Habib, George & Jabou,
Lessons from the Summit for its organisers, the SA and African Governments,
african entrepreneurs and members of civic society. Mbeki has declared that
on the whole the Summit has been a political and logistical success. The
magnitude of the business success will be known after the Jo'burg Summit
Corporation finalizes its books. But all indications are that Mr. Moshishi
will be laughing all the way to the Bank. May be Habib Ghanim, George and
Jabou should consider organising the next major world conference in The
Gambia with Pa Modou Gassama in charge of telecommunications while doubling
as your interlocutor. He knows his way around town: take it from me.
Sidi Sanneh
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© photosa.com 5/9/02 11:43 AM
SA has patted itself on the back for hosting the UN World Summit on
Sustainable Development, declaring it a political and logistical succes and
is setting its sights on even bigger events like the World Cup or Olympic
Games.
"We made an excellent deal," Trade and Industry Minister Alec Irwin said as
the 10-day summit closed here Wednesday.
"There were of course issues that were politically impossible, for example
to expect the EU to change its agricultural policy. Or to get the US and
Japan to agree on targets for renewable energy."
But, said Erwin, the summit has delivered about 41 new agreements on the
environment, among them a far-reaching deal on protecting fishing stocks.
"This was the best we could have expected under the circumstances."
President Thabo Mbeki said the summit has lived up to the hopes of Africans,
for whom development and the environment often amount to "a matter of life
and death".
And, he added proudly, an African country has proved that it can host such
an event and helped to change the negative perception of the continent.
"We have shown the world here this week that we have the capacity," enthused
his Presidency Minister Essop Pahad at the end of the 10-day event that drew
more than 20,000 participants.
"It has always been my dream to have SA host the World Cup. Now that dream
is becoming a hope. Why not?"
Moss Moshishi, the head of the organising company JOWSCO, said all went well
though the cost of the summit has still to be counted.
"I feel that we achieved what we set out to achieve, in fact we surpassed
our own expectations. We will not talk about the cost, but a full audit will
be done."
Moshishi said the company has set itself a target of giving 30% of the
tenders for the summit to people who are discriminated against under
apartheid.
"We have surpassed this and achieved 48% participation by these groups."
Pahad and Moshishi said they will only release figures once every bill has
been paid and will not confirm earlier estimates that the summit will cost
about R550-million, of which about 80% had been raised in advance.
Moshishi said the organisers managed to transport 13,000 people every day,
find hotel beds for 30,000 delegates and received only seven complaints from
visitors.
On top of that, the dreaded traffic jams did not materialise and few
delegates became victims of violent crime.
But on a political level the summit again proves that countries of the south
lack political clout, on both the government and social society levels.
"One thing that did come out is the weakness in general of civil society in
Africa where urban issues dominate over the poor and people in the
countryside," said Welfare and Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya.
"Our non-governmental organisations are non-existant in the countryside
where the peasants and the poor are. I was struck by the divisions that
exist between the NGOs of developing and developed worlds.
"There is on overdominance of NGOs from the north. I feel that in the
interest of democracy in SA, the government will have to assist NGOs."
This would surprise civil society groups in SA who felt that they were
deliberately kept away from the summit, relegated to a venue on the other
side of Johannesburg and given limited access to the convention centre where
government delegates met.
No doubt this had something to do with the government's security fears.
The authorities were openly and unnecessarily worried that a protest by
about 15,000 activists on August 31 might turn violent.
"Few of us slept the night before," confessed Moshishi.
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