Pan Macmillan

Moeletsi Mbeki has made it his business to know what’s going on in Africa and to study the reasons behind the continent’s struggles. His extremely popular and widely recognized work on the subject, Acrhitects of Poverty: Why African Capitalism Needs Changing, provides the backdrop to a recent speech he gave to AFRICOM (U.S. Africa Command) members in Stuttgart, Germany, as part of the AFRICOM Speaker’s Series:

“Security and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Looking to the Future”

Africa’s colonial legacy

The challenge facing Sub-Saharan Africa is not State building as many analysts believe. The immediate challenge most of Africa faces is society building.

Building a viable, sustainable and stable society requires the establishment and development of legitimate, socially hegemonic group or groups that can then build a viable state. This was what European colonial powers failed to do in Sub-Saharan Africa before they departed in the mid- 1950s to early 1960s. Instead they left behind a semblance of a state which had no social anchors. This was what led to Africa’s instability during the last half a century. This instability continues to this day in many countries despite a few signs of hope, in a handful of countries.

The most important factor in the creation of a stable capitalist society is the rise of a property owning class that controls extensive assets. On its own, this class of property owners is not sufficient to create a stable society because in order to develop the assets of these property owners and make them profitable, the owners require the technical and managerial skills of professional and artisan classes, generally referred to as the middle class. The bargaining power of this middle class also acts as a restraining influence on the political power of the large property owners.

• Read the complete article at Africom.mil

Book details

• Architects of Poverty: Why Africa’s Capitalism needs Changing by Moeletsi Mbeki
  EAN: 9781770101616
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Journalist and author of Falling Off the Edge Alex Perry takes a closer look at the Zuma presidency, asking whether he might not be just the man South Africa needs:

If even some of the more modest predictions about Jacob Zuma’s rise to power had been correct, South Africa would be an empty, corrupt dictatorship by now. Back in 2006, South African memoirist Rian Malan ended his dismal assessment of the nation’s prospects (“Not civil war, but sad decay”) in British magazine the Spectator by asking: “Anyone want a house here?” A year ago, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said he was “deeply saddened” when Zuma staged a party coup against his predecessor Thabo Mbeki, “deeply disturbed” that both had used institutions of state in their struggle and warned that path “leads to a banana republic.” This February, Afrikaner author André Brink published a memoir in which he described the “disillusionment, resentment, and rage tinged with despair” over the “rottenness” in South Africa.

• Read the complete article
• Read Time’s Q&A with Zuma

Book details

• Falling off the Edge: Globalization World Peace and Other Lies by Alex Perry
  EAN: 9780230706897
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Moeletsi Mbeki is not known for holding back – he frequently criticised government while his brother, Thabo Mbeki, was president – and not much has changed. In Architects of Poverty, Mbeki fares out against corruption, with BEE as his target.

According to Mbeki, BBE has had a hand in increasing corruption within the ANC government, a view he outlines in the following article on IOL:

Black economic empowerment is one of the most destructive policies adopted by the ANC government since the advent of democracy in 1994.

Sadly, conventional wisdom in South Africa thinks BEE has been a pillar of strength for South Africa’s democracy. The reality is that while BEE has enriched a significant minority among the blacks, for the great majority of black South Africans evidence shows that their condition has been deteriorating over the last 15 years.

• Read the complete article

An article by Stephanie Hanson in the Ethiopian Review echoes Moeletsi Mbeki’s views on corruption with a closer look at the botched Kenyan election:

The experience of Kenya demonstrates how corruption can tip a seemingly stable country into political crisis. Kenyan analysts widely agree that the violence following the December 2007 elections, in which President Mwai Kibaki claimed victory over opposition candidate Raila Odinga, was in large part caused by the zero-sum nature of Kenyan politics: Unless one’s ethnic group was in office, there were no possibilities for economic or political advancement.

• Read the complete article

Book details

• Architects of Poverty: Why Africa’s Capitalism needs Changing by Moeletsi Mbeki
  EAN: 9781770101616
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Moeletsi Mbeki toured to East London last week to participate in the Daily Dispatch’s popular “Dispatch Dialogues” series. His new book, Architects of Poverty, has been making waves and topping the bestseller lists, and was placed under scrutiny as he spoke to Dialogue guest speaker Peter Vale, the chair of politics at Rhodes University.

Here’s a wrap of a fruitful week in the Eastern Cape for Mbeki and his book, starting with a video conversation with the Dispatch’s Msimelelo Njwabane:

Video: Moeletsi Mbeki on his Merc, Thabo and what’s wrong with the ANC

• Not playing? Watch at Dispatch Dialogues

One of the themes of Mbeki’s talk at the Dialogues was how the ANC’s “big spenders” were pitting themselves against their own electorate. Njwabane was there to write it up:

Political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki yesterday took the ANC to task over some of its policies – and the extravagant lifestyle of some of its leaders.

Mbeki, brother of former President Thabo Mbeki, said the ANC had failed to address service delivery during the past 15 years.
He was speaking in an exclusive interview with the Daily Dispatch while in East London to launch his new book, Architects of Poverty – Why African Capitalism Needs Changing.

“These service delivery protests by black masses are a result of them growing impatient because they still live in the black ghettos that were created by the National Party regime,” said Mbeki.

“The black elite is perpetuating the same ghettos that were built during apartheid. The RDP houses are nothing more than the matchboxes that were built during apartheid,” he added.

• Complete article at Dispatch Dialogues

This Dispatch’s Msindisi Fengu, meanwhile, covered the same talk from a slightly different angle, and captured one of Mbeki’s most contentious opinions – that SA is headed the way of Zimbabwe:

He said during his presentation to the audience that there had been an emergence of “highly pampered elites”, after the democratisation of the country, and that State-owned enterprises lacked competent management.

“Only 20 percent of (monetary) spending goes to investment in South Africa, while other countries like China and India have their highest (percentage of) Gross Domestic Product going to investment.

“Because we are not investing, the country is de-industrialising, and (as a result) we are losing job opportunities.”
He said there were inequalities between the elite and ordinary citizens.

“A lot of people think we are not going the way of Zimbabwe, but we are going that way.”

• Complete article at the Daily Dispatch

Finally, the event was prefaced by a “thesis statement” from Mbeki that maps the sources of some of South Africa’s current ills, which are to be found at the confluence of nationalism and industrialisation, he says. You can read his complete opening gambit:

An important question about South Africa that is rarely discussed, is when did South Africa become independent. This question is often dismissed as too pedantic for words and only worthy of primary school history textbook writers. The reality is that it is an emotive issue linked to the complex race issues that define South Africa. And without deciding when South Africa regained its ability to decide its own affairs, it is not possible to understand the political, economic and social processes happening in South Africa today.

To me South Africa became independent 100 years ago this month. This was in September 1909 when the British king signed the South Africa Act into law thus passing political authority over South Africa from the British Parliament to the Parliament of the Union of South Africa.

• Complete article at Dispatch Dialogues

Book details

• Architects of Poverty: Why Africa’s Capitalism needs Changing by Moeletsi Mbeki
  EAN: 9781770101616
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

One is tempted to ask what former president Thabo Mbeki thinks about his younger brother, Moeletsi Mbeki, and his new, scathingly critical work of Africa’s ruling elite, Architects of Poverty: Why Africa’s Capitalism Needs Changing. Moeletsi takes umbrage at Africa’s leaders and their extravagant indulgences and explores many of the continent’s other undemocratic ills in the work.

In an intriguing response to the book, author Bryan Rostron speculates on the genesis of Architects of Poverty in the context of Mbeki sibling rivalry:

Younger brothers play a large role in the demonology of a friend who has investigated some of the world’s biggest frauds. When a possible suspect emerges, he says, his first question is always: is this person the youngest in their family? His theory would never stand up in court . But my friend reels off examples of huge bank stings and insurances swindles where his rule applies. In fact, in one case, the wife of a suspect convinced her husband to confess, saying, “You’re dealing with the modern Hercule Poirot.”

As an only child, I’m not endorsing this junior sibling hypothesis. But I wonder if SA’s former president Thabo Mbeki feels this way about his younger brother, Moeletsi. Even while Mbeki Snr was state president, Moeletsi was one of his sharpest critics. Yet there’s nothing dodgy about the younger Mbeki. His critique has been consistent, factually rigorous and is now collected in a book, Architects of Poverty: Why African Capitalism Needs Changing. In fact, his criticism is almost a mirror image of my friend’s “younger brother” idea.

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In his new book, Architects of Poverty: Why Africa’s Capitalism Needs Changing, Moeletsi Mbeki discusses the acute challenges Africa faces, with particular reference to self-interested political elites, and poses some suggestions about what needs to be done to overcome them, including the gradual movement from aid toward trade and industrialization.

Join the author in the UK for his London book launch on 9 September:

Event Details

• Date: Wednesday, 09 September 2009
• Time: 12:30 PM for 1:00 PM
• Venue: The Royal Institute of International Affairs, London
  Chatham House, 10 St James’s Square
  London SW1Y 4LE
  UK | Map
• RSVP: Tighisti Amare, contact@chathamhouse.org.uk, +44 (0)20 7957 5700
  www.chathamhouse.org.uk

Book Details

• Architects of Poverty: Why Africa’s Capitalism needs Changing by Moeletsi Mbeki
  EAN: 9781770101616
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Last week, Radio 702’s Redi Direko conducted a scintillating interview with author Moeletsi Mbeki about his new book Architects of Poverty: Why Africa’s Capitalism Needs Changing.

For those of you who missed the show, we’ve tracked it down as a podcast:

Podcast: Redi Direko interviews Moeletsi Mbeki

 

 Redi Direko Interviews Moeletsi Mbeki on Radio 702 [46:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

• Not playing? Download the mp3 file from 702

Book details

• Architects of Poverty: Why Africa’s Capitalism needs Changing by Moeletsi Mbeki
  EAN: 9781770101616
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Cabinet ministers and their luxury cars have been much in the news of late, for all the wrong reasons. Although the purchase of multi-million rand vehicles is allowed by the ministerial handbook, the question of whether it’s either fiscally or politically responsible to buy and drive them during hard times remains open to debate.

Veteran journalist and commentator Allister Sparks is clear on the issue: politicians’ luxury cars, he writes, amount to the kind of “obscene symbolism” that Africa knows all too well. Quoting Moeletsi Mbeki’s Architects of Poverty: Why African Capitalism Needs Changing, Sparks accuses SA’s new rulers of simply stepping into the shoes of the old:

The addiction of some of our rulers to extravagant luxury, especially in their choice of official cars, is more than just scandalous. It is an obscenity.

Ours is a Third World country with millions of desperately poor people, many living below the breadline. The African National Congress purports to be the champion of those poor people. Why then do so many of our Cabinet Ministers, and even some provincial legislators and mayors, feel a need to flash their status so publicly and ostentatiously? It is grotesquely inappropriate.

Symbolism is an important aspect of politics. Nelson Mandela knew that and used it to great effect with his many shrewdly chosen gestures, such as having tea with Betsie Verwoerd and putting on Francois Pienaar's No 6 jersey to congratulate the Springboks on becoming World champions and thereby cementing a spirit of unity and national celebration that is still seen as a talismanic event in the building of our new democracy.

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You are invited to a key discussion of Moeletsi Mbeki’s Architects of Poverty: Why Africa’s Capitalism needs Changing at the Durban ICC on Thursday, 30 July 2009.

Mbeki will be joined by notables Nobuhle Mthethwa, Patrick Bond and Sipho Shabalala.

Watch a recent video of Mbeki speaking about his book:

Seating is limited, so please call ahead if you plan to book at the door.

Event Details

• Date: Thursday, 30 July 2009
• Time: 5:00 PM for 5:30 PM
• Venue: Chief Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, 45 Ordnance Road
  Durban | Map
• Panellists: Nobuhle Mthethwa, Patrick Bond, Moeletsi Mbeki and Sipho Shabalala
• Cost: R150 at the door (or see flyer for deposit details)
• For more information: xuberagroup@gmail.com, 082 352 4277

Book Details

• Architects of Poverty: Why Africa’s Capitalism needs Changing by Moeletsi Mbeki
  EAN: 9781770101616
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Journalist Percy Zvomuya speaks to the author of Architects of Poverty:

Businessman and political commentator Moeletsi Mbeki launched Architects of Poverty (Picador) at the Cape Town Book Fair. It is a stinging critique of African capitalism, describing how the powerful elite on the continent “sell off its assets to enrich the rest of the world”. This phenomenon, first witnessed during the slave trade, has not stopped with the advent of independence.

Mbeki argues that the “slave trade or oil trade is known as mercantile capitalism” — an earlier form of capitalism in which one “buys cheap and sells dear”. He says Africa is “still locked in the mercantile stage of capitalism”. The Mail & Guardian caught up with Mbeki for an interview.

You seem to be disillusioned with African nationalism.

The book is a critique of nationalism. There’s a contradiction at the centre of nationalism. Nationalism sets out to defeat its perceived enemy. But it sees the enemy’s way of life as its model. This is the contradiction of nationalism. Afrikaner nationalism hated British imperialism. What did it do? It went on to emulate British imperialism. [Likewise] the ANC saw Afrikaner nationalism as its enemy. But what has the ANC done? It set out to emulate, through black economic empowerment, white capital.

Look at the massive salary differences between the ANC officials in government and the masses. In South Africa we now have deep inequality among Africans. This is because of the attempt by black nationalists to live like the enemy. By emulating their enemy, they inherit the contradictions of the social system they take over.

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