The author highlights through a case study the pattern of reckless lending, high interest rates that, over time, significantly inflate the sum of the original loan, strong-arm debt recovery tactics such as threats of legal action and telephone harassment, that is argued in this article to be cases of 'economic violence'. She describes how the extreme distress induced by these practices was manifested in 2012, when thousands of desperate, poorly paid, over-indebted Marikana mineworkers, while striking for a R12 500 per month living wage, refused to back down and chose to face bullets to escape the suffocating squeeze of the omashonisa (money lenders). The article proposes that debt for an increasing number of South Africans has literally become life threatening, and that there is as yet no meaningful challenge to it.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
The Bridges Africa editorial team features various analyses that take a closer and fresh look at the unique challenges facing least developed countries in the context of the trade-innovation nexus. The dynamics underpinning the IPR and public policy debate are often epitomised by the topic of the protection of patented drugs by LDCs. In 2001, the latter obtained a separate waiver to implement TRIPS provisions on pharmaceutical products until January 2016. Should LDCs seek the renewal of this waiver before it expires, or does the general extension for the TRIPS Agreement until July 2021 already allow for exemptions from patent protection motivated by public health concerns? These and related questions are addressed in this edition.
Patrick Bond addresses questions raised by Yash Tandon in regards to the role of the BRICS in Africa and in the current configuration of the neoliberal international capitalist order. The challenge is for critics of BRICS to strategise with the world’s progressive forces to build a genuine anti-imperialist movement.
Narratives of “the hopeless continent” and “Africa rising”, pumped by the West, woven into its knowledge with nostalgic pop culture, rubber-stamped by media and financial institutions, are observed by the author to be false propaganda. A study by Standard Bank titled “Understanding Africa’s Middle Class”, notes African Development Bank’s (AfDB) claims that by 2010, 350 million people or 34% were middle-class in Africa, up from 27% in 1990. Examining 11 countries, chosen for, among other things, scale of population, growth and economy- Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia- the Standard Bank report noted that since 2000 the collective GDP of the 11 measured economies has grown tenfold from US$120 billion to today’s level of over US$1 trillion, with a growth in the middle class of 230% in the period. While East Africa is lagging behind in pushing low-income earners to the middle, the region is argued to offer the most interesting findings in the report, with a broad upward shift within the low-income band as households shift from deeply marginalised into less poor categories. Africa’s growing middle class may be driving the rising narratives, but the upward movement of low-income groups is argued to be where the most economic potential will be realised. It’s also these groups that will have the largest impact on political and social development. They’re the groups in the majority, the ones with the largest votes and the largest claim to the need for improved living conditions.
The author argues that the situation in DRC illustrates the deficiency of global ethics, selfishness and the longstanding failure to value the lives of the African people. Tackling the DRC’s impasse requires a comprehensive approach and involvement of national, regional, continental and international communities. The author argues that the DRC is embroiled in a geo-political and economic strategic battle in the search for scarce resources that are abundant in Congo. It is the paradox of the resource curse. It is hardly remembered that sustainable extraction of the minerals would benefit global interests longer and the rain forests in the DRC are vital to curbing climate change. Tackling the DRC’s impasse is argued to require a comprehensive approach and involvement of national, regional, continental and international actors, coupled with continued research to inform policies and praxis. Equally, varied strategies designed from local cultures, African philosophy and interdisciplinary academic views are vital.
Chief negotiators of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have "initialled" the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union during a joint negotiation session in Pretoria, South Africa on 15 July.
This report documents the progression of events in Chiadzwa Zimbabwe in terms of diamond mining and trading, the socio-economic and environmental impacts and the conflict between authorities, (government agencies) and the local communities. The project had as its objective to inform the degree of adherence to the doctrine of 'Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources'. The intrusion of mining in Chiadzwa is argued to have displaced the cultural and social mosaic while privatising the commons and subjecting the villagers to several risks and harms with minimal benefits. The existence of clandestine networks is reported to have made an underhand diamond economy
injurious to the prospective diamond-anchored economic resurgence, limiting the benefit sharing arrangements. The authors argue that the extractive nature of the diamond industry should be accompanied with appropriate observance of environmental laws, appropriate corporate social responsibility and transparent accountability by all stakeholders.
In July the WTO’s poorest members, known as the Least Developed Country (LDC) Group, submitted a collective request regarding the preferential treatment they would like to see for their services and service suppliers. The move comes seven months after the global trade body’s ministerial conference in Bali, Indonesia, where members agreed to take steps for bringing this “services waiver” into operation. The LDC services waiver, as it is referred to in trade circles, was initially an outcome of the 2011 WTO Ministerial Conference, held in Geneva, Switzerland. However, in the two years that followed, no preferences had been requested by LDCs or granted to them, prompting WTO members to reconsider ways to use the services waiver. As a result, at the WTO’s subsequent ministerial conference in Bali, Indonesia last December, members agreed to initiate a process aimed at promoting the “expeditious and effective operationalisation” of the LDC services waiver. Over the next six months, WTO members will engage in consultations with the LDC Group in order to respond to the collective request at the high-level meeting. The LDCs have reserved the right to modify the request’s terms ahead of the event.
Creating “ownership” of seed through patents and intellectual property rights and imposing it globally through the World Trade Organisation, the author argues that the biotech industry has established a monopoly empire over seed and food. The author argues that the biotech industry is denying citizens the right to safe food and attempting to dismantle national laws on biosafety across Africa. The author argues that the public relations machinery of the biotech industry undermines counterarguments to GMOs by unfounded attacks on scientists. However she also points to growing citizens’ outrage, and to sovereign countries rejecting the industrial monopoly over food systems.
African governments are under intense pressure from within but also from big agribusiness and Western governments to embrace genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Throughout Africa, GMOs - organisms that have been biologically modified to incorporate genes with desired traits - are now being touted as a major solution to hunger and mass poverty. Supporters of biotechnology, like Kenyan-born Harvard scholar Prof Calestous Juma, believe that with GMOs Africa, which has 60 per cent of all the arable land, will be able to feed not just its people but the world. The author argues that governments must resist all forms of arm-twisting and food colonialism and make their biotechnology choices based on the facts. There are three basic concerns about GMOs. First, the science is at best inconclusive regarding the safety of genetically engineered organisms on human health and the environment. The second concern is about food sovereignty. Opponents are convinced that the campaign for GMOs is part of the neoliberal agenda to place agricultural production in the hands of a few corporate giants through seed patents and deny small farmers control of production. Finally, the author argues that the GMOs crusade distorts the debate about food security and poverty alleviation. The problems afflicting small farmers are argued to have very little to do with technology, and almost everything to do with unequal access to land, water, affordable inputs, markets and other resources.