Great ideas, bad execution
ARE nationalism, indigenisation, affirmative action or similar concepts such rotten ideas? That is the thought S’thembiso Msomi’s column “Cautionary tale of an African ‘radical’ who fleeced a nation” (April 16) provoked in me.
What is wrong is the tone of the rhetoric and how some African leaders, exemplified by Mobutu Sese Seko and Robert Mugabe, have executed the agenda.
Is it a bad thing to seek to unlock skills transfers or access to production assets for local people? To insist that trade deals and foreign investments have employment quotas for Africa’s unemployed?
One of the ills of globalisation is that developing countries have to toe the line of the “amorphous markets” at the expense of what may be necessary to develop local economies. Anything else invites punishment in the form of credit rating downgrades, capital flight, depreciating currencies and shrinking economies.
As Africans we must do good by ourselves — but we need to be the tortoises that win the race and not the hurried, destructive hares. — Mike Idagiza, Katlehong