Pope blasts Africa’s “entrepreneurial politicians” – by his humble example

When economic historians look back on this stage of Africa’s development they are sure to highlight the destructive role of what FT columnist Martin Wolf this week described as “entrepreneurial politicians”. Public servants, particularly those who are empowered by voters to lead and direct them, are supposed to be driven by a desire to “serve” the “public”. Instead, in many parts of Africa, acquiring such a role is interpreted as a licence to plunder the public purse without accountability. The depth of this malaise is being illustrated during Pope Francis’s visit to East Africa. His humble example on his choice of transport offers much pause for thought. It is a timely reminder, too, of how far the pendulum has swung in South Africa when acolytes of President Jacob Zuma vigorously defend not only the R250m splurge on his personal homestead, but plans to give the Presidency a new R4bn airliner so that Number One can jet around the world in the style to which the former herder has become accustomed. Sadly, instead of outrage, the culture of political entrepreneurship means for many, Zuma’s example becomes aspirational rather than revolting. Forgetting that the grasping of politicians comes from the taxes paid by those who voted them into those positions. Fortunately, the culture is not endemic. And definitely not shared by those who look to the likes of Pope Francis for guidance.  – Alec Hogg      

 

Chairman of the Jacob Zuma Foundation Dudu Myeni - real life example of the way "entrepreneurial politicians" pull State levers of power for personal benefit.
Chairman of the Jacob Zuma Foundation Dudu Myeni – real life example of the way “entrepreneurial politicians” pull State levers of power for personal benefit. Click here for more Zapiro magic.  

By Edmund Blair

NAIROBI, Nov 26 (Reuters) – In actions and words on his first tour of the world’s poorest continent, Pope Francis has sent a message to African leaders that they could do with less pomp and a bit more humility.

In a region where presidents speed past slums in cavalcades of luxury vehicles and the public complain about corruption in high office, the pope was cheered as he drove in a small Honda and told national leaders to act with integrity.

Kenya’s prolific Twitter users were quick to notice the contrast. “Thieving politicians arrive in their SUVs and Mercs to listen to @Pontifex who will arrive in a Honda. Shameless ‘leaders’,” wrote @Kunj_Shah.

Francis, who has spurned many of the institutional perks of the Vatican, shunned the armoured cars with tinted glass driven by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his entourage.

Pope Francis waves to faithful while riding in an open truck as he arrives for a Papal mass in Kenya's capital Nairobi, November 26, 2015. In actions and words on his first tour of the world's poorest continent, Pope Francis has sent a message to African leaders that they could do with less pomp and a bit more humility. Francis, who has spurned many of the institutional perks of the Vatican, shunned the armoured cars with tinted glass driven by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his entourage. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
Pope Francis waves to faithful while riding in an open truck as he arrives for a Papal mass in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, November 26, 2015. In actions and words on his first tour of the world’s poorest continent, Pope Francis has sent a message to African leaders that they could do with less pomp and a bit more humility. Francis, who has spurned many of the institutional perks of the Vatican, shunned the armoured cars with tinted glass driven by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his entourage. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

Nor did he follow the example of visitors like U.S. President Barack Obama, who turned up in Nairobi in July for an official visit with an army of security personnel and a bullet-proof limousine, dubbed “the Beast”.

Instead, the pope waved to rapturous crowds from his white popemobile with open sides despite pouring rain and was ferried around Nairobi in the Honda that local media said cost a modest 1.5 million shillings ($14,700).

“The pope is down to earth,” said Lucy Musyoka, 48, who braved a downpour to attend open-air Mass in a sodden Nairobi University sports field. “It is good for our leaders to notice.”

“They like the wealth of the world but they can’t understand the people of our country,” she said. “It is vanity.”

The pope lives in a small apartment in a guesthouse in the Vatican rather than the spacious papal apartments in the regal and frescoed Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors.

The day after his election in 2013, he returned to a Rome hotel to personally pay his bill and recently went to a Rome optician to pick up his own eyeglasses. In September, he rode around Washington DC in a small Fiat on his state visit there.

His Africa trip will take the Pope to Uganda and the Central African Republic, a nation mired in sectarian conflict. He dismissed security concerns, joking with reporters that the “only thing I’m concerned about is the mosquitoes”.

THE COMMON GOOD

Barely two hours after arriving in Nairobi on Wednesday, Francis told the president and dignitaries they had a duty to care for the poor and support the aspirations of the young.

“I encourage you to work with integrity and transparency for the common good, and to foster a spirit of solidarity at every level of society,” he said, speaking in the elegant surroundings of State House, the Kenyan president’s official residence.

A day earlier, Kenyatta reshuffled his cabinet after several ministers were embroiled in corruption allegations. Kenyatta, a Catholic like 30 percent of Kenya’s 45 million people, also spoke of the challenge of graft in his welcome to the pope.

“Your Holiness, like you, as a nation we want to combat the vices of corruption which sacrifice people and the environment in the pursuit of illegal profit,” Kenyatta told Francis. “Holy Father, I ask for your prayer as we fight this war.”

Scandals in past months have ranged from a ministry buying ballpoint pens for $85 each and probes into multi-million dollar government contract awards.

It has angered Kenyans, even though they are long used to corruption sagas where top officials never seem to be convicted.

When he was finance minister Kenyatta tried to address ostentation among officials, demanding they use smaller cars but there has been little lasting impact.

“The sheer humility of the Pope, the simplicity of his message, I fear may be lost on the most rapacious elite on this side of Africa,” John Githongo, Kenya’s former anti-graft tsar and now an outspoken anti-corruption activist, said.

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