No SA hopefuls for Ibrahim Prize

AND the winner is … no one. As Business Day reported yesterday, the prestigious Mo Ibrahim Prize was not awarded for the second successive year.

The award was established in 2007, and the prize committee has awarded the prize only three times, or four if the honorary award to Nelson Mandela is included.

“It’s a prize for excellence,” founder Mo Ibrahim told Al Jazeera, “it’s not a pension”.

Perhaps not, but it is certainly generous — $5m a year over 10 years, followed by $200,000 a year thereafter for life.

Calls have been made for the award criteria to be revisited, and a look at these reveals they’re disappointingly nebulous.

For the Ibrahim Prize only former African executive heads of state or government qualify. They must have left office in the past three years, have been elected democratically, have served a constitutionally mandated term, and have demonstrated exceptional leadership.

The last is the big hurdle. How is exceptional leadership defined? It means different things depending on outlook, culture and values.

Suggestions that candidates for the award should include sitting presidents or leaders outside the political sphere won’t secure what Ibrahim desires. By implication he wants a continent transformed, no Big Man bosses, commitment to democratic institutions, and constant improvements in economies, education and living conditions.

On that basis, SA is unlikely to field a candidate for some time.

USING data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, the South African Institute of Race Relations calculates that the country’s unemployed now total about 8-million, or 36.8% of those who want to work.

It’s a mind-numbing statistic. It will only be resolved, partially, by getting the economy into high gear and, ultimately, by ensuring the education sector produces men and women qualified to meet the rigours and challenges of the 21st century.

E-mail: david@gleason.co.za Twitter: @TheTorqueColumn