By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Jun 23 2010 (IPS)

Questions are being asked about whether the Group of Eight invitation to seven African states to attend its summit in Ontario, Canada, reflects its concern about the litany of unmet promises dating from its 2005 Gleneagles meeting — or whether it merely amounts to another bout of window-dressing.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper invited seven African countries to attend this year’s Group of Eight (G8) summit to be held in his country on Jun. 25-26. They are: South Africa, Malawi, Ethiopia, Senegal, Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt.

Dr Francis Ikome, director of the African and southern African programme at the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD), is sceptical about Africa being represented at the G8. “Since NEPAD’s launch it has become a trend among the industrialised countries to invite African countries to summits like those of the G8.

“Many promises are usually made but the real delivery always falls far short of the promises. The important question here is if these countries will be able to make submissions. This is a meeting of industrialised, Western countries. I believe African countries have been invited for window-dressing purposes.”

The meeting includes an “outreach session” in which the seven African invitees will participate alongside Jamaica, Haiti and Columbia, three countries invited on the basis of Canada’s foreign policy objectives in the Americas.

Ikome cautions that, “African leaders make themselves objects of ridicule if they just engage in conversations on the sidelines of these kinds of meetings. A leader should not fly all the way to Canada just to speak in the corridors.” IGD is an international relations research institution based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

But Trudi Hartzenberg, executive director of the Trade Law Centre (TRALAC) for Southern Africa, thinks that meetings on the sideline can be beneficial to African countries. “One should not forget that important bilateral discussions often take place outside the formal meetings. It is during more informal gatherings that important deals can be struck and issues raised that can be taken forward.”

TRALAC, based near Cape Town, South Africa, is a not-for-profit organisation building trade law capacity in southern Africa.

Dr Mzukisi Qobo, programme head for emerging powers and global leadership challenges at the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA), also adopts a milder position: “Canada is concerned that the momentum around African issues that was launched at the Gleneagles summit in Scotland in 2005 is waning.

“At Gleneagles 25 billion dollars was pledged to Africa, of which only about USD13 billion has materialised,” he adds. SAIIA is a non-governmental research institution in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Other promises at Gleneagles, which was attended by the leaders of Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, included more support to Africa’s peacekeeping forces; and increased investment in education and combating killer diseases like HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

There was also the vague suggestion to “one day” end the rich Western world’s protectionist trade practices; and debt cancellation worth 40 billion dollars was pledged to the poorest countries, including those in Africa. The G8’s European members also committed themselves to a foreign aid target of 0.56 percent of gross domestic product by 2010 and 0.7 percent by 2015.

“The seven African invitees have been chosen with great care because they all play important roles in Africa currently,” argues Qobo.

Meles Zenawi, prime minister of Ethiopia, has for some time been the darling of the Western world, notwithstanding human rights “challenges” in his country, according to Qobo. Ethiopia is regarded as one of the U.S.’s strongest allies in Africa, a relationship that is pursued due to its geographic proximity to the Middle East.

Algeria and Senegal are influential francophone countries while Nigeria and Egypt are significant regional powers in West and North Africa, respectively.

South Africa is regarded as the economic and political powerhouse of Africa and the driver of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). In addition Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt and Senegal were, with South Africa, the initiators of NEPAD.

Malawi, the smallest and poorest of the seven, is currently chairing the African Union.

Qobo continues: “There is an ongoing process in the Canadian foreign ministry to develop and maintain a strategy on Africa. There is concern about the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) engaging African countries. Africa has consolidated important relations with these countries and this bond is seen as a threat to Western countries.

“Canada wants to understand how it can meaningfully engage with Africa regarding issues around security, aid, trade and investment.”

Hartzenberg regards the fact that the invitation has been extended to such a diverse number of African countries as significant. “It often happens that South Africa is seen as the ‘spokescountry’ for the rest of Africa. But Africa is a diverse continent.

“Many of the smaller countries seldom get a chance to be highlighted on an international stage. The needs of a small country like Malawi are vastly different to that of Egypt, for example, and it has to put its own case forward.”

Hartzenberg argues that Western countries which, for the most part, have forsaken the pledges made at Gleneagles use the global recession as an easy excuse not to fulfil promises.

Ikome’s final criticism is that the G8 is losing its significance on the global stage: “It is being replaced by the Group of 20 (G20). It would be far better for African countries to be represented at G20 summits.”

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, May 11 2010 (IPS)

South Africa is experiencing a shortage of over 80 different drugs in its public health sector, including flu vaccinations and medication for tuberculosis and high blood pressure. The severity of shortages varies from province to province and hospital to hospital, depending on the leadership and skills levels of management.

Experts blame the shortage on a number of factors, including a lack of trained pharmacists, an ineffective tendering process and the inability of some pharmaceutical companies to deliver drugs.

“The distribution and consumption of medicine forms a chain with many links. Each link has to function optimally for a patient to eventually get her medication,” says Dr Elma de Vries, a former chairperson of the Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa (RuDasa). “Unfortunately, some links are often missing or broken.”

South Africa has about 9,000 working pharmacists, although 10,824 names appear on the register of pharmaceutical practitioners, according to Andy Gray, a senior lecturer in therapeutics and medicines management at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Only 1,746 are working in the public sector. Pharmacists often leave for the private sector or positions overseas to earn better pay.

At some hospitals, nursing staff have to dispense medicine, mostly without the necessary qualifications. Also, “some hospitals and public clinics do not have computerised systems in place, which means they cannot track demands or place orders quickly enough,” says Gray.

“In cases where there are no pharmacists, the onus is on the nursing staff to place orders. But if there is inadequate supervision, medicine can get lost.”

Insufficiently stocked depots are another weak link in the medicines supply chain. “Hospitals order their stock from provincial depots. But there are a myriad of problems at some depots, where skills shortages lead to a lack of efficient stock management,” says de Vries.

“But, even if all the systems at the depot are functioning optimally, the national treasury limits the amount of stock they can hold, and they are dependent on the pharmaceutical companies as recipients of state tenders.”

Gray points to a number of problems at some pharmaceutical companies. “Tenders are awarded to one or two suppliers, but it often happens that those to whom the tenders are awarded, battle to get hold of raw supplies. There is also a lack of skilled personnel and other resources, which means manufacturers battle to supply the huge amounts of medication needed.

“Manufacturers have to deal with erratic ordering processes. Some provinces might say they want one million units of a specific medicine but eventually end up buying three million, or they might put in a big order one month and order nothing for the next three months,” Gray points out.

South Africa is currently experiencing a stock-out of the flu vaccine Trivalent, which provides protection against the H1N1 (swine flu) strain.

In a statement, the national institute for communicable diseases confirmed that the shortage occurred because the national department for health bought 1.3 million doses to vaccinate HIV-positive children under 15 and health workers and officials at airports, harbours and other ports of entry during the coming FIFA Soccer World Cup tournament in June.

This has resulted in pharmacies in the private and public sector running out of vaccinations countrywide. According to the statement, another reason for the shortage is “production problems because one of the strains in the vaccine did not grow well”.

Gray adds that, “manufacturers are not keen to produce medicines which do not bring in huge profits. If there is a drop in the price of a certain medicine, the manufacturer will scale down production. They do not want to have money on the shelf in the form of low priced stock.”

In April this year there reportedly was a shortage of the anti-retroviral Tenofovir at the Thafalofefe hospital in the Eastern Cape because of an administrative problem. However, the problem was quickly sorted out through the intervention of activists.

Vuyiseka Dubula, spokesperson for the Treatment Action Campaign, an organisation campaigning for the rights of HIV-positive people, told IPS the organisation was also “concerned about the reported stock-out of TB medicine and antibiotics countrywide”.

Marije Versteeg of the Rural Health Advocacy Project said that there are stock-outs of TB medications in certain areas of Mpumalanga. “It is a huge concern because people need to continue taking their medications. If they stop, it can lead to drug resistance which makes it difficult to effectively treat the illness.”

The problem can be addressed, says Gray, by training more pharmacists, better management at all levels and an overhaul of the tendering processes.

Excerpt:

In more than 34 years as a judge, he has not been as deeply concerned by anything as he was by the recent comment of a South African deputy minister of police that police officers should shoot and “kill the bastards”.

“We need to be concerned when people in responsible positions say irresponsible things,” said Judge Deon van Zyl, inspecting judge of SA prisons.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a seminar held in Cape Town by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) to launch the book Criminal (In)Justice in South Africa – A Civil Society Perspective, edited by Chandré Gould.

“There is a severe lack of resources in the police services, but one does not solve the problem by giving what manpower there is extra powers (shooting to kill) to make up for the deficiency,” said Van Zyl.

The seminar was held barely two weeks after a policeman shot Atlegang Aphane, a three-year-old boy. The child was in a car the police mistakenly assumed was being used by criminals.

This is the second time in two years that a minister has publicly stated it is acceptable for police to shoot to kill. In 2008 the then-deputy minister of safety and security, Susan Shabangu, told officers at a public meeting on crime to use their guns and shoot to kill.

South African crime rates are among the highest in the world, and according to statistics from the South African Police Service 2.1 million crimes were reported between April 2008 and March 2009.

This included 18,148 murders, 203,777 cases of assault with intent to cause serious bodily harm, 121,392 robberies with aggravating circumstances, 14,915 carjackings and 70,154 cases of sexual assault.

A number of speakers at the Cape Town seminar were concerned that the “shoot to kill” directive would not lead to a decrease in violent crimes. Lucas Muntingh, of the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape, argued, “This kind of violent rhetoric by the authorities will up the ante.”

According to Muntingh it could lead to criminals being even more violent during criminal activities, and more criminals resorting to armed crimes.

Speakers emphasised that the criminal justice system was overloaded and overwhelmed. Detectives had to deal with on average of 150 case dockets. There was also a severe skills shortage in the detective services, with only 25% adequately trained. These problems were compounded by the fact that the detective services were understaffed by 50 percent, speakers revealed.

“Most violent crimes are committed over weekends, but most police stations are understaffed then because the personnel are having a break,” said Johan Burger, senior researcher in the Crime and Justice Programme (CJP) of the ISS.

Iole Matthews, of the Independent Project Trust, an independent conflict-resolution body, argued that the problem was exacerbated by the fact that staff in the police services were traumatised by their day-to-day work in a system constantly in flux.

Police officers were debriefed when they had shot at someone, but not debriefed after having worked at a crime scene.

Andrew Faull, a researcher for the CJP, pointed out that officers were confused by conflicting messages. “On the one hand they are told to shoot and kill, but as soon as they fire a docket is opened against them, and they are investigated on murder charges.”

A number of speakers said the morale of police officers was at an all-time low, because of the bad example set by senior officials. They pointed out that former Commissioner of Police Jackie Selebi was now standing trial on corruption charges. But there was not only a problem with high-level leadership – managers often lacked the skills for the job.

Responding to questions from the audience, Irvin Kinnes, of the Centre of Criminology at UCT, said civil society had an important role to play in pressuring the authorities to deal with the gaps in the criminal justice system.

“Civil society should play a more vociferous role in addressing these problems. Our democracy gives us the opportunity to rectify imbalances. It is time for civil society to re-organise our voices. We are in crisis because our political leaders lack the capacity to take us forward.”

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Oct 28 2009 (IPS)

Concerns abound about a nine billion dollar Chinese investment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, especially around environmental consequences and transparency. And, on the Chinese side, investors complain not only about the lack of security in the DRC but about their own government not providing enough support.

As part of the Sicomines deal, China will build a road network stretching for 4,000 km and a railway system spanning 3,200 km. This is a much needed development in a country the size of Western Europe and the second largest in Africa but with only 200 km of tarred road.

The building of a transport network is of strategic importance to the Chinese. It will make it easy to transport the copper (China has a concession to extract 10,6 million tons) and cobalt (626,619 tons) from mines in the Katanga region. Katanga province is part of the so-called Copperbelt and reaches from Angola through the DRC to Zambia.

The Sicomines agreement pulls in three Chinese companies: the China Railway Group, Sinohydro Corporation and the Metallurgical Group Corporation. These companies will have a controlling interest of 68 percent. The Congolese parastatal Gecamines has a 32 percent interest.

"It remains to be seen to what extent the agreement will bear fruit," Johanna Jansson, a researcher at the Centre for Chinese Studies at the University of Stellenbosch near Cape Town, told IPS in an interview. "Very few of the projects agreed upon have as yet been implemented."

The deal has not gone down well amongst critics. Jansson pointed out that one of the major contentious issues was the demand by the Chinese that the Congolese state guarantee the repayment of infrastructure investments, should the profits from the mining project not be sufficient.

Jansson said that this issue was resolved in August this year. This happened only because the International Monetary Fund indicated that it was not willing to continue a three year poverty reduction and growth programme in the DRC if the latter’s government was potentially beholden to China in terms of debt.

There has also been criticism from those who fear that the government has, through this deal, found a way to line the pockets of government officials. In general, "African governments have to be careful of bilateral agreements which are only beneficial to a small number of people in the short term," Dr Rita Cooma, CEO of a New York-based management consulting firm, told IPS at the recent China-Africa Business Summit.

Jansson also raised the issue of Congolese negotiators having the necessary capacity to take on the Chinese negotiators, a perennial problem besetting African countries in all trade and economic talks.

Civil society and other stakeholders in the DRC have expressed concern about the transparency of the deal and have complained that they were not consulted. In a report about Chinese investment in Africa, Jansson argued that the Chinese will logically not engage with civil society as they see the Congolose government as their legal counterpart.

However, it is imperative that the Congolese government and its representatives open up relations with civil society as it could play an important and positive role in assisting with project planning and implementation, she added.

There is fear that the Chinese will not honour environmental protocols. Artisanal mining and small operators have already done huge damage by excavating sites without care for plant or animal life.

"A lot of environmental damage has already been done to the DRC by mining activities," Cooma said. "However, the responsibility to protect the environment should not be that of the investor alone. It is a matter of the DRC government being clear on environmental policies and enforcing them."

Jansson pointed out that there are also a number of private Chinese entrepreneurs involved in mining and agricultural activities in the DRC. They have very little interaction with the Chinese embassy in Kinshasa, capital of the DRC.

"Private entrepreneurs are experiencing great difficulties in the DRC," Ge Kaiyong, a director at the China-Africa Business Council, told IPS at the China-Africa Business Summit that the non-governmental council co-hosted in Cape Town last week.

"The DRC does not offer a secure political environment to investors because of the continuing war in the eastern DRC. There is also a huge language problem as the Congolese do not speak Mandarin and the private investors do not speak the local languages," he added.

There is little contact between the Chinese embassy in Kinshasa and private investors, which adds to the sense of insecurity. "Private investors need to feel that they are getting support. This could also be done through co-operation with the local chambers of commerce," he suggested.

Jansson furthermore recommended that the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs opens up a consulate in Lubumbashi to assist with coordination between Chinese entrepreneurs, Congolese authorities and Congolese civil society.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Oct 26 2009 (IPS)

With its recent history of tremendous economic growth, China has a few lessons to teach Africans. But African governments should be vigilant in ensuring that their countries also reap benefits from their relations with China.

This warning emanated from a number of participants at the China-Africa Business Summit held Oct. 22-23, sponsored jointly by Corporate Africa, a publication of the UK-based Times Media Group, and the China-Africa Business Council, a non-governmental organisation promoting private investments in Africa.

Surprisingly, given China’s ever-growing presence on the continent, the attendance figure at the summit was far below the expected 1,000, with only about 100 delegates arriving, forcing a last minute change of venue.

But some fascinating inputs were nevertheless made. Professor Festus Fajana, a trade policy expert at the African Union, said that "equal partnerships are important to ensure sustainable development". He urged African governments to be vigilant in ensuring that bilateral agreements with China are of mutual benefit.

"Africa wants sustainable economic growth and the continent wants diversified economies in order to reduce dependence on its traditional (Western) trade partners," explained Fajana. "Africa exports 80 percent of its oil and minerals to China. But Africa should not just be seen as a source of raw materials.

"Its economies should be diversified to take advantage of the huge Chinese market with its need for other products as well. There is, for example, great potential for agricultural products to be exported to China," he suggested.

The world is seeing a new "coupling" of Southern countries and China, with the latter’s insatiable demand for minerals underpinning the growth of sub-Saharan African economies, stated Dr Martyn Davies, executive director at the Centre for Chinese Studies attached to the University of Stellenbosch near Cape Town.

The centre promotes exchanges of ideas, experiences and knowledge with a view to promoting analysis of the relations between Africa and China.

He believes that, "China’s growth will depend on Africa’s ability to supply those goods." Likewise, Africa’s advancement is related to the well-being of China. "China is on target to easily meet a GDP (gross domestic product) growth of eight percent. This is no mean feat in the current economic climate."

Trade between China and Africa in 2008 was worth 107 billion dollars – a 45 percent increase from 2007.

China has been under intermittent fire about its bad human rights and environmental record and its disregard for democratic practice. It was recently slated for closing a seven billion dollar deal with Guinea, a country that suffered a military coup at the end of 2008. Several audience members found an echo in Africans’ experience of China on the continent.

"Ordinary citizens get very little in turn," one delegate argued. "Government officials sign deals and pocket huge sums of money. The Chinese come to Africa and take our riches away. But the Chinese markets are closed to African entrepreneurs."

Regarding a way forward that could benefit both Africans and Chinese, Dr Rita Cooma, CEO of a New York-based management consulting firm, presented an investment model that could maximize value and investor returns with mutual pay-offs.

The model focuses on government practices and social equity (which recognises the rights and needs of citizens), economic prosperity (maintaining stable levels of economic growth and employment) and environmental sustainability (the prudent use of natural resources and effective protection of the environment).

Cooma emphasised the need for the training and development of African entrepreneurs by Chinese organisations.

The Chinese are highly skilled in disciplines like engineering and in industries such as telecommunications – skills that are severely lacking in Africa. Chinese investors should employ African citizens and not use an imported Chinese workforce, one of the main gripes with Chinese business practice on the continent.

"Investing in schools and healthcare facilities strengthen the labour supply and contribute to economic and social development," added Cooma.

To ensure accountability and transparency, Cooma recommended the development and global ratification of disclosure standards that have to be adhered to by investor and host country. These standards pertain to labour and environmental practices.

There should also be a global reporting initiative which collects data and reports on specific social, economic and environmental impacts.

"The question is: what will China’s legacy in Africa be by 2049?" Cooma asked.

"The proof of the pudding lies in the eating. Hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens have been removed from poverty. I have great faith that the Chinese can help Africa to the benefit of all," she enthused.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Oct 6 2009 (IPS)

There was an audible gasp when Kirsten McIntyre told the audience that e-waste is the third fastest growing waste stream in the world, with between 40 and 50 million tons of computers, TVs and washing machines being "thrown away" each year.

Phumlani Silwana: 'I save most of my salary so that I can study computer technology.' Credit: JustPCs

Huge amounts of these defunct appliances find their way to African countries. Often Western corporations that want to get rid of their useless computers will ship them off to Africa. This happens under the pretence that the equipment is suitable for re-use. But in most cases these products end up on landfill sites, adding to Africa's waste problem.

The problem is so huge that the United Nations in 2007 launched a global campaign aimed at setting standards for recycling and disposing of e-waste.

South Africa is thankfully not one of the target dumping sites of the world. However, there are many individuals who are who are stripping computers and other e-waste products without care for their own long-term health or care for the environment.

"The smelting takes place in the open air, which is not good for the environment or people as toxic gases are released," explained McIntyre. Smelting refers to a process where the relevant parts are heated over an open fire to extract metals.

She pointed out that properly planned waste management projects can lead to the greater utilisation of materials and the creation of jobs that pay well above one dollar a day.

South Africa produces 100,000 tons of e-waste annually. But a number of organisations countrywide are working to try and salvage whatever they can. Computers are recyclable, after all.

"There are many advantages to saving computers from ending up in landfill sites," Susanne Dittke, founder of Envirosense, a company working to find integrated resource and waste management solutions, tells IPS.

"There are social, economic and environmental advantages. If projects are well run, they generate income for a certain group of people which has a number of social benefits.

"Environmental benefits include managing the release of poisonous gases. When a computer lands in a landfill, it leaches cadmium, mercury, lead and other metals into the ground, which inevitably end up in water sources."

Informal scrap collectors and dealers break computers in order to easily retrieve the copper inside. This is extremely dangerous as hazardous gases are released. The broken parts are left behind, which result in litter.

Dittke is spearheading a Western Cape project where a number of people with different skills create different e-waste opportunities. One of the most successful of these projects is run by JustPCs, a company founded by Justin van der Walt.

This computer whizz lost the use of an arm in an accident when he was 16 years old. He struggled to find work and decided to create his own company.

Old computers are either donated by or bought from corporations around the Cape Town area. "Our aim is to refurbish computers and put them back into circulation," enthuses Van der Walt.

"In some cases the corporations that give us the computers will donate the product to non-governmental organisations or schools after we have refurbished it. Sometimes we sell the refurbished computers elsewhere. If a computer is beyond repair, we sell it off to others who extract the motherboards, copper and aluminium to make other products.

"Some people make jewellery, including rings and belts, from the aluminium rings. There is also a project where the motherboards are used to make clocks."

At JustPCs a monthly average of 150 computers are refurbished or sold on for the extraction of different components in a sustainable way. JustPCs’s disposal of computers is monitored by the e-Waste Association of South Africa, of which it is a member, and it has also been accredited as an authorised refurbisher by Microsoft.

Van der Walt employs people from disadvantaged communities. The 23-year-old Phumlani Silwana finished school two years ago and has been working for JustPCs for a year. "My mother is a domestic worker who has to care for five children. I am the oldest and the youngest is only two years old," Silwana tells IPS.

"I wanted to study, but I had no money. I ended up sitting around at home, doing nothing. My mother introduced me to Justin who was willing to take me in when he heard that I had no job."

Silwana says his life has changed dramatically. "I have learnt so much about computers. I can identify and fix problems. I have learnt to understand how computers work."

Before he was offered the job, Silwana had zero income. Today he earns around 200 dollars a month. "I save most of my salary so that I can study computer technology. I use the rest of the money to buy clothes and to pay my mother's utility bills. I also want to help my siblings to further their studies."

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Sep 24 2009 (IPS)

With South Africa being the only African country with a seat on the Group of 20 (G20), while serving as co-chair of the working group on reforming the International Monetary Fund, it has "a moral obligation towards the continent to call for more responsible management of the global financial system".

Making their voices heard: Trinidadian Bekezela Mguni joined others demanding the G20 honour pledges to support AIDS prevention and treatment. Credit: William Farrington/IPS

The general consensus is that the Pittsburgh G20 summit (Sep 24 – 25) will be dominated by talks on how financial systems can be managed to prevent another economic crisis.

GCAP sent an open letter to Gordhan in which the issue of prudent management of the global financial system is addressed. The letter insists that the G20 focus on improved regulation of corporate governance, financial reporting and banking, according to GCAP spokesperson Rajesh Latchman.

"By promoting such a system you (Gordhan) will ensure that recessionary pressures will be detected sooner and knock-on effects on emerging economies in the global South can be avoided or at least minimised," the letter stated.

GCAP further asks that G20 countries provide additional resources for poor countries to deal with the financial crisis without setting harmful conditionalities. "We realise that Minister Gordhan will be fighting a difficult battle but we hope that he raises these issues at the summit," Latchman said.

While some have thought that African countries would be protected against the global financial crisis, it has proven not to be the case as African countries have seen a decline in gross domestic product (GDP). South Africa has also been affected, with thousands of people losing their jobs as companies cut costs.

"Although South African banks have not been drawn as deeply into the global crisis, it has an interest in a stable world economy. South Africa therefore also has an interest in global banking regulations and the way bonuses are paid to executives," Daryl Glaser, associate professor in Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, told IPS.

One of the issues South Africa should lobby for, argued Glaser, is the increased representation of South Africa and other African countries on bodies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and equitable rules and regulations for all countries regarding trade issues.

"The countries of the South want better representation in global economic planning," according to Glaser. "Voting rights in these bodies (IMF and World Bank) are skewed in favour of the North. These bodies put huge pressure on countries in the South to open their markets. But the countries in the North are not as open as their rhetoric suggests.

"I get the sense that (South African) President Jacob Zuma is more protectionist than his predecessor Thabo Mbeki. South Africa lifted protective trade barriers too quickly in the 1990s. This is one of the contributing factors to the country's high rate of unemployment. There is some room for a moderate degree of protectionism to prevent a country from becoming too vulnerable."

Pressure should be put on international bodies to honour their commitments to help African countries out of poverty. "In sub-Saharan Africa, aid will continue to be an issue.

"It has also been pointed out that when eastern European countries were given financial support, this was done with less strings attached than has been the case with financial assistance to countries in the South," added Glaser.

Francis Kornegay, a research associate in International Relations, told IPS that he did not expect "any major north-south cleavage on how to regulate the global financial system" at the Pittsburgh summit.

"I believe the G20 Summit will see more consensus than differences on that score. But all countries have individual reform agendas regarding the regulation of financial markets. South Africa has the advantage that the banks here did not get overexposed in exotic financial engineering."

Meanwhile, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has asked the G20 Summit to increase the bank's resources so that it can meet African countries' increasing demands for funding.

In a video statement from Tunis, Tunisia, the AfDB’s president, Donald Kaberuka, reminded the G20 not to leave Africa and low income countries behind as the world economy "shows signs of recovery".

The AfDB expects its investments in 2009 to double from 5.8 billion dollars last year to 11 billion dollars this year. This increase in commitments is largely in response to the global crisis.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Sep 1 2009 (IPS)

It is the middle of the day but 25-year-old Lyle Arendse of Athlone on the Cape Flats, Cape Town’s sprawling hinterland, is at home. He left school nearly 10 years ago and has since been unemployed. "It is because of drugs — tik (methamphetamine or "crystal meth") and heroin — that I left school," he acknowledges.

"I was not doing well academically because all I could think about was getting my next fix." He stopped using drugs about 18 months ago. "I realised that no one cared for me anymore. I lost the trust of the people close to me because I stole from them to support my habit. My girlfriend left me and my father wants nothing to do with me."

Arendse may be "clean" but he is still cautious about going out and he chooses his friends carefully. "I cannot go to the places I used to hang out before. I know there are dealers there and I don’t know if I am strong enough yet to resist them. I try to keep busy by cleaning my aunt’s house. She took me in when I had nowhere else to go.

"I go out with my cousins because I feel safe with them. They will not let me use drugs."

Arendse is one of millions of South Africans who face the lure of drugs daily. But it might become even more difficult to resist the temptation during the frenzy of the FIFA World Cup Soccer championship in June 2010.

The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and South Africa’s Central Drug Authority (CDA) recently warned that drug cartels could use the international event — that will see over 400,000 sport-crazy visitors flock to the country — to bring in large amounts of drugs.

At a recent media conference Dr Jonathan Lucas, regional representative of the UNODC, pointed out the difficulty of adequately policing drug activities in South Africa with high levels of corruption in the police and among border officials. There is also a lack of adequate crime intelligence.

"Drug trafficking always increases with big events – in Germany the trade and use in drugs increased during the World Cup that was held there in 2006," David Bayever, deputy chairperson of the CDA, a statutory body which advises government on substance abuse issues, tells IPS in an interview.

"It is of concern to us that the open-air screening of matches will attract thousands of spectators where vendors will grab the opportunity to sell drugs."

According to Bayever, South Africa is on the drug trafficking transit route from South America to Asia and it has also become a lucrative market for drug cartels operating regionally. The value of the drugs passing through the country is estimated at about four billion dollars annually. Drugs are also brought into the country from East and West Africa.

Dr Roger Meyer of the Kenilworth rehabilitation centre in the Western Cape province tells IPS that the clinic is putting structures in place to ensure that it is adequately resourced for emergency drug treatments during the World Cup.

"We always go the extra length whenever there is an international event in Cape Town," Meyer explained. "The World Cup is a hugely lucrative event which will attract business people from across the spectrum. I am sure that these include people who make profit from the illicit drug industry."

The security forces are also making preparations. "We have a plan in place which involves the South African Police Services, the defence force, the revenue services, harbour and airport authorities," Vish Naidoo, national police spokesperson, tells IPS. "We will not only be on the alert for illicit drugs, but also for illicit firearms and the movement of undocumented persons.

"There will be 41,000 dedicated police officers experienced in policing major events on duty. We are also working closely with different countries to identify known criminals to prevent them from entering South Africa."

But all these measures do not impress Arendse. "There are lots of drugs in South Africa already. It is easy to manufacture tik, and it is cheap. For (three dollars) you can buy enough tik for at least five hits. And it is easy to find in clubs, on street corners and in some of the most beautiful houses."

Bayever agrees: "Drug usage among South Africans is twice the world norm." South Africa spends about 18 million dollars a year on rehabilitation and other related expenses.

According to a report by the South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SACENDU), a body that researches drug abuse in the country, 2,807 patients were treated in the Western Cape province during June to December 2008.

In KwaZulu-Natal province on the country’s east coast, 1,537 patients were treated and in Gauteng province, the country’s economic heartland, there were 3,158 admissions to treatment centres during the same period. In the Western Cape, 12 percent of those treated were students or of school-going age while in Gauteng the figure was 18 percent.

According to SACENDU, cannabis is the most common illegal substance of abuse. However, in the Western Cape methamphetamine is the most common substance among patients younger than 20 years. Other substances abused are cocaine and crack, heroin, ecstasy and LSD.

Figures given by Bayever indicate that there are 3,2 million cannabis users in South Africa while 300,000 people use cocaine and 320,000 use narcotics such as tik and ecstasy regularly.

Meyer says that, "in dispossessed communities jobs are scarce. The drug industry seems like a way out. The kingpins are often those who seem to have made it – they drive around in big cars and live in big houses.

"Young people from these communities might see these people as role models and become ‘runners’ for them in the hope of going up in the ranks, eventually lifting themselves out of poverty."

The World Cup is not only an exciting opportunity for soccer fans.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Aug 26 2009 (IPS)

Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of former South African president Thabo Mbeki, believes that the government’s centrepiece policy of black economic empowerment was in fact the creation of the country’s white economic oligarchs to co-opt black leaders.

Moeletsi Mbeki: The policy "strikes a fatal blow against the emergence of black entrepreneurship". Credit:

He argues that BEE policy, which is aimed at building black ownership of companies, was not the invention of the ANC but was created by the country’s white economic oligarchs to co-opt leaders of the black resistance movement by buying them off with what looked like a transfer of massive assets at no cost.

This would ensure the oligarchs seats at the high table of the ANC government’s economic policy formulation and give the oligarchs and their companies the first bite at government contracts.

The impression was created that all previously disadvantaged individuals would benefit from BEE. However, this is far from the truth as the political elite and their cronies have reaped the most benefits.

Stephanie Nieuwoudt spoke to Mbeki, who is also deputy chairperson of the South African Institute of International Affairs, an independent think tank at the University of the Witwatersrand.

IPS: Do you think BEE was a well conceptualised system that could have realised the goal of empowering the masses? Moeletsi Mbeki (MM): It was never a good system. It was never intended to advance the masses. It was intended to buy off or co-opt the leaders of the resistance movement. BEE cannot work for the majority. It is only intended to advance the interests of a few.

The masses are not happy with what is happening and we are beginning to see this in the service revolts (widespread community-level protests currently happening). People are beginning to react against the inequality and are turning on the municipal officials, who are regarded as part of the elite because they are elected by the ANC which is not delivering.

IPS: And yet the ANC won a major victory at the polling booths earlier this year? Mbeki: The ANC has lost its two-thirds majority. It lost support in all the provinces except KwaZulu Natal (the country’s president, Jacob Zuma, hails from this province and he has huge support her). The ANC is buying off the poor with social grants – 13 million people in this country are receiving social grants.

Government’s planned project (anti-recession rescue plan) to retrain those in the private sector who are at risk of being retrenched are merely attempts by the government to appear as if they are sorting out public service problems. What will these people be retrained as? And where will they be redeployed?

The government realises the people are angry and they are trying to appease them with unsustainable promises.

The country is dealing with a class conflict between black people. On the one hand there is the political elites and on the other the masses. South Africa is still a rainbow nation, but the emerging class conflict has the potential to escalate.

IPS: South Africa is regarded by some as an example for other African countries. Is this perception of the country maintaining some kind of moral high ground justified? MM: The South African private sector is extremely powerful. That is why you find companies like Shoprite, MTN and Standard Bank in many African countries. These corporations offer great service and quality whilst ensuring their brands are protected.

But the South African state is declining – there are high levels of corruption, the health care system is on verge of collapse and the education system is under-performing.

Between 2000 and 2008 South Africa has been downgraded by 20 places by Transparency International’s Corruption Index — from 34th to 54th. Corruption is increasing at an enormous rate and it impacts severely on the poor. Revenue destined for the poor is misappropriated, which means that there is a lack of service delivery.

IPS: Some people allege that skilled white people are leaving the country because of a lack of opportunity due to BEE policies. MM: Black and white people are affected. There is no incentive to stay in the country if you know the top jobs go to the elite and their cronies. Affirmative action and BEE policies have become the inside track for the elected few.

At the moment there are 500,000 unfilled professional vacancies. Every professional who is employed, can create a job opportunity for others who are less skilled.

South Africa is becoming a de-industrialised country. We depend on imports rather than exports. In 1985, 31 percent of our gross domestic product came from the manufacturing sector. Now it is only 16 percent. Thousands have lost their jobs. Our footwear manufacturing industry has collapsed and those who are skilled in making footwear have disappeared. We are going backwards.

Yes, it is cheaper to import many products than to manufacture them, but it is a self-defeating argument. People are losing their jobs and people without jobs are anyway not in a position to buy those imported goods.

The elite have become consumers who live off systems that were created before 1994. They do not see themselves as producers and they do not start new businesses.

IPS: How does one address these issues? MM: We need to reform the electoral system. MPs should not be elected on a proportional representation basis, but represent specific constituencies directly. This will improve accountability. At the moment there is no system of accountability.

The education system needs to be overhauled. We need skilled workers. But money that should go into education is used for BEE purposes and given to politicians who build big palaces and buy expensive cars.

The critical issues here are the rise in economic inequality and the rise in import dependence. The combination of these two factors is lethal. It is driving the unemployment trend in South Africa, causing conflict among black people. And in the process, foreign nationals get caught up in the conflict (as was seen with the xenophobic attacks in the past year).

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Jul 17 2009 (IPS)

Commercial farmers sometimes fail at organic farming because they switch over too quickly, ditching all chemicals, which is as traumatic for the soil as "a drug addict going cold turkey".

This is how Cornelius Oosthuizen, the head of the South African Biofarm Institute’s management team, explains why there are relatively few organic farming success stories in South Africa. The South African Biofarm Institute promotes sustainable and profitable biological and organic farming.

"Failure occurs when a farmer who has been using chemicals on a farm for a long time suddenly switches to 100 percent organic farming. If you have 1,000 ha of land, you cannot start monoculture organic farming on all the land. One first has to farm biologically.

"If you suddenly take away all the chemicals from land that has been chemically farmed, it experiences trauma. It is like a drug addict that goes cold turkey."

The soil has to be primed – the micro and macro minerals have to be brought into balance; the ecological system has to be reinstated (there has to be robust insect and worm activity in the soil); and soil erosion has to be countered in various ways. With biological farming, non-harmful chemicals are used while organic farming does not permit the use of any kind of chemicals.

This is one of the factors that need to be addressed if South African farmers are to make inroads into organic farming which is not only lucrative but will address the African continent’s perennial problem with food security.

The international market for organic produce is worth 50 billion dollars annually, but Africa’s potential in this field is still largely untapped.

Organic farming can be the answer to the continent’s food security problems. In June, the aid organisation Oxfam warned that sub-Saharan Africa will suffer great maize losses of up to two billion dollars annually due to changing global patterns.

The region is susceptible to water shortage, natural disasters and drought. Experts warn that Africa’s scarce resources have to be used carefully to ensure food security.

According to Raymond Auerbach, a well-known advocate of organic farming in Africa, research done by a number of organisations proves that organic farming can double or treble production in the developing world. It reduces non-solar energy use by 33 to 56 percent; it uses water up to 40 percent more effectively and organically produced food has higher levels of vital nutrients.

Auerbach is the director of the South Africa-based Rainman Landcare Foundation. The organisation teaches producers to farm in an ecologically sound way and to make optimal use of Africa’s scarce water resources. It also helps farmers to organise into effective groups and to develop markets.

A 2008 report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) showed that in 114 projects in 24 African countries crop yields more than doubled when organic farming methods were used.

Yet ignorance and resistance to organic farming as well as the financial dominance of seed and fertiliser companies with their strong political links are some of the reasons why organic markets have not been fully developed. Auerbach told IPS that South African organic farmers face many obstacles. "First, there is little research locally to guide them. Second, the government will often not help farmers unless they use fertilisers and poisons. And, third, getting certified ‘organic’ is difficult and costly.

"Resistance to organic farming is fuelled by two factors – vested interests and professional ignorance. Companies support methods that help to sell their products. But who benefits from organics? Not companies, but farmers and their customers, as well as the environment," he argued.

"Professionally, those who have been trained in our (South African) colleges and universities have been told that fertilisers, poisons and GE [genetically engineered] seeds are scientific and progressive, while ‘old-fashioned’ methods are unscientific."

Yet the income potential from organic farming is enormous. According to Auerbach, organic farmers in Uganda are generating 22 million dollars annually in export earnings. They also provide food for local communities.

Oosthuizen added that commercial farmers are motivated by the profit motive, and that quantity is therefore more important to them than quality. "Farmers have to show a profit and they will use seed and fertiliser that help them attain this goal – even if the resultant product is poor in nutritional value."

Genetically modified seeds ensure huge crop yields and pesticides and herbicides are sprayed over crops in huge quantities. The multinational seed and pesticide companies, which produce these products, often have links to government officials. In this way they ensure that they have prime access to markets.

"Fertiliser, for example, is a by-product of the petro-chemical industry. Billions of dollars have been invested in these industries. Organic farmers do not buy from these multinationals, so of course there will be resistance from the multinationals to organic farming," Oosthuizen explained.

According to Auerbach, "food security lies at the heart of the organic movement. In general large agribusiness organisations are less interested in food security than in selling their products.

"Even some aid organisations at work in Africa boast that most of the money they invest in development goes back to the United States in the form of payment to American technical experts and provision of technologies and products."

For Oosthuizen the answer to food insecurity lies in returning farming to the local level in Africa. "Each village should have its own farms, and its own mill and bakery to feed its people. When the local people are being fed then only should one look to wider markets.

"This is where governments could play an important role. Marketing strategies should be centralised and co-ordinated. For example: a government could appoint 20 small holder farmers in a certain area to jointly supply five tons of maize to a specific client."

The empowerment of women farmers can be achieved when this model is followed. In Africa women form the backbone of the agricultural economy. The potential benefits to women are obvious if governments employ a gender equity principle in allocating projects.

Across South Africa poor urban and rural woman are already keeping hunger at bay with community food gardens. The resultant produce not only feed them and their families, but surplus food is sold at local markets, generating an income for the women who are often the sole breadwinners in extended families.

In rural areas women can benefit from organic farming in two ways, says Auerbach. "They can use the inputs that they find around the farm, so they do not have to travel far to buy expensive inputs. They are also the ones who use the food for their children, so both in production and in consumption no one will be exposed to poisons."

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Jun 18 2009 (IPS)

Development in Africa should be boosted through labour-intensive production on small to medium-sized farms. To advance food security in Africa, governments should assist small farmers with credit lines and infrastructure while buffering them against fluctuations in world food prices.

These are among the proposals offered at the Agribusiness Forum 2009 hosted by the European Marketing Research Centre (EMRC), South Africa’s department of agriculture, fisheries and forestry, the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa and the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations this week in Somerset West near Cape Town, South Africa.

"Two-thirds of the world population are trapped in a cruel web of circumstances that limit their rights to the necessities of life. These include decent jobs, education, healthcare, housing and, most importantly, food.

"The situation is exacerbated by the global financial slowdown," South Africa's minister of agriculture, fisheries and forestry Tina Joemat-Pettersson said in a speech read by an official at the conference.

"It is overwhelming that at the centre of this slowdown are billions of poor households, the majority in Africa and Asia, who spend a larger portion of their income on food than middle and high income households," Joemat-Pettersson pointed out.

Agricultural output per person has fallen in Africa. From 2005 to 2007 it was 15 percent lower than 1960 to 1962 levels. African countries are also increasingly dependent on agricultural imports. In South Africa, agricultural imports were worth 4.1 billion dollars in 2008 – an increase of 41 percent when compared to 2006/2007.

"There is agreement that development should, as in Asia, take the form of labour-intensive production on small to medium farms. This will generate jobs needed to reduce mass poverty and provide the food and savings that are the basis for industrialisation," stated Joemat-Pettersson.

The two-thirds of Africans whose livelihoods depend on agriculture, receive only between five and 10 percent of public resources. This effectively means that too little is spent on research and development, accessing markets, storage facilities, handling and transport, marketing and trade, she explained.

According to Dr Namanga Ngongi, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), only seven countries in Africa are consistently able to spend 10 percent of their budget on agriculture. AGRA is an African organisation based in Kenya and Ghana that works towards establishing agricultural research and funding partnerships to improve the plight of farmers in Africa.

This flies in the face of the Maputo Declaration that the African Union adopted in 2003, pledging that at least 10 percent of national budgets would be devoted to agriculture.

"Economic investments in Africa are often hampered by factors like a perception that countries on the continent are politically unstable and that the financial structures are not up to standard. However, CEOs who invest in Africa often find that their returns on the continent are much higher than elsewhere," Ngongi argued.

"To ensure food security on the continent, we have to invest in capacity building and make credit available to even smallholder farmers. Governments have to invest in programmes to help farmers withstand fluctuations in both market prices and the economy.

"Governments further have to invest in infrastructure – including the building of roads and railroads. Only four percent of agricultural land in Africa is under irrigation. Education around crop improvement is essential. Last year African farmers released 65 new improved seed varieties. There is potential for further improvement."

According to AGRA, support of governments is "changing the landscape of opportunities for farmers". In Kenya government subsidies have helped 2,5 million farmers to obtain improved seeds and fertilisers and in Tanzania subsidies have helped close to 700,000 farmers.

However, research released by the independent British international relations institute Chatham House earlier this year found that although genetically modified crops may have a place, the focus should be on ecologically integrated approaches such as integrated pest management, minimum tillage, drip irrigation and integrated soil fertility management.

These approaches put power in the hands of farmers rather than seed companies.

In February this year, African agricultural ministers called for concerted efforts to improve food production on the continent. But they also acknowledged that expanded use of fertiliser and seed will not be enough. There has to be complementary investments which include the improvement of rural roads, establishing an electricity network and investing in health and education.

Chatham House also found that water scarcity is one of the major challenges facing agriculture in Africa. Half a billion people live in countries chronically short of water. By 2050 the number will rise to more than four billion. This will be due to climate change and unsustainable extraction from rivers, lakes and groundwater.

Idit Miller, managing director and vice president of EMRC, emphasised the need to invest in skills development, access to capital, information transfer, access to markets, infrastructure development, agricultural infrastructure, technology development and transfer, entrepreneurial training and development in order to scale up agricultural initiatives in Africa.

EMRC is a non-profit international association set up in Belgium and comprising a network of entrepreneurs, financiers, consultants and officials.

Miller added that there are two "other major considerations that also need to be managed in this process and those are the considerable issues of managing risk and scale of economies in order to be globally competitive".

The conference heard that public-private partnerships are essential in up-scaling agricultural initiatives in Africa. One example of how this can happen is through food corridors.

According to John Rocha, senior project manager of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Business Foundation, developing the roads network linking two or more countries can have a number of benefits.

Private sector initiatives can lead to improved road linkages, with complementary services – such as petrol stations and shops – and the development of the electricity network.

Farmers along such corridors – who were previously isolated because of a lack of infrastructure – can benefit because the roads and shops make it easier for them to access markets, suggested Rocha. Electricity will enable them to use more advanced agricultural tools. Mineral and industrial development can also be stimulated.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Jun 16 2009 (IPS)

After a protracted court battle of seven years, a small South African environmental organisation won a major legal victory against the multinational agri-chemical and seed giant Monsanto.

In a judgment in South Africa’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, this month, Judge Albie Sachs overturned a previous ruling by a High Court judge that Biowatch had to pay the costs of Monsanto and the government's department of agriculture.

This judgment followed after a number of court cases which started in 2002 when Biowatch launched court proceedings in the High Court demanding access to information about genetically modified (GM) crops produced by Monsanto. Biowatch is a non-profit organisation that campaigns for sustainable agricultural practices.

‘‘Although Biowatch won the case, it was ordered that we pay all costs of both the department of agriculture and Monsanto. It would have destroyed us if we had to pay the costs,’’ Rose Williams, Biowatch director, told IPS.

In his judgment Sachs said ‘‘public interest litigation could be jeopardised by the severe financial penalty that costs orders would impose on the organisations bringing these suits. The protection of environmental rights will not only depend on the diligence of public officials, but on the existence of a lively civil society willing to litigate in the public interest.’’

Sachs also said that this case is ‘‘a matter of great interest to the legal profession, the general public, and bodies concerned with public interest litigation’’.

An elated Williams responded by saying that, ‘‘the constitutional court victory proves that constitutional rights of South Africans are being protected. We believe that there are a number of health and environmental risks resulting from GM technology. The information about these risks has to be made public.’’

Responding to the Constitutional Court judgment, Monsanto said: "Monsanto will naturally abide by the court decision."

Mariam Mayet, director of the African Centre for Bio-safety, is inspired by the Constitutional Court judgment because it ‘‘proves that the rule of law still applies’’. The centre is a non-profit watchdog body that provides analysis on bio-safety, bio-piracy and genetic engineering in Africa.

‘‘In the bio-safety realm, the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is in dispute. There is no consensus that GM products are safe,’’ Mayet told IPS.

‘‘There are huge concerns that GM crops can contaminate agricultural biodiversity, lead to alterations in the DNA structure of agricultural products and eventually replace them. Monsanto has a monopoly. It controls the production and distribution of GM seeds globally.

‘‘And if you use Monsanto seeds, you also have to buy their other products like herbicides and pesticides. The organisation is extremely aggressive in lobbying provincial governments. It is a powerful corporation with a lot of political influence.

"In South Africa the department of science and technology is in favour of GM technology because the department receives huge amounts of money from foreign sources which is poured into GM research.

‘‘Farmers are profit-driven and embrace the technology because there are short term gains such as increased crop yields which save them labour costs. But they ignore the long term impacts on health and the environment,’’ Mayet added.

In South Africa 60 percent of the maize crops is GM. But earlier this year, three white maize hybrid crops failed in South Africa affecting an area of over 82 000 hectares in three provinces. Some 280 out of 1,000 farmers who used those specific seeds found that there was no kernel development.

In a statement, Monsanto claimed that extensive research proved that the problem was caused by under-fertilisation in the laboratory, unsuitable weather conditions and incorrect farming practices. The farmers who suffered losses were compensated by Monsanto.

The global debate about GMs remains fierce, with a number of European countries resisting GM. French president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 banned the cultivation of GM crops and in the same year Monsanto was fined 15,000 euros by a French court for misleading the public about the environmental impact of their herbicide called Roundup.

In South Africa Monsanto was forced by the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa to change the wording of an advertisement stating that GM products have never caused any harm.

A number of researchers in this southern-most African country are arguing that GM could have benefits but that more research is needed. In her book, ‘‘Invaded: The Biological Invasion of South Africa’’ (published by Wits University Press), South African science writer Leonie Joubert writes that controlling alien and invasive grasses is a tricky business.

The frequent use of genetically modified grains is fuelling the spread of herbicide- resistant strains of crop grasses that makes control of the infestation even more problematic.

She told IPS: ‘‘GM, unfortunately, has become as polarising an issue as nuclear power, which I think is counterproductive. There is huge potential for GM to help us with feeding the world's hungry and adapting to climate change.

‘‘My problem is that it's not regulated well enough and its rollout is mostly driven by commercial interests, so you have whole lot of GM stuff getting out into the farming world and potentially into the natural environment when it may not necessarily have been tested sufficiently for safety, for example that the GM crops it won't hybridise with indigenous varieties, that they won't become weedy or invasive themselves.

‘‘GM has to be treated on a case by case basis, not given blanket dismissal or blanket acceptance," Joubert concluded.

Melodie McGeoch, a core team member of the Centre for Invasion Biology, a research hub affiliated to the University of Stellenbosch near Cape Town, agreed: ‘‘It is important that we raise the profile of the potential environmental and ecological risks of biotechnology. Biotechnology can be safe but we have to ensure that it is sufficiently tested and researched.

‘‘Steps have been taken to avoid potential risks, but we are not quite there yet. Many genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are released before there are sufficient systems in place to assess their safety.’’

According to Biowatch’s Williams, herbicide and pesticide genes used in GM crops can also potentially have harmful effects on human beings and animals. Biowatch points out that South Africa has the dubious reputation of being the first country in the world to grow a GM staple crop – white maize – commercially.

Consumers want to know why this was approved, how eating this maize affects their health and why they are not able to exercise their right to choose non-GM foods through labelling of food products. Williams maintains that not enough information is made public.

(Not for publication in Italy).

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Jun 1 2009 (IPS)

South Africa is slowly moving towards exploring renewable energy sources, having set itself a target of three percent of energy being generated from renewable sources by 2013.

At an international conference on utilities held in May in Cape Town, newly appointed energy minister Dipuo Peters committed herself to the development and promotion of a renewable energy strategy.

In a speech read by the spokesperson of the department of energy affairs, Bheki Khumalo, Peters emphasised the need for renewable energy sources, saying that both developing and developed countries had to find ways to address the global warming crisis. She said South Africa had huge untapped potential for energy generation through renewable energy resources.

These energy development projects should also benefit the poor and ensure universal power access.

Cornelis van der Waal, the energy industry manager at Frost & Sullivan, an international business research and consulting firm, told IPS that the minister’s speech sent out a positive signal to private investors in renewable energy who are keen to come on board.

The renewable energy sector received a blow at the end of 2007 when government excluded maize from the renewable energy programme amidst indications that bio-fuel production contributes to food insecurity by pushing up prices of basic food crops. Some farmers had already invested in maize as a potential renewable energy crop.

Recenty the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) published proposed Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariffs for four sources of renewable energy.

If accepted, Escom would buy concentrated solar power at 22 dollar cents per kilowatt hour (kWh); wind power at around 17 dollar cents per kWh; small-scale hydro output at around 11,5 dollar cents per kWh; and gas from landfill sites at around 11 dollar cents per Kwh.

This could potentially open up the renewable energy sector to private producers. Eskom currently sells more traditional forms of power – generated by coal — at around three dollar cents per kWh.

‘‘The minister emphasised solar energy as a renewable source of energy. This is one resource that South Africa and the rest of the continent have in abundance,’’ Professor Wikus van Heerden of the University of Stellenbosch’s Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies told IPS.

The renewable energy industry is more labour intensive than the coal-based industries, which means that more people can be employed.

‘‘However,’’ said van Heerden, ‘‘the technology for concentrated solar power is very expensive. Technical skills and technology would have to be imported, and this drives up the price.’’

All forms of renewable energy are expensive, and most African and other countries in the developing world are unable to tap into these resources without help from outside sources. South Africa is no exception.

One of the country’s first renewable energy projects, a wind farm in Darling, a tiny town near the country’s western coastline, is an example of a public-private enterprise. At the end of 2008 this wind farm became the first independent generating plant in South Africa connected to the national grid.

The farm is a joint project by the national department of energy, the Central Energy Fund, the Darling Independent Power Producers and the Danish Government’s International Development Assistance Programme.

The conference took place during African Utility Week against the backdrop of a proposed electricity tariff increase of around 34 percent by the national power supplier Eskom. This announcement was for the most part welcomed by analysts at the conference who believe that South Africa’s low tariff structure is unsustainable.

Some even called for a series of increases to bring the total increase to 90%.

However, the proposed increase has been severely criticised in certain quarters. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the biggest trade union federation in South Africa, threatened with a strike if the increase was accepted by the government.

The federation claims that increases will force struggling businesses to close, lead to job losses and put more pressure on already besieged consumers at a time when the country has slipped into a recession for the first time in 17 years.

‘‘Workers have the right to go to the streets to protest tariff hikes. But the proposed increase of 34 percent will barely cover Eskom’s operating costs,’’ Mark Pickering, the regional director for South Africa of Empower, a UK-based company which owns and operates modular power generation plants, told IPS at the conference.

‘‘Eskom also has to pay the debts it has incurred to build new power plants.’’

According to Eskom’s annual report last year, the supplier will need 43 billion dollars over the next five years to cover expansion projects. Eskom has been beset by a range of problems, including financial woes, old and ineffective power generating plants and a lack of reserve capacity.

Currently the supplier has a reserve capacity of only 13,5 percent, compared to the ideal of 15 percent. Lack of reserve capacity in 2008 led to rolling power blackouts that affected all economic sectors and drained the country of billions of dollars in lost revenue.

This is why the captains of trade and industry for the most part welcome the proposed tariff increase. If the increases are to ensure continuous power supply, it is far preferable than the paralysing effect of blackouts.

Addressing the fear that consumers at the bottom of the economy would suffer if the proposed tariff hikes were accepted, Pickering said that there were different levels of cross-subsidisation to help poorer communities. In certain areas, power supply is free.

In others prices are kept low because the tariff structure in more affluent areas are calculated and taxed in a way that amounts to a system where the rich subsidise the poor.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, May 20 2009 (IPS)

Bathed in sunlight on a crisp autumn morning, the Welgemeen farm in the Ceres district in the Western Cape province is a shining example in the otherwise patchy track record of land reform in South Africa.

Annemarie Konstabel prepares pears at Welgemeen. Credit: Stephanie Nieuwoudt/IPS

Land reform in South Africa has, for the most part, not been a success story.

Some agricultural land has since the democratic transition in 1994 been given to black claimants, either as restitution (on the basis of a historical claim to land from which claimants or their forebears were evicted) or redistribution (claimants receive government grants to obtain land).

But large tracts of such land have been mismanaged and lie fallow. This is due to a number of factors, including lack of support by existing farmers and the government in the form of training; lack of seeds and fertiliser; and new farmers becoming despondent and leaving the land when they feel overwhelmed by the demands and costs of agriculture.

But Welgemeen is flourishing. ‘‘The new owners of Welgemeen are under the mentorship of successful commercial farmers. Because they have shares in the farm and the necessary infrastructure, they are determined to make a success of farming,’’ says Robert Graaff.

He was awarded the Young Farmer of the Year award by AgriSA, South Africa’s agricultural association, in 2007.

Welgemeen lies adjacent to the Graaff cousins’ other farm, the commercial farm Lushof. When Welgemeen became available just over three years ago, they jumped at the chance to buy it.

‘‘Some of the shareholders’ families have been with our family for decades. Welgemeen is one way of giving something back (to the community)," explains Graaff.

Jacobus Mietas is one of the shareholders. He has been with Welgemeen for nearly four years, since the start of the venture.

Born in the nearby town of Ceres and having lived and worked in the surrounding Witzenberg area all his life, he took the opportunity to become a joint landowner when the Welgemeen initiative came around three years ago. ‘‘I thought it was a good idea for us to get ownership,’’ Mietas declares.

The model that was followed was to get a sufficiently large number of formerly disadvantaged members of the community together who might be interested in becoming part of the venture.

Each of them was entitled to a government grant for acquiring land. This sum was pooled, and with additional financing it amounted to 60 percent of the purchase sum. The Greeff cousins put up the remaining 40 percent.

Further funding and other forms of support were accessed to build the farm. For instance, the department of agriculture – through its comprehensive agricultural support programme – helped the venture to acquire the necessary new equipment to become a viable business.

Today, 130 hectares of Welgemeen are planted with deciduous and citrus fruit orchards, including apricots, peaches, nectarines and pears. They expect to harvest 3.5 tons of fruit this season, of which 70-90 percent will be dried.

By far the largest portion of their harvest is exported – to Europe (mainly Britain), the Middle East, North America and the Far East. The remainder of their produce is sold to large local retailer Woolworths, and to the South African Dried Fruit Board. Both of these are demanding clients that only take produce of high quality.

Greeff says Welgemeen is accredited by the giant UK-based international retail chain Tesco. ‘‘You have to run the farm along commercial lines. Our main concern is sustainability,’’ states Greeff.

Of the 210 black shareholders, 18 work on Welgemeen permanently. The rest either work on other farms owned by the Graaffs or are employed elsewhere. All profits that have been made so far have been ploughed directly back into Welgemeen.

‘‘We made it clear from the beginning that we will not be paying dividends for a few years. You have to fatten a cow before you can milk it. Everyone agreed,’’ according to Graaff.

‘‘The growth in the farm’s value also has to be taken into account. Its value has trebled over the past three years. Whereas each shareholder’s portion was worth around 3,467 dollars at the beginning, it now stands at around 10,760 dollars each.’’

Greeff says a high level of mutual trust between all the shareholders and workers is needed to win with a venture like Welgemeen. ‘‘It’s a two-way street. We help each other. You have to be totally transparent.’’

Welgemeen’s books are audited by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). The business has four board meetings a year, and an annual general shareholders’ meeting.

The Greeffs are members of the board, as are the other shareholders through the representatives of the two trusts that they have formed. Broad policy decisions about the strategic direction of the business are taken at board meetings.

Greeff has an honours degree in agricultural science from the University of Stellenbosch near Cape Town.

The farm manager is Hubert Roux. He also has a tertiary agricultural qualification. ‘‘People here are positive. Everyone cooperates for the common good,’’ he enthuses. Mietas agrees: ‘‘We all have a stake in this.’’

Aside from the shareholders, another 68 people are in full-time employment on the farm while a further 100 are contract workers. These work opportunities help to alleviate the huge burden of unemployment in the area.

Sofia Muller, a fruit packer, tells IPS: ‘‘I support a family of five people. It is difficult to survive because there are very few job opportunities in the area.’’ She receives about 15 dollars per day during the packing season – an income that is crucial in a poor household.

For Mietas, his stake in the farm means a more sustainable livelihood. ‘‘Farming is in my blood. This farm is an investment in the future of my children.’’

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, May 18 2009 (IPS)

The African National Congress comfortably won almost two-thirds of the total vote in South Africa's recent elections, to retain power at the national level and in eight of the country's nine provinces.

Helen Zille: 'When you buck the narrative and say, sorry, the content of the job comes first, you are labelled a racist and a sexist.' Credit: Stephanie Nieuwoudt/IPS

The DA's performance in the Western Cape built on success in local elections in 2006, when the party won control of the city of Cape Town. As mayor of the province's capital city for the past three years, Zille faced many bruising political battles with the ANC.

As newly-elected premier of the Western Cape, Zille remains as outspoken as ever. Days after Jacob Zuma, the leader of the ANC, was inaugurated as South Africa’s fourth president on May 10, Zille attacked him in a letter to The Sowetan, one of the country’s biggest newspapers. She said he had put the lives of his three wives at risk by having unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV positive. (This had come out during his rape trial in 2006, a charge of which he was acquitted.)

Zille made her remarks about Zuma in response to criticism by the ANC and others of her decision to appoint only men – and mostly white men at that – to her provincial cabinet. The ANC Youth League accused Zille of being racist and of sleeping with these men. The Commission for Gender Equality indicated that it might take her to court for the appointment of only males.

In the midst of all this, Zille has to find a way to deliver services to the people of the Western Cape. Excerpts of her interview with Stephanie Nieuwoudt follow.

IPS: The DA’s support comes mainly from the white and coloured population groups of South Africa, where black people form a large majority. Is your victory in the Western Cape not a fragile one? Helen Zille: The 2006 victory, when the DA took over the City of Cape Town during by-elections, was much more fragile than this one. In 2006 we had to put together a seven-party coalition to get fifty percent plus one. This time around we got 51.5 percent of the vote on our own. The ANC is not accepting our victory, but we are used to it, and will not buy into the ANC narrative or the dominant media narrative.

IPS: What is this dominant narrative? Helen Zille: Quotas are the most important thing in South Arica. They [the media] have completely bought the ANC line on quotas. And when you buck the narrative and say, sorry, the content of the job comes first, as I have done, you are [labelled] a racist and a sexist.

IPS: The Constitution does provide for gender equality. As a women and a proponent of women’s rights, do you not feel that you are letting women down? Helen Zille: Let’s look at the issues facing women. Number one is the patriarchal sexual culture in which many men seem to think it is their right to have many unprotected sexual encounters. It puts women massively at risk of HIV/Aids, which is why the disease is predominantly a female burden.

Number two is the extent to which men make babies but are not prepared to take responsibility for their children by, for instance, paying maintenance. Another issue facing women is gender violence.

The ANC does not raise these problems, because they are hushed up under [the excuse of it being] culture. I have pricked these taboos, and am therefore persona non grata.

IPS: You had a strong team of women under you when you were mayor of Cape Town. Were none of those women available for the provincial legislature? Helen Zille: None of the women in the DA is a quota appointment. We would be greatly insulted if this was the case. I do not tell people they are to be deployed simply to get the gender balance right. People could apply for whichever list they wanted to. Most women applied for national appointments.

Those who applied – male and female alike – went for rigorous tests against the job description. I am interested in fitness for purpose. Five women – including me – in the caucus were eventually elected in top jobs. One of them, Alta Rossouw, is the chief whip of the party.

IPS: This public mud slinging between you and the ANC surely does not bode well for the future. Helen Zille: There is no mud slinging from my side. The media likes to present things as such. I wrote a rational argument based on interlinking logical points [regarding Jacob Zuma and his polygamous marriages]. The media published one sentence from that letter. Some issues are worth fighting for, and fitness for purpose – appointing the right person in a job, not based on gender – is one such issue.

IPS: You have run your election campaign promising service delivery, saying the ANC has left a mess behind. What are the main issues you are looking at? And how will you satisfy all your contsituents who are divided between rich and poor, black, coloured and white? Helen Zille: Some of the major problems are in housing, education, transport, public works and land development planning. I had to employ MECs who can get to the heart of service delivery. These people are competent and will deliver. They will work night and day to fulfil their mandate.

We can only do our jobs as well as we can in every single portfolio. We have to keep development going, spend the money well and have an open and clean administration. The DA has been criticized for being too white. But we have people of all groups in the top structure.

We already provide generous free basic services in Cape Town. And the only reason we can do this is because we have a middle class who can subsidise the poor. In the three years since the DA came to power in Cape Town, we have doubled free basic services by taxing the rich and giving to the poor.

IPS: Are you expecting a backlash from the middle class? Helen Zille: Of course we cannot continue raising rates. But fortunately most people from the middle class realise that we have to give services to the poor.

IPS: The DA has been victorious in the Western Cape. How do you intend increasing your support in the rest of the country, which is staunchly ANC? Helen Zille: One miracle at a time, please. The fact that we won the Western Cape is already a major victory. The voting patterns in this country have little to do with the levels of service delivery or policy issues, and everything with identity. The majority of people identify with the ANC and its leaders.

IPS: What is your response to people who call you the Margaret Thatcher of Africa? Helen Zille: I say Margaret Thatcher cannot toyi-toyi [a dance used by political protesters during apartheid]

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Apr 2 2009 (IPS)

The global economic crisis makes it even more imperative that investors ascertain the economic and legal conditions in foreign countries.

‘‘When one has dealings overseas, you encounter special problems,’’ Tony George and Carol Searle, partners in the international law firm Ince & Co., told delegates at the Third Annual Africa Trade and Investment Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, last week.

‘‘You become involved in another country’s customs and practice and rules and regulations. These may change during the life of your contractual relationship with your counterparty, particularly in countries which are economically under pressure.’’

Aside from operational risks – which may be increased by the distance goods have to travel – the local labour force may have different working practices. There may be a risk of late or non-payment. Investors have to consider political risks – war, state protectionism, terrorism, and so forth.

George and Searle cautioned that investors should familiarise themselves with the regulatory background of a country before committing to a deal. Important questions to ask are: what is the host country’s legal system’s attitude to sovereign immunity? What are the local regulations?

Other questions are: what is the extent of the authority of the government or parastatal you are dealing with? And what happens if the counterparty goes bust?

These questions, as well as measures to meet any challenges, have become increasingly important in the current situation where the global economy is seeing a downturn unprecedented in almost 80 years.

In order to protect an investment, a local partner may help a company wishing to invest in a foreign country to navigate its way in a foreign regulatory environment. The partner could be an agent or a local lawyer.

‘‘To resolve any stand-off, frequently the parties to international contracts find a middle-ground by agreeing that their relationship shall be governed by the application of a well-developed body of law from a neutral jurisdiction which they both respect. For example, English law or the law of the State of New York,’’ George told delegates.

Bilateral investment treaties (BITs) between developed and developing countries have an in-built protection mechanism. It provides for investors to have direct recourse to arbitration against the host state or other means of dispute settlement.

Often the parties entering into BITs designate the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) as the body for dispute resolution. So far 155 states have signed a convention giving authority to ICSID, of which 143 have ratified the convention.

There is currently 33 concluded and 11 pending ICSID cases involving sub-Saharan African states.

However, even if large monetary sums are awarded during an arbitration process there is no guarantee that these would be paid out because the different partners and countries do not always comply with the rules and regulations as set out by agreements or conventions.

‘‘With actions against commercial entities, there are often international conventions in place which will allow the enforcement of foreign judgments or awards against them in their home territory,’’ George explained.

‘‘If, however, it is their government’s action or inactions that have caused the contractual breach for which they are held responsible, this may be more theoretical than real.’’

Aside from legal protection, investors in foreign countries should make sure that their investments are insured against different risks. Regarding political and trade credit risk insurance, George and Searle pointed out advantages and disadvantages of private and government insurers.

Government agencies and private insurers generally cover the same risks. But the private market can offer bespoke coverage. Government insurance is usually cheaper than that offered by the private sector, but there is more flexibility in private insurance policies.

Types of cover offered include ‘‘confiscation, expropriation and nationalisation’’ (CEN) – confiscation is the state’s seizure of property without compensation; expropriation includes the host government seizing property of a foreign investment by passing new laws to annul title or ownership in a property; nationalisation is generally a form of expropriation by a government to advance reform programmes.

Another form of insurance is ‘‘contract frustration’’. This is cover to ensure the performance or payment obligations of public buyers or to protect against the impact of government action on private buyers.

‘‘War and terrorism or political violence’’ cover insures against damage to property or income lost because of damage to property caused by war or terrorism. ‘‘Currency or inconvertibility’’ insurance compensates investors if they cannot convert local currency into hard currency and transfer it outside the host country.

In an effort to answer a question about whether or not political and trade credit risk insurance worked, Searle and George said complaints are usually not about claims payment records, but about bureaucracy and inflexibility.

In the private sector, figures show that the insurance giant AIG paid out 1.2 billion dollars between 1978 and 2006. Lloyds, a leading insurer, paid out over 315 million dollars over 25 years.

However, there have been a number of complaints against private insurers which were largely centred on CEN claims, which are more complicated that other claims.

George and Searle reminded everybody that the political risk insurance market has been around for 35 years. It has weathered storms from the Middle East petrodollar boom, the Iranian revolution, the collapse of the USSR to currently facing the challenges of the global financial meltdown.

It is unlikely that this market will fail to deliver in future.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Mar 30 2009 (IPS)

Despite the challenges that the global economic crisis poses to Africa and other developing regions in the southern hemisphere, South-South trade still offers huge opportunities as there is room for growth beyond the current levels.

According to Jean-Louis Ekra, president of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) – a multilateral organisation that finances and promotes trade with African countries – the potential benefit from South-South trade may offer the same financial gains as trade with richer, Northern countries.

With the downscaling of North-South investments, Southern countries will do well to forge intra-regional links to optimise potential and opportunities, he said. Ekra was speaking at the third Annual Africa Trade and Investment Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. It ended on Friday Mar 27.

However, while a feeling of optimism reigned at the conference, which was attended by bankers and investors, there were also voices urging constraint because of the negative impacts the global financial crisis have already had on Africa.

Sketching a positive picture, Ekra said that South-South merchandise trade has grown significantly in the past 20 years, albeit from a very low base. South-South trade represents six percent of world trade, a 100 percent increase from 1985 levels.

South-South merchandise trade grew at an average rate of 12.5 percent per year over a 24 year period – a figure that compares well to the North-North growth rate of seven percent and 9.8 percent for North-South trade.

African trade with the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China), especially India and China, has been robust with a rise of 1,170 percent between 1985 and 2007. In 2007, trade between these countries amounted to 256.25 billion dollars and represented 32.7 percent of Africa’s total trade.

Intra-African trade has grown at a slower pace – from seven percent in 1985 to about 10 percent in 2008. These figures lag behind eastern and south-eastern Asian countries where intraregional trade equals more than 40 percent of total trade.

Until recently South-South trade was dominated by commodities. It was widely accepted that this stymied growth as countries were trading very similar products.

South-South trade got a tremendous boost with the industrialisation of China and India. These countries became large-scale manufacturers, dominating the export market to a large extent. According to Ekra, South-South trade was further boosted through multilateral trade negotiations which eventually led to the establishment of the World Trade Organisation, the internet revolution and sweeping economic reforms in many countries.

The current economic crisis has led to a strong demand for investment stocks outside of the U.S.. In Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa some of the highest global stock returns were posted between 2003 and 2007. Investors were quick to tap into this market.

Yet, despite strong growth in gross domestic product (GDP) these past five years and political stability in many African and other developing countries, these countries have not remained unscathed by the current economic crisis.

The value of stocks in Africa has declined since the beginning of 2009 – with Nigeria being the worst affected. The World Bank’s estimates indicate that exports of Asian countries will fall by more that 40 percent this year when compared to 2007/08 levels.

Ekra added that some African countries, especially those producing fuels and solid minerals, will probably experience export declines of more than 50 percent.

‘‘The World Bank estimates that the expected decline in global trade will be 90 percent attributable to demand and 10 percent to lack of trade finance. There is therefore a strong argument for boosting domestic demand across the world,’’ Ekra stated.

He added that Afreximbank, as a trade facilitator, has placed emphasis on pursuing pan-African initiatives that ‘‘make sense as a self-reliance strategy’’.

This means that African financial institutions should share information and work together on intra-regional projects. Co-operation has already led to the creation of the African Bankers’ Association; the development of an African correspondent banking and letter of credit confirmation scheme (Africorrbanking); and an annual trade finance seminar.

Afreximbank is also working with the BRICs countries because ‘‘greater interaction with the BRICs provides an opportunity for the transfer of cutting-edge technical and managerial competencies as well as market access capabilities for African traders’’.

Konrad Reuss, managing director of Standard & Poor’s, a financial institution providing credit ratings, indices, investment research and data, told the conference that projected GDP growth for many African countries is around 3.8 percent – down from an average of between five percent and six percent over the last five years.

‘‘This is still positive growth. However, with the projected increase in population, the per capita expenditure will also increase which to a large degree could negate the growth. In these stormy seas, we will soon see where the good African skippers are.’’

Avril Stassen, investment advisor at the Africa Agribusiness Investment Fund (Agri-Vie), a private investment fund focusing on agribusiness in sub-Saharan Africa, argued that the contraction in commodity prices will moderate growth on the continent.

But there is still strong growth in infrastructure investments – railroads, roads, dams as well as agribusiness – in Africa. ‘‘In fact, it seems as if investors are even keener to invest on the continent than last year. Foreign direct investment inflows in 2008 increased by 17 percent, from 2007 levels, to 62 billion dollars,’’ Stassen told delegates.

This is despite risks posed by potential political instability, exchange rate volatility, lack of infrastructure and a thin layer of managerial capacity in many countries.

Stassen explained that Agri-Vie bases its optimism about Arica on four pillars: Africa is resource-rich; there is continuous capital inflow; urbanisation is taking place at a rapid pace; and many countries have instilled measures to ensure improvements on the national and corporate governance levels.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Mar 27 2009 (IPS)

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) vilified politician and former anti-apartheid trade unionist Patricia de Lille when she made allegations about graft in the country’s notorious multi-billion dollar deal with British, French, Italian, German and Swedish arms manufacturers back in 1999.

Patricia de Lille: "They focused on a shopping list of weapons, instead of development." Credit: Stephanie Nieuwoudt/IPS

He allegedly solicited a bribe from French arms manufacturer Thales/Thint, which is also facing charges. Zuma and the ANC have pursued all avenues to derail the case against him, including a currently pending appeal against a decision in the Mauritian courts.

More ominously, the ruling party’s actions have weakened democratic institutions, causing concern among many. In the latest of a string of assaults on South Africa’s fledgling democracy, Zuma’s friend and former financial advisor Schabir Shaik was released on ‘‘medical parole’’.

He served a mere 28 months of the 15 year sentence he received for corruption in the arms deal. The verdict also implicated Zuma. Medical parole is a process aimed at allowing terminally ill prisoners to die with dignity at home.

Indications are that Shaik, who spent most of his jail time in a hospital allegedly eating take-away meals, does not suffer from a terminal illness.

De Lille has called for a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding Shaik’s release. She now heads up an opposition party, the Independent Democrats (ID), after breaking ranks with a former liberation organisation, the Pan Africanist Congress.

Stephanie Nieuwoudt spoke to her about the deal and the threat that attempts to cover up foul play holds for the consolidation of South Africa’s 15-year-old democracy.

IPS: Was the arms deal scandal a turning point in the development of the new South African democracy? Patricia de Lille: Undoubtedly. The dream and the values that we fought for in the struggle against apartheid were shattered. The hope that we had in the new leadership was destroyed. They had forgotten about the redistribution of wealth and the development of the country. They focused on a shopping list of weapons instead.

Yes, there was a need to transform the (former) South African Defence Force to make it more representative of all the people of the country.

But instead of re-equipping the new South African National Defence Force with appropriate weaponry, the politicians bought prohibitively expensive equipment – including 24 Hawk fighter planes from a British arms supplier for which we paid three times more than what they were worth.

Little came of the promised offset transactions that were supposed to have brought 11 billion dollars in investment to South Africa and create 65,000 job opportunities.

When I blew the whistle on the deal in 1999, former President Thabo Mbeki and a number of ministers attacked me on national television. I was called a counter-revolutionary and received death threats.

After two years, the truth slowly started to emerge but, to this day, the ANC is still denying the corruption charges.

IPS: How has the arms deal affected South Africa? PdL: The fall of Mbeki; the recent split in the ANC and the formation of (breakaway party) the Congress of the People; and the increase in the level of corruption in South Africa can all be linked to the arms deal. It has impacted on all levels of society.

(For example), the release of Schabir Shaik was well planned. The minister of correctional services waited until parliament was in recess before releasing him.

When I blew the whistle in the 1990s, I made it clear that I did not believe that everyone in the government was corrupt but I wanted action to get rid of the rotten apples.

IPS: How should the government have handled the weapons scandal? PdL: They should have admitted right from the start that there was corruption and should have investigated it. If this was done, this country would by now have achieved much more.

However, I believe in our judicial system, our independent judiciary and our wonderful constitution. If the government does not want to pursue charges, we can still set in motion mechanisms that protect the rule of law.

IPS: What steps have you taken to bring the perpetrators of alleged graft to book? PdL: Since blowing the whistle, Tony Yengeni (former parliamentary chief whip of the ANC) and Shaik have been prosecuted (and found guilty). The allegations that led to their prosecutions and that of Zuma were contained in what has become known as the ‘‘De Lille Dossier’’.

I have also brought private prosecutions against 27 individuals who received discounted cars as part of the arms deal. Even though the ANC is continuing its massive cover-up, there will be more prosecutions and the ID will ensure that the whole truth comes out.

The highest ranking casualty of the arms deal has been Mbeki. The ANC ‘‘recalled’’ (fired) him because of the Nicholson judgment. (High court judge Chris Nicholson in September 2008 dismissed corruption charges against Zuma on procedural grounds, a ruling that was overturned by the supreme court of appeal in January 2009.)

But this is not just about the arms deal. We in the ID believe that through corruption in general, a lot of money is being stolen from the taxpayer and the poor.

IPS: The ANC has been accused of going after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and its Scorpions investigative unit because of their prosecution of Zuma and others. The Scorpions has since been disbanded and the head of the NPA fired. What is your view? PdL: The NPA has over the years been fingered for favouritism and I think it is fair to ask why so many of Mbeki’s cronies escaped prosecution for their role in the arms deal.

The Ginwala commission (headed by Dr. Frene Ginwala, a former speaker of the national assembly of parliament), which investigated Mbeki’s suspension of NPA head Vusi Pikoli, found that former justice minister Brigitte Mabandla had interfered with the NPA. The ID has laid a criminal charge against Mabandla for this.

IPS: How has the arms deal scandal and the problems at the NPA impacted on democracy in South Africa? PdL: The ANC’s attempts to cover up the corruption have threatened fundamental principles, such as the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary.

The party’s efforts to ensure that Zuma does not have to face justice have weakened our crime-fighting abilities. We now have leaders who have surrendered the moral high ground. You cannot claim we are all equal before the law when those guilty of corruption are forgiven, rewarded or ‘‘redeployed’’.

It is frustrating that nothing can be done about Zuma running for president while there is a court case pending against him. He has not just been accused but been charged with corruption. Each party can appoint its own candidate, so legally there is nothing wrong with his candidacy but there is a problem from an ethical point of view.

He should withdraw his presidential candidature.

However, I have confidence that the wool will fall from our people’s eyes and that they will punish the ruling party at the polls when South Africans vote in April.

I am not an alarmist, I love my country. If I gave up, I would be part of the problem. Instead, I have made the decision to fight for accountable and transparent governance and to offer solutions to the massive challenges we face, including unemployment, poverty, HIV and AIDS and crime.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Mar 18 2009 (IPS)

With its emphasis on gender equality, the South African constitution is regarded as a great example for many other developing countries. Yet, despite laws intended to protect the rights of women like the Sexual Abuse Act and the Domestic Violence Act, women in the country still suffer indignities at the hands of police and in court.

Protesting gender-based violence in Cape Town. Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

IPS: When politicians speak about gender equality in this country can one really take them seriously? Lisa Vetten: The short answer is no. When gender is discussed in parliament and by politicians, the issue is reduced to quotas. The focus is on how many women should be in parliament – this is really how shallow the debate has become. Gender quotas have become a form of political patronage. The numbers of women in parliament have gone up, but in many instances we have taken steps backwards.

At the ANC’s general meeting at Polokwane in 2007, only one of the resolutions focused on women and it dealt with whether there should be a women’s ministry. There was nothing on violence or other gender issues.

Post-1994 there was a flurry of new laws focused on gender issues. Subsequently many people believe that women’s issues have been dealt with sufficiently. But the question remains how to implement the legal framework that is in place and how does one hold those in power accountable for failure to implement the laws?

Too little attention is paid to the budgets of the Departments of Justice and Peace and Security. If there is no budget allocation to back up the legislation, the legislation cannot be implemented.

IPS: Are the South African Police Service and the courts equipped to deal with all the rape cases? LV: In 2005 the Department of Justice declared a moratorium on the roll-out of sexual offences courts.

Most of the specialist units of the SAPS, amongst them the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Units, were disbanded and services were integrated into the general police stations. Highly trained people are expected to deal with more general as well as specialist cases – without vehicles, cell phones and specialist support structures.

The courts are system-centred and not victim-centred – it is geared towards those who manage the system and not towards the victims. The courts impose arbitrary time limits for how long cases can sit on court rolls before being thrown out. It is about how quickly a case can be processed.

Subsequently a victim may not get her day in court and many perpetrators walk free. For example: An investigating officer may go on leave, but his overworked colleagues do not have the time to work on his cases as well as their own. Once he returns to office, the court may decide that the case has been going on for too long, and it is thrown out.

The police services are under pressure to meet performance targets. They have to reduce crime numbers and up the number of convictions. This leads to some officers refusing to take statements from women who cannot identify their attackers. Without an identifiable perpetrator, there is little likelihood of an arrest.

IPS: So the figures reflecting violence against women are under-reported? LV: The last research on this issue was done in 1997 by the Medical Research Council. The conclusion was that only one in nine women reported rape to the police.

I am sceptical about police statistics, because with the pressure to meet the performance targets, they can reduce crime numbers by juggling statistics. It is of concern if police report a decrease in rape cases. This proves that women are too scared to report assault.

The Jacob Zuma rape trial sent out a very negative message about how women in rape cases are being treated by the courts. (The woman in this case was publicly humiliated and beaten down by the defense team). If only one woman is turned away at at a thousand police stations contrywide, the rape statistics are brought down by a thousand cases per annum. It is not a true reflection of what is really happening.

Of all perpetrators who stand trial, only four percent is convicted. If a woman is turned away, a criminal thinks he can get away with his crime and this may in future lead to an increase in rapes.

Sexual violence does not just affect the victim. It has a ripple effect on the community. When misery becomes the norm, abuse is not seen as a crime. It becomes sanctioned by the community and restraint on behaviour is lost.

IPS: What should politicians do? LV: It is not good enough for politicians to run around on the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women in t-shirts emblazoned in logos without implementing real change. It should be recognised that victims should be dealt with properly by trained people who are adequately equipped and resourced.

Civil society should be given a chance to make submissions to parliamentary portfolio committees when government departments present their annual reports, enabling organisations to engage meaningfully with parliament around government’s performance will build and deepen democracy.

On another subject, in cases of domestic violence the problem is currently dealt with as a problem for the criminal justice system. If a man is found guilty, he is sent to jail and little thought is given to the woman who is left behind. Neither income grants nor job skills training are available for women have have been economically dependent all their lives. Agencies also tend to separate child abuse cases from domestic violence cases. However, these cases are often inseparable.

In the run-up to this year’s elections, I have yet to see a political party raising the issue of violence against women and children. They speak broadly of crime, but all crime is not the same.

There are some people in government who work themselves to the point of exhaustion around these issues, but the gains are often rolled back by people in more senior positions.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Feb 27 2009 (IPS)

According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, the average annual return on investment in Africa is between 65 and 70 percent higher than in any other country, including China.

However, according to Peter Croll, director of the Bonn International Centre for Conversion (BICC), the media often does not portray the correct picture of Africa. And this has negative consequences for the way potential investors view Africa as an investment region. The BICC is a German research institute promoting peace and development.

Croll was speaking at a two-day Gulf-Africa strategy forum held in Cape Town. The purpose of the conference, hosted by the Saudi-Arabian think tank the Gulf Research Centre, was to find a way forward in which Gulf and African states could work together to form stronger political and economic ties.

Close to 200 international, African and Middle Eastern businesspeople and politicians attended the conference. The conference ended on Feb 25.

Media reports often portray African and Gulf countries as beset with disease epidemics, poverty and violence. Croll proposed that, in an effort to counter negative perceptions, thought should be given to the establishment of a global media forum through which not only the negative, but also the positive stories of Africa could be told.

He added that investors have to feel safe and believe that they are free of security threats in order to invest in a particular country.

Both regions have experienced terrorism and countries in both regions have been torn apart by seemingly endless wars. There has also been an increase in piracy in African waters as well as in the Gulf of Aden and an increase in human trafficking.

Tanzania’s minister of industry, trade and marketing, Mary Nagu, said that Chinese investors in Africa often approach the problems of Africa differently to investors from other countries. For example, when there is no infrastructure in an area they want to invest in, they ensure that the infrastructure in put in place.

They will build roads to ensure that goods can be transported.

‘‘Potential investors in Africa have to get to know the continent, its unique people and its problems before they decide to invest here,’’ Nagu explained. ‘‘Investors have to accept all the challenges the continent faces. Africa is not one country. It is a continent with many diverse countries, people and cultures.’’

A number of speakers mentioned the dearth in infrastructure as a major challenge to investing in Africa. There were calls for the establishment of maritime and air links between African and Gulf countries.

Gulf countries have already invested in a number of transportation projects.

According to the Khaleej Times, Dubai Port World opened the largest and most modern container terminal in East Africa in Djibouti earlier this month. The United Arab Emirates invested one billion dollars in the development of housing, ports and tourism in that tiny east African country in 2007.

In 2008 Qatar Airways initiated flights to Uganda in an effort to improve the airline’s market share on the continent.

The Kenyan president, Mwai Kibaki, has started negotiations with Qatar for a 34,5 billion dollar loan to build a new port for Lamu, an island off the Kenyan coast.

According to Marie Bos, a researcher at the Gulf Research Centre, many African countries has shown consistent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) of, on average, five percent over the last five years, mainly due to foreign direct investment (FDI) which reached 53 billion dollars in 2007.

But in many cases the money does not translate into the alleviation of poverty. It is therefore important to ensure that aid to Africa be channelled in the right way to the relevant beneficiaries. According to Bos, there are two major reasons why Gulf states should provide ‘‘abundant aid’’ to Africa.

First, Africa is becoming an important economic partner and, second, it is essential for Gulf states to have a stable neighbour.

According to the United Nations’ Financial Tracking System (FTS) of worldwide humanitarian assistance, Gulf states channelled 5.8 million dollars in aid to Africa in 2008.

But, according to Bos, the FTS did not capture the true value of Gulf aid as it is often not reported. As an example, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development donated more than 210 million dollars to African countries in this year.

‘‘It is expected that the volume of aid will decrease in 2009 as a result of the financial crisis. This does not mean that the focus will shift away from Africa as the strategic importance of the region remains,’’ stated Bos.

Bos further argues that as Africa has become key in the international race for natural resources, Gulf states have to view Africa as a long-term partner and not as a quick fix for immediate needs.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Feb 25 2009 (IPS)

Countries in the Gulf and in Africa can form mutually beneficial partnerships, with Africa supplying fertile arable land and the Gulf investing in technology, fertiliser and other agricultural inputs.

This is one of the proposals made at the Gulf-Africa Strategy Forum held in the South African city of Cape Town from Feb 24 to 25. The two-day forum is hosted by the Gulf Research Centre (GRC), a Middle Eastern think tank.

It is hoped that delegates at the forum will be able to identify future cooperation, trade and investment initiatives and form partnerships to act on the potential. The forum will also look at strengthening political and security partnerships.

‘‘In Africa, farmers are faced with the obstacle of underdeveloped infrastructure,’’ Shakeel Meer, divisional executive in charge of industrial sectors at South Africa’s statutory Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), told IPS.

One of the problems is a lack of road infrastructure, preventing farmers from accessing larger markets. They end up being subsistence farmers. According to Meer, Gulf countries can invest in training farmers, supplying farm inputs and developing infrastructure.

A case in point is Ethiopia where only 14,8 percent of the arable land is cultivated. Talks about exploiting the potential of this country are in progress, according to Marie Bos, a researcher at the GRC.

Both the African continent and the Gulf countries face food security issues. In the Gulf, population growth is expected to increase from 30 million in 2000 to 60 million by 2030. This will place severe stress on an arid region with limited food producing capabilities.

The Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf, also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council states (GCC), will import 60 percent of their food by 2010, according to reports by the Food and Agriculture Organisation. The GCC is a reginal organisation consisting of Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Meer cautioned against aid with strings attached but also emphasised that investors had to ensure that good human rights practices are followed and that all development and trade agreements are transparent.

He added that South Africa’s main trading partners are the European Union (38,5 percent of trade), the U.S. (18,4 percent) and other African countries (14,9 percent).

However, the European Union and the U.S. are experiencing major financial crisis which has already seen a decline in different trade sectors.

A number of delegates emphasised the need to diversify markets and service delivery while expressing concern about the strain of the global economic meltdown and the plunge of oil prices.

Dubai, where oil revenue has boosted development for over a decade, saw its property market plunge when the global oil price plummeted to about 37 dollars a barrel at the end of last year, leaving the country with a huge deficit. Dubai’s neighbour, Abu Dhabi, has stepped in with a 10 billion dollar bailout plan.

‘‘As the world economy is hit hard by a global phenomenon, emerging markets such as the Gulf and Africa, which have relatively speaking been less affected, must work on a strong recovery,’’ Abdulaziz Sager, chairperson of the GRC, wrote in the memorandum spelling out the aims of the Gulf-Africa Strategy Forum.

‘‘This move cannot be deemed sustainable without a better understanding of the other and a strong political commitment.’’

Dr Tomaz Augusto Salomão, the executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), told delegates that by forging strategic partnerships between Gulf and Africa regions, new investment opportunities can be opened up for the emerging economies of the Gulf to invest in Africa.

The continent is especially attractive because a number of countries have sustained economic growth of five percent and more over the last five years.

According to Salomão, foreign investment into the SADC region is more attractive than it has been for decades.

This is because some countries have established investment agencies which act as one-stop investment centres; SADC countries have relaxed barriers to foreign investment; and they have introduced a mix of investment incentives.

There has also been substantial liberalisation of exchange regulations.

With its population of 230 million people, SADC’s gross domestic product (GDP) was about 250 billion dollars in 2007. This is more than the GDP of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and more than half of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa’s aggregate GDP.

SADC’s total exports were worth more than 65 billion dollars.

‘‘The investment and trade opportunities for the GCC in the SADC region are diverse and range from sectors such as infrastructure, agriculture, energy, tourism, forestry and mining.

‘‘Our responsibility is to promote dialogue between our regions, engage the private sectors and take advantage of the healthy business environments which our two regions offer,’’ Salomão said.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Feb 20 2009 (IPS)

Dr Ramon E Daubon not only believes in democratising development but takes umbrage at the ‘‘cult of tangible results'' in development assistance.

Ramon Daubon: ''Good governance emerges slowly and from below.'' Credit: Marta Roviro

This is the opposite of what is happening. Presently, donors rely on advice from so-called experts and community elites. The result has been that recipient communities have been turned into dependent clients of endless philanthropy.

To change this result, donors should move away from quick-fix aid and even face up to a shift in power relations between donors and recipients, wrote Daubon, who is president of the Esquel Group. Esquel is a non-profit organisation operating in North and South America, promoting social equity and sustainable development.

Stephanie Nieuwoudt picked his brain in search of lessons for Africa based on his experience in the Americas.

IPS: To critics it seems as if aid in Africa has yielded more failures than successes. Why are aid interventions on the continent seemingly less successful than elsewhere? Ramon Daubon: It is hard to define either ‘‘successes'' or ‘‘failures'', but from the outside it does appear that Africa tends to have more trouble than most other regions.

Without going into long explanations, I'd say that the colonial and prior history has a lot to do with this, but I'd also put a lot of the blame on the development assistance failure to come up with a mode of intervention more appropriate to the African institutional reality.

I'm only marginally familiar with the African experience but, if anything, development assistance may have encouraged strife and delayed development by fostering dependence on – and competition for the favours of – the outside ‘‘gods of development''.

IPS: What is the solution? If not the ‘‘outside gods'', what form of aid would be appropriate to the African institutional reality? RD: There are two kinds of aid: disaster relief and development assistance. The first one is unfortunately indispensable and unavoidable but should be short-term. Such is help after catastrophes, vaccination campaigns, et cetera. There is no stigma associated with that.

The second one is for long-term results, some of which would mitigate the need for some of the first kind in the long run. As a country progresses it has less need of assistance with vaccination campaigns, for instance.

This is where development assistance has failed. It has addressed the symptoms of nations' poverty – lack of income, schools – but failed to address the reasons behind the symptoms: their institutional incapacity to govern themselves well.

If anything, having outsiders attending to the symptoms delays the indigenous development of that capacity.

IPS: In a paper for IDASA you wrote that private sector donors should see themselves as civic investors. What are civic investors? And why is it important that the donor community become civic investors? RD: Because otherwise they are not ‘‘doing development'', they are just throwing money around. When the money runs out, everything stops. We've wasted 60 years of misconceived development assistance in this way.

Development requires an institutional under-girth, which in turn requires good public governance, which in turn requires strong civic oversight over public life. Investing directly in ‘‘development'' while assuming away all the other prerequisites produces what we have unfortunately come to see.

The challenge for development assistance is how to promote by its interventions such civic ownership on the part of citizens. That is investing in civic capacities, or ‘‘civic investing''. Donors should see themselves first and foremost as such investors.

IPS: This seems logical and laudable, but is it feasible? Building governance capacity, accountability, transparency and good governance in countries where humanitarian aid is required takes time. In the meantime, what does one do about the immediate suffering of people at grassroots level? Also, would investing in capacity building not become a black hole – lots of workshops and conferences swallowing aid money without tangible results? Repressive governments would not allow even humanitarian aid if it came with strings attached, such as demands for good governance.

RD: Again, outsiders can attend to those desperate needs immediately while at the same time supporting projects that engage people in learning to address their own needs in the longer run.

And, by the way, I take umbrage at the cult of ‘‘tangible results''. The race to generate them makes donors hurry to provide them directly rather than helping the beneficiaries learn to provide for themselves.

We're not talking about holding conferences but rather supporting well-conceived projects that compel people to collectively learn how to make decisions, design plans, execute them and judge whether the are working. This way takes longer, for sure, but contrary to the quick-fix approach, the results are sustainable.

And, by the way, ‘‘good governance'' emerges very slowly and from below. Donors cannot demand it, but they can help beneficiaries design projects that in the course of their execution help people discover that they can indeed govern themselves well.

IPS: Is there not a danger that Western donors who want to become civic donors in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world would, by promoting good governance, be seen as patronising meddlers? How can the aim of civic development be achieved without being prescriptive? RD: Every society must develop its own style of good governance. However, donors can help them discover what their style is. I personally subscribe to some universal indispensable values, essentially contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I strongly believe that citizens are indispensable to this discovery and that every person has the right to be an equal, full citizen.

IPS: There have been many critics of aid who say that aid makes beggars of the people who are supposed to be helped. RD: Yes, that is the biggest harm done by development assistance: it turns communities and whole countries into supplicants.

IPS: You have said that participation in the creation of public life is important if communities want to help themselves. Please explain. RD: The unit of analysis of development is the community. Sure, the policy environment is critical but the effective demand for and implementation of ‘‘good governance'' measures happens in communities. For that, communities must learn to articulate and exercise their public voice; they have to learn to think, talk and act as communities.

IPS: Should aid be focused on a micro group in a certain region or should it be expanded to perhaps include all communities in that particular region? Or should aid be a national project? RD: Hard to tell. Countries should develop themselves. There are no ‘‘poor'' countries, only mismanaged ones. I like to point out that one of the ‘‘poorest'' countries in the world is Switzerland. God gave it practically nothing… except the Swiss and their capacity to govern themselves.

Development assistance should provide replicable models of activities that communities and countries can carry out on their own.

IPS: What would be the ‘‘magic formula'' for intervention by donors? RD: There is no magic formula. Each country must discover its own path. The Spanish poet Antonio Machado once said: ‘‘Wayfarer, there is no path. The path is made by walking.'' Development assistance could be very useful in helping countries make that discovery.

Instead donors make external ‘‘needs assessments'' and descend on the countries bearing gifts. Egad!

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Feb 3 2009 (IPS)

A powerful coalition of civic organisations is calling for a complete overhaul of the legal framework of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to force it to fulfil its public broadcasting mandate.

Its critics want the SABC to give voice to the concerns of the marginalised. Credit: Rogier van der Weijden

The coalition includes the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), Media Monitoring Africa, trade unions under the umbrella of union federation Cosatu, the Treatment Action Campaign – a coalition fighting for the rights of HIV positive people – and independent producers.

“As a coalition we want to see a clearly drafted SABC charter,” Kate Skinner, a media consultant and co-ordinator of the coalition, told IPS. “We want a new, clear and renewable charter drawn up. It should be renewed around every five years.”

Jane Duncan, executive director of the FXI, says the SABC is not fulfilling its public broadcasting mandate to give voice to the concerns of the marginalised, including the gay and lesbian community, women, rural people and the very poor.

“The national broadcaster should give them a platform for their voices to be heard. This is part of participatory democracy. A green paper/white paper process will allow civil society the chance to engage with proposed legislation through public hearings. It is the responsibility of the national department of communication to widely publicise such a green paper process and to encourage public hearings,” Duncan said.

William Bird, director of Media Monitoring Africa, an organisation that promotes a free, fair and critical media on the continent, says that the SABC is a critical institution for democracy.

“It should be the epitome of freedom of expression and not the subject of reports about freedom of expression abuses. The majority of South Africans are dependent on the SABC as the medium to inform them on a variety of issues.”

Rehad Desai, chairperson of the South African Screen Federation, told IPS his organisation, through the coalition, hopes to lobby the SABC to promote and inculcate values that are in the constitution.

“There are a whole range of important values, including care for all citizens, from pensioners and children to prisoners and their wives, to address homophobia and to give a voice to the poor. South Africa is a society in transition and there are big controversies out there. These should be addressed by the public broadcaster to help stabilise the democracy and to ensure a plurality of voices are heard.”

According to Desai it can be achieved by awarding contracts to diverse production companies that can deliver content that reflects the different voices. “A culture of accountability and transparency needs to be inculcated. Currently contracts awarded to production companies are often draconian and the artists do not have a lot of freedom. These issues need to be addressed and legislated in the proposed SABC Act.”

For years now, the SABC has been dogged by financial problems, power struggles amongst its top executives and allegations of corruption. The CEO, Dali Mpofu, was again dismissed on Jan. 22 following a protracted internal battle and legal wrangle with the corporation. Mpofu was first removed after he suspended SABC news chief Snuki Zikalala for allegedly leaking confidential documents and information in 2008. Zikalala, who has since been reinstated, was also at the centre of the 2006 controversy in which he was found to have blacklisted commentators critical of then President Thabo Mbeki.

“The SABC board is supposed to be independent, but because of the commercial arm, the minister of broadcasting has become a shareholder in the company. It has given her certain rights and responsibilities towards the board, and this overrides the independence of the board. The three top executives – the CEO, the Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Financial Officer – are now under direct control of the minister,” a situation Duncan describes as “extremely inappropriate” for the national broadcaster.

“There are a number of policy assumptions underlying the Broadcasting Act of 1999 that are problematic and out of date,” said Duncan.

One of these is that the SABC was split into a commercial and public broadcasting entity in 1999 with the commercial arm subsidising public broadcasting. “There is no evidence that the cross-subsidising is working. The SABC is in a long term funding crisis,” Duncan told IPS.

The Sunday Independent recently reported that the SABC is operating on a bank overdraft loan of nearly 50 million dollars.

“There is a decline in ad spend due to growing competition as the multi channel environment opens up,” said Duncan. “The funding model of the SABC has to be rethought.”

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Jan 24 2009 (IPS)

Jurisprudence in Africa has improved a lot since the early 1990s, but a lot of work still has to be done to improve justice structures across the continent.

Speaking to IPS at the first ever World Conference on Constitutional Justice, held in Cape Town from Jan. 22 to 24, Gianni Buquiocchio, secretary of the Venice Commission, said that there can be no real democracy in a country without an independent judiciary.

Close to 3,000 supreme court and constitutional judges from across the globe gathered for the conference to facilitate interaction, cooperation and discussion between courts. The conference was hosted by the Constitutional Court of South Africa and the Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe on constitutional issues. Taking place soon after the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2008, the conference’s ultimate aim was to promote human rights.

“We are holding a mirror to the world in which all the defective court systems across the globe are reflected. Courts fail the people when they abuse public trust and don’t function effectively,” Chief Justice Pius Langa of South Africa told IPS.

South Africa’s judicial system was lauded by many speakers, but Buquiocchio cautioned that if constitutional courts and other judicial bodies are not respected by the authorities, the rule of law comes under threat.

His comments followed recent attacks by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party in South Africa on the courts after the Supreme Court of Appeal reversed a previous ruling by the High Court that the prosecution of ANC leader Jacob Zuma on corruption charges was unlawful on procedural grounds.

President Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa said: “Recent assertions in the local and international media that the judiciary is being undermined are untrue and without basis.” Yes, he said, there was debate, and “sometimes this debate can get a little heated,” but “this debate is essentially beneficial to our fledgling democracy, which is being deepened as a result.”

Some speakers expressed concern about state interference in the judicial process and disregard for human rights by the authorities.

“Today we experience in our subregion instances of political excesses which denigrate the supremacy of the constitution for political expedience. Party supremacy seems to be gradually displacing the supremacy of the constitution,” Justice S N Peete of Lesotho said.

In Southern Africa, Zimbabwe is one country which is constantly in the news for human rights abuses and for a lack of effective judicial structures. In a recent interview with IPS, Jenni Williams, a founder of the human rights organisation Women of Zimbabwe Arise, said that history will judge the leader of the country, Robert Mugabe harshly for the human rights abuses under his watch.

Lesotho does not have a constitutional court, even though the Chief Justice can order the High Court to sit as a Constitutional Court from time to time. “Our constitutional history – hence its jurisprudence – is still in embryo,” Peete said.

Justice Jani Leornard Fongoh of Cameroon argued that in general, ordinary courts fared well in protecting individual rights, but “the sector that is still slippery is that between individuals and the state, which is all-powerful”. For proper human rights enforcement when the individual’s rights are “violated by the state through its agents,” constitutional courts were needed.

Cameroon’s constitution incorporates international treaties on human rights in its preamble, but enforcement mechanisms are not specified, which opens the door to different interpretations by different judges. The country did get a Constitutional Council in 2004, and although this body’s work is still being done by the Supreme Court on a case-by-case basis, it has started to flex its muscles. In several election cases, there have been rulings against the state. This has strengthened the public’s confidence in constitutional jurisprudence.

The highest judicial organs are no longer seen as “mere rubber stamps of the Executive,” Fongoh said, but as “a genuine judicial power that is ready to take its stance as dictated by the law, regardless of who the parties are.”

In Southern Africa, Mozambique got a Constitutional Council in 2003. Landmark rulings since then include declaring a presidential decree unconstitutional and reaffirming the right of citizens living abroad to vote in elections and be elected to public office.

Corruption in their own ranks was of great concern to some of the judges IPS spoke to. A senior constitutional judge, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “In some countries it is common for judges to be bribed to deliver a verdict in favour of one of the parties.”

According to a report by news network AllAfrica.com, two Kenyan High Court judges were last year suspended after being found guilty of tampering with justice. And in October last year, human rights watchdog Amnesty International released a report condemning Nigerian judges for turning a blind eye to torture and condemning to death people who pleaded guilty to criminal charges under duress.

The need to ensure that justice was available to all people in equal measure was stressed by Motlanthe. He said a person living in poverty would find it difficult to appeal to a higher court if he were unhappy with the decision of a lower court because of high legal costs. “The poor and downtrodden often get the short end of the stick in comparable legal conditions,” he said.

Justice Albie Sachs of South Africa’s Constitutional Court told IPS that the good attendance by judges from all corners of the world was a clear indication that there was a need for interaction and exchange.

“The speeches being made here are not about bragging how wonderful the different countries are, but they are serious, practical and modest statements about the expansion of constitutional justice. Constitutional justice is getting normalised and accepted throughout Africa,” he said.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Dec 29 2008 (IPS)

A few years ago 66-year-old grandmother Regina Fhiceka and her family of five ate vegetables only once a week. They would survive on maize and bread the rest of the time – the cheapest food available in the poor township of Philippi, just 15 minutes from the affluent business district of Cape Town.

But then Fhiceka got to hear about a municipal project where people were encouraged to get together to establish community gardens.

“I knew a few of the other women in the community who had started their own backyard gardens where we were growing small amounts of vegetables. We asked the local social worker to help us obtain a bigger piece of land. We filled out the necessary application documents and the local department of agriculture made a piece of municipal land available to us.”

Fhiceka and five other women were given land on the outskirts of Philippi where 150,000 people live in squalid conditions. After a few months, Fhiceka’s group had an abundance of vegetables, including tomatoes, cabbage, carrots and beans, and they started selling the surplus.

“I had no choice. I had to start farming because I had no money to buy vegetables from the shops. I also realized that if we farmed as a group, we would have more than enough food to eat and that we could generate an income from selling the rest.”

According to to UN Habitat, the United Nations agency which is involved with studying human settlement patterns, 2007 was a landmark year as, for the first time ever, there were as many people around the world living in cities as there were in rural areas. This has increased the demand for food, water, housing and other basic services in cities. Cities in developing countries are often ill-equipped to deal with these pressures. Governments of developing countries worldwide have recognised the importance of urban agriculture and a number of projects have been initiated to support these initiatives as people flock to the cities.

In Cape Town, people like Fhiceka will be helped through a co-operation agreement signed on Nov. 25 between the City of Cape Town and the Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA). Under this agreement an urban agriculture project will be implemented in Philippi. MDP-ESA is an organisation that helps municipalities across the globe to develop and expand urban agriculture projects through the Cities Farming for the Future programme.

The Philippi budget for the next five years is 99,000 dollars. Urban farmers are helped to obtain plots, they are given guidance on what to farm and are helped to find markets for their produce.

Urban agriculture projects like this issues like food insecurity, ill health and poverty are addressed. As in the rest of Africa, women in South Africa are the backbone of the small-farmer agriculture. The Philippi project will benefit women who are responsible for looking after the sick of the community, who earn a living through selling their vegetables and who look after their grandchildren who are left behind when their parents die of AIDS. It also addresses environmental issues as the farmers are taught how to re-use grey water (mostly used for personal hygiene and for washing dishes).

“Even though I am poor, I believe that I have to give some of my vegetables away,” says Fhiceka. “Some people are so poor and ill that they have absolutely nothing. I cannot just sit and look on as people die of hunger because they are too ill from AIDS to plant their own vegetables or to find a job.”

According to Stanley Visser, Cape Town’s head of development facilitation, more than 80 percent of the people of Philippi are without any formal source of income. “Many of these poor households are already subsisting on home gardens.”

“In the global economic downturn where food insecurity has increased due to soaring food prices, backyard and community gardens are some of the most basic survival strategies. Many people who live in the poor informal settlements have come here from rural areas. They turn to backyard farming because they survived as small farmers in the rural areas and they apply these skills in the cities.”

A backyard garden four times the size of an ordinary door, can supply a household of six people with fresh vegetables for a year. By replanting and ensuring that the ground is fertilised well, the four-door garden can be farmed fruitfully for years.

“Trench gardening is also popular in the townships,” said Visser. “The people dig trenches into which all their biodegradable waste is thrown. It is covered with soil and seeds are sown on top. The soil is high in nutrients and it can be farmed for up to four years before new compost is needed.”

Rob Small, director of the NGO Abalimi Bezakaya (a Xhosa expression meaning gardens of the home), which is involved with community gardens in a number of townships in the Cape Town metropolis, said that women who are involved in community gardens often help those poorer than them and the sick.

“Women have a strong sense of community and they are always helping others. These gardens are often established on school property because the principals are keen to become involved with the communities they live and work in and where they are daily confronted with the devastating effects of poverty. The national department of education formally supports community gardens on school grounds.”

Small said that community gardens make ecological sense as the farmers usually plant hedges and other flora around their plots. The gardens (which can be anything from 1,000 to 5,000 square metres in size) and the hedges attract a number of insects and small animals turning the areas into small conservancies.

Fhiceka says that eating vegetables regularly, has improved her health. “Before I became involved with the community garden, I did not eat well and I was always ill with colds. Now I seldom get sick.”

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Dec 3 2008 (IPS)

The African National Congress (ANC) directive to increase the number of women on South Africa's ruling party's election lists to 50 percent (up from 30 percent) might actually weaken the role of women in local government.

"The ANC took the 50 percent decision at its Polokwane general meeting at the end of 2007. This does address the issue of gender equity, but it can also disempower women," Clive Keegan, director of the South African Local Government Research Centre told IPS.

"If women are placed on a list simply to fulfil a quota, there is a risk that the names of candidates without the necessary skills will be brought forward by men with their own agenda. This means that some of these women will be easily manipulated and susceptible to corruption. It could especially be problematic in the poor areas where being a councillor is a ticket out of poverty and where there is a huge skills shortage."

According to a recent survey by the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) one in three municipal councilors cannot read or write and more have no idea of how financial structures word. 32 percent of these councilors need basic adult education and training.

"Without these skills they may never fully develop their abilities and optimally contribute to council activities – especially when affairs of council are driven by agendas, reports submitted and minutes," SALGA stated in its report.

Nomsa Bevu, a proportional representative of Sub Council 9 in the poverty-stricken township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town, says that she feels she has to work much harder than her male counterparts to prove herself.

"I make sure that I attend workshops and training courses so that I can do my job as well as possible."

Bevu says that during workshops she got to understand why it is necessary for people to pay for services like water. "Before I became a councillor I did not understand why one has to pay for water," she told IPS.

A number of courses about local government and the demands of specific portfolios are offered by SALGA and are well attended by members of all parties.

In the Kraaifontein area north-east of Cape Town, Buyiswa Blaai, an ANC sub-councillor, said that she has encountered building contractors and other business people trying to bribe councillors to give them contracts in housing developments.

"As women councilors and members of sub-councils we have to be aware of these traps. In the end it is up to the individual, whether you are male or female, to be strong and resist corruption."

For many in the poor areas of the Western Cape, a job as a council member is a ticket out of poverty.

"Coupled with a desperation to hold on to a position that guarantees an income, and a severe skills shortage, it becomes easy for many to follow the corruption route," said Amanda Gouws, a political analyst at the University of Stellenbosch.

"When patron/client relations become part of the system, women and men of all parties are equally susceptible."

Some women in the ANC have risen to powerful positions in local government. One of them is Eve Marthinus who was the mayor of Bredasdorp in the Western Cape from 2006 to 2007.

"Many of the ANC male councillors have a lack of respect for women and simply 'tolerate' us. They rule the caucus."

She is presently one of only three female councilors in her ward, which has a large constituency of extremely poor people. She says that she has experienced the negative side of men lobbying for positions in local government.

"Women in local government structures have to be extremely vigilant because we are seen as pliable. And when a person is pliable, it means that he or she can be easily corrupted," she says.

"The situation will only be redressed if more women make themselves available during elections and act in a forceful way. A quota system is not the answer if it is not supported by training and the appointment of strong women who know how to lead. If the women are not strong enough, they could become victims of patronage."

Mercia Arendse, an ANC councillor from Mamre, a rural area on the Cape West Coast, says that she is fighting a continuous battle against men trying to fob off soft issues like food schemes and social issues on her.

"I do not believe that a women's agenda has to be pushed in council, but women are affected on different levels by many issues. If there is no service delivery such as water and power, women and children are the ones to suffer."

Arendse says that the ANC is progressive in its policy of gender equality, which is empowering to women, but the rhetoric does not always filter down to grass roots level. "There are still too many men in leadership positions who continue to look at women in a patriarchal way."

Claire Mathonsi, women and governance project co-ordinator at the Gender Advocacy Programme in Cape Town, says" "Not only are there gender struggles in the councils, but there are also faction struggles. Many women who serve as council members are co-opted. They carry on with the agendas that are already on the table and do not put forward new ideas."

Mathonsi adds: "The problem lies in the interpretation of what gender means and what needs to be done about the gender discourse. For the most part, equity has become a numerical thing. When a numerical target is met, it is wrongly believed that the issue of gender has been dealt with."

In the Cape Town metropolis, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has set a high standard with a number of powerful women. The mayor, Helen Zille is the mayor, Mariaan Nieuwoudt is the mayoral committee member on planning and housing, Anthea Serritslev is the chief whip of the city, Belinda Walker is in charge of corporate sevices and human resources and Elizabeth Thompson is in charge of transport.

"There are problems in all parties," Serritslev told IPS. "But once women manage to take on a leading role in their communities as council members, they, for the most part, seem to become strong. They are eager to fill up any gaps through training courses and workshops. Women councilors should encourage other women to put their names forward during elections."

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Nov 13 2008 (IPS)

Nestled in a valley in the Cederberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa’s southern most province, lies the charming little village of Wupperthal.

(l-r) Claudia Goes, Christoline Engelbrecht, Anna Skippers, Gwen Snygans, Jessica Mouton and Linda Bantom and some of their children take a breather from their Red Cedar work. Credit: Red Cedar

Situated in mountains 75 kilometres from the nearest town Clanwilliam, Wupperthal is isolated and poverty in the small community is rife.

But the intervention of Dr Marianna Smith has secured long-term incomes and part-ownership for six previously unemployed women in a business specialising in the manufacture of cosmetic products.

Today Red Cedar is a registered export company and products are sent to clients in the UK, U.S., Holland and Germany. ‘‘Currently 40 percent of our trade is with Germany,’’ Smith explained. ‘‘The Germans are crazy about rooibos.’’

Red Cedar has seen steady growth over three years. In 2005 exports were worth 3,000 dollars, compared to the 2008 figure of 8,500 dollars. At the same time the total income from trade increased from a mere 8,400 dollars to 24,500 dollars.

‘‘I first visited Wupperthal in 2002 and immediately fell in love with the place,’’ says Smith, a leading South African botanist living in Cape Town, some 300 km from Wupperthal. ‘‘But I also saw the poverty and decided to do something.’’

In 2004 she secured financial aid from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAid) and Red Cedar was born. The business has since become independent and is functioning without donor funding.

The basis of the products is the indigenous rooibos (literally ‘‘red bush’’) plant that is endemic to the region. With her background in botany, it is not surprising that Smith immediately thought of using rooibos – a plant that is a popular tea product and is known across the globe for its medicinal properties.

‘‘Initially we only made brown soap. After a while I could not stand the idea of making brown soap for the rest of my life and we expanded into other cosmetics, including body and hand creams and bath products,’’ said Smith who has scaled down her once-a-month visits to Wupperthal to twice a year.

Initially 12 women from the community started with Red Cedar but, as the months passed, some opted out and left a core group of six women who each have a 15 percent share in the company. Smith holds 10 percent of the shares.

The women buy a basic unscented, plain coloured soap to which they add essential oils and rooibos extract, turning it into the unique products called Red Cedar. ‘‘There are few opportunities in Wupperthal. Most women are mothers and stay at home,’’ Claudia Goes (44), one of the Red Cedar shareholders, told IPS.

‘‘When my husband became ill, I jumped at the chance to become involved with Red Cedar. My husband is fine now, but with my earnings the quality of our lives has improved.’’

Goes says she is delighted that she has learnt a skill that she can pass on to others in her community.

Jessica Mouton (27) used her first earnings from Red Cedar to invest in a rooibos plantation. ‘‘The church set aside some land for community members which we could rent. I now have a rooibos field of about one hectare. I sell the raw product to traders.’’

While Mouton’s rooibos land is easily accessible, Anna Skippers (27) needs at least two days if she wants to visit the piece of ground which she also rents from the church.

‘‘By the time I wanted to obtain a piece of land, the prime spots were already taken. My land lies in an inaccessible area and can only be reached with a 4X4. Because I do not have a vehicle, I have to walk there. But it is far from Wupperthal – I usually have to spend a night at friends on the way there.’’

But, she says, the inconvenience of travelling to her farm is well worth the effort as it supplements her income from Red Cedar. ‘‘I also like the idea that some of my own rooibos crops could end up in Red Cedar products,’’ Skippers added.

Linda Bantom (44) was not born and bred in Wupperthal. She only moved there 18 years ago. But she never wants to leave the town.

‘‘I love this place. It is beautiful and offers an extremely relaxed lifestyle. Being a part-owner of Red Cedar fills me with a huge sense of pride. Unlike most other women in this area, the six of us can lay claim to the fact that we own our own business.

‘‘In this small community where most people know each other, I feel a sense of achievement.’’

Rooibos, an endemic plant that is only found in a small region of South Africa, offers a number of medicinal benefits. Scientific studies have shown that it contains minerals and nutrients and is ideal as a fluid replacement for infants and athletes.

‘‘It also contains powerful anti-oxidants such as flavanoids which have anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties,’’ says Smith.

According to studies done by Smith, the first European to realise the economic potential of rooibos was Benjamin Ginsberg, an immigrant from Russian descent who started exporting it in small amounts in 1904.

During World War Two it became difficult to obtain tea from Ceylon and this led to an increased demand for rooibos tea.

The product was popularised by South African Annique Theron who realised a bottle filled with Rooibos tea calmed her colicky baby. Over four decades she built up a multi-million dollar beauty empire using rooibos tea as the basis of her products.

Today rooibos in all its forms can be found on the shelves of shops all over the world and rooibos tea is served in five star hotels and restaurants globally.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Nov 12 2008 (IPS)

When Barbara Hogan replaced South African health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in September, her appointment was praised from all quarters. Hogan, who previously chaired Parliament’s finance portfolio committee, is known as an intellectual who stands up for what she believes in and finding hands-on approaches to solving difficult political issues.

IPS: You have acknowledged HIV/Aids as one of the most pressing health problems on the continent. You also expressed concern about its nasty twin, tuberculosis (TB), an opportunistic infection to which HIV-positive persons are particularly vulnerable. How will you tackle this problem? Barbara Hogan: South Africa has always had a good TB management programme, but we are seeing an escalation of cases. Of particular concern is the emergence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis strains. To address this problem, South Africa is working closely with the World Health Organisation and is forming partnerships with organisations in the private and public sector. The national TB Awareness Campaign is just one way of addressing the problem.

When we work towards combating TB, we invariably also work towards combating HIV.

If it wasn’t for the huge number of community health care workers in this country, including the people who do voluntary counselling, as well as other primary health care workers, we would not be able to make progress in fighting HIV/Aids or TB. They are doing exceptional work.

IPS: You stress the importance of health care workers, yet health professionals are leaving the country in droves, which has led, for example, to a nursing shortage of 46,000. How are you addressing this problem? BH: We have to stem the flow of people leaving the country, but at the same time we cannot expect professionals to work under the intolerable conditions that prevail at some of our health care institutions.

Government became aware that people in civil service are generally not well paid compared to the private sector and implemented the Occupational Specifics Dispensation Programme (OSDP) last year through which the salaries of civil service workers are being adjusted. There will be significant increases in nurses’ salaries. We have had teething problems, which are being addressed, but we are already seeing signs of nurses returning [from overseas].

One has to give professionals their due -– in the form of salaries and the way they are treated in the workplace. The level of professionalism and dedication with which they do their work is astonishing. Of course there are cases where health care professionals are lazy and are not doing their job well, but we will be taking steps against them.

Keep in mind that health care workers have for years been dealing with an [HIV] epidemic that has daily mortality figures comparable only to those seen in times of war. Like in war, young people are dying in greater numbers than old people. Some of the health care workers are simply heroic.

IPS: Critics say South African health education institutions are not up to par. Do you agree? BH: I cannot corroborate these statements. The standard of health care education in South Africa is internationally recognised – that is why people are able to migrate. I think the problem is often more a question of how professionals are managed in our system. They are sometimes distracted by management issues, which make it difficult for them to do their work.

The Hospital Revitalisation Plan [which aims to improve the quality of hospitals and equipment] is a very successful programme for upgrading and making the hospital environment a safe place. The challenge is to scale up all these initiatives [quickly and simultaneously].

Government has huge financial resources and the capabilities to make changes to the health care system. However, no matter how good government policies, optimum health care deliverance cannot happen without the assistance of communities in the form of civil society partnerships and cooperation with health care workers.

IPS: Good nutrition coupled with anti-retrovirals (ARVs) go a long way in fighting TB and HIV/Aids. You recently emphasised the importance of fortified food to address malnutrition in South Africa where poverty is rife. How do you plan to improve food security? BH: Malnutrition is one of the major health problems facing us. If we improve the nutrition of children and pregnant women and young mothers, we will go some way in addressing the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality and increasing maternal health.

Especially at risk are young children and young HIV-positive mothers who are immuno-compromised. This country needs good nutrition to decrease the burden of HIV. Maize and bread are the most frequently consumed foods in the country. Government is already adding nutrients to these products as a way of delivering micronutrients to people who do not have an adequate diet.

IPS: Politicians and South Africans alike expect you to “cure” a health system that has been experiencing many problems. Do you feel overwhelmed? BH: I do feel the pressure of high expectations. But being in parliament gives you the benefit of oversight. As a Member of Parliament, I was fully aware of the issues and problems in the health care sector. However, that does not mean that there are not major challenges to be met.

Although there are great [health] policies in place, all efforts and projects have to be scaled up. We are lucky in this country that we have dedicated professionals who do great work. I can do nothing on my own. But together we can make a difference to the lives of millions of people.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Oct 20 2008 (IPS)

After two HIV vaccine trials were halted for safety reasons last year, a new trial is set to commence within the next few months in South Africa and the United States. Scientists will test a new vaccine formula produced in South Africa. It will be the first time a HIV vaccine manufactured in a developing country will be trialed in the developed world.

Last year, trials using Merck Adenovirus 5 (AD 5) in South Africa as well as in the US and Australia had to be suspended because the US trial showed increased susceptibility to HIV acquisition among uncircumcised men.

Dr John Moore of the Department of Immunology and Virology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, said the "vaccines were simply not good enough to stimulate the necessary immune responses at a sufficient level" at the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise's AIDS Vaccine 2008 Conference in Cape Town last week.

Not all health experts are convinced about the benefits of further vaccine trials, however, doubting that scientists will ever be able to develop an effective vaccine against HIV because of the unique nature of the virus.

"HIV is an amazingly diverse virus. There can be 10,000 plus variations of the virus and it is constantly changing. Because the virus mutates rapidly it is difficult to develop a vaccine," explained Alan Bernstein, executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, an international alliance of scientists, researchers and donor organisations.

Risk control

Experts are also concerened about the health and safety of trial participants. "More basic research should be done prior to us testing the next candidate vaccine," cautioned Francois Venter, president of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, while generally supporting efforts to find a vaccine.

"We desperately need a vaccine, even if it takes a generation. We need to keep looking for every possible option."

At the conference, researchers said vaccine trials will from now on focus on finding out how to help the body produce antibodies to prevent infection with HIV altogether. Dr. Lynn Morris, head of the AIDS unit at South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said this was a necessary step as scientists did still not know enough about how the human immune system deals with HIV.

Scientists complaint that lack of financial support from governments impacts negatively on research outcomes, especially in countries like South Africa, where HIV/AIDS policies and their delayed implementation have been criticised by experts all over the world. However, the research community now pinned its hopes on newly appointed health minister Barbara Hogan, who replaced disputed Manto Tshabalala-Msimang just a few weeks ago.

Hogan told conference delegates that she was deeply committed to making HIV/Aids a priority during her tenancy: "There cannot be any more important meeting at this time. This is the continent, the region and a country in most need of evidence-based intervention to the HIV and Aids epidemic."

Hogan said she believed that it was not too late for South Africa to improve its health care provision. "The fact that 500,000 people are already receiving ARVs (antiretroviral treatment) in this country is proof that the damage (done by the previous health minister) is being repaired."

She admitted, however, that she felt challenged when being appointed as minister of health.

Ethical concerns

Vaccine researchers said they were highly cautious about not repeating the same mistakes from previous trials and vowed to closely adhere to ethical boundaries in the race to be the first to find a vaccine.

"It would be unethical to embark on future trials if the same risk factors as those in the (previous) trials were present," said Professor Ruth Macklin of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "The best course of action would be to avoid future trials that include probable causes of enhanced susceptibility (of HIV infection)."

"The question is, for example, if there should be exclusion criteria for uncircumcised men," Macklin said, since the health of uncircumcised men was put at risk during previous trials.

Scientists need to weigh up potential benefits and risks for trial participants carefully before embarking on a new series of tests.

"We need to consider benefit to individuals and benefit to science and society. In most research trials there is no guaranteed benefit. The drug or vaccine being tested is experimental – it may or may not work," said Professor Keymanthri Moodley of the Bioethics Unit at the University of Stellenbosch.

"In the case of Aids vaccine trials, the risks are significant, but the benefits, if an effective vaccine is developed will be enormous," she added.

To lower risks, the upcoming vaccine trials will initially take place on a small scale before they are tested widely. The new products, SAAVI MVA and SAAVI DNA, will be tested on a small group of 48 participants – 36 people from Johannesburg and Cape Town and twelve from Boston, said Dr Glenda Gray, researcher with the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and the South African Aids Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI).

"The participants will be men and women from low risk groups, including some who are celibate and some who are in monogamous relationships with known HIV-negative partners," she further explained.

SAAVI DNA has been developed by researchers at the University of Cape Town’s Institute for Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine, while the MVA vaccine has been conceptualised by UCT scientists and beenn developed and manufactured with the input of international biotech company Therion and the US-based National Institute of Health.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Oct 13 2008 (IPS)

The India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) formation could have enough clout to stand up to the European Union and the U.S. but it needs the help of emerging superpower China. Alternatively it should align with the BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China) group.

This is the view of independent South African political economist Mohau Pheko. IPS canvassed views on IBSA in the run-up to the third annual summit of the IBSA dialogue forum which is happening on Wednesday Oct 15 in New Delhi, India.

‘‘There is a lot of concern in bringing China into this grouping but IBSA cannot do it without China. It needs the strength of Beijing if it wants to become a powerful force,’’ Pheko told IPS.

IBSA has tremendous potential but the grouping is sometimes undermined by divergent interests, she said. ‘‘They will always enter negotiations according to their own interests. But at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), countries from the South – including IBSA – did take a firm stance against exploitative decisions relating to trade and agricultural goods.’’

Pheko added that IBSA decisions often take long to become reality as ‘‘trade negotiations are complex and these countries are mostly involved in other negotiations at the same time. It is difficult to manage five or more simultaneous and divergent negotiations,’’ she said.

Political analyst Professor Willie Breytenbach of the University of Stellenbosch near Cape Town is sceptical about IBSA: ‘‘The three countries involved are regional powers. But as a so-called power grouping they are not doing much more than taking a stand against the WTO.

‘‘All three countries share concerns over agricultural liberalisation but the three countries have many more differences than issues around which they can rally. At the WTO Doha talks, the countries stabbed each other in the back when it suited them.

‘‘India and Brazil are still trying to maintain protectionism regarding subsidies on exports while South Africa has long ago relinquished these subsidies,’’ Breytenback argued.

‘‘IBSA has not made any breakthroughs regarding the generation of a collective viewpoint. They do not share any borders, being on three different continents and therefore do not have any impact establishing a powerful trading block like the countries in, for example, SADC (Southern African Development Community).’’

Dr. Lyal White, a research associate at the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA), told IPS: ‘‘To be blunt, one should not expect much from the meeting between the three IBSA countries.’’ SAIIA does research and is attached to the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

IBSA ‘‘is a South-South forum that has existed since about 2003 and is yet to deliver anything tangible besides good ideas of co-operation and some multilateral support – only really initially – and planned lists of working groups,’’ White said.

However, there have been some gains: ‘‘South Africa has benefited by being associated with a group that is well above its weight,’’ he explained. ‘‘The Brazilian and Indian economies are about four times that of South Africa and their populations are vastly bigger. These are big, serious countries. They don't really need South Africa to operate in the international arena.

‘‘South Africa, on the other hand, has not really used the IBSA forum to address national and continental issues. We entered into IBSA with the rest of the world thinking we would be a leader for Africa. In this we have failed miserably.

‘‘In terms of trade, this has increased, but very much in the favour of Brazil and India. Trade with these countries is seriously skewed in their favour,’’ according to White.

He pointed out that South Africa has enjoyed some Indian investment and more recently Brazilian investment, but investment of South African origin in Brazil is still far more than Brazilian investment here. Brazilians are seeking markets in other African countries – notably Angola and Mozambique – instead.

Bilateral trade between India and South Africa is worth around 2,3 billion dollars and trade between South Africa and Brazil accounts for about 1,3 billion dollars.

Transfer of technology is, according to White, one area with great potential in IBSA – especially in renewable energy and biofuels. ‘‘South Africa has a real opportunity to team up with Brazil and develop these areas.’’

Regarding science and technology, the three countries have six science agreements in place – biotechnology, HIV/Aids, malaria, nano-technology and oceanography and tuberculosis – according to the South African publication Engineering News.

India has already established itself as a major player in the field of internet technology in Africa. India's e-Network Project aims to provide instant connectivity between all 53 African countries via satellite and fibre-optic networks. It is expected that the project can further education and health projects.

According to an IBSA agreement, research and development projects include the use of open-source software in HIV management. India is also a leader in the field of providing low-cost anti-retroviral medications. India has staked its claim in the car market in South Africa with the introduction of Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra.

‘‘There are mutual benefits to be gained from trade agreements between the three countries but they would be more effective as bilateral agreements, rather than the multilateral agreements as under IBSA,’’ said Breytenbach.

The current global financial crisis will most probably dominate the IBSA dialogue forum: ‘‘The current financial crisis will be the real topic of discussion, and all these leaders are preoccupied with the impact this is having on their countries. Brazil has been severely hit and national interests will prevail, a stance which is likely to dominate in the meeting,’’ concluded White.

The summit will be the first time that new South African president Kgalema Motlanthe represents South Africa at a high-level international gathering as head of state since his inauguration last month. He will be rubbing shoulders with Brazil's President Luis Inazio ‘‘Lula’’ da Silva and India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

About the future of IBSA under new South African leadership, Pheko indicated that it remains to be seen whether Motlanthe takes further former president Thabo Mbeki’s vision of building international ties.

‘‘One of the strengths of Mbeki was his foreign policy. And although (the ruling party) ANC president Jacob Zuma takes great care in ensuring foreign investors that nothing will change in the country, he has not promoted international co-operation strongly. At this stage we have a weakness in leadership regarding clear international policy.

‘‘The leaders want to get the domestic situation stabilised. But I do believe that once all the issues are understood, they will realise the importance of taking a leadership role regarding, for example, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. But we first need internal stability,’’ Pheko concluded.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Oct 10 2008 (IPS)

Africa risks losing up to 50 percent of its indigenous species over the next century due to global warming.

Flooding and droughts are already causing millions of the continent’s people to leave their homes, and land gets degraded as droughts force pastoralists to seek new grazing areas. The long-term ecological predictions are bleak, but scientists say this could be different if natural habitats are managed and protected.

Ways of mitigating potential damage to the environment were discussed recently at a conference of the Biota Africa project, held in Stellenbosch, in South Africa’s Western Cape Province. The Biodiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis in Africa (Biota) Project, sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, creates partnerships with scientists in Africa and elsewhere in order to make research results about biodiversity and sustainable development available to local land users and decision makers.

The research focuses on monitoring settlement patterns, and gathering data on rainfall, crops, fruits and plants. It creates projects in partnership with local communities to ensure the preservation of biodiversity, and to protect plants used in traditional medicines.

Speaking at the conference, Biota Africa coordinator Norbert Jürgens said there are many natural habitats which have survived in their original form in Africa and where ecosystems have been preserved. This is in contrast to Europe where large natural tracts of land have been destroyed. While this presented Africa with hope, he warned that the rate of extinction of species seemed to be increasing.

“Life is dependent on biodiversity, and I believe that the large-scale losses of biodiversity will have a larger impact on human lives than climate change. If we can manage something like pastures in Africa wisely, climate change will hit Africa less hard than predicted,” he said.

Although there are still huge tracts of original unspoilt land in Africa, the effect of population growth and intensive land use has been particularly severe in West Africa.

According to Eduard Linenmair, leader of the Biota West Africa project, the Ivory Coast has lost 70 percent of its forests over the last 17 years. And because of the disappearance of forests, there has been a drop in rainfall. This has affected farming activities. Ten years ago farmers in Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast could reap two harvests a year. Now they reap one.

Responding to a question why the rest of the world should care about what happens to Africa, Jürgens said: “We are all part of one world.”

“What happens in Africa has an impact on Europe. By using the Biota research findings, communities can make sound and informed decisions. Maybe it makes more sense to stop farming with sheep in semi-arid regions and rather focus on tourism if it makes more financial and ecological sense.”

By making use of research findings a balance could be reached between preservation and cultivation. An example of how preservation makes financial sense is the hoodia plant which has been used by the Bushmen of Southern Africa for generations. It was unknown in the West until scientists discovered its slimming potential. Now the plant is highly prized.

According to Jürgens ecological systems are being destroyed by people who are unaware of their importance in maintaining a delicate natural balance.

In the same way a lack of knowledge has led to alien vegetation replacing much of the indigenous flora in the Cape region of South Africa. This was caused when eucalyptus and acacia species were brought in from Australia a century ago in an effort to stabilise the coastal dunes. Besides taking over the indigenous flora, forest fires increased and the groundwater level sank dramatically due to the alien species’ deep roots.

The research of Biota was highly relevant to the fight against poverty in Africa, said Jürgens. “There is generally an awareness of environmental issues, which is partly due to the fact that droughts and flooding hit the people of the continent particularly hard.

“At Biota we have cultivated a cooperative culture in which all decisions are taken jointly, together with our partners. These are not only fellow scientists and politicians, but all stakeholders. We identify the fears and needs of the rural populations and assimilate them into the Biota programme.”

The Biota programme draws extensively on indigenous knowledge systems. For example, in West Africa, where the soil has been depleted of nutrients, a traditional form of land cultivation has been re-introduced to farming communities.

Termites are attracted to the soil by left-over agricultural plants or dung that farmers put into holes in the fields. The termites build tunnels under the field, transporting large amounts of fertile top soil from the surface to the deeper layers. Their excretions also fertilise the soil.

Research findings could however not be forced upon communities who did not understand the need to protect their environment, he said. And that was why Biota invested money and time to develop skills in the local communities. Especially important was the training of ‘para-ecologists’.

“We identify people from the communities who seem to have an interest in nature and we equip them with a number of skills,” said Jürgens. “The work of these people is extremely important in helping small scale farmers see how they can benefit by implementing research findings and sharing their indigenous knowledge.”

The para-ecologists organise workshops, facilitate interaction between scientists and members of the community and document environmental data which is relayed to the scientists.

A key message of the conference was that no matter how sound the scientific research, if the local population does not embrace the project, it will not have an effect.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Sep 25 2008 (IPS)

Zulu artists working at the Ardmore Ceramic Studio in South Africa’s coastal province of KwaZulu Natal have gone from poverty to international acclaim.

Ceramic artist Mickey Chonco with one of the artworks he created at the Ardmore Ceramic Studio in KwaZulu-Natal. Credit: Ardmore Ceramic Studio

The Ardmore studio was founded in 1985 by the Zimbabwean born ceramic artist Fee Halsted Berning. She had one employee at the time: Bonnie Ntshalintshali, a qualified ceramic artist. Together they created functional and fine art objects – Ardmore’s characteristic fantastical animals which decorate each piece.

Increasingly artists from the surrounding poor community came knocking on the door asking to be allowed to join the studio. Today there are 80 artists and all of them support extended families.

‘‘Some of the artists earn up to 26,000 rand (3,095 dollars) per month,’’ Halsted Berning told IPS. It is a large sum of money in any language but more so in the poverty-stricken rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal, which has the highest HIV prevalence in South Africa.

Tragically, Ntshalintshali became a victim of AIDS. Halsted Berning has created the Bonnie Ntshalintshali Museum and Gallery in her memory, the first museum in South Africa to be named after a black artist. Starting this year an annual cultural festival is to be held at the venue.

‘‘Many of the artists here have lost someone close to them to HIV/AIDS and many of our best artists have also succumbed to the disease,’’ said Halsted Berning. ‘‘The festival is a way to remember them. It is also a way to link the studio with the rest of the community as people from the surrounding areas perform at the festival as singers and dancers.

‘‘People who go to galleries are usually white people. With the exhibitions and the annual festival at Ardmore we invite local people so that they can see that one can make a living as an artist, even if you come from a poor community. It creates hope.’’

According to Halsted Berning, the people in these communities and the artists themselves do not necessarily have a concept of leaving behind a legacy. ‘‘By seeing the works of the people who have died, people realise that the work exists after the artist’s death,’’ explained Halsted Berning.

One of the most recent deaths at Ardmore was that of Wonderboy Nxumalo, an artist who represented Ardmore at the Christie's Exhibition and Auction in 2004. His scraffito pieces – scratching outlines on different layers of plaster – depicting the Anglo Zulu war were especially popular. He embellished his works with poems with HIV/AIDS awareness messages.

Through an Excellence Fund created by Halsted Berning, sick artists and their families are assured of medical care. ‘‘When Bonnie died I felt responsible for her son. I realised that people have to take responsibility for their own well-being and established the Fund so that they could do exactly that,’’ expounded Halsted Berning.

Six percent of what is earned per piece is paid into the fund by the artists. All dental and other medical expenses are then paid through the fund. Artists also attend a training centre, which is run in conjunction with the artist Malcolm Christian, founder of the Caversham Press where printmaking skills are taught.

‘‘I am looking to the future. Who is going to take over Ardmore when I die?’’ explained Halsted Berning. ‘‘The artists have to learn marketing and export skills.’’

For Happiness Sibisi her work as manager of the studio has taught her valuable skills: ‘‘When I arrived at the studio three years ago, I had just finished school but had no money to study further. Working here has improved my life tremendously. I now know how to manage a business. But it is a daily learning experience. Every day brings something new to learn.

‘‘During my annual leave, I attended a course in HIV/AIDS counselling because I want to help the people in my community who are living with this disease.’’

With her first salary Sibisi bought a mobile phone, with her second salary she bought a bed. Today she comfortably supports her daughter and the six children left behind by brothers and sisters who have died. She is also the proud owner of a brand new car.

Mickey Chonco has been with Ardmore for seven years. The quality of his life has improved dramatically, he told IPS: ‘‘I can now buy clothes and anything else that we need for my wife and me. But most important, I have grown tremendously as an artist. I also find a lot of pleasure in teaching sculpting and teaching skills to children from the community.’’

Who knows, the next time you pick up a ceramic piece with animals in bright colours, it might be one of the works created at Ardmore.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Sep 23 2008 (IPS)

Minutes after the news broke today that Trevor Manuel, South African minister of finance, resigned from his post, the South African currency lost ground against international currencies, falling 20 cents against the dollar within less than an hour.

The rand recouped some of its losses when Manuel later said that he was willing to serve under a new leader.

Manuel has chaired the World Bank's development committee and has just been appointed chair of an International Monetary Fund committee that will investigate decision-making in the institution.

The turbulence that South Africa is experiencing follows the ruling African National Congress’s (ANC) decision to ‘‘recall’’ President Thabo Mbeki. He resigned on Sep 21. Today another 14 members of his executive, including deputy finance minister Jabu Moleketi, resigned.

In South Africa’s mainstream media the response has been that Manuel’s resignation is bad news because he is ''trusted'' by international investors and the financial markets. Economist Mike Schussler told a local television station that the country could experience a steady economic decline in the long run if the wrong person is appointed.

However, Prof Patrick Bond, economist and director of the University of KwaZulu Natal's Centre for Civil Society in Durban, South Africa, was not sorry to hear of Manuel's decision to quit. Contrary to what mainstream media pundits say, ‘‘Manuel and governor of the Reserve Bank Tito Mboweni have, under Thabo Mbeki, been responsible for extreme economic instability,’’ Bond told IPS.

‘‘There are too many people who believe that Mbeki is leaving behind a successful economic legacy. Instead many people are far worse off than what they were before he came to power. The country has the second-highest current account deficit in the world because of trade liberalisation and the end of many exchange controls.

‘‘There have been five major currency crashes since 1996. Unemployment has doubled and the country has seen the highest interest rates in its history; and there has been controversial privatisation and commercialisation of state services. The Washington-friendly policies these people adopted need reversing,’’ Bond insisted.

‘‘Regardless of whether Manuel is invited back, the departure of so many of his business-friendly colleagues – such as deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, public enterprises minister Alec Erwin and Moleketi – could have a dramatic impact on the ideological balance of forces.

‘‘Against those who say the government and economy are now in crisis because leading personalities depart and the stock market falls by a few percent, there are many more in civil society who will celebrate the opportunity to hear new voices for economic democracy, a more caring society and a healthier environment,’’ Bond argued.

‘‘Many of those who resigned drowned out those new voices from below, so as to play the same old Washington Consensus tunes. They were deeply disrespectful of trade unions and social movements and will not be missed,’’ Bond concluded. The Washington Consensus refers to the neoliberal package of policies that include liberalisation and deregulation.

Sociologist Dr. Ashwin Desai from the Centre for Sociological Research at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, believes that there have been clear signs that the ANC was unhappy with the economic policies implemented under Mbeki.

‘‘There has been a crescendo of criticism from the left of the spectrum that economic policies did not meet its own goals around GEAR,’’ Desai told IPS. GEAR stands for the Growth, Employment and Redistribution macro-economic policy adopted under the leadership of Mbeki and Manuel.

‘‘Mbeki made promises around job creation and the reduction of poverty which have not been met. The increase in worker salaries have since 1996 been consistently lower that the increase in the general cost of living. Cabinet ministers have been caught in economic policies shaped by GEAR.

‘‘With new blood in the cabinet, there may be a rethink of mega-projects that have not fulfilled the expectations of the poor,’’ Desai argued.

He is, however, concerned about the way forward: ANC president Jacob Zuma ‘‘has said that the economic policies will not be changed. But he cannot have his cake and eat it. You cannot speak out against the policies instituted under Mbeki and not be willing to change. It is political doublespeak.

‘‘However, I am glad that the ANC had the courage to act quickly against Mbeki after Judge Chris Nicholson implied that he interfered in the corruption case against Jacob Zuma. The fact that someone as powerful as Mbeki could be removed is a positive sign of democracy at work.’’

Desai was referring to a recent court finding that dismissed the corruption case against Zuma and found that Mbeki had interfered with his prosecution.

Bond put it plainly: ‘‘There will be many broken hearts and tears when the incoming leaders (under Zuma) fail to deliver on their promises. There are, according to the police, 10,000 Gatherings Act incidents per year already, many reflecting lack of service delivery and, in turn, worsening inequality.

‘‘If Jacob Zuma's team changes macroeconomic and microdevelopment policies – specifically by making water, electricity, education, health care, housing and land more affordable through more generous subsidies – then the basis for many social protests will disappear. If instead, as I fear, he continues business-as-usual in a context of global and local economic storms, we're going to have quite a wild ride.’’

Desai describes the Mbeki legacy as a ‘‘poisoned chalice’’: ‘‘The new leadership is inheriting an economic framework that may not leave much room for manoeuvring – the expected job creation and the supply of housing may not be realised. The economic reality of this situation will hit us in six to seven months when the people find that the promises made by the leaders cannot be met.’’

Patrick Craven, spokesperson for the Zuma-allied Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), says there is no reason for the new leaders not to meet the expectations of ordinary people. ‘‘A part of Mbeki's failure was because of his top-down approach. He did not allow for discussion with the South African Communist Party, COSATU or even within the ANC.

‘‘He simply handed down his polices and this has led to many economic mistakes, such as the many interest rate hikes which have had a devastating impact on the economy. However, there are some very good employment creation and economic policies in place which can be developed to meet the targets.’’

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By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Aug 25 2008 (IPS)

The launch of a free trade area (FTA) within the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) has brought the region one step closer to a regional customs union by 2010. But the launch of the FTA at the recent SADC heads of state summit was met with mixed reaction.

Dot Keet: "FTA could open door to EU imports" Credit: Stanley Kwenda/IPS

‘‘Some of the countries in the SADC are being prevented from fully benefiting from the gains of trade because of the size and nature of their economies. By integrating, countries are able to exploit scale economies while at the same time restructuring the regional economy in ways that benefit the production base of the region.’’

However, one of the critics, trade specialist Dot Keet, told IPS that trade in the region is skewed in favour of South Africa – the strongest economy. ‘‘The trade deficits in the region are in South Africa's favour. Mostly South African companies are moving into and benefiting – in all sectors including communication, tourism, retail, trade, mining, airlines, banking, et cetera.’’

Keet is with the Alternative Information Development Centre (AIDC), a Cape Town-based non-governmental organisation focussing on development research from a critical standpoint.

She warned that many SADC countries are negotiating economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with European Union (EU) countries. ‘‘If there is a free trade area in the SADC region and the EPAs with its most favoured nation clauses are signed, it will open the doors to European imports,’’ Keet told IPS.

The ‘‘most favoured nation’’ clause in the EPAs requires African signatories to give the EU the same treatment as in future agreements with other countries signed subsequent to the EPAs.

‘‘It will be extremely difficult to monitor trade across porous borders – whether it is goods from SADC or Europe. Many of the SADC countries are willing to sign agreements which will undermine their own economic advancement. The EU is insisting on the liberalisation of finances, health and a number of services,’’ Keet explained.

‘‘Most of the limited export sector of SADC countries is heavily biased towards the European markets. EU countries threaten African countries with tariff raises on imported goods if the EPAs are not signed.’’

She added that, although South Africa is in a better position than the rest of the region as it has diversified its exports to South America, China and India, it is also reliant on Europe.

According to Keet, SADC countries are further compromised as they are heavily reliant on foreign aid. They fear that the millions of dollars that are annually poured into these countries will be withdrawn if they do not sign EPAs.

Nkululeko Khumalo, a researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) attached to the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, differed from Keet: ‘‘It is simply not true that the FTA will lead to European goods flooding the SADC markets. The FTA is about intra-SADC trade and outsiders are precluded from benefiting from it through rules of origin.’’

These rules translate into tariff duties for goods produced outside the region.

He added: ‘‘Since 2000, SADC countries have been implementing the provisions of the SADC Trade Protocol. They achieved the goal of liberalising 85 percent of goods within eight years. The establishment of the FTA is one of the targets set by the SADC countries before the establishment of the Customs Union by 2010.

‘‘Whether the Customs Union will become a reality within the next 18 months remains to be seen. There is too little time left."

According to Fundira of TRALAC, the FTA will aid increased intra-regional trade along with inflows of foreign capital – mainly from South Africa. ‘‘This will help to boost industrial development and the diversification of the export base. The FTA may also help to reduce uncertainty and improve the financial credibility of countries in the region. In turn this could boost private sector investment.’’

Before the SADC summit, South African finance minister Trevor Manuel in a speech to the National Assembly in Cape Town warned that the fact that several SADC members were members of other regional groups could become problematic, as each group had its own way of negotiating with EU members.

Manuel advised the different member states to decide on which regional grouping they wanted to be members of.

Khumalo also believes that membership of different bodies pose some challenges. Tanzania, for example, belongs to more than one grouping. He has suggested as a way forward that SADC and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) create a mutual free trade agreement. This will assist countries that do not want to pick one membership and leave behind another.

In the end, it could help with trade integration across the African continent, Khumalo argued.

Excerpt:

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Aug 21 2008 (IPS)

It is early on a Monday morning and Margret Woermann is late for her interview with IPS. The owner and creative force behind the Heartworks shops is at a meeting discussing a project with a clothing designer.

Richly embroidered cloth hearts at Heartworks, Cape Town. Credit: Stephanie Nieuwoudt/IPS

Woermann's three shops – all based in Cape Town, a city popular with European tourists – have been described as part business and part community project. The shops carry objects from craftspeople from all over South Africa and its neighbouring countries. Many of these objects are the work of people like the man who strolled into the shop.

The numbers of craftspeople who supply her shop change all the time, as some only make objects on a once-off basis. According to Woermann she regularly buys from about 100 craftspeople. Each craftsperson supports a family – often his or her income is the only source of income for a large number of people.

‘‘Sometimes I see potential and make some suggestions to the artist to make the object more sellable,’’ Woermann says in her interview with IPS. ‘‘If people come back with what I want, I will place an order.’’

Woermann also employs a full-time team of 35 embroiderers who create teddy bears and hearts made from fabric.

At the one shop, 22-year-old Papama Mnyakama tells IPS, ‘‘I love embroidery because every figure I embroider tells a story. I create people carrying things, flowers and animals and they each say something to those who take the time to look at them.’’

Her work as shop assistant has opened up many opportunities for her: ‘‘I started working as an embroiderer two years ago and a year ago I got the job as shop assistant. When I started working for Heartworks, I had no other form of income.

‘‘Because of my job I can start planning the future of my son, who is five years old. Without this work there would not have been any future.’’

Mnyakama says she has always wanted to work with people – she did a secretarial course but could not find work – and as a shop assistant she meets interesting people from all over the world. However, she still embroiders when she gets a chance. Mnyakama's sister, one of her cousins and her mother also work for Heartworks.

Dorcas Mavu (43) supplements the income she gets from sewing for others in her community by embroidering for Heartworks. She earns anything between 500 rand (65 dollars) and 2,000 rand (260 dollars) per month.

‘‘It all depends on how hard I feel like working during the month. If I work hard, I make more money because I get paid per item. I enjoy working for Heartworks because I love sewing and embroidery,’’ Mavu enthuses.

From a South African perspective, the objects’ prices seem high. ‘‘It is important for me to pay the people who work for me a fair wage. I also pay them transport costs. Labour has a certain amount of hours attached to it and eventually the costs are translated into the price of the object,’’ Woermann explains.

‘‘Unfortunately many people believe crafts have to be inexpensive because in the past it could be picked up quite cheaply on the side of the road.’’

The first shop opened its doors in 2000. A friend asked Woermann to join her in an embroidery project. ‘‘I was not working at that stage and agreed.’’ After two months the friend opted out of the venture, and Woermann carried on alone.

By naming the business Heartworks, she gave a nod to the world of fine art, which she describes as serious, mysterious and inaccessible to many people. At the same time the name reflects the emotional associations of the objects.

A shipment of teddy bears are ready to be sent to a children's psychiatric ward in Oslo, Norway, where it is believed traumatised children will more readily tell the teddy bears what happened to them than relate their stories to an adult.

‘‘The teddy bears and the hearts basically sell themselves,’’ Woermann says. The bears, made of black cloth and covered in brightly coloured and intricate embroidery stitches, are also extremely popular in overseas markets.

The bears are sought after in a number of overseas retail outlets and monthly exports of these beautiful objects are worth about 25,000 rand (about 3,247 dollars).

Cushions made from camouflage cloth and embroidered in contrasting pieces of cloth with words like love and peace will be on display at the Maison d'Objet trade fair in Paris in September this year. By using these words with camouflage fabric, Woermann wants to subvert the negativity of war.

She was in a fabric shop when she thought that it would be interesting to use camouflage cloth which is associated with conflict. ‘‘I asked the crafters to add words and flowers and butterflies to give it a Woodstock-hippy feel. My agent from Paris submitted the cushions to the fair and it was accepted for one of the Trends pavilions. These pavilions showcase items that indicate a trend.’’

The 35 women work mostly from home, but there is also an opportunity for the embroiderers and the two seamstresses to meet once a week at the Heartworks shop at the Old Biscuit Mill, a few kilometres outside the Cape Town CBD.

Although Woermann supplies most of the materials needed to create the teddy bears and the other needlework items, the embroiderers have to buy thread at a subsidised rate: ‘‘We used a huge amount of thread when I supplied it for free. We use much less now.’’

Woermann is serious about recycling and her shops are filled with items which have been given a new life. There are fridge magnets made from bottle caps, curtains made from plastic bottle tops and small containers and brooches made from all kinds of found objects.

There is a playfulness in the plastic milk containers which have become animal heads. These objects can be interpreted as satirical comment on the terribly chi chi style trend, using antelope horns and skulls as décor items, or simply as a naïve interpretation of the very expensive horns found in upmarket shops.

When Woermann is asked about supporting people living with HIV/AIDS, she frowns: ‘‘No, I do not focus on people with HIV/AIDS. I am sure that some of the workers and suppliers are HIV positive, but I do not believe in giving people work because of their HIV status. Each object that is sold has to stand on its own.

‘‘The most important thing about my shops is that I am able to give people, especially the women who embroider, a chance to be creative and to earn an income. Most of them have no other source of income. It is wonderful to know that you have given somebody an opportunity to improve their life.’’

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