The African renaissance has started
Posted: Tuesday, September 27, 2005
by Louw
Keynews
(By Louw Aucamp) As the 18th World Petroleum Congress takes place in Johannesburg this week, the billion dollar question is if Africa's poor will ever benefit from the continent's rich resources?
A third of the new gas and oil reserves found in the world the past five years were found in Africa. Yet, most of the energy is being exported for refinery - to be imported back at a much higher price.
African business leaders at the congress painted a grim picture of the situation and pleaded for ways to uplift the people of Africa so that they can benefit from the continent's rich pool of natural resouces.
Pat Davies, CEO of Sasol, said that sustainable growth in Africa is a key issue. In spite of the continent's rich resources, Africa still suffers from huge poverty. "Africa spends too little on the development of its own industries", he said.
"As a continent we need to ensure that more of our people share in our wealth", he added.
Sasol is one of the sponsors of the conference.
Sipho Mkhize, CEO of PetroSA (South Africa's goverment controlled oil company), echoed Davies' sentiment: "The lack of infrastructure is one of Africa's biggest challenges," he said. "We need to re-invest income generated by oil and gas in order to develop infrastructure. We have the technical skills and ability in South Afrca to work together with other African partners to do it."
When President Thabo Mbeki opened the congrss on Sunday he said that the United Nations Millennium Review Summit failed in its goal. "The unsatisfactory developments at the general meeting of the United Nations last week, the inability to successfully implement the vast negotiations at which many of us have formed part for years, is sending out a signal that things are starting to fall apart," he said.
The solution is simple: we need to build refineries in Africa, creating jobs and empowering Africans to refine and develop our own resources.
The question is: who is going to pay for it?
Surely, the governments of Angola and other oil producing countries have enough money to build refineries and factories!
As Jon Qwelane recently wrote: it is high time that we Africans get our act together and start taking responsibility for the upliftment of our continent.
President Mbeki has a vision of an African renaisance of which the West stand sceptical. The only way to prove the skepticists wrong is to roll upour sleeves and work, work, work.
Why is it that Cosatu and other trade unions cannot comprehend that beggars can't be choosers? We cannot apply first-world labour laws as long as we have third-world standards.
On the other hand, though, a little encouragement by the first world will go a long way to help uplift the rest of Africa.
In South Africa we have a stable government, monetary and fiscal policies that draws praise rom the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, our credit ratings are on the improve every year, we are heading towards GDP growth of 6, we have low inflation and low interest rates - how much more do we need to do to prove to the world that Africa is getting its act together?
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