Will there be a need for electricity in Africa in the Future?

The African Crises
Electricity! Who will be able to purchase it anyway?

>> White people will no longer be able to open hairdressers, advertising
>> agencies or bakeries in Zimbabwe under black empowerment regulations
>> hastily signed into law by president Robert Mugabe's side of the
>> government. Morgan Tsvangirai, Mr Mugabe's estranged prime minister,
>> described the new law as "null and void" because he had not been
>> consulted. But analysts say he will likely be unable to reverse it. The
>> Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Regulations force executives of
>> white-owned companies with assets of more than £320,000 to commit to
>> hand over 51 per cent of their shares to black Zimbabweans within 75 days
>> of 1 March – or face five years in jail. The executives cannot choose
>> their new shareholders: they must pick from a database set up by the
>> empowerment ministry, headed by former secret service operative Saviour
>> Kasukuwere, who has vast business interests of his own. "This says to
>> investors: Don't you dare come here," said political analyst John
>> Makumbe, of the University of Zimbabwe.
>>
>> The new regulations will affect several London-listed banks and mines:
>> Barclays Bank and Old Mutual have a significant presence in Zimbabwe. The
>> law also sets out an impressive list of traditionally lucrative smaller
>> sectors now reserved for black Zimbabweans. Among the "sectors reserved
>> against foreign investment" are hairdressers, beauty salons, employment
>> and advertising agencies and bakeries. Whites and foreigners will no
>> longer be allowed to open estate agencies or valet services, nor will
>> they be allowed to engage in the retail trade or grow cash crops. "This
>> comes down to loot and pillage," a Tsvangirai aide said. "It disqualifies
>> a lot of black-owned foreign companies, including ones from South Africa,
>> which shows it has nothing to do with black empowerment. They (Mr
>> Mugabe's Zanu PF party] just want things for free like the farms."
>> Mr Tsvangirai, the head of the former opposition Movement for Democratic
>> Change (MDC) party, met Mr Mugabe to register his disapproval of the new
>> law. The 84-year-old president made the astonishing claim that he "knew
>> nothing about it". The regulations were passed by the Zanu PF-dominated
>> parliament in 2007 but put on ice, leading many to believe they'd been
>> permanently shelved. They were quietly published last Friday, exactly a
>> decade since Mr Mugabe launched a violence-riddled land reform programme
>> that has turfed about 4,000 white farmers off their land and seen
>> Zimbabwe's agricultural production plummet. The first white farm
>> invasions were in February 2000. South African lawyer Willie Spies, who
>> has fought to protect white farmers from Mr Mugabe's land grab said: "The
>> new development calls for more drastic measures by the South African
>> government to assist its citizens affected by Mugabe's controversial
>> policies."
>>
>> Mr Tsvangirai said: "The regulations would have scared off foreign
>> investors, already jittery about Zimbabwe, as well as disenfranchising
>> citizens." Only this month the former opposition leader assured the World
>> Economic Forum in Davos that "confidence has returned" to Zimbabwe's
>> battered economy. Analysts said the regulations represented another slap
>> in the face for the premier from his rival, who has been bolstered by
>> South African president Jacob Zuma's recent taking of sides during
>> negotiations to revive a stalled unity deal signed in September 2008. Mr
>> Zuma told Mr Tsvangirai he should be "more flexible" in what looked like
>> a plea for the MDC leader to drop his demand that Mr Mugabe's central
>> bank governor and attorney general be replaced. Mr Mugabe insists he will
>> make no concessions until western sanctions on him and 200 close
>> associates are removed.
>>
>> I would point out to all South Africans and investors from anywhere that
>> it will eventually happen in South Africa. Mr Zuma our President
>> announced publicly that Julius Malema the ANC Youth leader will,
>> eventually be the president of South Africa. Such an idea is cause for
>> laughter but Zuma was deadly serious and dodged questions by the press on
>> that subject. Malema is just as much of an idiot as Mugabe. He demands
>> very loudly that the Reserve bank , all the mines and many other
>> companies be Nationalized. Sadly the South African electorate can be
>> relied on to elect such people.