The Real Problem with Africa

Corruption:

But the problem is not how the money is allocated; it’s that the money is all allocated by the central government, and that is always a guarantee of corruption. Just as Africa needs less aid, it needs less government. In South Africa, for example, which is the best of the big states, the government is murdering its own people by urging them to use traditional remedies (ginger and garlic, sometimes flavored with lemon zest) for AIDS, rather than anti-retroviral drugs. And the leaders of the African National Congress — the governing party that holds more than two-thirds of the seats in parliament, and can therefore pass any legislation it wishes — has not lost its traditional zeal for Communism. Here’s a newspaper account from The Star on the Fourth of July:

The ANC is not only set for a serious review of the constitutionally entrenched right to property (perhaps inspired by our very own Supreme Court?), but is also considering a moratorium on the sale of land to foreigners...

Delegates (to the party’s national general council) also called for an investigation into the inaccessibility of prime land due to high prices and for property prices to be regulated.


This is the party of Saint Nelson Mandela, who continues to bounce around the continent hand in hand with his tyrannical buddies like Muammar Khadaffi, and who has yet to denounce the murderous policies of Robert Mugabe in the once-flourishing Zimbabwe (by the way, if you go to Victoria Falls, as you should, stay on the Zambian side. Zambia is no bargain, but it’s a great deal better than the other side). The Zimbabwe fiasco has exposed another major element of African corruption. Since almost all the leaders consider themselves president-for-life, they support one another, afraid that democratic change in some other place might threaten their own rule. In South Africa, Thabo Mbeke, the current president, is theoretically term limited (one of Mandela’s finest moments), but since the ANC can do anything it wants, some of my South African friends believe that Mbeke may change the rules and stay on.

Corruption isn't one of those problems resolved by throwing more money at it.