Africa-Press – Mozambique. FORMER South African President Thabo Mbeki has called on African nations to shift from policy formulation to implementation, stating that while the continent has no shortage of sound strategies, it lacks leaders who can put them into practice.
Delivering the Africa Day Public Lecture in Dar es Salaam, Mbeki reflected on his own early exit from the presidency in 2008—one year before his scheduled retirement—stating that colleagues urged him to dedicate his post-retirement years to addressing Africa’s core leadership challenges.
“They said to me, ‘We have many good policies across Africa. The problem is, we have very few people who perfectly implement them,” Mbeki recounted.
“So they encouraged me to focus on building the human capital needed to drive our continent forward.”
In response, Mbeki founded the African Leadership Institute at the University of South Africa (UNISA), a move he said was inspired by the university’s extensive reach as a distance-learning institution with students from over 40 African countries. The institute, he explained, was designed to train leaders who are not only aware of Africa’s challenges but are also equipped to act decisively on its policies.
He emphasized that the institute, like the Africa Day Lecture Series, is a continental initiative rather than a South African one. “This is not a South African foundation,” Mbeki stressed. “It is an African foundation.”
Mbeki noted that the Africa Day Lectures are meant to rotate across different countries to foster broader engagement with African citizens on matters of development and governance. He expressed appreciation for Tanzania’s strong participation, highlighting the country’s unique role as the only one to have hosted the lecture three times.
“In a very short space of time, Tanzania has contributed great minds to this forum, including the late President Benjamin Mkapa and statesman Salim Ahmed Salim,” Mbeki said. “It’s a tribute to the quality of leadership in this country.”
He called on African citizens and leaders alike to move beyond rhetoric. “We’ve got the vision. We think we know where we want to go. But what are we doing—practically?,” he asked.
“The African Renaissance will not happen through good intentions alone. It requires real, collective action.”
Source: dailynews
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