Category: THE WORLD

NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN | GIN) – South Africans are rising up against the outsized influence of corporate entities and wealthy individuals allegedly doling out contracts and jobs within the African National Congress (ANC).

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, at a recent event, rebutted the charge, declaring the ANC was not for sale and anyone who wanted to capture the state should “go next door”.

Speaking to about 1,500 professionals and academics at the ANC event in Sandton on March 23, Ramaphosa declared: “Those who want to capture the ANC and influence it to advance personal or corporate interests, you have come to the wrong address. Try next door. We will not be captured.”

NEW YORK (IDN | GIN) – Sikhosiphi ‘Bazooka’ Rhadebe will be remembered as a man of principle who chaired the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC) and fought to hold back titanium mining in South Africa’s Xolobeni coastal dunes.

“Our beloved Bazooka made the ultimate sacrifice defending our ancestral land of Amadiba,” the ACC said in a published statement. Rhadebe, who said his name had appeared on hit list, was gunned down on March 22 by two men who approached him dressed as police.

The ACC had successfully blocked efforts by Minerals Commodities Ltd of Australia and its South African subsidiary to get a mining license after the company failed to obtain an environmental impact survey or a social impact plan.

NEW YORK (IDN | GIN) – Tech hubs and incubators in Africa are expected to number close to 300 by year-end, and in some surprising locations.

In 2015, Disrupt Africa, which describes itself as a one-stop-shop for news, information and commentary pertaining to the continent’s tech startup – and investment – ecosystem, reported on a new hub and entrepreneurship development centre in Somalia, the first such project to launch there.

The Gambia also saw its first tech hub open, when Jokkolabs expanded to the country launching a space in the capital Banjul.

Also in 2015, Nigerian billionaire Tony Elumelu threw open the doors for applications to the US$100 million Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP), while Paris-based incubator NUMA expanded its operations to Africa, launching in Casablanca, Morocco.

NEW YORK (INPS | GIN) – Bill Gates, Bono, the Ford Foundation and the World Bank, among others, are well-known supporters of development projects in Africa. But that’s hardly the full list.

A report on international giving by the Foundation Center found that approximately $255 million to Africa came from U.S. foundations in 2010. Compare that to the $40 billion that Africans in the diaspora sent home in remittances in the same year. This has since grown to $60 billion annually and now exceeds funding from private foundations and bilateral and multilateral aid agencies.

NEW YORK (INPS | GIN) – Voters trooped to the polls in six countries across Africa on March 20, electing presidents and in Senegal approving a constitution with shorter presidential terms.

Among the surprises, the hand-picked successor to the outgoing president of Benin was defeated by a self-made entrepreneur Patrice Talon – “the king of cotton” – who ran as an “authentic Beninese” candidate. During the campaign he repeatedly attacked his opponent’s dual French nationality and the fact that he was living in France until being appointed prime minister by the outgoing former president.

Lionel Zinsou, with light skin, was also attacked as a “yovo” or “white man” during the campaign. He congratulated his opponent even before the official release of voting results was announced.