Day: May 12, 2023

A war of words is brewing between the U.S. and South Africa after the U.S. ambassador to the country said he would “bet his life” on U.S. intelligence that South African weapons were loaded onto a Russian vessel when it docked at a Cape Town naval base in December. The South African government hit back, saying that while it would investigate the matter, the U.S. ambassador’s remarks had “undermined” the relationship between the two nations.

Pretoria summoned U.S. Ambassador Reuben Brigety on Friday, amid a diplomatic spat that has put relations between the two friendly nations at their lowest ebb in years.

After the meeting, South Africa issued a statement saying that Brigety “admitted that he crossed the line and apologized unreservedly to the government and the people of South Africa.”

Brigety later said via Twitter: “I was grateful for the opportunity to speak with Foreign Minister Pandor this evening and correct any misimpressions left by my public remarks.”

The demarche was issued after Brigety’s extraordinarily strident comments to South African media on Thursday in which he said the U.S. had observed South African weapons being loaded onto a Russian vessel, the “Lady R,” which docked at the port of Simon’s Town in Cape Town between December 6 and December 8 last year.

He said it showed South Africa was not neutral on the Ukraine conflict as Pretoria has always claimed.

“The arming of Russia, by South Africa, with the vessel that landed in Simon’s Town, is fundamentally unacceptable,” he said. “We are confident that weapons were loaded onto that vessel, and I would bet my life on the accuracy of that assertion.”

The South African government seemed caught by surprise by the ambassador’s comments, responding hours later that they were setting up an independent investigation into the matter led by a retired judge.

But Vincent Magwenya, a spokesman for President Cyril Ramaphosa also hit back at Brigety’s remarks, saying the U.S. and South Africa had already discussed the matter privately.

“It is, therefore, disappointing that the U.S. ambassador has adopted a counter-productive public posture that undermines the understanding reached on the matter,” Magwenya said.

A spokesman for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said Friday that minister Naledi Pandor would also be speaking to her U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

However, Kobus Marais, shadow defense minister for South Africa’s main opposition Democratic Alliance said the U.S. accusations were “deeply concerning.”

“If these allegations are indeed true it would be a gross violation of South Africa’s international obligations and a betrayal of the trust of our most important trade and investment allies,” Marais said.

There have long been questions surrounding why the ship docked in Cape Town last year.

Despite western efforts to get Pretoria’s support for Kyiv since the Russian invasion began last year, the South African government has maintained friendly relations with Moscow.

The country’s foreign minister held bilateral talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this year and – despite U.S. consternation – hosted Russian war ships in February for joint military exercises.

Steven Gruzd, a Russia expert at the South African Institute of International Affairs, told VOA that Pretoria could face economic fallout from its stance.

“South Africa is jeopardizing its access to the American market through something like the African Growth and Opportunity Act, those privileges would be revoked and then there would be real economic costs,” he said.

South Africa also has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend a summit in the country in August, despite the fact there’s an arrest warrant out for him by the International Criminal Court and Pretoria is a signatory to the court.

If he shows up, South Africa is legally obliged to arrest him. This has led to calls by some within the ruling party to look into restructuring the agreement with the ICC.

Source: Voice of America

A renewed political dispute between the federal government of Somalia and the Puntland federal member state, and a failure of the fragile reforms to boost revenue collection and fiscal transparency, could endanger Somalia’s hope for full debt relief from the International Monetary Fund and other multilateral lenders by the end of the year, officials and experts warn.

“Strengthening fiscal transparency is a requirement for Somalia to secure not only debt forgiveness but also more loans from the International Monetary Fund,” said Hussein Abdikarim, Somalia’s former presidential adviser.

“If Somalia fails to continue the steady progress it has made so far on its financial reforms, it could lose hope of paring its debt to around $550 million from $5.2 billion by 2023,” he added.

In February 2020, the executive boards of the IMF and the World Bank announced that Somalia was eligible for debt relief following economic and institutional reforms.

In October 2022, the IMF said its staff reached a staff-level agreement with Somalia that would allow the release of $10 million to the East African country, once reviewed and approved by the board.

Economic and financial experts are concerned about challenges that could reverse the hard-earned gains of the poor and heavily indebted tiny horn of Africa Nation.

“Lack of competitive procurement, lack of agreement(s) between the levels of government and its federal member states on fiscal federalism, and lack of transparency in several oil and gas deals are the main current challenges that could jeopardize and hinder Somalia’s progress towards winning reliable financial credibility,” Hussein Siad, an independent economic consultant and Somalia’s former vice minister of finance, told VOA in a phone interview.

“A government cannot work without the necessary mechanisms to operate, including laws, regulations, manuals and trained or skilled staff members that can implement government policies,” Siad said.

The debt owed by Somalia to external creditors is estimated to be more than $5 billion. Somalia owes the single biggest debt — $1 billion — to the United States.

Countries that become eligible for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative of the IMF and World Bank have to commit to economic and financial reforms, as well as poverty reduction and political stability.

Corruption

In response to the concerns, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Thursday signed a set of anti-corruption directives aimed at boosting the legitimacy and credibility of the country’s financial institutions, a government statement said.

In the early morning Cabinet meeting, Somalia’s Council of Ministers approved the anti-corruption directives before the president endorsed them.

Reading a statement, government spokesman Farhan Jimale said, “The key directives, eight in number, included combating corruption, fostering accountability, strengthening public financial management systems and meritocracy, as well as improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government institutions.”

The statement also said, “The announced steps seek to increase transparency and accountability through financial disclosures by public officials, enhanced enforcement capacity, and expanded merit-based recruitment.”

The IMF’s board is expected to review the staff-level agreement reached with Somalia in early December.

Mohamud has urged an immediate implementation of the directives.

In 2019, his predecessor, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, signed the country’s anti-corruption bill into law, but critics say the implementation of the law has been a challenge.

The nonprofit Transparency International ranks Somalia as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

In its 2022 Corruptions Perceptions Index, Transparency International put Somalia at the bottom, saying, “Along with constant violence, Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud dissolved two very important anti-corruption bodies with a ‘wave of the hand’ decree.”

According to Somalia’s Criminal Code, active and passive bribery, attempted corruption, extortion, bribing a foreign official and money laundering are crimes.

“The debt relief is a big hope for Somalia to reclaim its financial position within the international community and allows our country to rejoin global economy after a 30-year exile,” a senior government economist told VOA on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak.

The official said if corruption and unnecessary political disputes remain, Somalia will miss a golden opportunity to clear its debts.

Somalia’s outlook remained clouded, with GDP growth for 2022 projected at 1.9%, down from 2.9% in 2021, and inflation projected to reach 9% from 4.6% in 2021, the IMF said.

Political dispute

The concerns grew following tension over a long-simmering dispute between the leaders of the federal government of Somalia and the northeastern semi-autonomous region of Puntland.

For months, Puntland has been reluctant to collaborate with the federal government on national issues, including debt relief programs, accusing Mogadishu of refusing to share power and foreign aid with the regions in line with the country’s federal system.

The political dispute took a turn for the worse this week when the leaders exchanged strong verbal accusations.

Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni on Tuesday accused Mohamud and Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre of “attempting to destabilize the relatively stable region.”

“The president and his prime minister have agreed to refuse the Puntland democracy and its willingness to hold one man, one vote elections,” Deni told his supporters.

Deni’s accusations came a day after Barre accused Puntland of jeopardizing the country’s debt relief efforts.

“Somalia’s debt relief program is in danger because Puntland has been refusing to participate in national meetings on the issue,” Barre warned. “If this fails because of Puntland, it will be a black scar on Puntland’s history, and its leaders will be responsible.”

Source: Voice of America

Professor Emeritus Stephen Adei, former Rector of Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration( GIMPA), has called for the strengthening of countervailing forces to check bad leadership in the country.

He called for a serious comparative analysis of people who put themselves up for Presidential candidacy in terms of their agenda, their potential cabinet and appointees, as well as their track record.

‘We must strengthen not only the supply of good leadership but the demand for it. Demand for good leadership, which, by the way, is a high-risk business, is a must,’ he said.

Prof Adei who is also a former Director General of the National Development Planning Commission, said this at the maiden inaugural Mamphey-Hammarskjold lecture in Accra, organised by the GIMPA.

The lecture was on the topic :’The Linchpin Role of Political and Public Sector Leadership in the Rise and Fall of Nations: Lessons for Ghana’.

GIMPA was established to equip public administrators during the First Republic in 1961 under President Dr Kwame Nkrumah with technical assistance from the United Nations when the United Nations Secretary-General was Dag Hammarskjöld.

Mr E. V. Mamphey (1965-1968) was the first Ghanaian to direct the Institute after the founding Indian expatriate head, Mr. S. B. Bapat, left in 1965.

‘The academia, the Church, think tanks, the middle and upper classes, as well as business owners, cannot forever sit on the fence and endure bad leadership.

The price for continued acquiescence may be much higher than a ‘haircut’, he said.

He said the country needed to take a critical look at its national values and educational system, specifically the early inculcation of values such as integrity, discipline, patriotism, a good work ethic, and meritocracy, to improve the stock of future development leaders.

Prof Adei stressed that parents were likely to introduce their children to cheating in examinations at the Basic Education Certificate Examination level even before the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination.

‘At tertiary institutions, student leadership and membership in TESCON and TEIN have become the fastest way to join the corrupt and bureaucratic classes, and we should all be concerned,’ he said.

Prof Adei stated that leaders must be forced by public opinion to model right behaviour, to avoid instances of corrupt people living above their means.

‘We must follow the example of countries like Singapore, where people living a lifestyle beyond their means are presumed corrupt unless they can justify their means,’ he added.

He said the biggest constraint in getting ‘good’ people to become leaders was the corrupt process of choosing political leaders, whereby corruption and money rule at the party level.

‘There is ample and widespread evidence of parliamentary and other political aspirants distributing significant amounts of cash, bags of rice, 32 inch TVs, and the like to hundreds of delegates prior to the election in exchange for their votes,’ he said.

He called for constitutional review to mitigate the excesses of bad leadership, saying ‘a good leader has no ‘winner takes all’ mentality in their agenda and will not appoint people on the basis of being friends, family, or party members in disregard of merit.’

He called for continuous capacity building for service leaders and a more rigorous performance appraisal and reward system linked to the performance of civil and public servants.

Mr Charles Abani, UN Resident Coordinator, said, the United Nations was instrumental in the set-up of the institute after independence, when it became imperative for the nation to build and have an excellent corps of public and civil servants.

He encouraged GIMPA to explore, through the UN Global Compact, the possibility of tapping into the opportunities of UN-supported initiatives that equipped business students with the understanding and ability to deliver change.

Prof Samuel Bonsu, Rector of GIMPA assured the public that the Institute was well positioned to be a leader in developing the next generation of leaders to support development.

Source: Ghana News Agency