Virginie Ingabire was still wearing her mother’s shoes when her turn came. The shoes dangled from her 10-year-old feet as the two strangers carried her towards the thick bush behind the house. Everyone who had been taken before her had not returned and Ingabire knew the men with machetes had come for something.
She remembers thinking she had done nothing wrong, and that the men must have wanted money, so she cried, “I know where Mommy stashes her money, I can just go and get it for you.” But the killers ignored the offer. They forced her on the ground and informed her she was going to be killed. The last thing she saw before they spared her was a spiked plank of wood being lifted above her.
Two decades after that harrowing episode, the little Tutsi girl has come a long way.
Ingabire is almost 30 and cuts an effortlessly elegant figure. She’s an administrative assistant at the Rwandan Mission to the United Nations (UN). The eldest of her two children, a daughter, turned seven in May.
But for many years, after those frightening moments with the men in the bush, she couldn’t talk about it.
“I managed to bury my feelings when I was a teenager, but as I grow older, it gets more difficult,” she says.
At one point, Ingabire planned to write a book about those days, but she could never bring herself to do it.
Finally, a year ago, she found the courage and the forum to share her story. She spoke at a small gathering at UN headquarters in New York, the only survivor on a panel commemorating the genocide. It wasn’t fully satisfying, though; Ingabire rushed through her story, and she felt the audience didn’t really get to a chance to understand how she lost her family – and how traumatic it still is, years later, to survive without them.
Still, for her, it was a cathartic experience, and so she agreed to tell her story again, for only the second time, on the eve of the 20th anniversary.
“I don’t think I am ever going to move on, but now I feel like I should face it,” she says.
Ingabire grew up in the capital, Kigali, with her parents and five siblings. As the bitter civil war was ending in 1994, peace negotiations droned on in Tanzania, but Ingabire’s mother began to believe that the city was no longer safe for the children. Then there were the frightening visits from gangs of men, the Hutu militia known as the Interahamwe, or those who work together. In early 1994, they were surveying homes that they would later return to, with murderous intent.
It was after one such unsettling visit that Ingabire’s pregnant mother pulled the children from school and moved with them to rural Gitarama, 23 miles south of Kigali. They stayed with their aunt who had seven older boys of her own. Ingabire’s father, optimistic things in Kigali would change, remained in the capital.
The village was a harsh change for Ingabire and her siblings. There was no electricity, and they passed their days playing with their cousins and helping with the chores.
“I felt safe. The whole family was there.” On April 6, 1994, just as the family was about to go to bed, the radio delivered news to her aunt’s kerosene-lamp lit living room: the president had died in a plane crash.
“Mom screamed and was like ‘We’re gonna die, we are all going to die!’” says Ingabire. Her mother, now nine months pregnant, knew the crash was a sign of worse things to come. For a while, though, Gitarama was calm. People kept going to the market, and Ingabire’s eldest cousin, Kagame, still ran his shop in the center of town. In late April, her mother gave birth to a son, Emmanuel, who became the family’s seventh member.
But the quiet was interrupted by a night-time visit from unknown men. Ingabire’s mother offered them money to leave but they were unmoved. “I heard one of the guys say, ‘You think we are after your money? You inyenzi!’ They called the family cockroaches, or inyenzi, made some threats, then left.”
After that, the family hid in the bush at night; the time when Interahamwe were most likely to come. “In the morning at six, we would come back home and take a shower. People would go to work and go to the market. But then at 6PM, everyone goes inside. Today, we would hide in the trees, tomorrow we would hide in an abandoned house,” she says. It was the rainy season, so often they would spend nights in wet clothes.
Then one day, Ingabire’s cousin, Kagame, didn’t come home from work. In the afternoon, the family heard that “Kagame is killed and they are circulating his body in
Gitarama city”. Suddenly, hiding out at night seemed pointless to her mother. So the family stayed at home that night – only to be invaded by another gang of strange men.
Seven of them surrounded Ingabire’s family as the youngest children slept. Ingabire, her seven older cousins, her two older sisters, her mother and her aunt stood in single
file in the front yard. The men chose their first victims: her older cousins, Rutajengwa and Rujira. “We are starting with these two,” they said, and led the boys away.
“I guess they were professional killers. We didn’t even hear a sound,” she recalls. The women were taken next, and one by one the entire family was led to the forest behind the house. Ingabire was the last. When the men picked her up, “my feet weren’t even touching the ground”. She remembers asking the men, “Where are you taking me?” Then came the moment when the men refused her offer of money. They continued to the bush, finally forcing her on the ground and lifting the spiked plank above her.
In the end, the men could not bring themselves to kill a 10-year-old girl, says Ingabire, who was the youngest family member on the lawn that night. They pointed her toward a hill and told her to flee to Mushubati, a place she did not know. She ran, but not far, and when she stopped, she could hear the voices of her family “crying, dying, I guess it was”.
“It’s the worst sound you can ever imagine,” she says.
Ingabire ran back to her aunt’s house where the baby, now just a month old, was crying. She thought it was her mother. “I went in calling, ‘Maman, Maman, Are you there? Maman, Maman’. She didn’t answer.”
That was the night when Ingabire became mother to her three younger siblings: baby Emmanuel, her eight-year-old brother and a sister who was about to turn three.
The next morning, the four children fled the house, taking nothing with them, and joined a procession of refugees walking to a church in the nearby village of Kabgai. For more than four months, they wandered, in search of safety. On the way to Gisenyi, two Hutu women took Ingabire’s brother, promising to care for him. The baby was left with an elderly woman in Gitarama.
Finally, in September, a full two months after the genocide had ended, Ingabire’s father found her and her sister in Goma, Zaire, where they had taken refuge. He took them home to Kigali – though their family home had been looted and burned to the ground. “There was nothing,” says Ingabire, not even a photograph of the mother and sisters she had lost in the genocide remained.
The months of the genocide were harrowing, and yet it is the aftermath – those days, when she returned to Kigali, that most haunt her today.  “My story and my experience during genocide, it was all about surviving, trying to get to the next point. What touched me a lot was life after, when we got back home [and] how it changed us.”
In 2010, Ingabire emigrated to the United States. She now lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children. She and the other family members who survived have never spoken with each other about what happened during the genocide. Even her father, who lives in Kigali, didn’t know her story until she spoke at the UN last year.

Blood And Tears Haunt A New Life  In New York

Five hundred years ago, Niccolo Machiavelli said it is much safer for a leader to be feared than loved. Anne Waiguru, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Devolution and Planning, is the kind of leader who elicits both love and fear.
Waiguru is spoken of as a combative, no-nonsense go-getter and hard-worker. Waiguru, the person, smiles, loves dancing, carries lunch to work and is a doting mother to three sons.
She is among six women in Kenya’s cabinet of 18 and the only female Cabinet Secretary in the Presidency. Outside the presidential framework, Waiguru wields considerable power and influence. Her docket has the largest budget in government – KSh84 billion ($967 million), controlling key government functions of devolution, public service management, economic planning, women, youth affairs, special programs, and arid and semi-arid land dockets.
Working with Waiguru is not for the faint-hearted. With a heavy docket to manage, she pushes hard and keeps long hours. Those who have worked with her describe her as detailed and forceful, breaking all barriers. A government officer who worked in one of the ministries under Waiguru says she rules with an iron fist, it is either her way or the highway.
Waiguru describes herself as “extremely focused, disciplined, hard-working, smart and flexible”.
“I am able to change when I discover I am going in the wrong direction,” she says.
She confesses to placing a very high premium on hard work, an attribute she inherited from her late father who was a police officer.
“He is the reason I am here. It didn’t matter where you ended up, discipline and standards were always a big deal to my father.” She studied in Kenya at the Egerton University for her under-graduation and later pursued a master’s degree in economic policy from the University of Nairobi.
Rolling up her sleeves is part of her character. While preparing for the launch of the KSh6 billion ($70 million) Uwezo (Swahili for empowerment) Fund meant for youth and women, she went to the venue on the eve of the event and did something that shocked her team.
“She practically showed us how she wanted the chairs arranged. They had to be the same without special preferences to the President, his Deputy or herself. She said uwezo is about empowerment and equality of Kenyans,” says Dennis Itumbi, Director, Digital, New Media and Diaspora in the Executive Office of the President.
Her hands-on personality is not only about work. She also sets the bar high for her sons.
“They have a strong personality for a mother and I spend a lot of time with them.” One of her sons is a musician and to support him, she also took up music lessons. Her youngest son, who is 10, wants to be President of Kenya and has even expressed his ambitions to his mother’s boss. The eldest, 19, is already running an IT business.
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Tears and Twitter
Now in her early 40s, Waiguru joined the public service under an initiative of the World Bank as a Technical Advisor to the Public Service Reform Secretariat in what was then the Cabinet Office. Prior to that, she had briefly worked at Citigroup NA.
After completing her term at the Reform Secretariat, Waiguru moved to head the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), to accelerate Kenya’s economic growth following the slump caused by the 2007/8 post-election violence.
At the helm of ESP, she was instrumental in ensuring all health centers had maternal units with beds.
“Many women in rural Kenya do not make it to a health center and give birth by the roadside. To avoid this, we tried to have them come to the health center every three weeks. We gave health workers bicycles and motorbikes to regularly check on expectant mothers at home. These are the things that keep me in public service.”
Waiguru confesses she did not nurse dreams of becoming a minister.
“The one thing I really wanted to be for a very long time, was a Permanent Secretary because it was the highest level a civil servant attained then that would allow me to influence policies,” she says.
After ESP, she moved on to become Director of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS). This was a defining moment in her career. She had to lead the implementation of financial policies and programs to ensure efficient and transparent use of government money.
The media described her cabinet appointment in April 2013 as ‘a meteoric rise’. Waiguru was a trailblazer in government reforms and had upset the status quo. The rumor mills on social media went on overdrive. Having worked with President Kenyatta while he was Finance Minister, her appointment was seen as a reward. She was seen as a woman who had suddenly risen from nowhere. The stories got to her.
“I cried and worried in the beginning until I got used to the newspaper articles. You are used to someone criticizing you positively but some people are outright nasty. I now read comments on Twitter and laugh.”
Looking back, she wishes she knew earlier on in her public service career about the need to have the skin of a rhino.
“People asked why I was given the position. The same was not asked about my [male] colleagues. When we [women] do very well, people are surprised. When men do very well, it was expected. I see it even now when people tell me that I am doing very well as if they did not expect me to. They would not be surprised if a man did the same.”
The appointment suddenly threw her in the limelight, but she has never been a public person.
“I am very good one-on-one and in the background. I would never take myself to the media and hence people did not know I existed.”
Waiguru says women have to work four times as hard as men to get recognition because the society is still patriarchal.
“For a woman, half the time you must have proved a point before you are even considered for a position. It is very rare to hear someone say a woman has potential. A woman has to have a few accomplishments.”
Despite the high expectations, Waiguru does not have sleepless nights.
“I am very conscious of the fact that I am human and have limitations, so I do the best I can. Once I have done all I can, I go home and sleep easy because even if I stay awake nothing is going to change anyway. When there is a crisis you will not find me worried. What is the worst that can happen in life?”
Waiguru has had days when Murphy’s Law applied. In November 2013, she had to manage a crisis after health workers went on strike for 11 days over devolution of services from national to county governments. There were reported deaths as hospital services were paralyzed. In January 2014, Waiguru had to flag off food aid to Turkana, in northern Kenya. The media described the drought as a national shame.
“I don’t think flagging off food was a shame. With disasters, the issue is when it happens, are you prepared for it? We were prepared, you did not hear us asking the private sector for money or food. We are still buying and distributing food.”
While putting her heart in her work, Waiguru says she is passionate but not attached.
“Serving in the public service changes the way you see things. When you are out there, you tell government what it can do better but when you are in here with all our problems no one will ever give you a pat on the back. Your passion drives you.”
As Waiguru marked one year in office in April, she says devolution will be her main success story. She wants Anne Waiguru to be synonymous with transformation.
“I want people to talk about my contribution to the transformation of Kenya because I was committed to it and I had the ability to make that a reality,” she says.

Loved And Feared In The Corridors  Of Power

When entrepreneur Maureen Dlamini took over as CEO of the Chamber of Mines of Zambia (CMZ), she had no idea what she was getting into. It’s arguably the toughest job in Zambia; running the lifeblood of the country – copper mining. Dlamini keeps the flow of private investors and government in line. What’s more, until two weeks into the job, she’d never been down a mine.
“It was 14 January, two weeks after I began as CEO, that I had my first taste of the mines. I was in awe. I looked at the size of the machinery and the size of the pit. It gave me a different perspective of the mines. Actually seeing it, I had a greater respect for investors. You really don’t know that you will get the return you anticipated. You are dealing with nature, you could have disasters, you could have flooding. To have enough faith to invest $2 billion when your return is not immediate, is something I learned to respect,” she says in her office in Lusaka.
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Copper. It is the industry that died and came back to life. Zambia has been exporting since the 1920s, but it’s been a rollercoaster ride complicated with colonial privatization, nationalization, and then privatization again.
According to the World Bank, Zambia has the largest known reserves of copper in Africa, 6% of the world resource. It means businesses are flocking to Zambia as if it were the days of the 1849 California Gold Rush.
For Dlamini, the job in mining is a far cry from what most people expected of her, she says. She worked in finance with the likes of Barclays, First Line of Africa and was the former Executive Head of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSE) Africa Board before moving to home, Zambia.
In Lusaka, she went into business with her brother to run Zambezi Airlines, a private airline, but the business failed to take off. Controversially, its operations were shut down by the government citing safety concerns. It went bankrupt in 2012 and Dlamini was thrown out.
“My agent just called me and said there was a job…I said yes I’ll try it.”
This was how Dlamini took the position of CEO of the CMZ; the rest was history. Dlamini even had to put her dreams of becoming an interior decorator on hold to take up the position.
“My real passion is interior decorating. I love event management. From here I could do it and work until 4AM. I would love to be able to do it at some time at my own pace. My friends say to me I love to challenge myself, and maybe that’s why I am in the mining sector,” she says.
Her first step was to Kansanshi mine, in Solwezi in the North Western Province. She traded arranging furniture to begin her new job in a hard hat and overalls. Now back in Lusaka, she wears a suit and is making a mark in the male-dominated industry.
“After a while, you get used to it. I think my background, especially in the JSE, is that I don’t feel the pressure. I had good mentors. If you are not going to do something don’t string me along. Don’t sit quietly and give me excuses later on. It’s just a waste of time and money.”
Kansanshi’s is a story of good news and the bad. Thanks to copper, Solwezi has become one of Africa’s fastest growing towns in a few short years. It was once a tiny village on the northern borders of Zambia 16 kilometers from the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo, 581 kilometers from Lusaka, and a million miles from the rest of the world.
According to research by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), mining is on the rise in 2012, 32% of tax revenue collected was from mining; in 2008, the percentage was half that. The bad news is that the mines have to deal with lack of infrastructure and skills development, says Dlamini.
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“It needs a combined effort, not just the mines. The local authority needs to play a significant role in terms of town planning, in terms of creating social services. If you look at the mines there, Solwezi is one of the richest authorities in terms of revenue from mining authorities. But the challenge is we don’t know if that money is remaining in Solwezi or is dispersed to other towns in the country. The infrastructure in Solwezi is non-existent. Everything is clustered around one street, because there is a lot of emigration, there are a lot of social evils coming into the town,”
says Dlamini.
According to Dlamini, the reliability of data collection from both government and private sectors is also hampering investors. The Zambian government records mining GDP contribution to be at 8% when it should be 12% when researched by the ICMM, she says.
“Our biggest challenge is changing the perception of the mines. We need to get the facts straight. This is the backbone of the economy. At the end of the day, it’s finding that balance where we don’t irritate investors and irritate the government,” she says.
Despite its challenges, Zambia has won back its claim to be the copper power house of Africa. At the helm is Dlamini. She might be new to the industry but she knows all about making money, taking risks and losing it all. There is no doubt that the mining companies and government will find her one tough nut to crack.

The Woman With  the toughest job

It was a cold morning in April, two weeks before the 2014 London Marathon. I was ready to take on the steep slopes of Mount Kenya near the town of Sagana, 210 kilometers from Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
Stretching and warming up, I eagerly waited to join Kenya’s First Lady Margaret Kenyatta at this high-altitude training camp. And when she showed up, what was meant to be a light 13 kilometer jog left me with a wonky knee and a sore back. By the time we reached the finish line, my body had given up.
But the first lady? At least once, I thought she would give up too, but the sprightly 50-year-old was more focused than anyone I had seen.
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Her focus was the streets of London, where she would take part in the 42 kilometer London Marathon, not to become yet another long-distance Kenya runner, but to promote a cause close to her heart. The cause: the ‘Beyond Zero Campaign’, a fund-raising initiative aimed at improving maternal and infant health in Kenya.
According to UNAIDS, in Kenya, as many as 5,500 women die annually due to pregnancy-related complications, and more than 100,000 children die every year by the age of five. Twenty percent of maternal deaths in the country are AIDS-related. The ‘Beyond Zero Campaign’ aims to improve maternal health care by ensuring accessibility to health facilities through mobile clinics, and prevention of mother-to-child disease transmission.
“There is simply no good reason why thousands of women and children in Kenya should die during child-birth today. This is unacceptable,” says Kenyatta.
“These are not just statistics. These are our fellow Kenyan sisters and children who die largely as a result of pregnancy and HIV-related complications that are preventable. It is just not acceptable with such worrying statistics to sit back and watch. This concerns the future of this nation, we had to take action.”
As in many African countries, Kenyan women face challenges in accessing healthcare facilities. Most of them have to travel long distances for them. The funds raised by ‘Beyond Zero’ will assist in the provision of mobile clinics, incubators, diagnostic kits for early infant testing of HIV, and oxygen concentrators.
“As a mother myself, it is worrying, it is heart-breaking. It is unnecessary for children to die through lack of medicine. I will do what I can to help,” says Kenyatta in her campaign message.
The campaign is targeting a total of $5.7 million and the first lady chose a marathon as a means to raise the funds.
“Marathon-running is a very Kenyan thing. As Kenyans, we are the undisputed kings and queens of road running. This is something that pushed my limits and took me out of my comfort zone, and something that has got Kenya and the world paying attention,” she says.
In March, she participated in the inaugural First Lady’s Half Marathon, a 21 kilometer race in Nairobi for the ‘Beyond Zero Campaign’. She then decided to take the cause to the world stage by participating in the
London Marathon.
The first lady finished the race in seven hours. At the finish line was her husband, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, waiting to receive her.
As expected, the Kenyans came tops in both the men’s and women’s elite races, with Wilson Kipsang (2hr 4min 29sec) and Edna Kiplagat (2hr 20min 21sec) taking first positions respectively.
No wonder the first lady completed the race with no qualms. She had trained with some of the world’s finest athletes, including Kipsang who is also the World Marathon holder and Florence Kiplagat, the World Half Marathon holder.
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Her team trainer is also one of the world’s champions, Douglas Wakiihuri. He won the 1987 World Championships in Athletics, the London Marathon in 1989 and the New York Marathon in 1990.
Wakiihuri was returning to London 25 years later at the age of 50, but this time for the course that he shared with the Kenyan first lady. He prepared her mentally and physically.
“We trained in a camp, same as the Olympic one. Her mental preparedness is basically that of an elite athlete which is very special,” said Wakiihuri of the first lady’s preparedness.
What made it even more commendable was that she was running and training for the first time.
“It has not been easy because none of my team members has run before. It’s very new for us and we are not that young,” says the first lady.
The team started training in November, walking at first, then jogging slowly before picking up pace. The challenges were waking up in the wee hours for intensive training and being away from their families. In the end, it all paid off.

The First Lady of the road

A deep horn blast was used in a slice of history at Africa’s biggest stock exchange. It was from the lungs of Rakesh Wahi, Founder and Vice Chairman of Africa Business News (ABN), signaling the opening of the bourse, as CNBC Africa crossed a new frontier in business broadcasting on the continent.
CNBC Africa – the sister of FORBES AFRICA in the ABN stable – became the first African broadcaster to beam shows from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). It came on the eve of the company’s seventh anniversary.
“It’s an exciting time; I haven’t stopped smiling since yesterday. It is to the credit of the people around you who have all done a fantastic job,” says Wahi.
CNBC Africa is emulating the example of CNBC in the United States (US), which has broadcast from the New York Stock Exchange since 1995. This move is all part of a bigger plan.
“Our vision is to be in all 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We have to be in all the major exchanges and report from the smaller ones. We need to be able to integrate all these exchanges through information flows. We need to be able to go out and educate people about what markets are,” says Wahi.
The new studio is state of the art. It includes an eight cube video wall, six interview positions and robotic cameras – which will be fully controlled out of the gallery and will minimize additional camera crew. The main anchor desk, resembling a star, is a copy of the one used both in Europe and the US.
It will host Open Exchange, Power Lunch and Closing Bell, with regular crossings to Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius, Uganda, Zambia, Namibia, Rwanda, Mozambique, Botswana, Gabon and Ghana.
Jean Landsberg, the head of technical and operations for the ABN Group, traveled to New York and Singapore to check out the latest technology.
“When I traveled to the SGX in Singapore and New York, I got an idea how they put their infrastructure in place… whereas Singapore still link in to their [stock exchange], from the main studio, we will be actually running everything and all the operations from the JSE studios. So it’s a little more advanced than what Singapore is doing,” says Landsberg.
LED technology will be used to reduce the power consumption by the studio lights and the video wall. Landsberg says, as time goes by, small technological frills will be added.
The new technology is in the interest of keeping business people better informed about what’s happening inside Africa’s biggest bourse.

On The Pulse Of The Markets

The Mandela Moment
It was Winnie Mandela’s first public appearance after the death of her former husband Nelson Mandela in December. Arriving at Orlando High School, she was welcomed by cheering crowds, African National Congress officials and photographers as she made her way through the gates ahead of the line and into the voting station. Mandela, seen here with South Africa’s Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu, left as quickly as she came, rushing off to Bekkersdal, where incidents of violence had been reported on the eve of the elections.
‘My Vote Is My Vision’
Twenty-year-old Bridgette Mashile cast her vote at Jules High School.
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“I just couldn’t wait to mark ‘X’ on the ballot paper because I already knew which political party I was voting for when the day finally came. Voting for the very first time has really had an impact on my life. The ink on my finger is good proof that I am now old enough to make my own decisions, especially how I would like my country to be run.”
For Madiba’s Legacy
The fact that she is blind did not stop 52-year-old Elizabeth Malebo of Alexandra township from participating. Malebo is grateful for the social grant she receives every month.
“Before 1994, black people were deprived of so many opportunities but the people who suffered the most were those living with disability like me.  I will continue to vote in honor of Madiba’s legacy.”
Grateful For Democracy
Patricia Abrahams, 53, has never missed a chance to vote in the past 20 years and is grateful for the opportunities of democracy.
“It is always the thought of the sacrifices of our late president, Nelson Mandela, that encourages me to vote. Apartheid had deprived us of the opportunities we now enjoy. I live in a previously so-called ‘white neighborhood’, an opportunity my parents’ generation never experienced. As an arthritis patient, I have the right to better medical treatment at any hospital without being discriminated.”
The Mandela Moment
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It was Winnie Mandela’s first public appearance after the death of her former husband Nelson Mandela in December. Arriving at Orlando High School, she was welcomed by cheering crowds, African National Congress officials and photographers as she made her way through the gates ahead of the line and into the voting station. Mandela, seen here with South Africa’s Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu, left as quickly as she came, rushing off to Bekkersdal, where incidents of violence had been reported on the eve of the elections.
‘My Vote Is My Vision’
Twenty-year-old Bridgette Mashile cast her vote at Jules High School.
“I just couldn’t wait to mark ‘X’ on the ballot paper because I already knew which political party I was voting for when the day finally came. Voting for the very first time has really had an impact on my life. The ink on my finger is good proof that I am now old enough to make my own decisions, especially how I would like my country
to be run.”
For Madiba’s Legacy
The fact that she is blind did not stop 52-year-old Elizabeth Malebo of Alexandra township from participating. Malebo is grateful for the social grant she receives every month.
“Before 1994, black people were deprived of so many opportunities but the people who suffered the most were those living with disability like me.
I will continue to vote in honor of Madiba’s legacy.”
The Art Of War 2.0
In the run-up to the recent South African elections, social media emerged a winner.
When Sun Tzu penned The Art of War, he probably had South Africa’s 20th democratic elections in mind. Never has the importance of military positioning been more important. Forget the rallies, the posters, the promises and speeches that either roused emotion deep in our bellies or left us reaching for the mute button. This war was not just about these traditional weapons of battle but for the first time saw political parties enter the social media ring in a fight for followers, likes, and retweets.
The dust has now settled. The bruised, the battered, and the victorious have claimed their places. South African political parties have certainly latched onto the hype of social media with the top four performers in the election, the African National Congress, Democratic Alliance, Economic Freedom Fighters and Inkatha Freedom Party, all ramping up their online artillery in the build-up to the elections.
The social media whirlwind has been an unmatched phenomenon that has changed electioneering tactics forever. It’s hard to believe that in 2007, when Barack Obama first made his presidential intentions known, iPhones did not exist, Twitter was the new cool kid on the block and Facebook had a mere 50 million users. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that the ‘twittersphere’ has proven to be a reflection of national opinion and that Facebook has become the go-to space to talk party policies and how they are intended to shape our future.
South African political parties have woken up to the fact that in addition to posting the last weekend’s party photos, young people are gravitating to social media to voice their political opinions. The unwritten rules of the social media game open up a space for peer-to-peer engagement (arguably the most effective tool of influence), where the playing field is leveled in 140 characters, and where thought-leadership is not the preserve of a handful of insiders.
For the technophobes who haven’t embraced social media yet, consider this: Johannesburg has the highest number of Twitter users in Africa. South Africa has consistently recorded on average 100,000 new Twitter users every month in the past three years. In the 2008 elections, Obama claimed 70% of all the votes of people under the age of 25. According to the United Nations Population Fund, 88% of young people in South Africa have access to a landline, a mobile phone, or the Internet. You do the math. Social media in electioneering has very little to do with technology and everything to do with social behavior.
Like a first date, our political parties’ soirée with social media has been hesitant and somewhat cautious. As we build up to 2019, political parties that are the keenest to get to second and third base will be building their social media budgets, finding the right expertise, and ultimately claiming more virtual and ballot box votes.

The Poll Picture

You started as a schoolteacher. How did you get into development work?
South Africans of my generation were born into a situation that required us to take a stand. Some of us were lucky to be in communities where there were opportunities for us to be involved in charity and development work. The organization that gave me the first insight about my community was the YWCA, because my mother was a member. She was my role model as she was involved in community work. A lot of women were quietly making a difference. They were ordinary women doing extraordinary things during the apartheid days. They were filling the gap to provide services the system was not providing in black townships. Many of them worked in communities to get women to grasp the fact that spacing children will give them the freedom to be productive citizens, further their education and take time to become leaders.
How much of a challenge is reproductive health today in Africa?
Reproductive health continues to be one of the biggest issues of our time. Many of the girls start their journey to poverty at a very early age. It is usually because of unmet needs of reproductive health, and lack of access to services and in some cases, the challenge of reproductive rights that are violated: it could be rape and denial of services, therefore at an early age, they end up having children they cannot afford to look after. And as soon as that happens, they have signed a contract with poverty forever. They have also introduced poverty in the next generation, as it is most likely that the children they have will also be poor.
At another level is the prevalence of early marriages, one of the biggest challenges we have in the 21st century. They are sanctioned by parents and traditional leaders and we have inadequate response and action by governments. Many of the children who have early marriages are never going to take full advantage of their potential. A young girl who has the capacity to be a great scientist loses all of it, because at age 12, she is married to a 40-year-old. In many situations, the girls are married off to people they don’t know. So their emotional wellbeing is completely ignored.
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What about the missing Nigerian girls?
What has happened to the girls in Nigeria is in many ways a reflection of this crisis. What we are experiencing is modern-day slavery – the trafficking of young girls abducted in their communities. We are doing it to ourselves as Africans, we are taking our own children and abducting them and selling them and all of us who condemn slavery as nations of the world are not there to make sure this practice is not allowed to thrive on our continent or anywhere in the world. We have to find a way of making this a global responsibility, and not just the responsibility of the nation where it happens.
We are establishing a partnership with African Development Bank and will be working in post-conflict countries to support the recovery of women so they have the means to rebuild their lives and the community. The majority of women in Africa work in agriculture. Statistics [reveal] that if we show the same amount of support to women in agriculture, it will positively impact 150 million people on the continent.
What about issues of public health?
In some countries [in Africa], mothers and children die under circumstances that are preventable. Public education and access to public health is growing on the continent, there are many good stories of economic opportunities for women in ecotourism, sustainable development and the knowledge economy. For all these decisions to become public norms, you need all of society to buy into the changing circumstances. You need the man to be a part and parcel of this. For International Women’s Day 2014, our program ‘He For She’ called for men to come out and share their views on why gender equality is important and what they can do about it, in their companies and communities.
What is the global perception
of Africa?
It is by and large negative. We are not hearing enough about women who are breaking the glass ceiling and are change-agents. We don’t hear enough about Rwanda, where the parliament has the highest female participation. There are an outstanding number of women who are passing laws in Nigeria.
More should be done to ensure girls do not stay out of school. The education is also about curriculum, and to produce teachers who do not propagate stereotypes. And [the need] is to have a labor market that has equal pay for men and women.
You have been SA’s Deputy President. Would you ever be keen on making it as its first female President?
There are a lot more capable women.
When it happens, it will be a great day for South Africa and I will be cheering and supporting them.
&#8211; Interviewed by Methil Renuka

‘Take Time To  Become Leaders’

It takes weeks to secure an appointment with Nigeria’s high-profile Director-General of the Securities &amp; Exchange Commission (SEC). And when we do, it’s on a public holiday.
Walking into Arunma Oteh’s office in the country’s capital Abuja is like walking into a trophy store: shiny medals, mementoes, plaques and trophies take up an entire wall.
One glance is enough to convey the success of Nigeria’s tough-talking chief capital market regulator. A career she couldn’t have imagined.
As a child, Oteh wanted to be an inventor. A proud workaholic, she puts her discipline down to her sound upbringing.
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“My parents were really stern but also loving, and for my two sisters and I, the constant quest for knowledge and excellence was firmly rooted in this background. They had such a great sense of character and the courage to be different and standing up for what was right regardless of the cost. I believe they instilled this in me. My childhood is really what has made me who I am today,” says Oteh.
It was tough being the daughter of a father who had exalted expectations. Once, she ran home elated, report card in hand. She had big news.
“Dad, I did it, I came first in class!”
One look at her report, and her father said: “Great, but next time, you have to be first plus plus.”
Such was Oteh’s family. They looked down on mediocrity and believed in brilliance. Hailing from the southeastern part of Nigeria, Oteh grew up in Kano, northern Nigeria.
Oteh’s mother, a nurse, wanted her to become a medical doctor, her father, an engineer, wanted her to take on his profession. But Oteh had other interests. She recalls fondly her obsession to become an inventor. Computer science was in its infancy in the 1980s; she loved the sciences and believed she could become a pioneer. So she studied computer science.
In 1984, Oteh graduated top of her class and faculty from the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, after which she taught computer science to first year university students as part of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), a compulsory government program for Nigerian graduates.
After NYSC, she went to Lagos and was interviewed for jobs. The offers came thick and fast, and she decided to work for Centre Point, a stockbroking firm, because she admired Dennis Odife, the owner of the company and a highly respected businessman.
“I was impressed with what he had done with the company and what he had become. It was an amazing decision and defined what I ended up doing later in life. I was hired at the time to start the management information systems department but few months into that role, he thought it would be good for me to work in corporate finance. That’s how I got into finance and got really excited about it too,” says Oteh.
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Oteh’s fascination for her new found career grew and she explored the next step for growth. Her mentor, Odife, had been to the prestigious Columbia Business School in the United States. And she saw this as a must.
She started reading up about business schools and applying in her first year at Centre Point. The acceptance letters poured in. And she made it through the selection process at Harvard Business School.
“My father had always said, if you do well, you can always get what you want,” says Oteh.
Oteh worked in the United Kingdom for some time and flew to Harvard in September 1988. Here, she found herself surrounded by intelligent people and erudition.
“Business school was amazing. The case study methodology employed at Harvard also helped hone my skills in decision-making and problem-solving. This is an environment that prepares you to take on the world. I was very interested in finance. As the first Nigerian woman in the Harvard Business School MBA program, my class mates were quite wowed and thought I was a princess.”
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It all led to a career as Director-General of the SEC, a post she has held since January 2010.
This is merely one of the many hats she wears. She was also elected Chairperson of the Africa Middle East Regional Committee (AMERC) of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) in June 2010. She is a member of the Nigerian Economic Management team and serves on the board of a number of organizations including the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) and Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
Today, Oteh is charged with transforming the Nigerian capital markets and unlocking the country’s economic potential.
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Her appointment four years ago came at a crucial time, on the heels of the global financial crisis. Nigeria’s stock market had fallen 70% from its peak in March 2008. Investor confidence was low. There was need for change and a tough regulator.
By the time she started, Oteh already had a wealth of experience and believed she had the panacea.
Her message to the people was to save and invest wisely. To the policy makers, she preached against depending on short-term bank finance, and in favor of medium and long-term finance to fund infrastructure.
“Having that crisis helped, because people had seen what could go wrong. The environment to support a tough reform agenda was present as they could see the importance of a regulator that would do its job. When I joined, the vision was for the SEC to be the best regulator in Africa and I said, ‘best regulator in Africa?’ That’s not ambitious enough. Our aim should be to be the best regulator in the world. Nobody invests in a particular market because they love it. They are more interested in the safety and security of their funds. In that case, it is important to build a market that can stand globally acclaimed. This isn’t possible without integrity,” says Oteh.
Oteh was ready to put her money where her mouth was in an arduous revamp of the Nigerian capital markets.
It wasn’t going to be easy.
“That led us to alleging that 260 individuals and entities had carried out different forms of market abuse. The second thing was to focus on the Exchange. Nigeria had one operational exchange and being a visible symbol of our market, it was very important to ensure that we address the challenges of the Exchange because then, we develop the industry of fund and asset managers and develop the fixed income bond market to the point where it became easier for people
to borrow.”
Thanks to her efforts, today, she has the likes of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which launched a successful bond last year. She has also been able to regulate over-the-counter markets.
“We have two platforms, the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), which targets unlisted securities so there is more efficient trading in those securities or the platform sponsored by the financial market dealers association which does wholesale trading in Federal Government bonds. Also, introducing new instruments like Islamic finance products, and encouraging real estate investment trusts,” she says.
With all these feats and more under her belt, Oteh believes there is still more to do, and with careful execution, it’s only a matter of time before all her boxes are ticked.
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There have also been some dark days along the way for Oteh, as in 2012, the board of the SEC had directed her to go on compulsory leave, following a probe into the near collapse of the capital markets and allegations of misappropriation of funds and disharmony in the apex capital market regulator.
Oteh fought the system tooth and nail and went to great lengths to expose inadequacies in the structure, accusing the Chairman of the House of Representatives of the Nigerian capital market of corruption and unaccountability in a heated exchange at the public inquiry.
Following a two-month suspension, Oteh was cleared of all allegations and went back to her job as Director-General.
“I was angry that a system that is so well-endowed was being managed irresponsibly. I had also built a longstanding career and reputation over 22 years anchored on excellence. I knew there would be risks attached to fighting back and that I would be misunderstood but I also felt that standing up for what was right, far outweighed any costs attached for me. If I didn’t do it, who would?” she told FORBES WOMAN AFRICA.
Prior to her appointment at the SEC, Oteh was Vice President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), and was at the forefront of internal reforms that scaled up the bank’s response to Africa’s development challenges.
She had also served as the bank’s Group Treasurer for five years, managing a portfolio of assets and liabilities worth billions of dollars. In her years at AfDB, she restored its ‘AAA’ rating by Standard &amp; Poor’s.
“Some of my most fascinating experiences were that people were just so excited to hear about Africa – there was such a curiosity about the continent. At the time, AfDB was a ‘AAA’-rated institution and we would go to sell AfDB bonds in Japan. People were relatively familiar with why we were so highly rated. So, most people felt very comfortable with the credit when you sold bonds – they knew there was no risk,” she says.
Oteh had also started the Euro currency programmes while at AfDB.
This great adventure with AfDB began post-Harvard, following a year’s project with the Harvard Institute for International Development assessing the competitiveness of manufacturing in West Africa. She had interviewed at AfDB where she got hired into the West and North Africa portfolios in 1992. She covered Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana and Sudan, traveling in these countries.
After being away from her home country for 22 years, Oteh, a proud patriot, believes there is no place like Nigeria. She is highly optimistic.
“There are no countries that have taken the bold steps we have in the financial sector in the last few years,” she says.
As her current term draws to an end in January 2015 – and that’s also when she will be turning 50 – Oteh and her team, are working tirelessly still, raising the bar and repositioning the face of the Nigerian capital market globally. It is yet to achieve demutualization and this is a direction the institution would like to steer towards.
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Oteh is also passionate about mentoring young girls, and advocacy. She holds a strong view on women’s place in society, drawing attention to the low number of women in key positions and boards.
“Equal opportunities should exist in the work place. A meritocracy where the best suited and qualified individual gets the job is also as vital.”
She also believes in a great support system and that young women should have self-belief.
“Successful leaders should pave the way for younger women to climb the corporate ladder through mentorship and coaching,” she says.
On career and family, Oteh, who acknowledges devoting her life to career, says she wouldn’t do it differently.
They call her the ‘Iron Lady’ for her tough decision-making.
“If leading change, being passionate, resilient and decisive about a great course is what makes me an iron lady, then I proudly raise my hand up high to that tag,” says Oteh.
She has come a long way from Kano. Oteh is not telling us what her plans are post her current assignment, but we are sure to hear more about her in the news.

From College Princess  To Queen  Of The Markets

In 1998, approximately two hours since I had passed the front gate of the United States (US) Embassy in Nairobi, a huge blast ripped through the building at 10.35AM.
The embassy was situated next to the busy road that I would take every day to and from journalism school. The bomb was targeted at the US embassy, but Ufundi House next door, which houses small offices and a secretarial college, took the brunt of the explosion.
The journalism school was about five kilometers away from the city center and I remember being in a usual morning lecture when I heard a loud bang.
Being young and curious, we rushed to the scene of the blast where rescue workers were trying desperately to dig their way into the wreckage to reach dozens of people trapped inside.
The blast had almost leveled the five-storey Ufundi House and caused extensive damage to the embassy. The scene was chaotic, people running in all directions. The roads were even more chaotic, cars driving in the wrong lanes with their lights on. People who did not know what had happened thought that the government had been overthrown and there was heavy fighting in the city center.
Nairobi was in mayhem. What do you do? Where do you start from? Who do you call? I had two brothers and a sister in Nairobi but there was no way of reaching them, telephones were down and transport was non-existent. I felt helpless and horrified.
Back at the scene, a lady covered in blood tells her story to the media.
“I heard a loud bang then the whole place was shaking and within a split second glass was falling on my head,” she said.
Ambulances, firefighters, army and police frantically attended to bodies, both dead and injured, burnt buses and cars, and damaged buildings. It is a scene that has stayed with me for a very long time. The first question that I asked myself was, ‘What did we do to deserve such a violent attack?’
As a dense plume of smoke soared above the skyline, hundreds of people fled the scene while thousands rushed towards it to see what had happened. The city quickly became logjammed, causing further problems for ambulances and rescue workers.
The charred bodies lay in the street near mannequins blown out of nearby shop windows. Scores of people were seen covered in blood from injuries caused by flying glass.
After spending four hours at the scene, I picked myself up and started walking home. Along the way, information started coming through. The death toll was 207 Kenyans and 12 US citizens. More than 1,000 had been injured.
In the blink of an eye, the Al Qaeda terrorist group announced its presence in East Africa, and brought the group’s leader Osama Bin Laden to the attention of the US government.
Terrorism has taken another dimension since then. Kenya’s security forces have struggled to contain an evolving terrorist threat and much of the focus has been on Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militants, who use Kenya to seek out new recruits and financing.

Horror in Nairobi

It’s a rare cold and windy Saturday afternoon for Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, a seaside city known for its year-round summer days. Around 100 people and their dogs making noise of 1,000, braved the weather at Kings Park for Durban club College Rovers against Welkom Rovers.
Among the 30 men pounding the turf was Jongi Nokwe, once the most expensive and exciting player in South Africa. In his heyday, Nokwe had one thing that all rugby players, envy – speed. He could run 100 meters in 10.4 seconds.
It was August 30, 2008 at Ellis Park stadium, in Johannesburg when Nokwe did the damage with four tries in 55 minutes.
“No man, that was a long time ago, 2008. I have long passed that. The feeling was great at the time, I was not playing for the record, I was enjoying my game,” says Nokwe.
Although a lot of time has passed since then, most fans have vivid memories of that day.
“I remember the long distance try. Jongi ran like he had stolen the ball and the police were chasing him down. He had incredible speed but the tries could not be classified the best ever. Not everyone scores a test try against the Aussies but Jongi crossed the line against them four times,” says Simnikiwe Xabanisa, the Sunday Times sports editor who was at Ellis Park that day.
“Coach Peter de Villiers was just appointed to the position. Being a black coach, he had all odds against him. To get the best out of a player you need to know which buttons to push, this is something white coaches didn’t understand about black players. De Villiers was able to get the best out of Nokwe… Peter was under a lot of pressure. He had lost the away games in Australia and New Zealand and needed a crucial win in Ellis Park. South Africa won 53-8.”
Thirty-two-year-old Nokwe played four tests for South Africa in 2008 and 2009, Australia was the third. With the glory, came pain. Seconds after the fourth try, Nokwe was stretchered off with an ankle injury. Damage born in the joy of success; that troubles him to this day.
A career plagued by bad luck had its good luck too. In 2004, former Springbok coach Jake White picked Nokwe from nowhere &#8211; small country union Boland Cavaliers. White had plans to play Nokwe in the 2007 World Cup, but the winger had to wait until August 2008 for his debut against Argentina under Peter de Villiers.
Another blow for Nokwe, De Villiers was forced to drop him from the World Cup squad in 2011 because of injury, just weeks before the tournament.
“I have come to peace with the way my rugby career has been. I have enjoyed myself in topflight rugby, it was a wonderful experience. I have now found home with the team, this is where I will be dedicating my last days of playing,” says Nokwe.
On that Saturday, before a small crowd, Nokwe picked up the ball in his half and outran everyone for a brilliant try that sealed the win. He was so far ahead, he walked the last few yards.
Although Nokwe does not write off his chances of scraping back into topflight rugby, he says he wants to first win the national Community Cup. But it was not to be, despite beating Welkom, College Rovers finished fourth. This was a disappointing result for the Durban side that finished runners-up to Despatch from Port Elizabeth, in the inaugural tournament last year.
Kaizer Chiefs sevens coach and former Springbok player, Gcobani Bobo, played a part in Nokwe’s move from the Falcons Rugby Union in Gauteng province to Durban. During the offseason in December, Nokwe plays for the Kaizer Chiefs sevens team, an offshoot of the famous football club, in George in the Western Cape. Former South African cricketer, Makhaya Ntini, is the manager.
Guiding the 115-year-old College Rovers is another former professional player, a winger for the Sharks, Dutsy Noble, from Stellenbosch. Noble also represented South Africa in the sevens version of the sport.
“At 29, I have my first day job as an HR personnel. This is something I never planned but I am working hard to adjust from the many years of changing-rooms to the boardroom. Playing rugby is an addiction, but this is my next chapter in life,” says Noble.
The two experienced players are valued members of the squad.
“Jongi and Dusty Noble are two different characters. Each brings their different expertise to the youngsters in the club. Jongi does not speak all the time but when he starts talking everyone listens. He has that aura,” says Brian Batesman, head coach for College Rovers.
“It is our goal to strive to get players with wonderful experience. We are not a professional team like the Sharks, we can’t put our players on salaries but we look after them. Maybe we have the responsibility to facilitate for them to access work.”
The club’s investment in professional players gives it the edge. College Rovers have been rampant for the few past few years with a team of office workers, security personnel and students.
“I was an 18-year-old kid when Jongi demolished the Aussies. At the time, I couldn’t imagine I will one day play with him in the same team. I feel even more privileged that he’s my neighbor and a big brother. It’s an eye opener to have someone of his stature in your midst,” says lock forward Sanele Sibanda.
Sibanda is one of the two Zimbabwean professionals in the team, he has eight national caps. He says playing for the club will improve his chances of international rugby.
“It is very physical here, it’s a different environment all together. I have grown since coming here,” says Sibanda.
Xabanisa met Nokwe in his birthplace Keiskammahoek, where they were born in the Eastern Cape. Nokwe was a promising athlete breaking school track records. Xabanisa thinks Nokwe was not well looked after by the game. When Nokwe was in his prime, there was little money in rugby.
With the pace Nokwe had, he could have easily made a career in 200 meters or 400 meters track racing but he loved rugby and enjoyed playing it, says Xabanisa.
“Whoever was responsible did not do a good job. The teams he won games for had a responsibility to look after him, to equip him for life after rugby. That’s how you deal properly with your players. One thing about the sports career, there’s no guarantee,” he says.
“The train is never too late to prepare yourself for two careers.”
Nokwe, the conqueror of the Aussies, is working on both.

Whatever Happened To The African Who Destroyed The Aussies?

All over the world, it is every professional football player’s dream to represent his country. In South Africa, Aaron Mokoena stands head and shoulders above the rest as the only player to earn a century of international caps. The 107 times that Mokoena ran onto the pitch with a Bafana Bafana shirt on his back proves that he is one of the greatest defenders African football has seen.
“Every game that I played for Bafana Bafana meant a lot to me and I gave my best whenever I put on the national team jersey. I am aware that I have a record as the country’s most capped player. That is a great honor for me and I am very excited about it. I used to cope well whenever I was marking top strikers from other countries because I was a dedicated defender. I played under many different coaches in the national team and I respected their position. Carlos Alberto Parreira really inspired me. He used to guide us well so that players could complement each other and win together as a team, ” says Mokoena, who led his country at a World Cup.
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“It is very important for the youngsters to be disciplined and focused when they want to achieve a lot with the national team like I did. They need to take their soccer career seriously, they need to work hard at training and put that extra effort in order to be competitive during the games,” he says.
Mokoena, who grew up as an Orlando Pirates supporter, has come a long way from the dusty streets of Boipatong, south of Johannesburg, when Jomo Sono identified his talent as a youngster. He only played few games for Sono’s club Jomo Cosmos before he went overseas.
Mokoena admired former South African captain Lucas Radebe and the impact he had made at Leeds United in England. It was the inspiration Mokoena used during his playing spells in Holland, Germany, Belgium and England. Playing in the English Premier League was a massive boost for his career as he consistently shone for both Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth. Playing in the FA Cup final against Chelsea in 2010 is one of the highlights of his career.
“I stayed for a short time at Cosmos and it was a good experience for me. I learned certain aspects of the game and the basics while I was at Cosmos. I was prepared to succeed wherever I went.”
Playing abroad would offer him a tougher challenge and Mokoena relished it.
“I had strong character and that is why I managed to handle the situation of living in the different countries abroad. I was very young but I dealt well with the challenges that I faced like the weather and the different languages,” says Mokoena, who was also honored with the Freedom of the City of London.
“I understood my position as a professional player. I understood that I needed to deliver whenever I got the opportunity. No matter who I teamed up with, I had to make sure that I helped the team get good results.
“Playing in England was a big step for me because I was playing in one of the best leagues in the world. The standard in England is very high and it is very competitive and I am happy that I made an impact at Blackburn and Portsmouth.”
When he returned to South African football at club level he was determined to give back at Premier Soccer League (PSL) club Wits.
“Coming back to play in South Africa again was a good feeling for me. I had some offers to go to other countries but I decided to come back home because of the professional structure and the good set-up at Wits.
“It was very encouraging to play alongside the players like Tinashe Nengomasha at Wits because he is a hard worker and he had the winning mentality.”
Captaining South Africa at the World Cup on home soil in 2010 was one of Mokoena’s proudest moments but it also provided his biggest disappointment when Bafana Bafana failed to qualify for the second round. He felt the team could have progressed further in the competition considering they were the host nation and they had massive support from home fans.
On the pitch, Mokoena had a reputation as a tenacious and tough tackler. It led to him being nicknamed Mbazo, which translated into English means the Axe. Off the pitch, he is humble and down to earth. He also feels the need to give back to the community. His Aaron Mokoena Foundation contributes to the underprivileged and donates much-needed sport equipment to schools.
“As a person I feel blessed with all that I have achieved. It is very important for me to make a difference to the community through my foundation. When I have a chance to help wherever I can, I do,” he says.
Two historic clubs in South African football, Kaizer Chiefs and Jomo Cosmos, were formed by former players Kaizer Motaung and Jomo Sono. Now it’s Mokoena’s turn to prove himself as a club owner. His passion for football is undeniable and running a team allows him to still be involved. He currently owns The Birds, a team that competes in the third division. He is also in negotiations to take over a second division side, the Vaal Legends.
“I feel there is a lot that I can offer as a club owner. There is a lot of talent in Boipatong and the entire Vaal area so I am determined to add value to the region.
“I am a very ambitious person and I feel very confident that I will succeed as a club owner because of my experience, passion and hard work.
“The development of soccer at the third division and second division level is very important. At The Birds I am the chairman and I am very committed to my duties. When the team is playing, I am around to give the players the necessary motivation. It is very important to have high spirit in the team. I communicate well with the players and I understand what they need. I make them aware of how they have to handle different kinds of situations in football.
“It is still early, however, I feel very optimistic that we will go far and achieve the goals that we set for ourselves.”
Mokoena, who drives top of the range cars, is a good role model for youngsters in the area. He is also always willing to give them advice.
Development at a grass-root level is vital to improve South African football. The South African Football Association (Safa), the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and the sports ministry should recognize the efforts former players like Mokoena. They are investing their own money in the game to take the game to a higher level.
The Axe is diving into this challenge with as much gusto as he did when he was facing top strikers around the world.

The Axe Grinds  Out His Goals

The goalkick sends the ball swirling into the air. It rises far into The Birds Football Club’s half. Almost a hundred spectators cheer as it plummets earthwards.
The wind picks up as two players jump for the ball. Instead of a graceful header, there is the ungraceful crunch of heads. The players land in a heap. The ball soars over. The crowd collectively grasp their own heads screaming ‘Eiiiisshhhh’. The Birds’ coach gets up, walks up to the crumpled players, shows them to the bench and then tells the referee to get on with it.
It’s been a tough afternoon for The Birds. Nothing seems to be going their way. The pitch is bumpy. Wind sprays red dirt in their eyes. The wind also pulls at the nets every now and then, forcing the goalkeepers to put it back into place.
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The match didn’t look good before a ball was kicked. The Birds got lost trying to find the ground. It’s not your usual football pitch. The field is squeezed at the back of a shopping plaza, between a taxi rank and a pen that has sheep, goats and a cow eating rubbish.
This is The Scientists Football Club home ground in Sebokeng, 60 kilometers from Johannesburg, and as far from the World Cup as you can get. But it’s football crazy. Hundreds watch teams they don’t even know. For the band of gangly high school hopefuls of The Birds, it’s just another game in the SAB League, the third tier of South African football.
Before the Birds saw their coach on the touchline, they saw him on television. Aaron Mokoena is the former captain of South Africa. Sebokeng is a far cry from the lush green grass of Soccer City where Mokoena led Bafana Bafana in the 2010 World Cup. You could argue he’s light years away from Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth where he was making £10,000 ($17,000) a week in the English Premier League. Now the man known as Mbazo needs his cutting edge to inspire The Birds on a field that’s more dust than grass.
“Guys, we have 45 minutes left. What do we do when we don’t have the ball? Put pressure. What do we do when we have it? Keep it… and have fun,” says Mokoena.
It was on even dustier pitches where Mokoena learnt to kick a ball. He grew up playing in Boipatong, 13 kilometers from Sebokeng, until Jomo Sono, another African footballer who made his fortune overseas, spotted him and convinced him to play for Jomo Cosmos. Mokoena then went to Ajax’s youth academy in Amsterdam after a grueling stint with African youth teams. Now he’s trying to do the same for others.
“I grew up here, and now it’s my chance to pay back the people who spotted me when I was young. I have had a side here for a number of years, but now I have the time to help develop them personally. There is so much talent here and it’s my goal to help local development feed into the provincial system.  If I could make it to where I got, I don’t see why I can’t help these boys get there. Sometimes you just need someone with a name to talk to the right people,” says Mokoena.
The coach also runs two other development academies; one in South Africa, the other in Britain. Until a few months ago, Mokoena couldn’t even imagine being a coach.
“When I would tour with teams I could never see myself in that position. Now I see that my experiences on the pitch are so valuable as a coach. You can’t beat that experience,” he says.
Mokoena has got plenty of it. From the age of 18 he was playing for South Africa. He also holds the record for the most Bafana Bafana appearances at 107, 63 of them as captain.
He might not hold many coaching accolades as yet, but he is set to change that. Mokoena has pinned his hopes on a few hopefuls in an amateur side to get there. One could say it’s a small step for Mokoena but a long flight for The Birds.

The Fledgling Birds And  The Million Dollar Brother

The 2014 FIFA World Cup presents Africa with another chance to showcase its talent on the global stage and highlight the great strides that football has made on the continent.
It would be fair to say that the performances of the African teams in 2010 were disappointing, except for Ghana, who were a Luis Suarez handball away from the semifinals.
For the rest of the teams – Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Algeria, Cameroon and hosts South Africa – it was an early first round exit.
All are back in 2014, except South Africa, and now older and wiser, fans should expect an improvement.
We could also see a new generation of African superstars emerge.
When looking for African players who could set the tournament alight, the choices are vast.
You would have to start with three of the greatest the continent has ever seen – Cote d’Ivoire legends Didier Drogba and Yaya Touré, as well as Cameroon forward Samuel Eto’o.
Touré may make the 2018 event, but Drogba and Eto’o are surely taking part in their swansong World Cup.
<div id="attachment_2847" style="width: 229px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2847" class="size-medium wp-image-2847" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/140620368-219x300.jpg" alt="" width="219" height="300" />MANCHESTER, ENGLAND &#8211; MARCH 03: Yaya Toure of Manchester City during the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers at the Etihad Stadium on March 3, 2012 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)</div>
The trio have won nine of the last 11 African Footballer of the Year prizes and in one of those years, 2007, it was handed to Frederic Kanoute when Drogba could not make the trophy presentation.
While Drogba’s best years are behind him, Touré is very much the man of the moment and his brilliant season with Manchester City makes him one to watch in Brazil.
Drogba could be used more as an impact player, but his experience and ability to conjure goals in moments of crisis is legendary. Perhaps Cote d’Ivoire might have made the second round four years ago had their talisman not been forced to play with a broken arm.
Eto’o is also not quite the master in front of goal of years gone by, but his guile and presence is enough to make him a danger for opposing defences.
These three have been the African giants of the past decade and will each be desperate to translate that into success come June and July.
But there are also other, less celebrated, players from the continent who could make names for themselves across the globe.
Ghana are a side packed with talent and players like Sulley Muntari, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Michael Essien and Kwadwo Asamoah are already household names.
But they have a young left-winger who has shown immense promise in recent times too, scoring almost every other game in his international appearances to date. Wakaso Mubarak plays for Rubin Kazan in the Russian Premier League and is a livewire with his pace and eye for goal. He will definitely get people talking.
Another to look out for is his compatriot Abdul Majeed Waris, a 22-year-old striker who cannot stop scoring for Valenciennes in the French Ligue 1 this season. He could be usurped by Asamoah Gyan if Ghana only play one striker, but could have an impact off the bench.
Cameroon wingback Allan Nyom showed in a recent friendly against Portugal that not only could he keep Cristiano Ronaldo quiet, but he is also a potent attacking threat.
He has spent the last five seasons on loan at Spanish La Liga side Granada, where he has honed his skills.
Another player on loan at Granada is Algerian playmaker Yacine Brahimi, who recently scored the winner against Barcelona. The former French junior international is in his second season in La Liga and grows every week, suggesting he will be a key element for the Algerians.
Cameroon striker Vincent Aboubakar went to the 2010 World Cup as an 18-year-old, but it was a little soon for the teenage prodigy. Now older and wiser, he has turned into a real goal-machine as Ligue 1 side Lorient have discovered.
Nigerian youngster Kenneth Omeruo may have been playing at English Championship side Middleborough on loan this season, but that is only because he is not deemed ready for the first team at Chelsea… yet.
However, the right-back, who can also play in the center of the defence, has been tipped as a future superstar and a good showing at the World Cup could accelerate his progress.
Super Eagles winger Victor Moses, on loan this past season at Liverpool from Chelsea, has talents that have been much admired, and soon the same may be said for Lazio midfielder Ogenyi Onazi. He has come through the ranks at the Italian side to stake a regular spot this season and also cement his place in the Nigerian starting line-up.
He played almost every minute of Nigeria’s run to last year’s Africa Cup of Nations title and was an unsung hero for them. His hard work got the team on the front foot and allowed stars such as Moses to weave their magic.
Let’s see what happens in the World Cup that is likely to belong to one of the South American countries. Anything that Africa does is a bonus because, once again, no one is giving us

African Stars To Shine Over Brazil

In a continent desperate for jobs, it is depressing to watch a once shining industry commit suicide. By May, it had cost the industry around $1.5 billion in production and a lot of credibility in the world market.
As I write, the platinum industry in South Africa has been on strike for nearly four months. More than 70,000 workers at Lonmin, Angloplats and Implats, which produce 40% of the world supply of platinum, are idle. The industry has all but closed for business thanks to an unsightly game of poker between the management and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu). The last time South African mines were idle for this long was during the Rand Revolt of 1922 when striking white miners fought soldiers through the streets of Johannesburg over plans to replace them with cheaper, black miners.
Nearly a century later, Amcu, the union representing the great-grandchildren of those black miners, wants the minimum wage to be more than doubled to R12,500 – that is around $1,200 a month. It called the strike on January 23 and is not going to call it off until the magic number is reached. In many ways, the survival of Amcu – which is trying to eclipse the old school National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) – hinges upon securing this demand.
The employers say no way. Wages make up more than half of platinum mining costs and the mines say they can’t afford it; they offer 9% and no more. The word in the industry is that the employers see this as a showdown and will not budge. Other employers in gold and coal look on nervously, fearing similar wage demands from their workers should the platinum employers cave in.
Amcu risks an exodus of its new found membership if it backs down.
It is a staring competition where there is only one certainty – the platinum industry will emerge much smaller and weaker. The analysts are talking about 20,000 job losses before the end of the year, even if the dispute is settled soon, with thousands more to follow. The employers will close marginal shafts and whole operations could shut up shop.
What a pity. For years, platinum has been the blue-eyed boy of the South African mining industry. It earned high prices on the world spot market. The advantage platinum enjoys over gold is that it is actually used and consumed, rather than sitting on the shelf of a bank vault. It goes into catalytic converters in cars, helps keep the air clean and is valuable in jewelry. This means it has always enjoyed better prices than gold.
But it appears the boom times for platinum may be over. The employers have drawn a line in the sand and will try to salvage what is left of the industry when this dispute is over.
Funnily enough, the strike has not had the drastic effect on price that many feared. The spot price appears to have remained fairly stable, despite the fact that this damaging strike has taken more than a million ounces out of the market.
Some analysts even believe that this strike will help getting supply and demand back into equilibrium. Oversupply was one of the big issues last year, as the car industry slowed down, and there were stockpiles built up, hence the fairly constant price. These stockpiles are running down, as the strike wears on, and employers are already warning customers that a dearth is on the way.
Job cuts are inevitable in platinum. The industry may be able to right itself ahead of the next spike in platinum demand.
But the damage to the image of the industry is likely to be deep and long term. Foreign investors will view the labor unrest with distaste and caution. The strike is likely to make any investor think twice before putting money into South African mining. It will also damage South Africa’s reputation as a solid supplier of platinum.
The South African government appeared ineffectual in its attempt to intervene and solve the dispute. In the run up to the elections, it appeared to have forgotten about the king sized problem of a shutdown of the platinum industry all together. Now it is re-elected for another five years, surely this is a time for action.

No Winners In The Battle Of Platinum

South Africa, a country heavily dependent on fossil fuels for its energy generation, is ranked 13th out of the 21 countries on KPMG’s 2013 Green Tax Index. The country releases 559 million metric tons of greenhouse gas a year and this figure is steadily rising. At a climate change conference in Copenhagen in 2009, South Africa committed to cutting emissions by 34%, by 2020.
Managing greenhouse gas (GHG) production can be done using tax levies or incentives. The South African government is proposing a mixture of the two. The tax can either be levied on upstream emission, which some companies can mitigate by changing the way they produce; on direct measured emissions or the downstream final product. Irrespective of the way in which the tax is implemented, it will eventually be passed through to the end user. Making a more pollutant end product more expensive will hopefully result in an environmental incentive for friendlier production.
Environmental tax isn’t new. The price of new cars already includes a form of environmental tax, which is why the discussion here isn’t whether or not to implement environmental tax but rather how the taxes should be expanded.
South Africa will be the first African country to introduce carbon tax and the second BRICS nation, after India initiated a nation-wide tax on coal produced in and imported into the country. The initial rate will be R120 ($11.5)/ton of carbon-dioxide, with various levels of exemption increasing at 10% a year during the first phase between 2015 and 2020.
South Africa’s carbon tax is postponed until 2016, in this time government will further investigate the tax’s impact on growth, job creation and other economic implications. The announcement of the tax sparked growing concern that carbon taxation may hold South African companies back.
The proposed tax will hit Scope 1 GHG emitters the hardest. These are emissions from sources that are directly owned or controlled by an entity. Sectors will receive an initial 60% discount, an additional 10% for those that compete internationally, 10% for process emissions; there is also the option for trade in carbon credits – granting another 5 to 10% relief.
According to a Nedbank Group’s sustainability carbon specialist, Marco Lotz, one of the barriers to implementation of the carbon tax is the lack of knowledge on carbon footprinting by all the stakeholders. He mentions that other aspects that should be expanded are the capacity of the institutions that audit and manage the magnitude of information that will be received by government institutions, as well defining who owns the carbon offsets.
The annual emissions of public utility company Eskom are around 228 million metric tons a year. It contributes 75% of South Africa’s carbon footprint. With a possible guaranteed discount of around 60 to 70%, further relief will need to be argued for. Eskom has mentioned it will pass on the effects of the tax to the consumer. South African consumers have already suffered through an avalanche of price increases by the utility company. Since 2008, there have been approved increases of 20% each year. An 8% annual increase, which began in 2013, will continue until 2018.
There is currently a R0.04/kWh ($1=R10.4) environmental levy on electricity included in the price consumers pay. At this stage, it will be replaced by an equivalent amount of carbon tax, leaving the price of electricity initially unchanged, proceeded by a 10% increase on the R0.04 each year.
“The current proposal will have a significant financial impact on the already high cost base of producing steel, estimated to be R630 million ($60 million) per annum. This is based on a 70% exemption and our steel production of around 5 million tons,” says steel maker ArcelorMittal – one of the country’s top emitters.
The company says that existing technologies for manufacturing steel do not allow for more carbon efficient alternatives and that there are no new technologies available either.
The estimated revenue from the tax is set at R8 billion ($764 million). There is uncertainty as to where this money will go, although there is talk of it feeding into the general state coffers, therefore not directly assisting in decreasing greenhouse gas pollution.
Government needs to ensure that the standards set are realistic and enforceable. A combination of tax, environmental regulations and investment in renewable energy projects could be the answer the world is looking for.

Tag: June 2014

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From College Princess To Queen Of The Markets

Horror in Nairobi

Whatever Happened To The African Who Destroyed The Aussies?

The Axe Grinds Out His Goals

The Fledgling Birds And The Million Dollar Brother

African Stars To Shine Over Brazil

No Winners In The Battle Of Platinum

Carbon Tax Needs To Be Realistic