THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

Mar

16

2021

Successfully Implementing Turnaround Strategies in State-Owned Companies

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

EXCERPT from the book, Successfully Implementing Turnaround Strategies in State-Owned Companies: SAA, Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines as Case Studies KAIZER M. NYATSUMBA There were far more factors which impacted negatively on SAA’s implementation of its Long-Term Turnaround Strategy (LTTS) than there were factors which had the same impact on Kenya Airways’s (KQ’s) implementation of its turnaround strategy, called Operation Pride. While by far the majority of these factors are attributable to the Shareholder and the Board of Directors (BoD) in SAA’s case, in KQ’s case they are largely attributable to the Top Management (TMT) and the BoD. The Shareholder is a big…

Mar

15

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s Goodwill Zwelithini: the Zulu king without a kingdom

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

GOODWILL Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu, who has died at the age of 72, was the longest-reigning of all Zulu kings on record. This was the 50th year of his incumbency. GERHARD MARÉ, Emeritus Professor of Political Sociology, University of KwaZulu-Natal His reign spanned turbulent decades in South Africa. He assumed the throne at the height of apartheid and went on to rule through the country’s violent and turbulent decades, a period which included contestation of the role of the Zulu monarchy. This spilled over into post-apartheid South Africa when the country’s new constitution recognised traditional leaders along with its democratically elected representatives.…

Mar

12

2021

By The African Mirror

A close look at how the net has tightened on the right to protest in South Africa

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

South Africa’s public order policing is as ill as it ever was. This has been illustrated in recent student protests spreading across the country’s campuses. In Johannesburg police shot dead a pedestrian at a protest outside the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. JANE DUNCAN, Professor, Department of Journalism, Film and Television, University of Johannesburg In March 2020 the government imposed a ban on political gatherings as part of a host of interventions aimed at managing the COVID-19 pandemic. The move was unprecedented in the country’s post-apartheid history. Since then there has been a distressing level of uneven and inconsistent…

Mar

10

2021

By The African Mirror

Cameroon’s Biya is Africa’s oldest president: assessing his 38 years in power

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

CAMEROON’S President Paul Biya celebrated his 88th birthday recently, making him the oldest president in Africa. He has been in power for 38 years. Birthday celebrations held across the country were met with protest by the opposition, demanding that he step down. So, how has he acquitted himself in office, and what has been his legacy for Cameroon? JULIUS A. AMIN, Professor, Department of History, University of Dayton Cameroonians welcomed Biya when he became president in November 1982. The peaceful transfer of power by his predecessor Ahmadou Ahidjo won Cameroon praise as an example to emulate in Africa, where leaders…

Mar

09

2021

By The African Mirror

EXPLAINER-Why protests are shaking one of Africa’s most stable democracies

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

EDWARD McALLISTER CLASHES between police and thousands of demonstrators protesting at the detention of Senegal's most prominent opposition leader have killed at least five people since last week. Ousmane Sonko was indicted and released on bail under judicial supervision on Monday but an opposition coalition has called for three days of protests from Monday. The unrest is the worst in a decade in Senegal, widely seen as one of West Africa's most stable democracies. Following is a look at what is driving the unrest. ACCUSATIONS OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE The demonstrations were ignited by Sonko's arrest last week, after an employee…

Mar

08

2021

By The African Mirror

Comrade Dick – A rock that stood the test of time

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

MATHATHA TSEDU The day after Cyril Ramaphosa was inaugurated as President of the country in June 2019, SABC journalist, Desiree Chauke, interviewed Azwifarwi Dick Ralushayi about how he knew the new President. For journalists, it was a time to find the little unknown gems that would give viewers/readers/listeners a glimpse into the life of the President away from the public persona. Ralushayi attended high school with Ramaphosa and there was even a picture of the two of them as natty dressers standing outside one of the dormitories they had shared at Mphaphuli High in Sibasa, Limpopo. Ralushayi was introduced by…

Mar

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Okonjo-Iweala in the WTO top job: breaking the glass ceiling is a win for all women

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has become the first woman and the first African to be chosen as director-general of the World Trade Organisation. The Conversation Africa’s Wale Fatade asks Dr Monica Orisadare, an assistant professor of economics and director of the Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria about Okonjo-Iweala’s achievement and what it means. MONICA ORISADARE, Assistant Professor of Economics, Obafemi Awolowo University What does her career rise represent for Nigerian women? Actually this is a great achievement. Not only from the Nigerian woman’s perspective but the African woman’s perspective as well as…

Mar

31

2021

By The African Mirror

A more complex reality in Cabo Delgado

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

JOSEPH HANLON WHEN the uprising started in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s northernmost province, in 2017, the insurgents used the only weapons they had: their machetes. And they cut off the heads of local elites whom they accused of being allied to the leaders of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in stealing the mineral wealth. Forty years ago, there was another civil war in Mozambique, in which the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) committed atrocities such as burning people alive in buses. But Renamo had been trained by the apartheid military, many of whom were believing members of the Dutch Reformed Church,…

Mar

29

2021

By The African Mirror

Tanzania’s new president faces a tough ‘to do’ list

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

A major political transition is underway in Tanzania after the laying to rest of former president John Pombe Magufuli. The East African nation’s new leader Samia Suluhu Hassan is the country’s sixth president and currently the only woman running a country on the continent. We asked Rob Ahearne, who has been doing research in Tanzania for more than a decade, to set out the political context and Hassan’s immediate challenges. ROB AHEARNE, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, University of East London What political environment has the new president stepped into? Magufuli’s anti-corruption agenda, emphasis on hard work, fractious…

Mar

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Our tertiary education in peril

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

MOSIBUDI MANGENA HERE we go again. The annual depressing spectacle of our young people having running battles with the police as they demand fee free tertiary education. The worrying fact is that, despite the longevity of the problem, there appears to be no lasting solution in sight. This year, the annual ritual has led to the tragic police shooting to death of Mthokozisi Ntumba, who was just a bystander who had no role in the protests. The truth of the matter is that the state has no money. Corruption, theft and maladministration have robbed all spheres of the state of…