Africa accounts for about 18 percent of South Africa’s total exports, and nearly a quarter of the country’s manufactured exports.

This was announced by the South African Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan when tabling his 2013 Budget speech on Wednesday, February 27.

Introducing his regional integration part of the speech with the powerful rhetoric that sounded more like a pay-off line aimed at wooing investors to invest in Africa, Gordan said: “Africa is our home, and it is our future. It is a market of over one billion people and it is growing rapidly.”

He said Africa now accounts for about 18 percent of South Africa’s total exports, and nearly a quarter of the country’s manufactured exports.

“We have already begun to see our trade patterns shift from traditional partners in Europe and the United States to new markets in Asia and Africa,” he said.

He again pointed out that the investments are mutually beneficial; as they support development, generate tax revenue, dividends and jobs both abroad as well as in South Africa.

To further support the private sector in expanding operations in Africa, Gordhan committed to introduce simpler rules that will reduce the time and costs of doing business in Africa.

“A number of measures are proposed to relax cross-border financial regulations and tax requirements on companies, making it easier for banks and other financial institutions to invest and operate in other countries,” he said further adding that similar measures will apply to foreign companies wanting to invest in African countries using South Africa as their regional headquarters.

Gordhan did not leave out the recently introduced National Development Plan which he said, it acknowledges the global shift of economic power from West to East, and highlights the rise of Africa.

WATCH MY BACK... African Peer Review Mechanism is a mutually agreed instrument voluntarily acceded to by African Union member States as an African self-monitoring mechanism.

The summit was the eighth session that forms part of the national series of consultative conferences hosted by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) in preparation for the submission of South Africa’s 3rd progress report on the implementation of the National Programme of Action (NPoA) of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

The African Peer Review Mechanism is a mutually agreed instrument voluntarily acceded to by African Union member States as an African self-monitoring mechanism.

In his opening address, the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Kenny Mmoiemang, said the consultative session came at the right time after the President’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA).

“This session comes at the right time after the SoNA as a way forward. The APRM will ensure clean governance for the country and make a contribution to the African Union to steer democracy in the right direction,” he said.

The MEC pointed out that the APRM is a programme of action in guiding the country with NGOs and civil society taking their rightful place.

Speaking on the province’s APRM chapter and the state of development in the province, Mr Moloki Koloi, from the Office of the Premier, stated that the Provincial Governing Council (PGC) needs to be strengthened and the consultative workshops would assist in this regard.

He added that the provincial report would take a “multi-stakeholder approach” that will include inputs in reporting the key development matters.

Mr Koloi outlined the expected output, required action and progress made within the thematic areas, Democracy and political government, Economic Governance and Management, Corporate governance and Socio-economic Development.

In addition, the APRM National Governing Council (NGC) member Mr Jacob Molapisi provided the national context of the programme and guidelines.

The inputs from the Northern Cape consultative conference will be included in South Africa’s 3rd progress report on the implementation of the National Programme of Action to be submitted at the African Union Summit of Heads of States and Government (HOSG) of APRM participating countries in May 2013.

Source: published by the South African Government Information

According to the Public Enterprises Minister, Malusi Gigaba, the world economic meltdown crisis has tilted the geo-economic balance of power in favour of emerging markets, with Africa and Asia leading the way.

This is according to the South African Public Enterprises Minister, Malusi Gigaba. Gigaba was delivering a keynote address on the occasion of the Principal and Vice-Chancellor’s 2013 Inaugural Africa’s Future Lecture at UNISA on Thursday, February 28.

He said the world economic meltdown crisis has tilted the geo-economic balance of power in favour of emerging markets, with Africa and Asia leading the way.

“This, together with the fact that Africa’s economic output has tripled and FDI across the continent grew by 153 percent in absolute terms since 2003, has strengthened our economic bargaining power,” he said.

He consciously added that even though it poses enormous challenges for the global community and Africa in particular, the ongoing global economic turbulence, presents a glorious opportunity for Africa and much of the developing world to restructure its economy and pursue industrialisation on a scale Asia has achieved in the last decades.

Gigaba’s speech was titled, Africa’s infrastructural futures and the role of knowledge in the second decade of the 21st century.

He encouraged Africa to pursue a new economic development model premised on the notion of shared wealth and growth, a model which, according to him, has hitherto, particularly during the period when the neo-liberal paradigm was rampant, had seemed like a heresy.

“We have the opportunity to extricate our national, regional and continental economies from dependence on developed markets of the North and to increase our trade relations with fellow African countries as well as other emerging markets,” he said.

Despite the opportunities that he alluded to, he also expressed his disappoint at the rate in which African countries are trading with each other, however, blaming it to the colonial rule.

He said as a result of the colonial legacy, intra-African trade only totals 10% whereas intra-European trade totals 80%.

“Africans are not trading with one another, largely because of the absence or lack of infrastructure networks, persistent colonial ties and over-reliance on commodity exports and this has for centuries made Africa a target for the global scramble, which is still true today,” lamented Gigaba.

He however, pleaded for intra-African trade adding that African economic integration and the role of infrastructure development on the continent is an important strategic priority, not least for South Africa.

Some Kenyans queued for longer than four hours before casting their votes. They were electing 290 members of parliament, 47 senators, 47 county governors, 47 women county representatives, 1,450 civic wards and the presidency.

Luke Korir, a Kenyan citizen who is optimistic about these elections said he queued for almost three hours before he could cast his vote in one of the polling stations in the constituency of Westland, Nairobi.

He said besides the unconfirmed reports that six security officers and six civilians were gunned down in one of the polling stations in Mombasa, allegedly by a separatist group known as the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), in other regions the elections were running smoothly.

In these general elections Kenyans will be electing 290 members of parliament, 47 senators, 47 county governors, 47 women county representatives, 1,450 civic wards and the presidency.

Amongst the eight presidential candidates Jomo Kenyatta’s son, Uhuru who is also the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, is one of the candidates expected to be neck and neck with the Prime Minister Raila Odinga after the counting of votes.

However, given the 2007 post-elections violence that left over 1000 people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced, many people in and outside the country have been raising questions about the possible recurrence of violence.

The concern is around the speculation that the country could descend into violence worse than the crisis they faced post December 2007 elections.

Moreover, analysts still contend that the country has not yet healed. The reports sight that both the victims and the perpetrators of violence are still trapped in the after-effects of the conflict since they did not undergo a healing and reconciliation process.

It is alleged that during the post-election crisis, there was state-directed violence against civilians, fighting amongst various civilian factions as well as the uprisings against the state by civilians.

According to Dr Solomon Dersso, a Senior Researcher with the Peace and Security Council Report Programme of the Institute of Security Studies in the Addis Ababa office, Kenyan elections have often triggered clashes between tribes, as political parties tend to draw support from particular ethnic groups.

It is still not clear whether the international community will witness the radical departure from the country’s most recent electoral practises that have been marred, unfortunately, by violence.

On a closer look, it seems fair to argue that Kenya might be able to hold peaceful, free and fair elections. A lot has taken place since the last elections in 2007.

Institutional reconfigurations and substantial policy changes have been part of the changes and continuities that characterises the country’s body politics. Since the post-election crisis of 2007/2008, much of the institutional and policy conditions necessary for holding peaceful and free elections were introduced.

Experts believe that a new constitution, a fresh election commission and a reformed judiciary will be centrally in helping to reduce the political violence. Many of these changes mark a substantial departure from the past and can cushion the country against a repeat of the level and kind of violence witnessed in 2007/2008.

However, as Kenyans are casting their votes, they should do so mindful of the fact that, the country’s future is in their hands. The onus for entrenching democratic ideals (respect for rule of law, respect for human rights, good governance etc) for harnessing democratic consolidation rests with them.

By learning to embrace changes and continuities- Kenyans have the opportunity to take yet another step towards building a peaceful and prosperous country. Political leaders from all ends of the political spectrum have the duty to accept elections’ outcomes. They owe that to millions of Kenyans who have confidence on them.

The political leaders have the responsibility to ensure that a sense of national pride prevails against the political climate marked by fear, hate and violence.

Instead of inciting violence through hate speeches, the leaders have to focus on shaping plausible and desirable political futures in Kenya.

Professor Chinua Achebe’s literary excellence and irreplaceable presence will be sorely missed in the literary world for centuries to come.

This is following his passing away on Thursday, March 21. Achebe (82) died at Boston Massachusetts hospital, United States after a short illness that has not been disclosed publicly. The undisputed literary icon was born in Ogidi, Anambra State of Nigeria.

He is greatly known for his famous novel Things Fall Apart that has been used as part of schools’ curriculum in many African countries.

At the time of his passing, he was a Professor at the David and Marianna Fisher University and also a Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University.

A statement released after his passing by the Brown University, elaborates his talent as not just a writer but also as a critical thinker and an essayist. It also describes his writing as aimed at questioning culture in Africa and the social and political significance of aesthetics and analysis of the postcolonial state in Africa.

In his career, he was criticized for writing in English, and upon the success of his world renowned novel Things fall apart, it was translated into 50 languages and it sold over 10 million copies.

More of his novels include Arrow of God, No Longer at Ease, Anthills of the Savannah and A Man of the People. His latest book is titled There was a Country, and it is an autobiography on his experiences and opinions of the civil war.

Professor Chinua Achebe’s irreplaceable presence will be felt in the literary world following his magnanimous contribution, that is backed by over 20 honorary doctorates that he held from various universities around the world.

By Pamela Morwane

Morwane is an Editorial Assistant at the Publication Division of the Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA)

The Annual Archie Mafeje Memorial Lecture Series celebrates the memory of the late Prof Archie Mafeje, an inspiring figure who worked tirelessly to highlight the importance of being an African through self-knowledge, self-control and self-emancipation.

Professor Mafeje was one of the best scholars to ever come out of Africa and it is indeed befitting that his legacy should be kept alive.

The Annual Memorial Lecture is one of the many ways in which AISA is preserving his ideas and teachings. This year, it is celebrated under the theme, ‘Archie Mafeje: A great Pan Africanist’.

At the same height, a Symposium on African Social Formations, African Families and Social Policy is part of the ongoing activities at AMRI.

AMRI is concerned with issues of social transformation and change through provision of fresh thinking and novel policy ideas through engagement with key social problems such as poverty, inequality, social disintegration, lack of social justice, weak citizenship and collapse of institutions of community and family and other social ills.

In doing all this, AMRI is proud to be standing on the shoulders of Archie Mafeje, a scholar that emphasised the need for Africans to understand African social formations from inside in order to come up with relevant solutions key to social problems facing the continent and its people.

Renowned speakers have been lined-up to talk about important policy issues that are affecting Africa and the world today, in the continued efforts to find solutions for Africa’s developmental challenges.

The keynote speaker for the memorial lecture will be Prof Nomthetho Simelane, a former lecturer in Political Science at the University of Swaziland. She will concentrate on Prof Mafeje’s contribution to the Strengthening of the African Social Science Community through his contributions in the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa.

The keynote speaker for the Symposium will be Prof Jimi O Adesina, head of Sociology Department, University of Western Cape.

Both the symposium and memorial lecture provides a perfect platform for the fulfilment of both AISA and AMRI’s mission to become African knowledge-production think tanks that provide thorough ongoing research in areas of social change; and thus contribute towards Africa’s renewal agenda and global peace.

Professor Shadrack Gutto and Former Minister, Ms Thoko Didiza will be programme directors for the symposium and memorial lecture respectively.

AISA Publications. A collection of over 100 publications of Books, Policy Briefs, Monographs, Occasional Papers, Journal, Lecture series.

The Publications Division of the Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA) will be one of the 25,000 international exhibitors to be showcasing their work at the London Book Fair (LBF) in London’s Earls Court from 15–17 April 2013. The exhibitors include publishers, literary agents and international retail buyers.

AISA’s Publications Director, Mr Solani Ngobeni who will be representing the institute said his division will also have the opportunity to sell its products to the visitors from four corners of the world who will be attending the exhibition.

“The 2013 book fair will host over 250 seminars and events, including Digital Minds Conference, Introduction to Rights Workshop and International Publishers Association (IPA) Education Conference which will assist the Publications Division in its objectives of creating awareness for AISA and its publications,” said Ngobeni.

The London Book Fair, is an international exhibition that hosts business professionals from all over the world and provides publishers with a marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, television, film and digital channels.

AISA publications for 2012/2013 include ten books, four editions of Africa Insight Journal, four Monographs, ten Policy Briefs, annual Archie Mafeje Memorial Lecture Series and other institutional publications.

AISA’s mandate is to produce knowledge aimed at informing sustainable political and socio-economic development in Africa. AISA’s vision is to be ‘An indispensable African voice on African Affairs’ and our 2011-2015 Research Agenda is ““Seeking solutions for Africa’s developmental challenges”