Dele Olojede: There are very contradictory responses from Africans to South Africa’s arrival in Africa. On the one hand there is a sense that these are Africans getting involved in other parts of Africa, and a certain level of pride and cooperation that attaches to that. But also, particularly in the case of a country like Nigeria, there is a rivalry developing and a resentment to some degree of South African capital. The South Africans, by and large, don’t know how to manage this either. They come from an intense background of prejudice against the rest of the continent, far more prejudicial than Europeans or Americans, because the apartheid regime was painting a picture of dread at what was out there if the system were to collapse.
What could South Africans do to change the reception that they get in other African countries??
Much of Africa is seen as a string of dysfunctional states, which on some level is true. Because South Africa is fundamentally a functional country, despite all its problems, there is a natural and not-altogether-unfounded sense that ‘we know what we are doing and they don’t’. But this is not always true. For example, when you look at the severe skills shortage that South Africa has, many African countries have moved a long way beyond that. What South Africa has, which the rest of the continent could learn from, are processes to build and sustain institutions. A classic example would be to compare a South African and Nigerian businessman. A South African would see things from an institutional framework, how to structure the business and so on. This of course also means that he takes forever to take a decision, whereas a Nigerian businessman can take a decision very quickly. And they get frustrated, because South Africans go back and forth, waiting for board approval, where Nigerians see this as a waste of time. But corporate governance still has to go a long way in Nigeria. A happy combination of both instincts could produce something extraordinary. That’s why I have always advocated close collaboration, even a special relationship, between South Africa and Nigeria.
?Is it ironic that at the corporate level, mostly-white South African capital is doing well on the continent, while in South Africa at the micro-level it is other ?African communities, like Senegalese and Somali traders, that are doing well??
It’s one of the most unfortunate offshoots of apartheid in the sense that it will take time for ordinary South African entrepreneurs to make their way around Africa, or even be able to compete with African entrepreneurs at the micro-level at home. The rest of Africa is used to going to distant lands and trading, surviving, making business and so on. The ordinary South African entrepreneur does not have that skill or the inclination to take those large bets, the risk you take in leaving your country to seek a fortune somewhere else. Large South African companies have, on the contrary, been very successful in Africa. You haven’t seen a single large Nigerian company playing a role in South Africa, whereas the reverse is true in Nigeria with MTN, Standard Bank, South African Airways and so on. When you go below that top corporate level, the rest of Africa is dominant. But we will see a gradual merging of these two levels with time.
This article was first published in The Africa Report’s June-July 2010 edition.
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