Why Should the Poor Remain Poor in Africa

WHY SHOULD THE POOR REMAIN POOR IN AFRICA

WHY SHOULD THE POOR REMAIN POOR IN AFRICA

JOSEPH P MHLONGO

Copyright © 2022 Joseph P Mhlongo

Published by Joseph P Mhlongo Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

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Published by Joseph P Mhlongo using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Edited by Francois Rabe for Reach Publishers

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E-mail: [email protected]

Joseph P Mhlongo

[email protected]

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. African Economic Background

2. The Population Versus the Money Available

3. Do they Deserve to Be Poor?

4. The Purpose of a Census

5. No One is Poor

6. Is There Any Need for Social Grants?

7. Is Poverty Necessary?

8. The So-Called Poor

9. Advice to African Leaders

10. Mines and the African Government

11. I Am Not a Politician

12. A Prayer For Africa

13. A Strong Opposition

14. Political Stability Versus the African Economic Crisis

Bibliography

Introduction

In your hands you are holding a book entitled,Why Should The Poor Remain Poor In Africa

As far as I am concerned, this book is an African manifesto that needs to be executed. Why do I call this book a manifesto? Remember, a manifesto is a book of promises from a government to its people. The African continent has so many minerals that are due to its people, the children of Africa. There is no reason for an African child to remain poor while we have such an extraordinarily rich continent in terms of mineral resources. The big question remains: Why do we remain poor when we have so many learned and powerful leaders on the continent, amongst them legal experts and economists?

This book seeks to suggest to our African leaders some measures they can take to correct the chaotic situation in which Africa finds herself in today. When this book was revealed to me, I thought it was a huge work to take on, since I was not a scholar. But when some ideas came rolling in, I realised that I am the right person to author this book. In Africa, we have mineral resources that could sustain the African child for many generations to come.

In this book, I reveal a bit of the African economic background and how our African leaders could distribute the African wealth to the African people. In the second chapter, I reiterate the population statistics of the African continent according to state, and then give my opinion as to how to go about distributing the African largesse to indigenous Africans. It is important to understand that Africa is for Africans, and that Africans should benefit from their own land. In this book, I try to provoke some ideas, as well as the loyalty, that are asleep in our African leaders, who are committed to the development of deprived Africans who are heartbroken in their own land.

I know those ideas are there, but what is needed is just to unleash them for the African child to reap the benefits from their own land. I cannot sleep in my grave or see my Lord without having seen Africa set free from colonisation. The truth remains: Africa is not yet free. Freedom is when you receive all that belongs to you. Until then, you are not free. As a believer in the Christian faith, I cannot fold my hands and keep quiet as if everything is okay. No! I must be the voice of the voiceless. I must speak for them until they get their complete freedom – as is due to them.

If there are still people begging in Africa, a continent rich in all sorts of minerals, from oil to precious stones, then freedom has not yet come. We want our freedom as the children of Africa. My father, who was a mine worker, died poor. What is that telling you, African leader? What is that telling you, African child? We need to work together, as the government and the church, to set Africa free from its bondage. Only when we are all free from that, then freedom will have come to Africa. When freedom will have come, there will be total peace in Africa.

When everyone has sufficient money to satisfy their needs, there will be no violence. In other words, when everyone has money to buy anything they want, they will relax and enjoy their freedom. It is therefore important that we all work together towards the total freedom of the African child, then Africa will be free. Remember that those colonisers gave us only the land, not financial freedom. What makes people so riotous all over Africa, is not the issue of the land, but the issue of the economy. The land is not the economy. Money is.

What causes our African governments to beg from the other governments, is because they view the economy through a glass. They do not want to look at the economy directly. Why do I say this? This book is here to assist African governments to apply for mining licenses for the poor and manage the income, with the assistance of accountants and financial managers, to supply the poor. The tax collected from those mines will come back as revenue to the government as revenue.

For instance, in the Republic of South Africa – where I am a citizen – there is no need for the government to open new mines since there are so many that have already been closed and shut down. What is required of my own government, is to re-open those mines, provide a license to those who know how to work in the mining industry, and give free shares to the public, according to the size of the income that those mines can generate. For African governments to succeed, they need to seek assistance from those business people, who are financially well - established. Let us grow Africa together. God Bless Africa. God bless South Africa.

Joseph P. Mhlongo

Chapter One

African Economic Background

As you can see from the title of the book in your hands – Why Should The Poor Remain Poor In Africa – it is about the economic condition of every African child. This first chapter seeks to provide a brief background to the African economy. Africa is a small continent with a population of about 1.4 billion poor people. It has a lot of mineral resources that can take care of the needs of its people for many generations to come.

1. What is the economy?

According to the Collins English Dictionary, Economy is the system according to which the money, industry and trade of a country or region is organised. If this is the meaning of ‘economy’, then we in Africa need to reorganise our money, industry and trade, because the systems that have been put in place are more for selfish gain than to benefit the African child.

Why? If you check the number of rich people versus the number of poor people on the African continent, you will cry tears of shock. For instance, in my country South Africa, there are approximately eighteen to twenty people who are billionaires. Among these very rich people there are neither women nor people with special needs (disabled people). Among the eighteen to twenty very rich people, all are men and able-bodied. This tells me that the economic system only benefits 00.01% of the population. Just imagine – the South African population is more than 56 million people strong and there are only eighteen to twenty rich people! This is very selfish and unfair because my country has so many people who are poor, and they need help as a matter of urgency.

2. Rich people in South Africa

Section A

a) Laurie Dippenaar

b) Raymond Ackerman

c) Adrian Gore

d) Cyril Ramaphosa

e) GT Ferreira

f) Gus Attridge

g) Markus Jooste

h) Wendy Appelbaum

i) Desmond Sacco

j) Giovanni Ravazzotti

k) Zak Calisto

l) South African Forbes

Section B

a) Nicky Oppenheimer

b) Nathan Kirsch

c) Mark Shuttleworth

d) Jim Ratcliffe

e) Sri and Hopi

f) Sir Len Blavatnik

g) Sir James Dyson

h) Patrice Motsepe

These are the only rich people in my native land South Africa, and this is the picture of what an African economy is. As a matter of urgency, Africa needs help. Fellow Africans, we need to understand that Africa, and all that is in it, is our inheritance, and we need to enjoy the wealth that our forefathers did not enjoy in their lifetime. Africa is ours and all the minerals that are in it. Therefore, what we need to do, is to fight for economic emancipation.

By saying this, I do not despise or underestimate the leadership skills of my country and my African leader. What I am trying to do is to open the eyes of my African leaders so that they can change the economic systems that came with the colonisers to oppress Africans, who are now the owners of the land.

The late Dr Myles Munroe, speaking of what God had told him about the world education system, said, A curriculum that educated us was written by the oppressor to benefit his children.

Someone might be asking, How? Our oppressors have trained their children to be masters over the original Black Africans, yet they are aliens on our continent. They trained us to be their slaves (workers). What I need us to note as Africans, is what we are sending our children to school for. Are we sending our children to school to become slaves, or we are sending our children to school in order for them to be masters?

My purpose in writing this book is to remind our African leaders to change the systems that are being used in doing business in Africa.

Now, I want to give a bit of background on the African economy, when it started, where it is right now, and why Africans are still poor today.

3. Background

As background, I want us to remind ourselves as to when wealth was discovered in our continent, particularly in South Africa, where I belong. I know that African countries were not all invaded at the same time, but I want us to travel through Africa together and see what took place, and in which year. It is important that we first understand the economic background before we can indulge ourselves in the politics of the African economy.

3.1 Why an economic background?

The background of the African economy will help us to know when the economy in Africa was discovered, by whom was it discovered when it was developed, when it was looted by colonisers, and how it was looted by the colonisers? All these questions will soon be answered.

Fellow Africans, it is high time that we reclaim our wealth. We have the right to do so. Please, hear me correctly – we need to use the correct channels to do so. Why? We are Africans, we believe in peace, therefore we need to work this out in peace. There are systems that we can follow. In South Africa, for instance, we have a good example to follow in the person of Nelson Mandela. When he came out of prison, he did not fight with the colonisers, or chase them out of the country. The colonisers locked him up in prison for 27 years for nothing, but he sat down with them and negotiated peace amongst them all until we had freedom on 27 April 1994 through a democratic election process.

We have the land that has all the minerals. It was not brought to Africa by the colonisers. It has been here from the very beginning, created by the Creator, God Himself.

I want to make this clear: The white colonisers did not bring anything to Africa, but they used our wealth to enrich themselves. This is truly foolish, is it not? Why do I say it is foolish? I say it is foolish because you cannot come into my yard and see gold, and then say it is your gold. That amounts to stealing, because that gold is in my yard. We are the owners of the land, and for that reason we deserve to get back what is ours.

We cannot allow sojourners to own our land, and we cannot allow them to oppress us in