There’s an insightful article called “Toast Masters” by William Mervin Gumede published in Focus on Africa (October to December 2010).  It’s centred on how power, privilege and all things nice are entrenched amongst a minority elite.  This is something that I, and I believe many others, have always known, have experienced first-hand and have found quite depressing.

The last paragraph really got me thinking.  Apparently, in parts of deepest darkest Africa, there are pockets of democratic success that are enjoying the economic progress that comes with it.  “Bully for Africa” I thought.  How nice that we don’t have to look far across the ocean for examples of good governance.  (You know how the West likes to dictate to us).  I then thought that it would be even nicer if African leaders could be as jealous for their countries as they are for their positions, innumerable assets and vast network of family and friends.  Can you imagine?  One president reads how Botswana created room at the feeding trough for formally marginalised groups.  Irritated by the success of his neighbour, he decides to generously give the entire trough to the poor.  Or in another case, a certain prime minister might discover that his brother in Mauritius has given small businesses substantial access to finance.  Not to be outdone, the honourable one decides that entrepreneurs should not only get funding but they will receive free training, input subsidies and tax rebates. Wouldn’t that be marvellous! Gumede suggests that if the traditional elite adopted a more inclusive approach, it would result in widespread prosperity in society.  Maybe then the masses wouldn’t resent that their lives are controlled by a handful of people.

This entry was posted on October 11th, 2010 at 11:04 am by Thandi Mpofu and is filed under Governance, Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.