October 5, 2000
R236.4m African Renaissance fund awaits parliament's sanction
By WILLIAM DLAMINI

Pretoria (IPS) - The government is backing its advocacy of an African
renewal by setting up a fund to help politicians and civil society in the
continent bring social and economic well-being to the region.
South Africa is also working with Nigeria and Algeria, under an Organisation
of African Unity (OAU) mandate, to prepare a new development strategy for
the continent, IPS has learnt.
The R236.4 million African Renaissance and International Cooperation Fund is
close to getting legislative sanction from parliament, and will be dedicated
to the economic, social and democratic renewal of the African continent.
Together with other sources of additional funding to be announced in the
coming weeks, the fund could soon be more than R1 billion.
The money will be used to provide financial assistance to governments,
opposition parties and civil society organisations on the continent.
''The new fund will help South Africa put its money where its mouth is, in
relation to the African Renaissance,'' says ANC parliamentarian Mawalal
Ramgobin.
President Thabo Mbeki has been championing an African Renaissance in social
and economic affairs, based on respect for human rights, democracy and the
rule of law.
According to Sipho Pityana, director general of foreign affairs department,
the fund will be used to promote good governance, human resource
development, prevent and resolve conflict, and for humanitarian aid.
Parliament will receive annual reports on the work of the fund.
The fund will also use amounts recovered from apartheid-era slush funds,
which were used by the then apartheid regime for destabilising wars in many
African countries, and to buy friends on the continent during the period of
international isolation, says Pityana.
Mbeki is visiting Nigeria to discuss with Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo
ways of reversing the African brain-drain to the west by encouraging
Africans in the black diaspora to return to the continent.
''Discussion has started between South Africa and Nigeria aimed at
attracting back into the African continent these many Africans - scientists,
engineers, technologists, managers - who are working outside the
continent,'' said Mbeki.
''The goal is to see in which ways we can attract these people back to the
African continent and end the outflow of expertise and talents,'' he was
quoted as saying.
Mbeki is also working with Obasanjo and Algerian President Abdelaziz
Bouteflika, on a multi-pronged plan designed to shore up Africa's economic
development, government officials told IPS.
The plan includes strategies to lure direct investment to the continent,
bring about a substantial cut in Africa's foreign debt and radical reform of
aid. It will also suggest ways in which international financial bodies and
the global trading system can benefit Africa.
The three African leaders were asked by the OAU to fashion an African-led
development strategy.
According to Joel Netshitenzhe, head of government communications, the plan
will be discussed with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and G-8 nation
leaders. The Africa plan will be publicly announced in the next few weeks,
says Netshitenzhe.
Mbeki chairs the Non-Aligned Movement and the Commonwealth. Obasanjo chairs
the G77, while Bouteflika, as immediate past chairman of the OAU, is part of
the organisation's current leadership troika.
According to Frank Chikane, Mbeki's director-general, Mbeki, Bouteflika and
Obasanjo, have discussed the plan at various meetings. Mbeki and Bouteflika
held talks during the inaugural meeting of the South Africa-Algerian
bi-national commission in Algiers in late September.
Mbeki has discussed the details of the plan with Obasanjo at an African
leaders' summit in Lome. Mbeki is hoping that an inter-governmental task
team will refine the details of the Africa economic development plan
shortly, says Chikane.
The Africa plan seeks to move beyond the conventional aid concept where aid
funds end up servicing Africa's foreign debt, making the continent exporters
of capital, he explains.
The initiative will seek to encourage productive investments to help Africa
catch up with advances in the global economy and bridge the digital divide.


_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------