By Moyiga Nduru
JOHANNESBURG, Jul 3 2005 (IPS)

Demands for good governance and tough action on corruption could eclipse calls for increased aid to Africa when the Group of Eight (G8) leaders meet this week in Scotland for their annual summit, African academics and civil society groups fear.

Demands for good governance and tough action on corruption could eclipse calls for increased aid to Africa when the Group of Eight (G8) leaders meet this week in Scotland for their annual summit, African academics and civil society groups fear.

As a result, they have called on the leading industrialized nations that make up the G8 not to look at the world’s poorest continent simply through the lenses of graft and poor leadership.

“There is a political will to address corruption. There are pockets of states (in Africa) like South Africa which are dealing with corruption even at the highest level,” Prince Mashele, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies based in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, told IPS.

Mashele cited last month’s sacking of South African deputy president Jacob Zuma for the corrupt relationship he is deemed to have had with his former financial advisor, Schabir Shaik.

High court judge Hillary Squires issued a 15-year jail sentence to Shaik in May after he was convicted of paying Zuma about 195,000 dollars in return for help in furthering his business interests. Shaik was also found guilty of seeking a bribe for Zuma from a French weapons company, in return for promoting it during a multi-billion dollar arms deal – and providing protection during an eventual investigation of this deal.

So far, only Rwanda and Ghana have been dealt with by the APRM, which allows nations to voluntarily submit themselves for examination on a wide range of issues including sound administration and respect for human rights.

But, adds Mashele, early signs about the mechanism are positive.

“In the report, Rwanda has been accused of not doing enough to uphold human rights and to fight corruption. This has been reported without censorship: these are encouraging developments in Africa,” he says.

The progress on these fronts notwithstanding, Mutasa cautions that many challenges remain in the continent’s battle to uproot graft.

“Africa is not doing enough to fight corruption because of different reasons. Fighting corruption requires resources, financial and human, intellectual and political will,” he notes.

Kenya’s former anti-corruption chief, John Githongo, is one of those who has been made to count the cost of exhibiting such will.

He resigned his post in February – this after he reportedly found his efforts to curb graft blocked by elements within a government that was, ironically, elected on an anti-corruption platform in 2002.

Across the continent, Nigeria is currently engaged in the difficult exercise of trying to recover money stolen by former military dictator Sani Abacha between 1993 and 1997.

ActionAid International, based in the South African commercial centre of Johannesburg, says that 1.3 billion dollars of the money looted by the Abacha family has been held in over 20 banks in London. Activists have long complained that Western governments – quick to call for action against graft in Africa – are less vigorous in ensuring that people and companies in their own countries have clean hands.

“Corruption is not only confined to Africa, it is a worldwide problem,” Sanusha Naidu, a research specialist at the Pretoria-based Human Sciences Research Council, told IPS.

In a document entitled ‘Corporate Accountability’, ActionAid International notes that 32 firms based in G8 countries were found by the United Nations to be involved in natural resource extraction in the Democratic Republic of Congo – this in violation of guidelines issued by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (The Paris-based OECD, comprising 30 countries, was formed to help its members address challenges related to the global economy.)

The illicit exploitation of Congolese resources helped fuel a five-year civil war in the country that claimed almost four million lives – both in conflict, and through disease and hunger.

“On the one hand, the G8 call for better governance within African nations to ensure that aid money and increased public budgets from debt relief reach the poorest people, who need it most,” notes ActionAid.

“On the other hand, they absolve themselves of their duty to ensure better governance amongst the very companies who they see as being an essential vehicle for delivering development in Africa.”

All things considered, Mashele says the G8 should be careful of judging Africa too harshly.

“We are emerging from a terrible culture of dictatorship. During the military dictatorships on the continent, you couldn’t even raise a voice about corruption. Now a space has been created for NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and civil societies to vociferously raise issues of corruption,” he noted.

“This shows that we are making good progress, considering where we came from.”

Similar sentiments were voiced by Desmond Rose, general secretary of the NGO ‘For a Better Life’.

“Many good things, like the role being played by the private sector and grassroots groups in alleviating poverty, are happening in Africa. (But) nobody is reporting them,” he said in an interview with IPS.

Rose’s group, also based in Johannesburg, is involved in a campaign to improve perceptions of Africa.

Excerpt:

By Moyiga Nduru
JOHANNESBURG, Jul 2 2005 (IPS)

Demands for good governance and tough action on corruption could eclipse calls for increased aid to Africa when the Group of Eight (G8) leaders meet this week in Scotland for their annual summit, African academics and civil society groups fear.

As a result, they have called on the leading industrialized nations that make up the G8 not to look at the world’s poorest continent simply through the lenses of graft and poor leadership.

“There is a political will to address corruption. There are pockets of states (in Africa) like South Africa which are dealing with corruption even at the highest level,” Prince Mashele, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies based in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, told IPS.

Mashele cited last month’s sacking of South African deputy president Jacob Zuma for the corrupt relationship he is deemed to have had with his former financial advisor, Schabir Shaik.

High court judge Hillary Squires issued a 15-year jail sentence to Shaik in May after he was convicted of paying Zuma about 195,000 dollars in return for help in furthering his business interests. Shaik was also found guilty of seeking a bribe for Zuma from a French weapons company, in return for promoting it during a multi-billion dollar arms deal – and providing protection during an eventual investigation of this deal.

For his part, Charles Mutasa – acting executive director of the Zimbabwe-based African Forum and Network on Debt and Development – points to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), set up under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). NEPAD is seeking to attract over 60 billion dollars to the continent in return for good governance.

So far, only Rwanda and Ghana have been dealt with by the APRM, which allows nations to voluntarily submit themselves for examination on a wide range of issues including sound administration and respect for human rights.

But, adds Mashele, early signs about the mechanism are positive.

“In the report, Rwanda has been accused of not doing enough to uphold human rights and to fight corruption. This has been reported without censorship: these are encouraging developments in Africa,” he says.

The progress on these fronts notwithstanding, Mutasa cautions that many challenges remain in the continent’s battle to uproot graft.

“Africa is not doing enough to fight corruption because of different reasons. Fighting corruption requires resources, financial and human, intellectual and political will,” he notes.

Kenya’s former anti-corruption chief, John Githongo, is one of those who has been made to count the cost of exhibiting such will.

He resigned his post in February – this after he reportedly found his efforts to curb graft blocked by elements within a government that was, ironically, elected on an anti-corruption platform in 2002.

Across the continent, Nigeria is currently engaged in the difficult exercise of trying to recover money stolen by former military dictator Sani Abacha between 1993 and 1997.

ActionAid International, based in the South African commercial centre of Johannesburg, says that 1.3 billion dollars of the money looted by the Abacha family has been held in over 20 banks in London. Activists have long complained that Western governments – quick to call for action against graft in Africa – are less vigorous in ensuring that people and companies in their own countries have clean hands.

“Corruption is not only confined to Africa, it is a worldwide problem,” Sanusha Naidu, a research specialist at the Pretoria-based Human Sciences Research Council, told IPS.

In a document entitled ‘Corporate Accountability’, ActionAid International notes that 32 firms based in G8 countries were found by the United Nations to be involved in natural resource extraction in the Democratic Republic of Congo – this in violation of guidelines issued by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (The Paris-based OECD, comprising 30 countries, was formed to help its members address challenges related to the global economy.)

The illicit exploitation of Congolese resources helped fuel a five-year civil war in the country that claimed almost four million lives – both in conflict, and through disease and hunger.

“On the one hand, the G8 call for better governance within African nations to ensure that aid money and increased public budgets from debt relief reach the poorest people, who need it most,” notes ActionAid.

“On the other hand, they absolve themselves of their duty to ensure better governance amongst the very companies who they see as being an essential vehicle for delivering development in Africa.”

All things considered, Mashele says the G8 should be careful of judging Africa too harshly.

“We are emerging from a terrible culture of dictatorship. During the military dictatorships on the continent, you couldn’t even raise a voice about corruption. Now a space has been created for NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and civil societies to vociferously raise issues of corruption,” he noted.

“This shows that we are making good progress, considering where we came from.”

Similar sentiments were voiced by Desmond Rose, general secretary of the NGO ‘For a Better Life’.

“Many good things, like the role being played by the private sector and grassroots groups in alleviating poverty, are happening in Africa. (But) nobody is reporting them,” he said in an interview with IPS.

Rose’s group, also based in Johannesburg, is involved in a campaign to improve perceptions of Africa.

Excerpt: