Masire tells African leaders to know when to quit

Former Botswanan president Sir Ketumile Masire today rounded off a three-day conference on deepening democracy in Africa with a call to African leaders still clinging on to power to know when to quit.

“They should know that life abounds beyond state house” said Masire, during a question-and-answer session with conference delegates, hosted by the chairperson of the African editors forum, Mathata Tsedu.

Masire had been due to share the platform with former Mauritian president Cassam Uteem, but Uteem had been forced to fly back to Mauritius this morning due to the unexpected death of his son last night.

There has been a clear consensus at the conference that a vibrant civil society is a key requirement for deepening democracy in Africa, yet considerable debate about where it should get its funding, and what its relationship with governments should be. Describing civil society organisations as “dear to his heart”, Masire said they should nonetheless never “try to take over government”. Masire added that he – unlike many African governments – had “no problem” with civil society organisations receiving money from foreign donors.

Tsedu, who also edits the popular South African newspaper City Press, said media freedom was a vital component of democracy, but that too many African countries that successfully staged free and fair elections also had strong restrictions on their media. According to Tsedu, scores of Ethiopian journalists, for example, are currently in detention, while the majority of the Gambia's journalists have been forced into exile.

In an apparent reference to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), which has been strongly criticised of late for its hostile stance towards journalists and commentators within its ranks who have been critical of the African National Congress (ANC)-led government, Tsedu appealed for Africa's public broadcasters not to degenerate into mere state broadcasters.

Rounding off the conference, Dr Abdallah Hamdok, International IDEA's regional director for Africa and the Middle East, presented the conference statement, which called for the “crisis of trust” in Africa's political parties to be reversed, and for increased transparency in their funding. The statement also called for African governments not to manipulate constitutional review processes to their own ends, and for donors to provide “effective and sustainable” electoral assistance that moved beyond “short-term event-driven support”.

Hamdok also paid tribute to what he said had been the high standard of debate during proceedings, adding that in embracing a democratic future, Africa should not be ashamed of its traditional institutions, which he believed also had a role to play.

“If Britain can have an unelected House of Lords” he said, “why can't we?”.

Gregory Mthembu-Salter is an independent writer on African political economy based in Cape Town, South Africa