Governance of Africa’s Resources: Opinion
Climate Change: Africa divided
South Africa’s negotiating stance is informed by numerous national and regional considerations, with the key objective of encompassing the continent and drawing the most vulnerable into the centre of the debate. This event, dubbed ‘the African COP’, represents an opportunity for the continent to heighten its presence in the current multilateral system and influence the decision-making processes. To do this, South Africa needs to consolidate its own competing national priorities and interests with those of its region and work alongside AU member states to help strengthen their common voice.
Political upheaval in the Nile Basin
As published in The Thinker, Volume 30, pp.30-33
During March and April this year I spent a significant amount of time traversing the complex network of gravel roads that run from Hoima to the shores of Lake Albert in western Uganda. This Lake has become the epicentre of Uganda’s oil sector with nearly 2 billion barrels of proven reserves. Tullow oil that has been leading the exploration campaign recently signed a deal with Total and CNOOC to begin production this year or by the latest in 2012. Lake Albert lies in the Albertine Graben, and oil experts speculate that the graben may yet yield up to 6 billion barrels of oil. The border between Uganda and the DRC also runs through this lake. On most days the mountains of the Congo on the opposite shore are shrouded in a cloak of hazy mystery.
Two Sudan’s set for new future
As published in The Star, 28 June 2011
Barring war, natural disaster, or revolution in a country, few events can have such a dramatic impact on the life of a nation as secession. In a state-centric world where territorial boundaries mark the outer limit of sovereign political power, secession affects all facets of political, economic and social existence. While Southern Sudan gears up for its long awaited independence celebrations, tensions along the north-south border, and unresolved questions regarding post-independence management of citizenship and the oil industry are raising concerns.
Mining Rights versus Community Rights
As published by The Times on 1 June 2011
In March, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu committed herself to reaching a decision on the disputed Eastern Cape Xolobeni mineral sands mining project by April 25. The dispute began in 2008, when the Amadiba community contested the government's decision to award mineral rights in the area. It is now more than a month after the date committed to and there is still no word from the minister or her department on the issue. Of even greater concern is that calls by a departmental team for further consultation appear to have gone unheeded.
A Tale of Two Indabas
As publised on www.timeslive.co.za (The Times) on 14 February 2011
The Investing in Africa Mining Indaba, which took place this year from 7-10 February, has been going from strength to strength, with more than 4,000 individuals representing more than 800 international companies attending the event. Conspicuously absent from the main event, however, were NGOs and community organizations. The R10 000 registration fee ensured that only the largest international NGOs could attend the first two days of the conference to follow discussions and presentations from mining companies and investment-hungry governments.Is SA Undermining our own Mining Interests in the DRC?
As published in the Mail & Guardian, 11 February 2011
DRC President Joseph Kabila’s decree confirming rights to Lake Albert’s oil block 1 and 2 to companies part owned by Khulubuse Zuma embroiled the South African president’s nephew in a legal dispute with a leading oil company operating in Africa, Tullow Oil. Important questions for South Africans to ponder are, what benefit this kind of investment brings to our shores and whether other SA investments in the DRC, such as gold mining, are undermined by this way of doing business?
Analysis: The uphill struggle that is Uganda
As published in The New Age, 9 February 2011
In the run-up to Uganda’s presidential and parliamentary elections – due to start on Saturday – political party promises ring familiar: economic growth and stability through increased production, universal primary education and improved infrastructure.
Uganda: Neglect of Environmental Sector Threatens Scorched Earth
As published in The New Age, 7 February 2011
In the run-up to Uganda’s presidential and parliamentary elections – due to start on 12 February – political party promises ring familiar: economic growth and stability through increased production, universal primary education and improved infrastructure. As the campaigning mercury rises, the already marginalised environmental sector slips even lower on politicians’ agenda. Politicians might consider the environment a “soft” issue, yet for the 88% of Ugandans who live in rural areas and who depend directly on the environment and natural resources for their livelihoods, Uganda’s environmental crisis is of paramount concern.
Amisom, Museveni, and the Lure of Somali Oil
The New Age, 24 January 2011
On December 22 the UN Security Council agreed to a request by the African Union Commission to expand the existing Amisom (African Union Mission in Somalia) force in Somalia from 8000 to 12000 troops.
The Gravity of Relations between Juba and Khartoum
As published in The Thinker, Volume 24, February 2011After many decades of squabbling, in-fighting and bitter civil war, indications are that the inhabitants of Africa’s largest state have decided that a peaceful split may be better than living “unhappily together ever after”. The long awaited referendum that pessimists thought would never happen was conducted without a hitch. United Nations and IGAD observers agree that Southerners voted in a free and fair atmosphere.
What’s on the Agenda for Museveni in SA?
As published in The New Age, 20 January 2011
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s state visit to South Africa tomorrow shows that he is already looking ahead to next month’s national election, which he is expected to win comfortably. With Uganda’s first oil exports expected to start flowing next year, as well as a growing service sector and significant agricultural potential, opportunities for economic cooperation between South Africa and Uganda is likely to dominate discussions during the two day state visit.
A Night Out on the Town of Juba
As Published in The Thinker, Volume 20, September 2010The plane banks and a dive towards the Juba airport brings a flat green landscape dotted with rocky hills into view. Some say that Juba is at the centre of the world. Whether this is true or not, I do not know. But soon after my arrival I am to learn that this town is a space where worlds happen to collide.
Governance and the War of Words at the End of the Resource Rainbow
As published in The Thinker, Volume 17, 2010
In order to come up with imaginative solutions to the myriad systemic, institutional, economic, social and political challenges that plague the extractive industries in Africa, it is necessary to compare experiences between African countries. Through such comparisons lessons can be learnt on how to reach the goal of making the future a slightly better place for Africa’s inhabitants.
SA is Squandering International Goodwill through Rudderless Foreign Policy
The uMshini-wami of South African Foreign Policy?
When is a coup not a coup? The AU’s dilemma
Now the African Union is in a dilemma. Two weeks ago, the AU summit broadened their definition of an ‘unconstitutional change of government’ to include incumbent leaders using unconstitutional means to stay in power. Such as suspending a democratic constitution to avoid presidential term limits. When President Tandja did precisely that last year, Niger’s opposition parties called it a ‘coup’. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) followed suit and imposed sanctions against Niger. The AU endorsed this stance in October 2009.
Zimbabwe: Failure to Act on Abuses Threatens Conflict Diamond Process
The decision to give Zimbabwe no more than a slap on the wrist for the human rights abuses which its army has committed on the Marange alluvial diamond fields in the south-east of the country seriously threatens the future of the diamond industry's initiative to avert consumer boycotts of its gemstones.
Natural resource revenue governance – The EITI and South Africa
How can we improve the lives of the more than 3 billion people living in natural resource endowed countries? The question appears paradoxical in that countries ‘blessed’ with oil and minerals have been endowed with a natural advantage in a frenetically competitive and increasingly resource-scarce globalised world.
Natural resource revenue governance – The EITI and South Africa
As printed in the Cape Times
How can we improve the lives of the more than 3 billion people living in natural resource endowed countries? The question appears paradoxical in that countries ‘blessed’ with oil and minerals have been endowed with a natural advantage in a frenetically competitive and increasingly resource-scarce globalised world. Yet with few notable exceptions, resource rich countries, particularly in the global ‘South’, have been characterised by a paradox of plenty which manifests in the so-called resource curse. In summary, the resource curse has a number of national features, including a propensity towards conflict, corrosive corruption, acute inequality, state disengagement from and unresponsiveness to civil society and environmental degradation. The concept of a resources curse is misleading, however, and would be better to be dropped from popular discourse as it masks the true nature of the pathology that besets resource endowed countries of the South, which is the poor governance of natural resources.
Term limits – who needs them?
President Mamadou Tandja of Niger has joined the club of leaders who have overturned constitutions to overstay their welcome in recent years. Following victory in the referendum held on 4 August, he is the twelfth African leader in a decade to engineer a third term of office. Has the tide turned against the ‘third wave’ of democratization in Africa?
Book Review: Dr Wangari Maathai
Pay more now for a brighter energy future
US-Africa relations: The modest foundations of Obama’s four-pillar platform
Kenneth Good, ‘Diamonds, Dispossession and Democracy in Botswana’. Jacana Media, Johannesburg, 2009.
Seeing REDD:Why the bleeding heart of Africa is also a breathing lung of the world
In Africa, as in the rest of the world, discussions are heating up in preparation for international climate change negotiations, to culminate in Copenhagen at the end of the year
Adopting the Rand would paint Zimbabwe into a corner in a bid to revive its economy
Should and can Zimbabwe adopt the Rand as its currency as a first step towards the recovery of its battered economy? The debate is moot. The media has greeted such a possibility with fanfare, yet very little serious engagement on its implications both for Zimbabwe and South Africa
Poachers’ are often simply victims of poor policy
Poachers are not the core problem in the management of South African marine resources, it is poor policy. This poor policy effectively turns ordinary traditional fishers into poachers and traditional law enforcement strategies are failing to curb the problem.
Billions of Dollars Lost to Illegal Fishing in the SADC Region
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is essentially the theft of marine resources, whereby international fishing vessels enter a country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and fish without licenses, or use destructive fishing gear. As much as US$10 billion in revenues is lost annually to IUU fishing.
Crude Continent – The Struggle for Africa’s Oil Prize’, Duncan Clarke, Profile Books, 2008. (674 pages).
It’s a question of sovereignty for the DRC
Human nature abhors a vacuum, to misquote Aristotle. This is apparent in the Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Where Joseph Kabila's new government cannot secure the outer corners of a huge territory, other actors have rushed in.
Resources sector slump will hit Africa, but offers chance to boost governance
Uncertainty, which in markets translates into volatility, is now substituted by pessimism and panic, translated into decreasing stock markets worldwide.
