Madiba’s UN statue is our pride

He is the only world leader to be honoured in such a way

IF ALL South Africans haven’t truly grasped what Madiba’s legacy means to the world, they will next week when his statue is unveiled in the foyer of the UN in New York.

Nelson Mandela will stand as the only world leader to ever be honoured in such a way, in what can only be seen as global recognition of an icon who will forever represent a true and lifelong dedication to the struggle for human rights, democracy, and reconciliation.

There is no such statue to any other freedom fighter from modern contemporary history, so let’s face it – we have a lot to be proud of.

This year, more than any other, we were looking to restore South Africa’s moral high ground, our place in the world, and for people to remember us as the nation that produced Madiba.

Our track record in recent years may have been less than savoury, but our struggle to overcome four and a half decades of brutal apartheid rule, and our attempts to find a way to reconcile with each other and our past, must surely count for something.

Having the UN General Assembly honour Madiba in the year of his centenary in such a symbolic and meaningful way is also a chance for us to restore our own commitment to those SHANNON EBRAHIM

very values and principles he stood for. We can again be the nation that inspires the world, that stands on a hill as a shining a light to the nations – an example for other nations to emulate as they chart their own paths out of civil conflict and repression.

When veterans of our Struggle used to fan out across the globe in an effort to share the South African experience in conflict resolution, power sharing, and reconciliation, protagonists used to sit up and listen. The South African “miracle”, or so it was depicted, was what people at war with each other in Sri Lanka, Colombia, Nepal, Sudan, the Democratice Republic of the Congo, Northern Ireland, East Timor, Kashmir, Palestine, and countless other civil conflicts used to look to as a potential way out of their quagmire.

For all our shortcomings and simmering tensions, our country was truly inspirational, and it still is. In recent years it had become harder to sell the miracle, as our detractors would point to rampant corruption, cronyism and the masses who are yet to share in the dividends of peace.

But a new administration has been given the chance to right the ship and prove that South Africa can be great again – not to steal an expression from a less-than-inspirational world leader.

What I hope comes out of the grand unveiling next week at the UN, and the ensuing Nelson Mandela Peace Summit which South Africa has initiated at the General Assembly, is that as South Africans we start to believe in ourselves again, as a nation of hope.

Instead of tearing apart the fabric of social cohesion that Madiba tried so painstakingly to build, it would be so inspirational if in the race for political votes in the run up to our next elections, our political leaders could start preaching Madiba’s doctrine of racial reconciliation, while also talking about the need for economic liberation.

To have one without the other will never lead to peace and social stability. Without becoming conspiratorial, we must remember that there are conservative political forces beyond our borders that would like to see the South African miracle fail dismally.

Whatever drives that agenda, it is a destructive one, and we need to collectively fight against that negative energy.

On Monday, 130 world leaders and representatives of 11 international organisations will step up to the podium at the UN and make speeches at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit. One after the other, they will hail the legacy of Madiba, and what it has meant not only for South Africa, but for the world.

Anyone watching live coverage, starting at 4.30pm South African time, will likely find their eyes welling with tears at some point during this historic session, which will surely restore our national pride. Now it is up to each one of us to make that legacy real in our own country, and do something more than 67 minutes a year towards social upliftment.

If Madiba were here, he would want us to make a greater effort to show compassion for our fellow compatriots, and to make a genuine effort to integrate with different communities and show that “I am because you are” in the true spirit of ubuntu. TEN DAYS ago, Zimbabwe’s finance minister Mthuli Ncube was talking of abolishing bond notes and launching currency reforms before the end of the year.

But on Tuesday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa ruled out any such reforms. In his address at the opening of parliament, he reaffirmed the government’s commitment to the so-called multicurrency system, or dollarisation, “until the current negative economic fundamentals have been addressed to give credence to the introduction of the local currency”.

The economic fundamentals he listed are the familiar ones set out repeatedly in recent years by government ministers and the central bank – a “sustainable” fiscal position, foreign currency reserves equivalent to three to six months’ import cover ($1.4 billion-$2.7bn) and “sustainable consumer and business confidence”.

As the president spoke, the premium on US dollars relative to RTGS balances or electronic money stuck in the banks hovered close to 100%, while that between Zimbabwe’s ersatz currency (bond notes) and the US dollar was 88%.

Mnangagwa announced that Zimbabwe had taken on another $500 million in foreign loans to bolster the balance of payments, seemingly confident that a country already in what the IMF calls “debt distress”, with a debt-to-GDP ratio exceeding 100% can weather the storm.

But the track record of emerging market governments which take on the foreign currency markets is littered with failures and it is not easy to see why Zimbabwe should be any different.

The record of macroeconomic mismanagement since the military coup in November is stark. Domestic debt has escalated alarmingly, the balance of payments gap is widening and more and more is being borrowed offshore by private as well as official entities. In the 2018 budget, presented nine months ago, former finance minister Patrick Chinamasa promised to cut the budget deficit from $2.5bn, which was hugely understated at the time, to $671m this year.

But just before he left office, after losing his seat in the July 31 election, Chinamasa’s ministry revealed that government spending, far from being cut, had jumped 57% in the first half of the year.

The deficit for the six months was $1.4bn and forecasters expect it to top $3bn – more than 16% of GDP – in 2018, especially when the extra $300m for the 17.5% pay rise for civil servants and the 20% hike for the military and police is taken into account.

Such profligacy hardly inspires confidence in the fiscal consolidation promised by the president and his new cabinet. Policymakers believe that they can maintain the fiction that the local currency – electronic balances and bond notes – really does trade at par with the US dollar. In the parallel market however, the over-valued local unit is worth less than 40 cents.

The official position, set out by Mnangagwa, is that this situation can be maintained until the budget deficit has been cut and foreign reserves accumulated.

But given that the country is staring down the barrel at a trade deficit of well over $2.5bn this year – it was $1.7bn in the first seven months of 2018 – it is going to take a long time to build up reserves of $2bn or more.

This is the catch-22 position in which Zimbabwe finds itself. Can it wait two years or more to meet Mnangagwa’s economic fundamentals before abandoning the unsustainable dollar parity, or are the fundamentals unreachable without a competitive exchange rate? | Voices360.com