Of .......Southern Elections and Pirates.

South African elections
There's a saying that goes, you can tell a people by the leaders that they choose. I don’t know what that would mean for South Africans as they head to the polls today.

Mr. Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, the ANC leader is predicted to be South Africa’s next president. There have been questions raised on the dropped charges he has faced on corruption and rape. Charges; according to his supporters, were a ploy of Thabo Mbeki to sabotage Zuma’s efforts to run for the presidency.

According to a BBC report Zuma has a 77% support rate from the blacks compared to a 1% of whites. Other than the fact that he has minimal education; grade 5 drop out, several wives and fiancés and 18 children. The continent’s most independent judicial system called off a strong case gathered against him after 8 years of investigation. We are not talking about robbing a canteen of chewing gum. Jacob Zuma was charged with more than 700 counts of corruption and fraud. Charges linked to a multibillion dollar arms deal. How do you drop charges of such magnitude and let him run for Africa’s most powerful office on this continent?!

South Africa is the only African nation that is a member of the G20, a group of the world’s 19 largest economies plus the EU. She has a progressive constitution, an amazingly independent judiciary, a free press and a vibrant civil society. Only time will tell if those institutions will last at the end of today.

I wish the South African’s all the best in their election and May their choice be a reflection of a more progressive South Africa in the years to come.

Piracy in Guinea
It sounds like something out of a Nordic tale, of Vikings and conquest. Piracy sounds as ridiculous as the perpetrators, remember the case of the pirates fighting over ransom money and drowning in the Indian Ocean? Recent reports show that they have now moved onto the West coast of Africa.

The USS Nashville Naval ship has been on patrol on the West coast of Africa stopping at 5 major ports taking time to train the local navies in the region. Reports say that the notoriety of the Gulf of Guinea is rife for piracy with South American drugs proliferation through Guinea Bissau’s unguarded coast headed to Europe. Senegal; the transit route for desperate African migrants hoping to arrive on the Spanish, canary islands in search for a better future and finally Nigeria’s militant struggle; MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) prone to kidnapping and bombing oil rigs.

Though evaluating the matter further; the US has always been known to proactively protect its areas of interest, having consumed 40% of Nigeria’s oil output in 2006. It’s also taking steps to protect Sub Sahara’s 2nd and 3rd largest oil producers, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea respectively to quench their insatiable consumption of commodity.

There maybe danger of human and drug trafficking but the so called pirates aren’t really the priority, it can be deduced that it’s just the US taking precautions to protect its economy.
It’s through gestures like these that African states need to understand the intricacies of ‘true’ diplomacy; the International politics of protectionism. Protectionism refers to states employing policies to prevent foreign takeover of local markets.

In essence countries protect their workers and businesses by regulating trade and relations with other countries. You tend to find countries employing tariffs on imported goods among other measures. Hence the case of government subsidies for European farmers at the cost of imported African farm produce whose prices in European and American stores are ridiculously inflated in comparison to local produce , this is repeated in many other sectors.

If Africa is to employ trade amongst itself and focus on building itself from within, we have a chance for our industries to flourish, cut down on the brain drain and thrive.