Africa Must Unite

Africa must unite under a liberal approach to pan-Africanism, prioritising human rights, freedom and democracy.

I’m tired of a weak and divided Africa. This is a choice that our leaders and their voters have made, and it doesn’t have to be this way. If they would only listen to voices like Magatte Wade, our continent would emerge from global irrelevance to become one of the richest regions on the globe.

Unfortunately, African leaders continue to be hostile to the ideas that build prosperity. African leaders despise property rights. That is no exaggeration. This is true even in South Africa, where the government, under alleged constitutionalist Cyril Ramaphosa, passed the regressive Expropriation Act, legislation that weakens property rights and definitely violates the Constitution.

This can only fill you with despair if you understand the central role of property rights in building prosperity and internal resilience. Our so-called leaders continue to invest in a weak Africa. This is especially concerning when the global order is fracturing and you have people like Donald Trump presiding over the most powerful country on Earth, someone who has no hesitation and is empowered to use the formidable US military purely at his own discretion.

Prosperity is the base upon which strength is built. Once your people can build wealth, you can then afford to invest in your military and in soft power. Instead, what we get when these “leaders” have to address the weakness they have created is meaningless rhetoric about African unity. Yes, African unity can be a source of strength, but not under the current conception of it held by the Pan-Africanists.

These people would make this continent more vulnerable by centralising control and imposing bad economics at the continental level. This is why we urgently need a rational Pan-Africanism, a Pan-Africanism grounded in reality, both in terms of geopolitics and, more importantly, in terms of economics. A Pan-Africanism that respects the incredible diversity of this continent. Centralised solutions simply cannot work here, but that does not mean we have to rely on the borders we inherited from the colonial era.

I believe the South African Constitution is more than the basis of the post-1994 (technically post-1996) South African state. It is a blueprint that other African countries, many of which are as diverse as we are (or even more so), can adopt. South Africa’s Africa policy has to go beyond reflexively deploying troops on peacekeeping missions that don’t achieve much except give the false impression that we are taking responsibility for Africa’s security issues. We are not.

This is because deploying troops is not a strategy. We need to have an African grand strategy that aims at two goals: the liberalisation of African markets and African unity under a confederation that protects the natural rights of every African. Only in this way can we build African strength through unity instead of spreading weakness through centralised control.

The period following South Africa’s constitutional era was a period of rapid institution-building at the continental and SADC level. South Africa, under President Mbeki, was key to various initiatives: NEPAD, the Pan-African Parliament, the SADC Tribunal (founded in 1992 but only operational from 2005), the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, etc. After the removal of President Mbeki, this momentum stalled under President Zuma, and it has now reversed under President Ramaphosa with the announcement that the SANDF would now focus on domestic police work rather than African peacekeeping. This was not said in so many words, but the implication was clear.

South Africa under Mbeki was only able to accomplish these things because of partnerships formed on the continent. South Africa under Ramaphosa is isolated on the continent. The only worse period of continental isolation was under the apartheid government, which was an anti-black racist government. There are many indicators of this, including: South Africa has withdrawn from Mozambique while our enemy in the DRC, Rwanda, has a presence; keep in mind that SADC used to be our backyard. After South Africa’s failure in the DRC, their government turned to the USA instead. Morocco has joined the AU despite South Africa’s strong opposition. Israel, the country we are suing at the ICJ, has recognised Somaliland, and we couldn’t do anything to stop it.

The Ramaphosa administration has consistently displayed a complete lack of strategy. He does not understand geopolitics. His administration views international law as the beginning and end of geopolitics. That is why he scrapped the plans to exit the ICC treaty (Rome Statute) and is using the ICJ against Israel. Ironically, the very same people who claimed they wanted a South Africa that prioritises international law now oppose Ramaphosa’s use of it because it contradicts their ideological goals.

The institutions built under the Mandela-Mbeki era should have been built upon and given muscle. South Africa has a lot of levers, though this is diminishing by the day, that it could use to influence our African neighbours. One of these tools is economic. SACU (Southern African Customs Union) is responsible for more than half of intra-African trade. This allows us to make a powerful argument to other African states for making the AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) operational in practice, not just de jure.

We should also have used our influence within SACU, for example, Botswana is probably the least dependent country on South Africa in SACU, and they still get a third of their budget from SACU, to push for further liberalisation and integration within the customs union. The obvious next steps for me are the removal of borders for the free movement of people, since we already have free movement of goods, within SACU, and a common SACU human rights court, founded on a human rights charter that protects rights substantially similar to those in the South African Constitution.

This would immediately help the citizens of Eswatini. For instance, they would now be able to take cases of human rights violations by their King and the government he leads to a SACU court. A country like Eswatini would have no choice but to agree to this if it wants to benefit from SACU customs sharing. They would also benefit from greater integration because more job opportunities would be available for their people across SACU, easing the pressure on the King from poverty-stricken, unemployed youth.

This model could then be extended throughout the continent, starting with SADC. The SANDF would be key to this. We would need to expand the SANDF so it can be used to stabilise African countries, at the invitation of their governments. South Africa could take responsibility for African peace in the same way that post-WWII America took responsibility for world peace.

But we would go further than America because we would also be spreading institutions that ensure prosperity and sustainable peace through the South African confederation. If you want South Africa to deal with your rebel groups or defeat the coup d’état in your country, you have to agree to the following:

1. Liberalise your market by deregulating, lowering taxes, cutting spending, and protecting property rights.

2. Free trade with other members of the confederation and agreement to the common external tariff and revenue-sharing model from import tariffs.

3. Free movement within the confederation.

4. Submission to the jurisdiction of the human rights court.

Democracy would not be a requirement, so voting would not be one of the rights protected. Free speech, property rights, equality before the law, and most of the other rights in the South African Constitution would be protected. I believe this would be welcomed by most Africans living south of the Sahara and would also be welcomed by most of the major powers around the world. These countries know that any intervention in Africa would be seen as neocolonialism, just look at what is happening to France in the Sahel, but at the same time they know that Africa is a constant source of global instability around the world.

An African initiative to bring stability would be welcome. It would also bring prosperity, peace, and African strength. If done correctly, South Africans would be the biggest beneficiaries because our relatively more industrialised economy would make us an African manufacturing giant. I believe this would be the fuel that takes South Africa into the top 10 biggest economies in the world because of Africa’s potential. Unemployment and poverty would be things of the past, but only if we embrace the right ideas.

Mpiyakhe Dhlamini, a libertarian, writer, programmer, entrepreneur, and associate of the Free Market Foundation. I write about personal finance and wealth-building from an SA perspective, South African and African issues, policy, politics, and anything else that interests me. The views in this article are my own and not those of any organisation I am associated with.