We need better roads

This year I’ve been travelling a lot, throughout East and Southern Africa. In some cases, I’ve visited countries that I haven’t been back to in several years. In all cases, the growth and progress that’s taken place since my previous visits has been visible and obvious.

But one thing that has really bothered me, is that no matter how well economies may be doing, no matter how much cities have grown and developed, the roads almost always seem to have been neglected.

I first visited Mozambique in the early 1990s, and have visited fairly regularly since then. My first visit was shortly after the end of the civil war, and Maputo was in very poor shape. The road from the South African border to Maputo was also horrible — full of potholes. On each visit, I’ve noticed improvements and development in Maputo. More and better shops, more hotels, and so forth. The road from the SA border is now much, much better, and the main road from Maputo up north is excellent. But within Maputo city, the roads are horrendous and if you’re driving you have to be constantly aware of obstacles and sometimes huge potholes.

Kampala was very village-like when I first visited in late 1993. On my last trip there, a couple of months ago, the city seemed way bigger, and the amount of traffic had increased several-fold. But the roads seem not to have been touched. One of the reason the traffic’s so bad is that the main roads are still narrow — not tailored to a city of its present size. And then within the city, again, there are huge potholes on major routes (sometimes seemingly big enough for a car to fall into and get lost for days!).

In my home city, Cape Town, I’ve noticed the deterioration of many roads in the city — from the heavy traffic, but also as a result of rain and weather damage. There are regular repairs and upgrades but they don’t seem to keep pace with the damage.

Now I know roads are incredibly expensive to build and maintain, and bigger, wider roads are not the answer to traffic woes (the wider the roads, the more cars there will be – what’s needed is better public transport). But roads are still crucial for all of our economies, and you’d think that with the evident economic growth in the redion, and the billions of dollars in aid that have been spent, at least some of it should have been used to ensure our roads are in tip-top shape.

An article I read this week has confirmed my views. It’s from the development news agency, IRIN, and is titled, “Better roads lead to more money”. It reports that there is a strong link between good roads, and food security. The article reports on how small-scale farmers in Malawi struggle to get their food to markets, because of the bad roads.

According to the article, money is readily spent on building or rehabilitating new major roads, while maintenance of existing roads, and especially of secondary and subsidiary roads, is neglected. Spending is also skewed to focus on roads in wealthier areas of the country, at the expense of poorer ones (where the population the faces extra barriers to earning a small income).

The article focuses on Malawi, but I bet the situation in many other countries in the region is similar. The good new roads I was talking about in Mozambique probably reflect the same trend — they’re big roads, benefitting tourists and major transporters, while the rural roads and city routes used by ordinary people every day, are left to crumble. In South Africa, I’ve been on some secondary national roads, where there is a visible line as you cross from a rich province to a poorer one — you can see the road change in quality before your eyes.

It’s not only rural farmers that are affected. Electoral commissions face problems getting ballots to and from areas where there are poor roads. Health care is also a problem when medical personnel cannot reach patients, or residents can’t get to clinics. And the list goes on.

It’s not glamorous, or headline-grabbing, but it’s time we invested in good road infrastructure. The benefits will be many, and long-lasting.

The financial bubble bursts — what about Africa?

As I write this, US lawmakers are still haggling about whether or not to approve the $700-million bail-out package, to rescue Wall Street.

Exactly how all of this international financial stuff works is rather beyond me (and from reading newspapers and magazines such as Time, it seems not even seasoned financial reporters understand all of it, let alone the regulators). But basically it seems that top international banks made a whole lot of very risky loans, which were backed up by complicated inter-bank guarantees — and now that many people can’t pay back their loans, the whole system is coming crashing down.

Anyhow, there are a few points that can be made, and questions to be asked, about how all of this is affecting, or going to affect, Africa.

The first point is one that BBC World made, when the US bailout package was first proposed. At the time, the UN was also meeting to discuss measures to reduce global poverty. After lengthy deliberations, the delegates agreed to commit something like $16-billion to fight global poverty and try to meet the millennium development goal of halving the number of people living on just 1-2 US dollars a day. The UN secretary-general hailed that as a great achievement. Well, it does sound like a lot, but in comparison to the proposed $700-million to rescue Wall Street, it’s a pittance.

Another notable feature of the current crash, is that we are seeing a reversal of market liberalisation, as the US government rescues banks, and even effectively nationalises huge private financial institutions (which is what happened when the government took over the home loan organisations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). There are huge contrasts here with what might happen should the economy of a developing nation be in the same situation. Firstly, the IMF and World Bank would be there, insisting institutions be allowed to collapse rather than be bailed out, and insisting on market liberalisation rather than the opposite (which is what happened in south-east Asia about a decade ago). Secondly, imagine an African or South American government suddenly deciding to nationalise major privately-owned financial institutions. The US would be decrying it, and imposing blockades and sanctions.

A key question for all of us must be, how will the current crisis impact on Africa. So far it seems that African banks are not in much danger — I think the fairly conservative banking and finance laws in most African countries have protected us to an extent. But there will obviously be other impacts. One I have wondered about is how the economic slump in the US and Europe will affect remittances sent back to Africa by Africans living in these countries. Remittances have been shown to be a major form of income, not only for individuals and families, but for national economies. But if Africans abroad start losing their jobs, or feeling the pinch, these contributions are bound to suffer.

In the long term, the picture may not be so bleak. Writing in South Africa’s Business Day earlier this week, finance expert Michael Power argues that savers in the rest of the world have up to now been financing the US’s over-consumption and credit-fuelled lifestyle, and have not been profiting from it. He says this huge bubble is about to burst, and the US is going to lose its place at the top of the global capitalist market system. He foresees “the end of the world as we know it”, and that the new global financial system that will emerge, will be much friendlier to countries that are rich in natural resources (such as in Africa). But, there is one important condition — these countries will only benefit if they and their economies are well managed.

Let’s hope our politicians and financial leaders are prepared.

The rich get richer…

Newspaper headlines in South Africa these days report on spiraling inflation, and warn that interest rates could be raised yet again. I’ve lost count of the number of times our Reserve Bank has hiked interest rates, and it’s beginning to take its toll. There are also reports of record numbers of South Africans defaulting on house, car and other payments. Even the banks have started changing their tune — for example, First National Bank has launched a major advertising campaign offering tips on saving money, and explaining that they’re getting tougher on granting credit.

But it’s not bad for everybody. Yesterday’s Business Times lead with the following headline: “SA’s dollar-millionaire club gets bigger, faster”. The story explains that the growth in the number of South Africans with wealth of over a million US dollars was greater than the global average. In South Africa there are now almost 14% more dollar millionaires than there were this time last year. The global average was a 6% increase in dollar millionaires.

In fact the biggest growth in dollar millionaires was in the Middle East, and there are significantly more millionaires in South America too. And lest you think our continent is being left out, South African millionaires weren’t the only ones doing well.  This year there are 10% more dollar millionaires in Africa than there were last year.

That might all be wonderful news, except for the fact that in Africa, unlike almost everywhere else in the world, poverty is increasing, and intensifying. In an era where governments and international organisations have set the goal of halving poverty by 2015, that is shocking. It’s shocking that between 1990 and 2004, the number of Africans living on less than 1 US dollar a day increased by 20%. But it’s worse than that. The number living on less than 50 US cents a day rose by a third during the same period. That means that in sub-Saharan Africa there are now over 121 million people trying to survive on less than 50 US cents a day. At the current exchange rate, that’s the equivalent of about 4 South African rands a day.

Now all this is happening while economies are growing. The rich are getting richer, and the poor, poorer. Economies are growing, but unemployment is increasing. Clearly something is very wrong.

I’m not an economist and don’t have easy answers, but surely we have to question the political and economic leadership of our countries and continent. We also have to look to ourselves. How have we allowed this to happen? In South Africa, are those of us in the middle classes so caught up in the pursuit of material wealth, the latest clothes, and the flashiest cars, that we have been prepared to ignore the increasing misery of our fellow citizens? What can and should we be doing to turn this around?

To give a picture of just how insane this is, the Sunday Times article also mentions that among the ultra-rich — those worth more than 30-million US dollars, the biggest increase was in Latin America, followed by Africa.

Now let’s get real. How much money does any one person need? Let’s say, it’s fine and acceptable to do well and be comfortable, and let’s be very accommodating and say it’s not excessive to have $1 million US dollars. But over $30 million? What do you do with money like that? You can only sleep in 1 bed at night, eat so many meals, drink so much fine wine. What do you do with the rest? What is the point?

Especially when your fellow citizens are spending every waking hour trying to scrape together enough money for just one daily meal.

(This was first posted on the Citizen Journalism in Africa site on June 30th, 2008: www.citizenjournalismafrica.org)

We ignorant South Africans

The past few months I’ve had the privilege of traveling to a number of countries in southern Africa. I’ve always traveled for work, but recently it’s become a lot more intense. It has its drawbacks — I find I get very angry very quickly at airport delays, and miss my home and loved ones. But it’s also stimulating and very educational.

The thing about travel is that it educates you twice. When you visit a new country you learn a lot about that place, meet interesting people and view the world from a new perspective. And then when you return home you see the familiar with new eyes and with the benefit of richer insight.

One thing I’ve known for a long time, but which I’m made more and more aware of all the time, is how much more Malawians and Zambians and Tanzanians and almost everybody knows about South Africa, than South Africans know about Zambia or Tanzania or Malawi or just about any other country on our continent. I can have detailed conversations in Lilongwe or Maputo or Lusaka about Thabo Mbeki and his policies, and even about his presumed successor, Jacob Zuma. Yet back home, many people would be hard-pressed to even name the president of most neighbouring countries, let alone would-be successors or opposition figures.

A large part of the problem is the South African media. With one or two exceptions, most SA news media behave as if Africa didn’t exist north of the Zambezi (Zimbabwe is the one place that does get a lot of attention). Sometimes it seems the only reason for the occasional mention of other places is that Bafana Bafana happens to be playing a game there. Those who want to stay informed about the continent, have to actively look for information online.

Recently some Friends were going on about Americans and how ignorant they are, how they think Africa is a country instead of a continent. I decided to point out that we South Africans aren’t much better. Show them a map of Africa and see how many can find Chad, Nigeria or even the DRC? Well, I wasn’t very popular.

Another thing I’m constantly made aware of, is that South Africans are seen as very violent, and SA is known for its crime and corruption. I get a bit nervous traveling to a new place — is it safe, will I get through passport control OK, and all of the other things one worries about. But my mild butterflies are nothing compared to the trepidation visitors from other countries must feel when approaching a South African border post. Will they be harassed by corrupt cops, will they be robbed or attacked? Will their luggage be stolen at OR Tambo international?

Someone on the plane recently told me he works in South Africa but misses his family who are back home. “Can’t you bring your family over?” I asked him. “I could”, he replied, “but SA is no place to raise a family”. A sobering thought.

I was left with some more food for thought when some Malawians told me recently they they are worried that South Africa will give the entire continent a bad name when we host the 2010 World Cup. “What if one of the star players is attacked and even killed?”, said one, “how will Africa look then, in the eyes of the world?” I don’t think South Africans fully realise the huge responsibility we have not only to our own country, but to the entire continent, to ensure that 2010 is a success.

This is Africa

This blog was originally posted on the Citizen Journalism in Africa portal on the 9th of April 2008 (www.citizenjournalismafrica.org/).
I’m in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Yesterday one of the Tanzanians attending the Citizen Journalism in Africa workshop mentioned that the prime minister and some ministers had recently resigned as result of a corruption scandal. I decided I had to check this out, so did a Google search.

Yes, there it is. On the 8th of February this year, Associated Press carried this report: “Tanzania’s prime minister and two Cabinet ministers have resigned over a corruption scandal involving a contract with a nonexistent firm supposedly based in the United States, and the president dissolved the entire Cabinet as a result.” The resignations followed a critical report by a parliamentary committee on the dodgy contract.

And last week, in Cape Town, a Mozambican  colleague mentioned to me that some ministers had recently been fired for messing up. Good old Google. There, on allAfrica.com in a report dated the 11th of March,  you can read in black and white that Mozambican President Armando Guebuza sacked three ministers: the ministers of transport, agriculture and justice. No official reasons are ever given for ministerial sackings in Mozambique, but there have been problems with deforestation and logging in the agriculture sector, there were riots in Maputo in early February sparked by steep hikes in taxi prices, and the justice system has been criticised for being slow and inefficient.

Then, on the 26th of March came the news that Guebuza had also sacked the defence minister, his son in law to boot. This came a year after more than 100 people died when a Maputo arsenal exploded.

Ok, the Defence minister was sacked a long time after the incident, and only after the opposition had repeatedly called for his head. But still, as a South African I find all of this astonishing. That government ministers would be fired, or — and this I find REALLY incredible — resign! Just because of poor performance or a scandal. Could it really be true? Well, I checked, and all of these reports appeared way before April Fools’ Day so it must be. But I didn’t really believe it until I’d seen the reports with my own eyes.

Please try to understand my astonishment. It’s not that I don’t believe my colleagues. It just that in South Africa, where we are so proud of our democracy, a minister pretty much has to die to be removed from the Cabinet. In the face of critical newspaper reports, public scandals, or even damning findings by commissions of enquiry, public officials routinely insist that they’re innocent and deserve to keep their posts, because they haven’t yet been found guilty in a court of law. The idea that a public official has to live up to a higher standard than simply not (yet) having a criminal conviction, just doesn’t seem to have taken root. Oh, and being competent — well, who said that was a job requirement?

So, The health minister has completely messed up on HIV/Aids, presided over a decaying health system, and, according to newspaper reports, is a practicing alcoholic with a criminal record in a neighbouring country. Yet she is unassailable in her position, and staunchly backed by President Mbeki. Her former deputy who proved herself as a champion in the fight against HIV/Aids WAS sacked. So sorry, dying is not the only way to get dropped — the other way to lose your cabinet post is to be too good at your job. It just doesn’t do, as it makes everyone else look bad. Home Affairs is a shambles, we have an electricity crisis and a crime problem — yet the ministers in charge of all of these are sitting in their offices, safe and secure.

Now some South Africans point to this, sigh and shake their heads and say, “yes, this is Africa,” and preach that we should emulate the UK, where ministers also regularly are forced to resign. But why should we look to Britain (or the US for that matter, both of which have more than their fair share of corrupt and incompetent politicians, by the way)? There are clearly many examples in Africa where public officials are being held to account, and have to deliver the goods or get out.  So, I wonder, why aren’t these people pointing to the good example being set by the likes of Presidents Kikwete and Guebuza, and saying proudly, “THIS is Africa!”?