Essential The Africa the Media Doesn't Tell You About

[The D-List Vet]

Any brehs here live in Africa?

 

[Premeditated]

I feel like this thread has lost it's way with no many negative news being posted

so here's a lighter one

 

[Yehuda]

Sierra Leone gets first cocoa factory

The first of its kind facility allows the country to process cocoa for the first time in a boost for local farmers and a win for Africa's manufacturing capacity.

Capitol Foods Limited

Shoshana Kedem
November 2nd 2021

Sierra Leone has opened its first cocoa processing factory in a bid to bring profits from the country’s crucial industry home and improve the lives of thousands of local farmers.

The new factory’s machinery, nestled in the eastern Kenema Village, juddered to life on 23 October in a ceremony attended by President Julius Maada Bio, who said it was a “giant step” for the country and economy.

The factory will be able to process up to 4,000 tonnes of cocoa beans per year – around a quarter of the country’s annual output. This is a great step forward, although it will not put Sierra Leone on a par with the world’s largest cocoa producers, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which have been crushing, roasting and grinding cocoa beans into the unsweetened cocoa mass used to manufacture chocolate for years.

Côte d’Ivoire, which got its first industrial scale chocolate factory in 2015, today produces 2m tonnes of cocoa beans a year, equivalent to more than 40% of the world market, and has plans to increase domestic processing capacity to 1.2m tonnes within two years.

Sierra Leone’s new facility, built by Capitol Foods Limited, will export its semi-finished product to major cocoa produce buyers and chocolatiers in Europe for 20% more than it sold its unprocessed cocoa beans, says factory owner Hamza Hashim, CEO of Capitol Foods Limited.

While the opening represents a small victory in the continent’s fight to profit from its natural resources instead of exporting raw materials to industrialised nations, the processing plant is also about helping local cocoa farmers release the potential of their land, crops and skills, Hashim says.

“It’s more about the impact on farmers, and how it will change their lives,” he says.

Sierra Leone’s president Julius Maada Bio and Hamza Hashem inspect the finished product at Capitol Food’s Factory in Kenema VIllage.

Built as part of a $2.9m project backed by $600,000 from the Sierra Leone Agribusiness Development Fund, (SLADF) and designed to help cocoa farmers extract more value from their hard labour, the impact of the project is two-fold.

Firstly it aims to improve the crop quality and yields of some 2,800 farmers it sources its beans from by supporting farmers with better cocoa seedlings, organic crop certification, agricultural training and loans to scale their operations. Secondly the project will help farmers secure a higher price than their produce in the global cocoa marketplace, he says.

Sweet dreams

The project may help to reinvigorate the country’s floundering cocoa industry as it recovers from the long-term impact of a 10-year civil war. Though the guns fell silent in 2002, the neglect of cocoa estates during the war meant that production took a long time to recover.

Sierra Leone exported $33.2m in cocoa beans in 2019, making it the 17th largest cocoa bean exporter in the world, according to the OEC trade data site. Elsewhere in West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire exports $3.8bn a year, Ghana $1.6bn, and Nigeria $715m.

Cocoa beans are the country’s fifth biggest export, with the bulk destined for the Netherlands. Other export markets include Belgium, the US, Italy and Malaysia.

The next steps will be manufacturing chocolate in the country for the first time, Hashim says.

“We have plans to upgrade the factory to produce chocolate, butter, and powder within 2022, and are looking to expand our export markets to North America and the Middle East.”

Read More about West Africa's cocoa industry: Liberia courts premium markets to boost cocoa earnings

Cocoa crisis

The region’s heavyweight cocoa producers are also locked in an ongoing battle with big chocolate companies who they accuse of denying farmers a dignified existence by trying to avoid a newly introduced minimum price of $400 per tonne for cocoa.

The premium was introduced in July 2020 by Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, who produce more than 60% of the world’s cocoa, in a bid to curb farmer poverty.

A report published by the VOICE network, which advocates reforming the cocoa sector to improve working conditions, says that the bulk cocoa market holds producers in a cycle of poverty, with less than 10% of farmers in Ghana on or above the living income line.

The ongoing price feud has triggered an intense and complex wrangling between chocolate giants and West African governments that is playing out “like a Netflix series, as opposed to a Hollywood film with an ending”, says Antonie Fountain, the managing director of the VOICE Network.

“But clearly in the end without higher prices, cocoa will never be sustainable, so we’re going to have to find a way out of it somehow. The fact that the Ivorians and the Ghanaians are coming together to get higher prices for the farmers are a good first step. But its needs to go further.”

Sierra Leone gets first cocoa factory

 

[Yehuda]

SA panel proposes gradual start to basic income grant

Treasury has said it will only set aside additional funds for social relief if state finances improve by February.

By Prinesha Naidoo, Bloomberg 13 Dec 2021 | 12:08

Image: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg

A South African panel recommended the country gradually implement a basic income grant, beginning with the institutionalisation of a monthly welfare payment introduced last year to offset damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

“There is no alternative to a system of income support for income-compromised adults from the ages of 18-59 as a permanent part of the social protection framework,” Alex van den Heever, the chair of social security systems administration and management studies at the University of Witwatersrand and a member of the panel, said Monday.

The panel was appointed by the Department of Social Development, the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations-backed Joint Sustainable Development Goals Fund.

The monthly welfare payment of R350, which was reintroduced after civil unrest in July, is set to end in March.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana last month resisted calls by civil-society groups for increased welfare spending and for the introduction of a basic income grant – a policy business organisations say is unaffordable.

The National Treasury has said it will only set aside additional funds for social relief if state finances improve by February.

While about 18 million South Africans, or a third of the population, receive welfare payments, most of those come in the form of old-age pensions and child support payments. South Africa is the world’s most unequal nation, according to the Thomas Piketty-backed World Inequality Lab.

© 2021 Bloomberg

South African Panel Proposes Gradual Start to Basic Income Grant

 

[Yehuda]

DR Congo admission to EAC a step closer after regional summit

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 22 2021
By LUKE ANAMI
More by this Author

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and state officials at a past event. As EAC prepares for DRC’s entry, French will be the third official language. FILE PHOTO | COURTESY

Regional presidents have given consent for the conclusion of negotiations that will see the Democratic Republic of Congo join the East African Community (EAC).

At Wednesday’s 18th Extraordinary EAC Heads of State summit, held virtually and chaired by Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, the leaders received and considered the report by the Council of Ministers on a verification mission to Kinshasa.

“The summit directed the Council to expeditiously commence and conclude negotiations with the DRC for admission to the East African Community and report to the next summit,” read a communique released after the meeting.

The heads of State also directed the EAC Secretariat to table a report on proposals to amend sections of the EAC Treaty that deal with the quorum at meetings.

“The summit considered the proposal to amend rule 11 of the rules of procedure for the summit of the heads of state or government and directed the Secretariat to convene an extraordinary meeting of the sectoral council on legal and judicial affairs to deliberate and advise on this proposal for consideration by the next summit which shall consider and conclude on this matter.”

Read: EAC ministers plan to amend Treaty as DRC joins bloc

The regional leaders observed a minute silence at the start of the meeting in honour of the late Tanzania president John Magufuli who died in March 2021.

They welcomed President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who took over from Magufuli, where she made her maiden speech.

In addition to Presidents Kenyatta and Samia, the summit was also attended by Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame of Rwanda.

Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye and his South Sudan counterpart Salva Kiir were represented by Vice President Prosper Bazombanza and EAC Affairs minister Deng Alor Kuol, respectively.

DR Congo admission to EAC a step closer after regional summit

 

[BaggerofTea]

Any African country championing environmentalism/climate change over economic development is misguided.

Or bribed

 

[Yehuda]

EU proposal a game changer for Africa’s natural gas push

THURSDAY JANUARY 13 2022

Nairobi. Africa’s push for a just energy transition has been given fresh impetus after the European Union drafted a proposal to classify natural gas projects as “green energy” investments.

This would mean that for several decades more, natural gas-endowed states in Africa could plough billions from the sale of the commodity into their economies, create jobs and invest in clean energy.

Natural gas and nuclear projects could soon be included in the European Union’s “sustainable finance taxonomy” after Brussels announced plans to label the two energy sources as ‘green’ investments.

“Taking account of scientific advice and current technological progress, as well as varying transition challenges across Member States, the Commission considers there is a role for natural gas and nuclear as a means to facilitate the transition towards a predominantly renewable-based future,” the European Commission said in a press statement released on January 1.

According to the Commission, gas and nuclear projects will be considered green if they produce emissions below 270g of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

While the EU’s move has elicited a backlash from climate change activists who accuse the commission of “greenwashing” dirty fuels, the proposal could be a game-changer in Africa.

Vijaya Ramachandran, director for energy and development at the Breakthrough Institute in Berkeley, California told bird that the Commission’s decision was a step in the right direction but should be followed through with action.

“If the EU acts in a fair manner, it will afford Africa a just energy transition by enabling investments in natural gas just as it does for its member countries,” she said. “However, it may decide to follow one set of policies at home (classifying natural gas as green) while still opposing the financing of natural gas by the World Bank and the European Investment Bank. If this is the case, these actions can be termed immoral and unjust; a form of green colonialism.”

At Cop26, 20 countries and five development banks had pledged to stop approving finance for fossil fuels by the end of 2022. They included the US, Canada, the World Bank, most of Western Europe and six African states.

On the sidelines of the event, Nigeria’s foreign minister Geoffrey Onyeama in a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, lambasted the move as ill-advised and appealed for gradual de-carbonising of fossils industries in Africa.

“This would really be a huge blow for countries such as ours that want to see gas as a transition fuel and to have time in which to work towards net zero… but in the meantime to be able to also continue to use gas and exploit the gas that we have at our disposal.”

Already, African states were struggling to attract fresh investments into the oil and gas sector.

The EU’s move would be music to the ears of states like Nigeria, Algeria and Mozambique - all countries which, with adequate investments, will be able to profit from their vast deposits of natural gas.

As of 2020, Africa had over 630 trillion cubic feet in natural gas reserves, according to the data research firm, Statista.

Statista figures show Nigeria accounts for the bulk of the continent’s natural gas deposits, boasting more than than 200 trillion cubic feet in natural gas reserves.

Algeria and Mozambique followed, with 159 trillion cubic feet and 100 trillion cubic feet, respectively.

According to S&P Global Platts, nearly 40 per cent of global new gas discoveries in the last decade were in Africa, mainly in Senegal, Mauritania, Mozambique and Tanzania, with 17 countries already producing gas with seven net exporters and seven net importers, according to the African Energy Commission.

“Over 45 percent of African natural gas production is exported” said the energy and commodities data company.

In her recent essay in the Foreign Policy, Ramachandran argued it is “not true that Africa’s energy development will sabotage the world’s climate rescue plan.”

“Not a single African nation is planning a long-term future dominated by fossil fuels. Kenya, Zambia, and Ethiopia already generate more than 50 per cent of their power from renewables (versus just 20 per cent for the United States),” she wrote in part.

“Nigeria’s population is on track to surpass the United States by 2050, but it currently has less than 1 per cent as much power capacity. So what is Nigeria’s energy transition plan as presented in Glasgow? Grow electricity capacity about eightfold by 2050 using mainly solar power.”

Africa contributed just 4 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2017 despite constituting 17 per cent of the world’s population, making it the least polluter. Opinion is divided on whether Africa can afford to strand its fossil fuels. New discoveries of oil and gas signal possible fortunes – but at what cost?

The AfDB notes that a “renewable energy revolution could unlock Africa’s social and economic development. However, a change in the political economy is needed to move away from the current preoccupation with big power projects, centralised electricity production and a heavy reliance on coal.”

OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo and his counterpart at the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO) Omar Farouk Ibrahim have insisted that only a dual carriageway will propel Africa’s energy agenda –– where fossils and renewables are ingredients in the continent’s energy cocktail.

At a meeting in Brazzaville, Congo last year, the two industry captains pushed for an adaptive and market-driven approach in the energy transition, where hydrocarbons are not excluded or eradicated.

“We will not allow billions of barrels of oil to go to waste and we will not be bamboozled into projects that we don’t need – ones which will not address energy poverty. We need to sit down and have an honest conversation about the energy transition,” Ibrahim said. Those sentiments were echoed by Barkindo.

“We in OPEC also categorically reject the narrative that the energy transition is from hydrocarbons to renewables because this narrative is completely misrepresenting science,” Barkindo reiterated.

“We believe that all sources of energy are required today and in the future to meet the challenges of climate change and future energy demand. According to our World Oil Outlook at OPEC, energy demand will grow by a minimum of 25 per cent between now and 2045. Therefore, we have to promote all energy resources in an efficient and sustainable manner. Our industry, therefore, is part of the solution to climate change.”

As the least contributor to greenhouse emissions, players in Africa’s petroleum industry feel they are justified in pushing back.

OPEC and APPO argue that the global south and especially Africa should be given leeway to power their economies with hydrocarbons just like the West did.

Petroleum firms argue that industrialised countries were able to overcome others in wealth and power by tapping into fossil fuels hence Africa should do so too.

 

[Yehuda]

International climate policy expert Mohamed Adow noted that the UK for decades funded and profited from the expansion of fossils in Africa. “While it was reaping the benefits of decarbonising its own energy system it was shackling poorer nations with dirty fossil fuel infrastructure, which the world must now move away from,” he pointed out in an Op-Ed in the Independent.

He further argues that if rich polluters want Africa to leapfrog the dirty development path and harness clean energy –– then it must pay for it. But the bill is huge.

In July 2021, South Africa’s national power utility firm, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd, put forward a 10 billion US dollars plan to multilateral banks and agencies to help it transit to renewables.

Eskom emits nearly 213 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year, making it one of the biggest fossil fuels emitters in Africa. (Bird)

With the cost still sky high and nobody willing to pay, OPEC and APPO argue that Africa’s energy transition should be gradual.

But the oil and gas industry is facing growing opposition from a public greatly concerned with the environmental impact of fossil fuels and ever-more sceptical investors.

With 16 trillion dollars in expected investment in the next decade, the case for decarbonising the continent is stronger.

Countries in Africa are already positioning themselves as recipients of some of that huge renewable energy spend and some African countries are already turning themselves into frontrunners in the global clean energy transition.

South Africa and Morocco are both touting their technological innovations around green hydrogen, while many countries on the continent are making or enabling large investments in solar PV and wind generation.

EU proposal a game changer for Africa’s natural gas push

 

[Yehuda]

In a fiscal ditch? African countries should try public participation in the budget process

January 26, 2022 3.16pm GMT
Ken Opalo
Assistant Professor, Georgetown University

Reliance on informal economic activity makes it difficult for most African countries to raise revenue beyond consumption taxes. Getty Images

There are two big challenges African countries face when it comes to managing public finances.

First, many lack fiscal capacity on account of structural weaknesses of their economies and gaps in tax administration. Predominant informality of wage employment and reliance on subsistence agriculture in most countries make it difficult to raise revenue beyond consumption and border taxes. Consequently, on average, African countries collect a mere 16.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) in taxes.

For comparison, countries in the Asia Pacific collect about 21% of GDP in taxes. Countries in Latin American and Caribbean countries average about 23%.

At the top end, the average tax haul in high-income countries within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is about 34%.

Second, African countries’ fiscal capacity gaps are often compounded by the lack of prudent and accountable deployment of public resources. The existence of white elephants and abandoned unfinished projects in many countries betray systemic failures of project planning and implementation.

Similarly, a number of countries routinely spend less money than appropriated in the budget (net of corruption). The reason? Limited absorption capacity in government ministries, departments, and agencies.

For example, a 2018 World Health Organization study found that, despite pressing need for investments in public health, roughly 10% to 30% of money allocated to health ministries in the region go unspent.

Finally, while corruption isn’t the primary problem bedevilling public finance management in most African states, associated waste and distortions of budget processes serve to limit the impact of public spending.

The joint effects of the two challenges keeps many African countries stuck in a sub-optimal equilibrium. Tax morale is dampened by inefficient expenditure patterns that fail to meet taxpayers’ needs. In turn, this reduces the overall tax haul and reinforces government’s lack of fiscal capacity.

The lack of a strong revenue base means that African governments cannot undertake important investments in public goods and services that are needed to achieve structural economic change in the region.

As shown below, African states continue to lag their counterparts in other regions on the metric of government spending as a share of GDP. Counter to popular opinion about allegedly bloated public sectors in the region, the problem in many African countries is that they are under-governed by states that can scarcely meet the enormous demand for public goods and services.

Which is why, in my view, African governments should align both revenue generation and public spending with public opinion.

The challenge is: how can countries go about democratising the management of public finances?

 

[Yehuda]

Possible answers

One possibility of getting out of the fiscal ditch that many African governments find themselves in is through greater public participation in the budget process. This can be done directly, or through elected legislative representatives. Entrenching a political culture of public participation and legislative input in the budget process would certainly not be a silver bullet. But it would increase the alignment between budget appropriations and taxpayers’ priorities.

At the individual level, research shows that spending money on taxpayers’ priority areas is likely to boost tax morale, thereby improving overall fiscal capacity.

The incentives for involving legislatures in the budget process are equally strong. Legislatures are integral to accountable democratic government. Therefore, instead of always deferring to Ministries of Finance, African legislatures should be a core part of the appropriation process.

The current monopoly of budget processes by Ministries of Finance produces two problems. First, without legislative input (ideally representing individual legislators’ constituency interests), many of the region’s budgets reflect the priorities of presidents and allied interest groups. Because appropriation is not always tied to actual needs on the ground, it is no wonder that governments waste money on white elephants or unfinished projects.

Second, since most legislatures’ involvement in the budget process tends to be limited to up or down votes on executive proposals, individual legislators have little incentive to acquire expertise in legislative appropriation and budget oversight. Becoming good at these legislative roles takes time and effort. Simply stated, not involving legislatures in the budget process weakens the important oversight function of legislatures.

A role for multilateral organisations

These domestic public finance management challenges are often compounded by donors and multilateral organisations. Nearly all make rhetorical commitments to strong institutions and democracy. Yet when it comes to budget matters many prefer to exclusively engage with presidents, finance ministries, and central banks to the neglect of legislatures and civil society organisations.

Often this is done under the guise of the allegedly “apolitical” and technical nature of public finance management.

But what can be more political than the process of (re)distributing public resources?

To engender the development of coherent public finance management processes in African states, multilateral organisations and donors should strive to include legislatures and civil society organisations in all matters regarding fiscal policy. Doing so would be the right and democratic thing to do. It would also increase the likelihood of prudent use of resources by governments.

The consequences of the historical opacity around these engagements are clear for all to see. Research shows that elites in low-income countries are wont to misappropriate aid, with disbursements associated with increased deposits in offshore financial centres.

Not a silver bullet. Just a good start

Finally, it is worth reiterating that the democratisation of budget processes will not be a silver bullet in fixing African states’ public finance management challenges. Indeed, it will be messy. Injecting legislators and their constituencies into the process is likely to complicate the distributive politics of budgets in most countries. This may slow down the appropriation process or result in institutional paralysis. But this should be treated as a feature and not a bug. Given what is at stake, it makes sense that there would be distributive conflicts around budgets. This is what we see in high-income democracies. We should expect no less of democratising African states.

A version of this article originally appeared in the Finance and Development Magazine of the International Monetary Fund: It’s time to democratize public finance management systems in African states..

In a fiscal ditch? African countries should try public participation in the budget process

 

[Yehuda]

Nigerian Launches Social Media App To Rival Twitter, Facebook, Others

by Yusuf Babalola, February 03, 2022

New social media app / ShapClick

A young Nigerian app developer, Mohammed Aliyu, has launched a new app known as ‘ShapClick’ to rival popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and other social applications.

ShapClick app is available on both App Store and Play Store for iPhone and Android users to download and register free of charge.

ShapClick is a Nigerian app developed with the aim to share news, photos, videos as well market goods and services to the teeming clickers around the world.

According to Mr Hyacinth Chinweuba, the app developer’s spokesperson, the social media app was launched on the November 22, 2021.

Chinweuba said ShapClick is an indigenous messaging application, which enables users to chat, make audio and video calls, unrestricted numbers of group chats as well shop for affordable and genuine products.

Chinweuba further stated that ShapClick is a social media application that enables people to connect to each other in communities, share videos and audios, stickers and files, blogging and also grow business.

“Some of the benefits of the app include being able to chat, share videos and files. The App is safe because more authentication has been put in place to protect end to end encryption of private chat between users,” he said.

He stated that the app is built in a way to protect users’ information and privacy.

With the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) putting mobile subscriptions as at June 2021 at 163 million, which has heavily relied on foreign messaging app that serve no local content as it were, ShapClick is positioned to bridge that gap.

Chinweuba said there is no doubt that Nigerians were hungry for a new technology and needed something different that can be called “our own”.

“We are not in ShapClick for revenue purposes, we are in it to solve a bigger problem and create employment in the country,” he added.

Nigerian Launches Social Media App To Rival Twitter, Facebook, Others

 

[Yehuda]

Kenya Railways Introduces Bus Service for Train Passengers

By WASHINGTON MITO on 8 February 2022 - 6:08 pm

Some of the commuter buses used by Kenya Railways to transport Kenyans to Nanyuki on December 24, 2021. FILE

Kenya Railways has introduced commuter bus services for Kenyans using their commuter trains within Nairobi Metropolis.

In a schedule released on Tuesday, February 9, KR revealed that train commuters in the city would now extend their trips via the buses which will pick passengers at the Nairobi Commuter Railway (NCR).

Additionally, the state corporation announced various pickup points and drop-off centres along the route. KR explained that the bus was introduced to help the commuters find ease in accessing train services.

Commuters stranded as Embakasi Village -CBD train stall at Donholm station on Tuesday morning, January 25, 2022. Photo: COURTESY

“Working alongside our NCR trains is the NCR Bus Service. The Nairobi - Yaya NCR Bus makes stops at Serena, Integrity Centre, Chancery, Maktaba Kuu, Nairobi Hospital, Department of Defence, Hurlingham, Chaka Place, and Yaya Center,”

“Take advantage of this convenient and affordable connection of rail and road transport,” read the schedule.

KR also indicated that the bus tickets would be purchased upon boarding - adding that passengers will pay Ksh50 from Yaya Center to the Railway station and vice versa.

The buses picking passengers from Yaya Center will depart at 0833hrs and arrive at the station at 0905hrs in the morning hours.

For the evening buses, passengers will be picked up at 1635hrs and arrive at the station at 1715hrs.

Passengers intending to use the buses from the station to Yaya Center were also advised that the morning buses would depart the station at 0755hrs while the evening buses will be departing at 1600hrs.

During the festive season, KR was forced to use its buses to transport passengers to various destinations within the Nairobi Metropolis and outside the city after the tickets were sold out.

"On December 24, the Nanyuki Safari Train service transported many passengers to Nanyuki from Nairobi Central Station, it was full to capacity.

"Kenya Railways resorted to using its Nairobi Commuter Rail (NCR) Service buses to transport as many remaining passengers," read the statement then.

Some of the commuter buses used by Kenya Railways to transport Kenyans to Nanyuki on December 24, 2021. Photo: TWITTER / KENYA RAILWAYS

Kenya Railways Introduces Bus Service in Nairobi

 

[Yehuda]

S. Africa's Ramaphosa pledges fundamental economic reform

By Wendell Roelf
February 10, 2022 6:14 PM GMT-3
Last Updated an hour ago

South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa delivers the State of the Nation Address (SONA) to a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces in Cape Town, South Africa, February 10, 2022. Nic Bothma/Pool via REUTERS

CAPE TOWN, Feb 10 (Reuters) - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday his country needed fundamental change to revive economic growth, by tackling corruption and the endemic poverty, inequality and unemployment deepened by chronic power cuts and COVID-19.

Addressing the many troubles that have plagued Africa's most industrialised nation in the past decade in his State of the Nation speech, Ramaphosa singled out its unreliable power supply as one of the biggest threats to long-term prosperity.

The president said there was a need to address the immediate crisis but also create conditions for sustained growth, via a programme of infrastructure works, increased local production and job-creation - as well as developing the country's fledgling cannabis industry.

"The present situation ...is unacceptable," he said, promising to prioritise improving power generation. "Fundamental (economic) reforms are needed."

To boost growth, the president said South Africa will start auctioning its high frequency digital spectrum within a month, seen as critical for cheaper data costs.

He also promised to tackle the corruption that blossomed under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, and left deep holes in the finances of public companies, including state-owned power utility Eskom.

"The fight against corruption will take on a new intensity," he said.

HELPING THE POOREST

Bereft of the jobs needed to lift millions out of poverty, South Africa has struggled to reverse the economic inequities that are the main legacy of white minority rule.

A scheme for Black empowerment has created some wealthy businessmen, but excluded the poor majority from post-apartheid prosperity - a divide thought to have been further entrenched by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ramaphosa said he would extend a social grant introduced soon after the pandemic started, which will help keep 10 million people - around 15 percent of the population - from hunger.

He left the door open to it becoming something more permanent, but cautioned that "any future support must pass the test of affordability."

Anger over persistent poverty boiled over into riots last July.

The violence was triggered by former president Zuma's arrest for defying a court order to appear at a corruption inquiry, but soon mushroomed into arson and looting in which more than 300 people died.

On Monday, a report Ramaphosa commissioned into the riots concluded that the police and intelligence services had failed to anticipate and disrupt them. read more

Ramaphosa promised to address the weaknesses.

He also said the domestic cannabis industry had the potential to create 130,000 jobs and increase export revenues.

"We are streamlining the regulatory process so that hemp and cannabis can thrive as it does in other countries," he said.

South Africa legalized marijuana for personal use in 2018 and the following year it became legal to sell cannabidiol, a chemical compound found in the cannabis plant.

Last year, the government unveiled a plan for the cultivation of hemp and marijuana, with applications ranging from medicine and food to recreational use.

Reporting by Alexander Winning, Emma Rumney and Wendell Roelf Writing by Tim Cocks Editing by James Macharia Chege and

S.Africa's Ramaphosa pledges fundamental economic reform

 

[voltronblack]

Feb 8, 2022 • The African Union is condemning a wave of coups in Africa, where military forces have seized power over the past 18 months in Mali, Chad, Guinea, Sudan and, most recently, in January, Burkina Faso. Several were led by U.S.-trained officers as part of a growing U.S. military presence in the region under the guise of counterterrorism, which is a new imperial influence that supplements the history of French colonialism, says Brittany Meché, assistant professor at Williams College. Some coups have been met with celebration in the streets, signaling armed revolt has become the last resort for people dissatisfied with unresponsive governments. "Between the U.S.-led war on terror and the wider international community's fixation on security, this is a context that centers, if not privileges, military solutions to political problems," adds Samar Al-Bulushi, contributing editor for Africa Is a Country.

 

[DoubleClutch]

I feel like South African blacks live a high quality of life compared to the rest of Africa. But maybe this is just a misconception based off what i see in movies/social media

I know a lot of poverty is there like every else but considering apartheid wasn’t that long ago it’s amazing to see rich blacks in SA thriving

I wonder how it got that way