The Africa I want - and the Africa we have

By Dr Samukeliso Dube 

1. We talk about economic recovery and yet many odds are still against us. The illicit outflows http://www.bdlive.co.za/africa/africanbusiness/2015/05/22/africa-robbed-of-about-r500bn-each-year-through-illicit-capital-outflows are an order of the day. We say our fortunes have changed and are registering phenomenal growth, yet this is not inclusive growth as many of our citizens still live in squalor and poverty. Their quality of life is still poor and there is no improvement in their daily lives.
2. We say we need to create employment in the midst of poor and non-inclusive socio- economic growth. Our education and health systems are not-people and development centred resulting in huge skills gaps.
3. We have experienced and continue to experience brain drain from the continent because of inadequate economic performance and poor employment opportunities. We actually see our own thrive better elsewhere outside the continent and rise to become the best at what we can become in our chosen professions
4. We speak of a United Africa and yet we turn against our own brothers and sisters when we think they are taking part of our cake, the size of which is ever shrinking
5. We have established democratic institutions, many of which do not benefit the populace. In fact we see leaders who continually defy the very same institutions that were set up. They drown the voices of accountability by making sure that any opposition to their “will” is arrested or killed.
6. Death of the vulnerable continues - whether it’s from extremists, or diseases and conditions that can be prevented
7. We are home to the largest number of people living with HIV yet we have no IP to our name
8. We experience famine amidst a world of plenty. When there is no famine we are surrounded by unhealthy food that initiates us into a cycle of vulnerability - first we age fast, become prone to cancers and lifestyle diseases. Once you get these diseases guess what - you are stuck in the impoverishing medical wheel, if you do not have medical insurance, tough luck, this is Africa. We bury children from malaria and we say God has given and God has taken

To sit and wait for change to happen, complain that it is not happening fast enough and that those responsible are not doing enough. That’s what I choose not to do. But I choose this day to be different.

 It was by choice, that I am part of a wagon that continues to effect positive change and refuses to celebrate mediocrity.

• I choose to be part of those who will create meaningful employment to our youths , so that their energies will be directed to building a better continent
• I choose to join those who know that the Africa has the capacity to sustain itself beyond AID and work towards those solutions that will reverse the basket case scenario
• I choose to join those who believe that by reversing the illicit capital outflows we will start to see genuine economic recovery
• I choose to be tolerant of those who are different from me, knowing  that Africa belongs to those who live in it, and that from diversity we will derive our strength
• I choose to redefine what success is , the legacy I should live not only for my children but for the masses that should benefit from my discoveries, my creations , my brilliance, my efforts and my service
• I choose to be like those who have excelled in their own fields, to demonstrate that Africans are equally capable. The engineers, scientists, doctors, industrialists, educators, nurses, who chose to shine forth to make the world a better place.
• Because of this, I have chosen to lead with purpose, knowing fully well that my actions will affect generations to come, they will effect everlasting change and that I have a part to contribute to a better Africa.

Hope you had an  Africa Day; as one big bank in South Africa slogans “…they call it Africa, I call it home”