective is become the ascendant cement manufacturing company in Africa. There is no question that the Dangotean strategy of development capacitation through local resource exploitation, mass industrial production and domestic prosperity-generation is what Africa requires to become the self-actuated mover of its own development and to create a secure development upsurge and continental prosperity that does not depend on the vagaries of external demand for primary commodities.
 This Dangotean transformational mission and project is now been threatened by what seems like the unwillingness of African countries to respect and maintain carefully crafted legal investment agreements as sacrosanct documents and binding commitments. Within the past year the Group has faced major challenges as a result of the failure of some African states to keep their sides of the bargain or agreements concluded with Dangote Group. This happened late last year in Tanzania when the government seemed to renege on some elements within the agreements reached with the Dangote Group to give it concessions and incentives for the massive investments of over $500 million dollars that the Group made in the construction of the monumental cement plant in Mtwara, Tanzania.
This Dangote Cement plant with its 3 million metric tonnes per annum capacity is the largest cement plant in Eastern Africa. In addition to the cement plant, other associated Dangote development projects include the construction of a coal power plant and a jetty. While these are primarily beneficial to the Groups business, they also represent important investments and permanent additions to Tanzania’s power and sea transport sectors.
 Together these projects have generated significant direct employment opportunities and as they mature and attain full production capacity the multiplier effects in various sub-sectors would be expansive and extensive, thereby creating prosperity and income in the community as well as revenues for the local, regional and national the governments. But due to the problems Dangote had to temporarily shut down the plant; and after negotiations and assurances that restored the original terms, the plant resumed production. This Dangotean Tanzanian experience of government infidelity to the sanctity of agreements can only create profound doubts among business people on the readiness of African states and leaders to move Africa forward.
 But the Group’s challenges in Africa are not over. Just recently, in Ethiopia, the regional government of Oromo Regional State where Dangote’s new over $400 million dollar, 2.5 million metric tonnes per annum cement plant is located came up with new conditions that are bound to disrupt the operations of the Dangote plant. In what it claimed is an attempt to provide employment for jobless Oromo youth it decided to withdraw all mining licences and agreements already concluded with Dangote and similar other companies with mining concessions. In its place the regional government claimed that it would create youth owned companies that would now supply the minerals required by the cement and other plants.
 This action of the Oromo regional government in illegally annulling legally approved mining agreements with the Dangote Group and other companies raise major questions on the genuine preparedness of African states, politicians, and bureaucrats to foster Africa’s self-development through Africans investing in Africa. Without question the action of these governments represents major challenges to Africans assumption of responsibility for their development and the emergent Affirmative Africa Narrative.
In fact at its core, these anti-investment actions are a repudiation of the long-standing aspirations of Pan-Africanism and its advocates, and the practical commitment of the continental organizations like the former Organization of African Union (OAU) and the current African Union (AU) to promote African-led development through investments, intra-African trade and exchange, as instruments for creating secure African development and domestic prosperity-generation.
 This is a good example of how some African leaderships’ represent serious obstacles to African development. Quite clearly any aspiration for Africa’s take off through self-actuated development as represented by the transformational efforts of Dangote and similar committed pan-African economic revolutionaries is weakened by such leadership unfaithfulness, irresponsibility and lack of serious commitments to African investors.
 Despite these set-backs, it is important for African states and the continental and regional economic groups to reaffirm their commitment to African-led transformational industrial development as the basis for Africa’s capacitation for self-actuated development. In this light, it is imperative for the AU and its various economic agencies to design Continental Investment Protection Agreements that would commit African states to respect and uphold already approved agreements and avoid arbitrary nullifications of legally binding instruments. An additional guarantor is for each African state to negotiate investment protection treaties with each other. In fact this is especially indicated for countries such as Nigeria where investors are increasingly embarking on Pan-African development investments.
 Finally, pan-African transformational investors like Dangote should remain committed and not be discouraged by these clearly disruptive actions of hapless, backward and anti-African development leaders. The Dangotes’ of Africa as continental transformational vanguards should remain firmly committed to their chosen paths of legal profit making and simultaneous contribution to Africa’s transformation, economic development, prosperity-generation, psychological liberation, and the restoration of Africans dignity and equality with others in the world. These are worthwhile and enduring ideals and challenges that transformational revolutionaries and societal game-changers are bound to encounter and overcome so as to create new worlds.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="/media/19345066/ehiedu_iweriebor_picture_596x414.jpg" width="596" height="414" alt="Ehiedu Iweriebor Picture"/>﻿ Ehiedu Iweriebor is a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies, Hunter College, City University of New York, USA.﻿

Op-Ed: African challenges to African development

The cool Highveld breeze snaps the corner of the neon-yellow safety waistcoat as she steps out of the office building into the yard, the white hard-hat sitting comfortably on her head.
Fortunate Mdanda takes confident strides in a traditionally male world of metal and machines. There are other women through the workshop doors, setting off sprays of sparks as they wield welders and grinders. Under Fortunate’s watchful eye as CEO of Smith Capital Equipment, there is an internship programme for women, and the company actively recruits female engineers.
Her background is not in engineering, but her corporate experience in business strategy, process and finance has amply equipped her for the position.
If you have a mind for business, there is no need to feel restricted to more traditionally female pursuits. “I’ve never looked at industries based on gender. I’ve looked at what one can contribute. So it is a consolidated effort of all the right skills within the business that makes it successful,” she says.
When Fortunate and Sipho Mdanda took ownership of Smith Capital Equipment on the 2nd of November 2015, the existing management and workforce were in for a major culture change.
After over two decades of democratic governance in South Africa, the company was still caught up in an apartheid time warp, with separate amenities for the races.
With racial and gender barriers swept aside, there was yet another sweeping change. The company’s 84 employees became shareholders.  
“We created a shareholding for both management and staff, across race, across gender, so it’s inclusive, it’s a very exciting space for all of us at Smith Capital,” says Fortunate.
But change always comes with some growing pains. “I must admit at the beginning it is a new concept when people are told they are shareholders. It comes with excitement, but they’re sort of sceptical. What does that bring? Is there money into our pocket immediately? So it took us a while to communicate the upside of being a shareholder and the responsibilities that come with being a shareholder,” she says.
“But now we’re at a space where we all really understand and are excited about being shareholders. People don’t just come in, do their work and walk out. There is transparency, there is excitement in terms of where the business is going, everyone shares in everything, the strategies of the business, the prospects, and we all share in the excitements and the challenges that we face as a business.”
The core business of this 43 year old company is the manufacturing of on-road aerial platforms and drilling rigs used for water well and hard rock surface drilling in the mining industry and pole planting for new infrastructure. Equipment is locally designed and manufactured, with drilling rigs and aerial platforms boasting over 90% local content.
Then there is the import side of the business, with truck mounted cranes brought in from Italy, as well as the ongoing service aspect of the business.
Through a recently introduced rental division, the company encourages local contractors, who experience financial barriers to entry and cannot afford upfront procurement the necessary capital equipment they need to deliver on contracts they obtain.
“This division is actually picking up very well,” Fortunate explains, “and also we are talking to other DFI’s in terms of coming up with a plan how we can support emerging contractors.”
Repairs and maintenance as well as regular load-testing are other important facets of the business.
More black industrialists are emerging with encouragement from the government. The biggest barrier to entry has been funding. “Now with the DFI (development finance institutions) being open to assisting entrepreneurs growing into being industrialists, I see endless opportunities being presented,” she says.
What is important here is that it goes beyond more than purely facilitating funding, but in providing support in skills training, and opening business opportunities and new markets.
“Sometimes you find you have the best product but you can’t put it out there, you can’t export it because you find every process when it comes to structured processes that you need to go through are actually barriers to making one successful.”
The Gauteng Provincial Government and the City of Ekurhuleni, where Smith Capital Equipment is headquartered, have made efforts to make it easier to do business.
Although the company had been exporting for years, it hadn’t been a major strategy. “Now we’re turning that around, we’re sending units into Africa, which is very impressive. We’re getting enquiries, a lot as well, because our products are African products, not South African products. They are designed for the African terrain. It is different to sending a product anywhere in the world. So we understand what Africa is about, we understand the terrain and we understand our neighbouring countries as well, so doing business with them is quite interesting and exciting and there is actually an increase in opportunities that are being presented.”
Smith Capital Equipment falls under the umbrella of Isipho Capital Holdings, which is wholly owned by Fortunate and her husband Sipho Mdanda. Their first acquisition was Kholeka Engineering, a manufacturer of truck bodies and trailers, based in KwaZulu-Natal.
“We funded it from our own savings. All we wanted to do was to have the skin in the game and to ensure that we can prove to ourselves that we can work hard and turn the business around. That happened and then came the Smith Capital deal. A few other deals are in the pipeline, so it’s quite exciting,” Fortunate says.
Because Smith Capital Equipment required considerable investment, the Mdandas secured a loan of R41 million (around $3 million) through the National Empowerment Fund. The company has since been identified as one of the 100 Black Industrialists by the Department of Trade and Industry, has established strong BEE credentials and is ISO 9001 registered.
Looking at the day-to-day operations of Smith Capital and the commitment and enthusiasm of their 84 shareholders, the dreams and plans for an expanding Isipho Capital Holdings seem bright and achievable. The future will tell if this is the birth of a new African business dynasty.
While there is much to do in running the business and creating and building an inclusive culture, there is much industry networking to be done as well.
“Sadly, engineer-run businesses are inward looking, that’s how Smith Capital was. But, with our experiences from corporate, you learn that business doesn’t come to you, you go look for business. You go make your presence felt and you get known what your offering is, which makes a world of difference. There is no platform that doesn’t exist in growing and advancing your business and creating the network that it might not be for the now, but next time around you thought that I met a certain person at dinner, and then you can just pick up with them and you make business,” Fortunate says.
While Fortunate has achieved much in the business arena, she defines as her biggest achievement her and Sipho’s two teenage children – 18-year-old son Luyanda and 15-year-old daughter Noluthando.
No doubt she is a great role model to Noluthando, as she actively supports the development of women in her industry. Her advice for young women wanting to break into any previously male dominated industry is to be positive and prepared to learn. “Open yourself to learning and embrace the opportunities. With anything you do there will be challenges, but if you’re open minded and positive about it and put in the hours in terms of the hard work, it works out well.”﻿

Lifting hurdles even a crane can't

Activity in Kenya&#8217;s private sector barely grew last month as slower credit growth and an ongoing drought in the country weighed on output, hiring and sales, a survey showed on Friday.
The Markit Stanbic Bank Kenya Purchasing Managers&#8217; Index (PMI) dropped to 50.1, a record low since the survey began in January 2014, down from 52.0 in January. A reading above 50.0 marks growth.
&#8220;The ongoing drought and decline in private sector credit access will inevitably lead to deterioration in business conditions within the Kenyan private sector,&#8221; said Jibran Qureishi, regional economist for East Africa at Stanbic.
Like other countries in the region, Kenya is experiencing a drought that has hurt farming and left millions in need of food aid. Qureishi said if there is inadequate rainfall from next month, firms will face a tougher situation.
&#8220;This month&#8217;s historic low reading is symptomatic of these risks that we are flagging&#8230; we may potentially see an entrenched slowdown within the business operating environment,&#8221; he said.
Private sector credit growth, which started weakening at the end of 2015 after the central bank toughened supervision, stood at 4.3 percent in December, the central bank said, far below the double-digit growth rate it considers ideal.
 
Detailed PMI data are only available under licence from Markit and customers need to apply to Markit for a licence.
To subscribe to the full data, click on the link below: <a href="http://www.markit.com/Contact-Us">www.markit.com/Contact-Us</a>
For further information, please phone Markit on +44 20 72602454 or email economics@markit.com
 
(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Toby Chopra)﻿

Kenya private sector activity slows down due to drought

Zimbabwe has appealed for international help for victims of floods that have left 246 people dead and displaced hundreds since December when torrential rains started pounding a country emerging from severe drought.
An El Nino-induced drought last year scorched crops in the southern African country, leaving more than 4 million in need of food aid, but Zimbabweans are now having to contend with floods after receiving above-normal rains.
Minister for local government Saviour Kasukuwere said floods had swept through villages in the southern and southwestern parts of Zimbabwe, destroying roads, crops and livestock and forcing people into temporary government shelter.
Kasukuwere said nearly 2,000 people were homeless, 74 schools were damaged and 70 dams had burst.
President Robert Mugabe&#8217;s cash-strapped government has struggled to manage the inundation, whose effects were most severe in the areas hit hardest by last year&#8217;s drought. Urban areas have not been spared, with many roads badly damaged.
&#8220;I am therefore appealing to the development partners, private sector and general public, inclusive of those in the diaspora, to rally with the government to support the emergency relieve programmes,&#8221; Kasukuwere said in a statement.
The government is seeking tents, drugs and food for those displaced by the floods, he added.
 
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Ed Cropley)﻿

Zimbabwe seeks foreign help for flood victims

Democratic Republic of Congo&#8217;s main opposition coalition said it had named the son of its late leader Etienne Tshisekedi to succeed him on Thursday, but some within the opposition rejected the choice.
Felix Tshisekedi was chosen to lead the alliance of some of the country&#8217;s largest opposition parties, which was thrown into crisis by the death of his father in Brussels last month, aged 84.
Tshisekedi led the bloc during negotiations in December that resulted in a deal obliging President Joseph Kabila to step down after elections that must happen this year.
His death sparked clashes between supporters and security forces in the capital Kinshasa, but it also left opposition to Kabila divided, which has played into his hands.
Kabila, the country&#8217;s leader since 2001, remained in power when his constitutional mandate expired on Dec. 19, sparking unrest that stoked fears of Congo sliding back into the anarchy and civil war of the turn of the century.
&#8220;It’s Felix who is the president of the movement,&#8221; Jose Endundo, a leader within the coalition, told Reuters by telephone.
But Endundo said that at least two of the nine political platforms represented in the coalition did not accept the process which led to the choice of Felix Tshisekedi as leader and former Kabila ally Pierre Lumbi as president of the bloc&#8217;s political bureau.
Martin Fayulu, a prominent opposition leader who was competing with Lumbi to lead the political bureau, said that the posts were supposed to be decided by consensus but instead ended up being determined by majority rule.
&#8220;The population is not going to be happy when they learn that,&#8221; Fayulu told Reuters.
 
(Reporting by Aaron Ross; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)﻿

Late Congo opposition leader's son named as successor

Content presented by <a href="https://www.discovery.co.za/portal/">﻿</a><a href="https://www.discovery.co.za/portal/">﻿﻿</a>﻿KZN Economic Council﻿
According to a study from the International Finance Corporation, small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) account for more than half of all formal jobs worldwide. With this in mind KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa’s second most populous province hosted its 4th KZN Economic Council Roundtable. Discussions that dominated the order of the day included policies and regulations, the role played by both the government and private sector, current trends and the over-all current SMME landscape in the province.
At the roundtable, it was heard that big economies are sustained by a vibrant SMME sector. Furthermore, a number of countries depend on small business for economic growth. In KZN, cooperatives are engaged to join big-businesses to continue to grow.
The province’s MEC for Economic Development, Tourism &amp; Environmental Affairs, Sihle Zikalala adds that the current landscape in KZN is showing substantial progress.
Zikalala further says in KZN, 19% of people are employed in the informal economy and of this figure, 48% are women and 90% are black.
The imbalance, Zikalala adds, is because of the country’s historical background. “SMMEs and cooperatives are the first step towards integration of the mainstream economy.”
An inclusive economic environment where cooperatives can be provided with a gentle entry into the mainstream economy is being highly encouraged, throughout the province.
Among the panellists was also a representative from civil society, Sthembiso Madlala. She reckons KZN is a progressive province regarding policy and strategy among other aspects.
“KZN is the only province that has the informal economy policy ahead in the game. However, where we are lacking is in implementation of those policies,” he says.
“I am not a fan of cooperatives, because I think it is an off-shelf model taken from Europe or USA  and introduced as if the local should embrace it without considering all the technical dimensions,” says the thought leader on the panel, Anton Krone.
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ttBrs5PQhXc" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
Krone is also the Executive Director of an NGO called SaveAct. He explains it developed a stokvel model in 2008 which since then now sees R1 billion in capital.
“We have about 55 000 members and members get an average of 31% returns on their savings in their groups though group lending,” he says.
MEC Zikalala went on to say government must not neglect the idea that business and workers can work together and gave light to their programme called “Set-Aside”, which will see, from the provincial procurement, 30% for women, 35% for the youth, 5% for the disabled and 10% for veterans set aside.
The KZN Economic Council debate was both robust and informative. It highlighted the vital role the informal economy sector plays in advancing equitable and inclusive economic growth in KZN, and over-all the country.﻿

How S.A's second most populous province is looking to boost small businesses

In keeping with a two decades long diplomatic tradition, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi chose Africa for his first overseas visit of 2017. Wang’s decision to make Africa his first stop on a <a style="font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400;" href="http://wcm.fmprc.gov.cn/pub/zflt/eng/zxxx/t1430750.htm">five-nation tour</a> in early January highlights the importance China places on its relations with Africa. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/73452/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" width="1" height="1" alt="The Conversation" style="font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400;"/>
Dramatic claims are often made about relations between China and African countries. China is often portrayed as either a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/china-into-africa/">pariah or a saviour</a>. This is also true in the aid world, where there is a pervasive argument that China is upending the dominance of traditional foreign aid donors.
According to this rhetoric, the emergence of China as a big player in African development <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2010.01662.x/abstract">increases African power</a> vis–à–vis traditional donors. The assumption is that financing from China allows governments to decline aid from donors like the US or the World Bank. This gives African governments more <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2011.01695.x/abstract">“room to maneuver”</a>.
This claim, however, is largely based on narratives about the rise of China in Africa that are highly susceptible to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-dragons-gift-9780199550227?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;">exaggeration</a>. In research recently published, I draw on new evidence to test the claim that China is <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ia/article/2981808/Is">eroding</a> the bargaining power of traditional donors in Africa. My research suggests that we should be deeply sceptical of claims that China is causing a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2008.00765.x/abstract">“silent revolution”</a> in international development.
<h2>Reality versus rhetoric</h2>
Estimates on aid to China are often grossly <a href="http://www.chinaafricarealstory.com/2013/04/rubbery-numbers-on-chinese-aid.html">inflated</a>. China does not publicly <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dech.12060/abstract">release</a> figures on its official finance. Therefore, estimates are often based on media reports of promised aid that may or may not actually arrive, and foreign direct investment is often conflated with official finance. Still Chinese aid to Africa is clearly growing.
To investigate the claim that finance from China is decreasing the bargaining power of traditional donors, I first surveyed 49 high-ranking donor officials working for 23 different donor agencies in 15 African countries. When asked directly whether China is decreasing their agency’s bargaining power, the largest number of respondents (47%) said “no”. Only 20% answered “yes”, while the remaining 33% answered that they were “not sure”.
Even more telling were answers to questions about how much their agencies consider China in several different scenarios. Respondents reported giving China only limited consideration. Those scenarios were:
<ul>
<li>
in their aid negotiations with the recipient government;
</li>
<li>
in the drafting of their country strategy;
</li>
<li>
in their decisions about future aid allocations; and
</li>
<li>
in decisions about development cooperation in the extractive or natural resource sector.
</li>
</ul>
Donor officials were asked to rate the impact of Chinese aid on a scale of zero (“not a consideration”) to ten (“a major consideration”). The mean values for all the scenarios were only around three. That is, on average, donor officials reported giving only minimal consideration to China in these situations.
I wanted to know why donor officials’ responses were so out of line with claims about the rise of China and its impact on traditional donors. I therefore looked into what types of projects China is actually funding in three African countries: Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda.
What I found is that, in practice, China rarely competes with traditional donors. Chinese official financing goes almost exclusively to state-owned Chinese companies. Funding is heavily concentrated in the productive sectors, mainly infrastructure, agriculture and mining.
In contrast, traditional donors fund the social sectors, such as health and education. The money is also more likely to end up in the bank accounts of recipient governments.
Many <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/nov/02/aid-trade-rwanda-china-west">African leaders</a> would like to distance themselves from traditional donors. However, Chinese official financing is not, at least as yet, a direct alternative to the aid on offer by traditional partners. Government officials in charge of the national budget – or those responsible for sectors dependent on traditional donor financing, such as health and education – cannot afford to alienate traditional donors.
<h2>Why rise of China still needs attention</h2>
My findings do not mean development practitioners should care any less about the rise of China in Africa. As I <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ia/article/2981808/Is">argue</a> there is evidence in certain areas that China is directly competing with traditional donors (and winning). In large infrastructure projects, African governments often prefer Chinese financing because it is typically quicker to materialise and has less red tape. The Bui Dam project in Ghana, for example, languished as a World Bank project but moved more quickly to completion once the Chinese took over.
China also provides the most aid to growing economies that can provide a home for Chinese capital. China invests heavily in countries like Ghana that are already becoming less and less dependent on aid from traditional donors. Foreign aid as a share of Ghana’s gross national income (GNI) decreased from over 12% in 2000 to below 3% in 2013. Therefore, there may be a correlation with an increased Chinese presence and a decline in the bargaining power of traditional donors, even if China is not the cause.
Nonetheless, the results clearly suggest that we need to be careful about overestimating Chinese aid and financing. The findings challenge conventional assumptions about the impact of China on traditional development cooperation. They also challenge China’s impact on the bargaining power of traditional donors.
Taken together, evidence from <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ia/article/2981808/Is">the survey and the case studies</a> suggests a more nuanced narrative. Certainly, the bargaining power of traditional donors is not systematically declining across the African continent as a result of the increasing presence of China.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/haley-j-swedlund-221480">Haley J. Swedlund</a>, Assistant Professor, Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/radboud-university-2035">Radboud University</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-china-displacing-traditional-aid-donors-in-africa-the-evidence-suggests-not-73452">original article</a>.

Is China displacing traditional aid donors in Africa?

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If <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/richard-branson/" target="_self">Richard Branson</a> had to give up of his fame, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/richard-branson/" target="_self" class="inline_asset">billions of dollars</a>, and <a href="https://www.virgin.com/virgingroup/content/about-us" target="_self" class="inline_asset">60-plus businesses</a> and go back to being 20 years old again, the 66-year-old investor and entrepreneur says he would do it gladly.
For a blockbuster success like Branson, starting over would be risky. Maybe he wouldn&#8217;t be as lucky the second time around. <a href="https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/richard-vs-barack-kiteboard-and-foilboard-challenge" target="_self" class="inline_asset">Maybe he wouldn&#8217;t end up able to go jet-skiing with President Obama.</a>
Branson doesn&#8217;t place safe bets, though. He wouldn&#8217;t be the entrepreneur he is today if he did. Branson&#8217;s vast and sprawling business empire grew from a <a href="https://www.virgin.com/time-machine/1970s" target="_self" class="inline_asset">mail-order discount record business he started in 1970</a>. He seems confident that, if necessary, he could succeed all over again.
<div>READ: <a href="/news/financial/2017/01/03/billionaire-richard-branson-2017-mantra/">Billionaire Richard Branson&#8217;s six mantras to follow in 2017 &#8211; CNBC Africa﻿</a> </div>
&#8220;Sometimes I think to myself, What if this is all a dream? I&#8217;m going to wake up and be 20 years old, with my whole life ahead of me,&#8221; says <a href="https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/dream-0" target="_self" class="inline_asset">Branson, in a blog post published Wednesday</a>. &#8220;This thought doesn&#8217;t scare me. It excites me. I&#8217;d quite like to go back and plot out my life all over again — dreaming big dreams.&#8221;
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Branson attributes his success to his willingness to dream big dreams, and,<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/01/speech-moonlights-barry-jenkins-meant-to-give-offers-career-lesson.html" target="_self" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/01/speech-moonlights-barry-jenkins-meant-to-give-offers-career-lesson.html" class="inline_asset"> like Barry Jenkins</a>, director of the 2016 Oscar-winning film &#8220;Moonlight,&#8221; he encourages others to do the same.
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&#8220;Dreaming is one of humanity&#8217;s greatest gifts; it champions aspiration, spurs innovation, leads to change, and propels the world forward,&#8221; says Branson. &#8220;In a world without dreams there would be no art, no adventure, no moon landing, no female CEOs, and no civil rights.
&#8220;What a half-lived and tragic existence we would have.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="embed-container pull-quote">&#8220;LOOK AT THE WORLD WITH WIDE-EYED ENTHUSIASM, BELIEVE YOU ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE PROBLEMS THAT CONFRONT YOU, AND DREAM BIG.&#8221;-Richard Branson, founder of Virgin</blockquote>
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Branson suggests ignoring the skeptics as well as your own critical inner voice.
&#8220;Don&#8217;t be self-conscious about dreaming, or about people thinking you&#8217;re too idealistic, and not serious enough,&#8221; Branson says. &#8220;Don&#8217;t allow your self talk to be judgmental. Look at the world with wide-eyed enthusiasm, believe you are more powerful than the problems that confront you, and dream big.&#8221;
And if you set a lofty goal and don&#8217;t accomplish it, Branson says all is not lost. The process of working towards a prize is a learning process in itself.
&#8220;The benefits of dreaming far outweigh the perceived risks, because the value of dreaming isn&#8217;t just measured by the outcome, but the inspiration that comes from journey of achieving the dream.&#8221;﻿
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If billionaire Richard Branson were 20 again, here's what he would do

I must admit my ignorance upfront. I haven’t been paying enough attention to the arts and entertainment scene lately.
On receiving an invitation with an intriguing photograph to attend a Blue Man Group performance, I had to go into research mode. First port of call was You Tube, which revealed a high-energy, and very colourful clip, which was enough of a teaser to convince me it was a show I had to see.
This may be their first tour to South Africa, but the Blue Man Group is no flash in the pan. The concept originated 25 years ago in New York and proved so popular in the U.S, that it has permanent shows in Las Vegas, New York, Orlando, Boston, and Chicago. There is also a permanent show in Berlin. It has been performed in over 20 countries and seen by more than 35 million people worldwide since 1991.﻿
The show is a combination of mime, performance art, music, movement, rock concert, humour, audience interaction and multi-media staging led by three bald and blue performers. They are enormously expressive – conveying a myriad of thoughts and emotions through their eyes and physical movement.
The use of technology and innovative, custom-made musical instruments is fascinating. The trio is supported by a live band and video cameras capturing interactions with the audience.
There is no interval, and the show leaves the audience wanting more.
The three founders are close friends Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton. Says Chris Wink about their tour to South Africa: “When we first began creating performances centred on this innocent, curious character called Blue Man, we never dreamt where he would lead us. We are so honoured to be able to share our show with the people of South Africa and beyond. We believe the Blue Man&#8217;s universal message of joyful exuberance and euphoric celebration resonates within all of us.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="/media/19343984/blue_man-janine_600x450.jpg" width="600" height="450" alt="Blue Man -Janine"/>﻿
CEO of Big Concerts, Justin Van Wyk, who brought the show to South Africa, says: “With no spoken language Blue Man Group is perfect for all ages, languages and cultures.  It gives everyone the freedom to reconnect with their inner child, to re-experience mischievousness, sheer joy and to see what fun three guys can have with 30 litres of paint and 120 marshmallows in the space of an hour and a half!”﻿
And yes, my inner child had loads of fun! Looking at the audience around me, whether they were millennials or baby boomers, they seemed to find equal joy in the experience.
For one who always wonders about how things come together and how creative expression flirts and unites with technology, I wish I could spend some time back-stage to get some insight into the process of this throroughly magical experience.
The show can be seen at the Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg until 18 March, and at the Grand Arena in Cape Town from 21 to 26 March. ﻿

Blue Everyman figures entertain with intelligent, high energy performance art and state-of-the-art stage craft

Consumers will soon be able to opt-out of unwanted SMS communication from insurance companies thanks to a draft replacement of the Policyholder Protection Rules (PPRs) by the Financial Services Board (FSB).
Speaking in a recent interview, Lezanne Botha, a senior specialist for the Insurance Regulatory Framework department at the FSB said: “There is existing consumer-protection legislation in place in the form of the Consumer Protection Act. But it&#8217;s important to bear in mind that the Consumer Protection Act does not apply to insurers.
“It can be said that financial services industries should be held to a higher standard of consumer protection than other industries, because of the risks and the failures in that these products can actually impose considerable hardships for consumers.”
When the new regulations come into effect, estimated to be June 2017, the South African insurance industry will be in-line with international standards. “This is fantastic news for consumers,” remarks SMSPortal MD, Charles Stretch. “The CPA protects consumers against unwanted SMS, currently there isn’t anything to stop insurance companies sending unwanted direct marketing.”
The draft states:
13.10 Unwanted direct marketing
13.10.1 An insurer or any person acting on its behalf must afford a policyholder to whom it markets a policy through a mobile phone voice or text message the right to demand during or within a reasonable time after the message that the insurer or person acting on its behalf desist from initiating any such further messages or any other communication.
13.10.2 An insurer or any person acting on its behalf may not charge a policyholder a fee or allow a mobile phone service provider to charge a policyholder any fee for making a demand in terms of 13.10.1.
Upon implementation, all insurers will need to send SMS communication from a reverse billed number. “This means when consumers reply STOP to an unwanted SMS the sender of the initial SMS, in this case the insurance company, is charged for the SMS, not the consumer,” advises Stretch.
Botha in her interview also said: “Until the effective date if a policyholder gets these calls or SMSs they have to be afforded – by the insurer or the person contacting them on behalf of the insurer – the right to opt out. So, if you received a mobile phone voice message or a text message, the insurer has to afford you the right to demand, during or within a reasonable time after receiving such a message, that they must desist from any further marketing messages. They may also not charge you for making use of that right.”
It’s easy for Pay-As-You-Go mobile subscribers and those without itemised billing to be unaware of the charge being applied to their account. Until the PPR are in place, consumers might see a charge on their bill to opt-out of unwanted insurer communication, but post implementation consumers shouldn’t see a charge. “If you have been wrongfully charged,” adds Stretch, “or would like to seek advice, consumers should speak to WASPA, the Wireless Application Service Providers Association.”
 
You can listen to the full interview with Lezanne Botha <a href="http://today.moneyweb.co.za/article?id=644423#.WJsldBhh18f">here</a>. ﻿

S.A's FSB may bring an end to unwanted SMS messages

In a development that came as a surprise to no-one, Lesotho’s opposition parties on Wednesday, March 1, joined forces with a ruling coalition breakaway group and ganged up on Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili to pass a parliamentary motion of no-confidence in his government – a move likely to send the country to its third general election in less than five years.
On Wednesday, House Speaker Ntlhoi Motsamai stated that the “motion to urge His Majesty King Letsie III to appoint Honourable Monyane Moleleki as the next prime minister has been carried.&#8221;
Mr Mosisili now has three days to either step down or ask King Letsie III to dissolve Parliament, which would force fresh elections within three months.
Giving an indication of the choice that will be taken, the prime minister’s spokesperson repeated an earlier threat by Mr Mosisili that if a motion of no confidence was carried, he would not resign but instead ask the monarch to dissolve Parliament and force fresh elections.
&#8220;He will continue to be the prime minister until we go for elections,&#8221; his advisor told local media.
The motion of no confidence has been coming for months and dates to a split in the Democratic Congress (DC) late last year when Deputy Leader Monyane Moleleki walked out of the DC-led coalition, taking a majority of DC Members of Parliament (MPs) with him, and stated his intention to seek the no confidence motion.
Mr Moleketi formed the Alliance of Democrats (AD) and was quickly supported by the opposition All Basotho Congress (ABC) of former Prime Minister Tom Thabane and several smaller opposition groupings.
Wednesday’s developments mirror those of two years ago when Mr Thabane’s ruling coalition faced a similar vote of no confidence that he avoided by proroguing Parliament sine die – prompting a constitutional and political crisis that sparked months of instability, as yet unproved allegations of an attempted coup, murder and mayhem and an ill-fated and ill-considered Southern African Development Community (SADC) intervention that made matters worse, encouraged political infighting and has now unravelled completely.
In the aftermath of the 2014/2015 upheavals, several opposition leaders went into self-imposed exile in South Africa claiming their lives were in danger.
However, all returned home at the prospect of unseating the current coalition and regaining lost positions.
Lesotho is teetering on the brink of yet another bout of political instability and tensions in the political and security environments in the country pose serious threats to its democracy and continue to risk a military intervention.
The current protagonists don’t inspire confidence and will not put aside petty differences and their overpowering ambitions to forge a government that will focus on the needs of Lesotho’s people, its development and growth.
Mr Thabane and Mr Moleketi are old rivals and the prospects of them working together remain as remote as they have ever been.
Meanwhile, it is uncertain that the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) is going to continue to sit on the sidelines and watch politicians play their private games to the continual detriment of the country.
The LDF may have stayed out of politics for almost a decade now, but that is no guarantee the situation is going to hold.
Lesotho cannot continue on this path of political elites playing governance musical chairs while on almost every measure the country moves backwards. ﻿

Lesotho – The folly of government of the elites, by the elites, for the elites

By Stanley Carvalho
International healthcare operator Mediclinic is lobbying the Abu Dhabi government to rethink a change in medical insurance rules that has damaged its business after it bet big on acquiring Al Noor Hospitals, its regional CEO told Reuters.
At least two other healthcare companies operating in Abu Dhabi are also in talks with authorities, seeking a reversal or amendment to the reform that reduces state insurance coverage for citizens using private hospitals, according to two industry sources who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Abu Dhabi has cut insurance coverage under its Thiqa plan to 80 percent from 100 percent, meaning patients have to pay 20 percent of bills if they seek treatment at private hospitals.
The rule, which does not apply to government hospitals, was introduced last July &#8211; at the worst possible time for Mediclinic as it had just bought Abu Dhabi private hospital group Al Noor for about $1.7 billion.
The London and Johannesburg-listed company&#8217;s experience illustrates the business risks in the Gulf&#8217;s oil-exporting countries as low crude prices dampen economies and strain state finances.
The firm has begun lobbying the state Health Authority of Abu Dhabi over the Thiqa change, David Hadley, chief executive of Mediclinic Middle East, told Reuters in an interview.
&#8220;Other providers have done the same,&#8221; said Hadley, adding that the reform had channelled patients to government hospitals. &#8220;We don&#8217;t have a problem with the policy on co-payments as long as it applies to the entire industry.&#8221;
One of the industry sources said that although authorities did not want to be seen as giving in to pressure in any way, the policy might be adjusted again around the end of this year &#8211; partly because reduced Thiqa coverage had led to higher costs at state hospitals, hitting the government&#8217;s budget.
The Health Authority of Abu Dhabi did not respond to requests for comment about the private sector&#8217;s discontent with the Thiqa change or whether it planned to scrap the reform or extend it to all hospitals.
It has previously said that the rule change would contribute to its efforts to increase efficiency, standardise operations and increase the sector&#8217;s financial viability for the benefit of patients and the healthcare system as a whole.
 
&#8216;MULTITUDE OF HEADWINDS&#8217;
By many measures, the Gulf is an attractive destination for foreign healthcare providers; incomes are high and growing populations are burdened with some of the world&#8217;s highest levels of lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes.
Encouraged by such trends, Mediclinic, which has 73 hospitals and 43 clinics across South Africa, Namibia, Switzerland and the UAE, bought Al Noor last year. But since the Thiqa change, Al Noor&#8217;s in-patient volumes have dropped 38 percent and out-patient volumes by 43 percent, Hadley said.
To compound Mediclinic&#8217;s problems, at around the same time as the reform, competition intensified in Abu Dhabi with three new players entering the sector, while thousands of expatriates and their families left because of job losses in a slowing economy. Also, 147 doctors out of 600 left Al Noor, many to join new hospitals in the area, and new doctors had to be hired.
&#8220;We were hit by a multitude of headwinds. I think it was the timing &#8211; we couldn&#8217;t have predicted. It is going to be a challenging year,&#8221; said Hadley.
Mediclinic&#8217;s London-listed shares have dropped 8 percent since the company issued a profit warning for its Middle East business last week.
While timing played its part, other factors might also have contributed to the company&#8217;s struggles in the region, however.
&#8220;In the long-term it will probably be clear that Mediclinic overpaid for the Al Noor acquisition,&#8221; said Neil Brown, analyst at Electus, a South Africa-based fund manager.
&#8220;However, at these Mediclinic share price levels of 120 rand, which are now around 40 percent lower than mid-2016 when the above-mentioned rules changed in Abu Dhabi, we believe that Mediclinic is attractively priced for longer-term investors.&#8221;
 
&#8216;NEED FOR A CORRECTION&#8217;
Mediclinic has not diversified across the region as broadly as some rivals to share out its risk.
Its stock performance stands in stark contrast to rival NMC Health, which has seen its shares rise almost 13 percent year-to-date, according to Thomson Reuters data.
NMC, one of the oldest healthcare players in Abu Dhabi, has operations in seven emirates of the UAE as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, while Mediclinic has operations in just Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Also, some rival companies say they disagree that the Thiqa change is negative for the private sector.
&#8220;It is a measure to manage over-utilisation and over-diagnosis. When coverage is free, no one cares,&#8221; said Prasanth Manghat, deputy CEO of NMC Health.
Shamsheer Vayalil, managing director of VPS Healthcare, said: &#8220;Unnecessary medical visits have stopped since the new policy took effect. There was a need for a correction.&#8221;
Mediclinic aims to complete the Al Noor integration and rebranding by the end of this year. A total of 432 jobs at Al Noor were cut in 2016 with another 511 to go in the next few months, said Hadley. Of the planned lay-offs, 183 jobs relate to the closure of small facilities and clinics, including one in Oman which was uneconomic, he said.
 
(Additional Reporting by Hadeel al Sayegh; Editing by Pravin Char)﻿
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Mediclinic & rivals press Abu Dhabi to rethink healthcare reform

South Africa&#8217;s National Consumer Commission (NCC) has launched a probe into the local unit of U.S. automaker Ford over the recall of 4,500 Kuga SUVs after dozens of reports of the vehicles catching fire spontaneously.
&#8220;The National Consumer Commission says that it has instituted an investigation into the activities of Ford Motor Company Southern Africa and its dealerships, for alleged prohibited conduct,&#8221; the commission said in a statement posted on its website.
&#8220;The NCC received more than 130 complaints against Ford SA relating to various issues, including the combusting of Kuga vehicles, since December last year,&#8221; it said.
Ford could not immediately be reached for comment.
 
(Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Kim Coghill)﻿

S.Africa's consumer watchdog to probe Ford after Kuga recall

By Marafaele Mohloboli
Lesotho&#8217;s Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili was preparing on Wednesday to call a snap election after losing a confidence vote in parliament, a cabinet minister said.
A slew of defections by ruling-coalition lawmakers to the opposition has badly weakened support for Mosisili in parliament two years after he came to power after an inconclusive vote.
&#8220;We will be going to the polls&#8221; said Minister of Defense Ts&#8217;eliso Mokhosi, referring to the cabinet.
Mosisili&#8217;s political adviser Fako Likoti had said the prime minister would call elections, although Mosisili himself did not make a public comment after the vote.
Lesotho, a small landlocked country of 2 million people surrounded by South Africa, has been hit by several coups since independence from Britain in 1966.
Analysts said it appears set for a period of political instability. It&#8217;s last two elections have not produced a winner with a clear majority.
&#8220;The period of uncertainty is set to continue,&#8221; said independent political analyst Ts&#8217;oeu Petlane. &#8220;Even the next election is likely to give an undecided outcome, which could lead to another shaky coalition.&#8221;
Lesotho&#8217;s law says elections must be held within three months of parliament being dissolved.
After a debate on the motion of no confidence, the 120-member assembly voted by acclamation to depose Mosisili.
Two years ago, Mosisili&#8217;s Democratic Congress (DC) ousted former prime minister Thomas Theban&#8217;s All Lesotho Congress (ABN) by uniting with smaller parties.
This time around, Theban&#8217;s ABN led a coalition of opposition parties including the Alliance of Democrats (AD) and the Lesotho National Party (BNP) in a bid to remove Mosisili.
Lesotho&#8217;s economy relies heavily on textile revenues, regional customs receipts and water piped to South Africa, making it of strategic importance to Pretoria, which has acted as a mediator during previous bouts of political turmoil.
 
 
(Additional reporting and writing by James Macharia Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)﻿

Lesotho set for snap election after PM loses confidence vote

By Joe Brock
Namibia&#8217;s Herero people are heartened that Germany is keen to atone for the genocide of their ancestors, but they expect something Berlin says it is not in a position to give.
&#8220;What we want is our land,&#8221; said 74-year-old Alex Kaubtauuapela, whose parents survived the extermination of 80 percent of the community, a precursor to the Holocaust.
She lives much as they did, in a community dependent on cattle herding.
&#8220;The Herero are poor because of German people,&#8221; she said, hunched over a walking stick as one of her grandchildren chased a stray dog around her crumbling house in the Herero ancestral homeland of Okahandja north of the capital, Windhoek.
About half of the arable land in the country in south west Africa which Germany annexed in 1884 is owned by descendants of German and Dutch immigrants, who make up just six percent of the 2.3 million population.
Land used by the Herero, also known as OvaHerero, and smaller Namaqua community for grazing was seized and thousands were executed after they rebelled in 1904. The rest were driven into the country&#8217;s vast tracts of desert to starve.
The call for land restitution by indigenous groups is mirrored in countries across Africa, and any reparation agreement for the Herero could set a precedent to other groups seeking redress from European colonial powers.
Momentum for a settlement with Namibia increased last year after Turkey&#8217;s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Germany hypocritical for recognising massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide but not confronting its dark past in Namibia.
A month later, in July, German Chancellor Angela Merkel&#8217;s office said Germany would acknowledge the genocide of the OvaHerero and Namaqua peoples and offer a formal apology. Five rounds of negotiations have been held since, although German officials emphasise talks have been going on since 2012.
One difficult issue is how to address demands for the return of skulls of victims that were taken to Germany to try to prove racial superiority: Berlin has given some back but says others are hard to locate. Another sensitive area is calls for monetary compensation.
But front and centre, for the community, is land.
&#8220;We are willing to go and take our land,&#8221; said Herero Paramount Chief Ombara Otjitambi, a former attorney general who says his followers have been excluded from the talks with Germany.
&#8220;We want to be directly in the room with government at negotiations. If the Germans sign on the dotted line without us we will consider it as an act of war,&#8221; he told Reuters.
&#8220;We won&#8217;t wait another 100 years for justice.&#8221;
 
&#8220;CLEANSING&#8221;
Another Herero group is being consulted in talks but Otjitambi says they are just &#8220;puppets&#8221; of the Namibian government, which has been dominated by the largest community, the Ovamba, since independence.
This week, a United Nations expert Group on People of African Descent appeared to back him up.
Noting Germany had apologised for the genocide and given aid, it said it regretted Berlin had &#8220;thus far not seriously consulted with the lawful representatives of the minority and indigenous victims of that genocide to discuss reparations&#8221;.
German Ambassador to Namibia, Christian Matthias Schlaga, acknowledged some Herero groups were not currently engaged in the talks but expressed confidence they could be reintegrated.
&#8220;Both governments&#8217; clear intention is to reach a result that will be accepted by the communities in question,&#8221; Schlaga told Reuters from his office in Windhoek.
Eyeing a possible Namibia deal, Tanzanians have sought compensation from Germany for some 70,000 killed during the Maji-Maji rebellion during colonial rule of German East Africa in the early 20th century.
But Schlaga said any agreement between Berlin and Windhoek would not lead to negotiations in other parts of Africa. &#8220;We think the situation in Namibia is very unique,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This is why we negotiate in this country and nowhere else.&#8221;
The unique nature Schlaga refers to is the evidence of German forces&#8217; intent to exterminate along ethnic lines.
That was spelled out by German General Lothar von Trotha, who was sent by the Kaiser to crush the uprising. &#8220;I believe that the (Herero) nation as such should be annihilated,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;Only following this cleansing can something new emerge.&#8221;
Those who were not shot or starved to death in the desert were captured and placed in concentration camps, where many more died of disease, mistreatment or torture. Up to 100,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama were killed, historians say.
Herero and Nama women were systematically raped by German soldiers and their descendents still face discrimination from members of their tribe who consider themselves &#8216;pure&#8217;.
 
DRAWING A LINE
The grave of Samuel Maharero, who led the Herero&#8217;s fight against the German colonial army before escaping across the border, lies in an almost inaccessible field in Okahandja amid wandering goats and overgrown foliage.
Just a few hundred metres down the road is an impeccably cared-for graveyard for German soldiers killed in the rebellion. There is no cemetery for the slaughtered Herero, whose bodies were left out in the open.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve lost our land, our culture, our tradition,&#8221; said Sarafina Nbaimbaind, a resident of the nearby township wearing the traditional horned headdress that symbolises the Herero&#8217;s cattle herding heritage.
&#8220;The Germans are getting richer and richer from our land.&#8221;
Schlaga said Berlin supported efforts by Namibia to redistribute land but it was the responsibility of the Namibian government to resolve disputes between its nationals.
&#8220;Germany has always agreed and supported the Namibian government’s decision &#8230; to do a redistribution of land, but based on a principle of willing seller, willing buyer,&#8221; he said, noting that land can change hands multiple times over 100 years.
&#8220;It is very difficult, if not impossible, to draw a line from the events of 1905 and 1906, to 2017.&#8221;
Namibian government sources said one idea was for Germany to provide funds for Namibia to purchase land from any owners willing to sell, but that talks on the issue had stalled.
The government&#8217;s chief negotiator, Zed Ngavirue, said the &#8216;willing seller, willing buyer&#8217; system had failed. The issue would be revisited at a conference this year, he said, but would not be part of the negotiations with Germany over the genocide.
Robert Murtfeld, a U.S.-based academic and independent observer in the Namibian talks, said he did not think an agreement could be reached unless land was included, with implications for other former colonies in Africa.
&#8220;Any settlement that would be reached between the German and Namibian governments has to address the issue of land and any decisions hereto could have a trickledown effect for others,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I believe the chances for a deal being reached are very little.&#8221;﻿

Land haunts Germany's effort to atone for Africa genocide

South Africa&#8217;s Standard Bank Group Ltd reported a 4 percent rise in full-year profit on Thursday as the threat of a sovereign ratings downgrade weighed on its home market.
Standard Bank posted headline earnings per share (EPS) of 1,389 cents for the period to end-December, compared with 1,359 cents the previous year. Headline EPS is the main profit measure in South Africa and excludes certain one-off items.
&#8220;In South Africa, the threat of a sovereign downgrade by rating agencies to sub-investment grade persisted throughout the year. This in turn negatively impacted the already weak business and consumer confidence and further delayed much needed domestic investment and job creation opportunities,&#8221; Standard Bank said in a statement.
 
(Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)﻿

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Joburg's Cedar Road to get an upgrade

Op-Ed: African challenges to African development

Lifting hurdles even a crane can't

Kenya private sector activity slows down due to drought

Zimbabwe seeks foreign help for flood victims

Late Congo opposition leader's son named as successor

How S.A's second most populous province is looking to boost small businesses

Is China displacing traditional aid donors in Africa?

If billionaire Richard Branson were 20 again, here's what he would do

Blue Everyman figures entertain with intelligent, high energy performance art and state-of-the-art stage craft

S.A's FSB may bring an end to unwanted SMS messages

Lesotho – The folly of government of the elites, by the elites, for the elites

Mediclinic & rivals press Abu Dhabi to rethink healthcare reform

S.Africa's consumer watchdog to probe Ford after Kuga recall

Lesotho set for snap election after PM loses confidence vote

Land haunts Germany's effort to atone for Africa genocide

South Africa's Standard Bank posts 4 pct rise in FY profit

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Joburg's Cedar Road to get an upgrade

Op-Ed: African challenges to African development

Lifting hurdles even a crane can't

Kenya private sector activity slows down due to drought

Zimbabwe seeks foreign help for flood victims

Late Congo opposition leader's son named as successor

How S.A's second most populous province is looking to boost small businesses

Is China displacing traditional aid donors in Africa?

If billionaire Richard Branson were 20 again, here's what he would do

Blue Everyman figures entertain with intelligent, high energy performance art and state-of-the-art stage craft

S.A's FSB may bring an end to unwanted SMS messages

Lesotho – The folly of government of the elites, by the elites, for the elites

Mediclinic & rivals press Abu Dhabi to rethink healthcare reform

S.Africa's consumer watchdog to probe Ford after Kuga recall

Lesotho set for snap election after PM loses confidence vote

Land haunts Germany's effort to atone for Africa genocide

South Africa's Standard Bank posts 4 pct rise in FY profit

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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