Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

4 min read | 21:00 pm CAT

In this week’s edition of the Africa Report, Radio Islam International discussed with Dr Emmanuel Matambo, Research Director at the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Africa-China Studies (CACS).

The first of October marked the 73rd anniversary of China since its foundation in 1949. The communist party of China, led by Chairman Mao Zedong, had seized power at the expense of the nationalist government that fled to the Island of Taiwan.

Mao Zedong died in 1976, and by 1978 China embarked on economic reforms that have seen it transform from being a third-world backwater to the world’s second-largest economy by 2009.

According to Dr Matambo, the most significant incentive to the Chinese was pragmatism on the part of Deng Xiaoping, who was the supreme leader after the death of Mao Zedong. Xiaoping realised that for China to improve its economy, it had to copy economic ideologies that had worked in the West.

He said Xiaoping had also realised that the human resource is the best resource in any economy, which is the combination the rest of the developing world has struggled to embark upon.

Observing Africa’s challenges and economic woes, Dr Matambo highlights possible solutions that Africa should carry out.

He said Africa ought to implement policies that exist.

“The world says Africa has the best policies and constitutions compared to the rest of the world. However, we do not follow through with that.”

He added that there is no ideological conviction.

According to Dr Matambo, Africa has been vacillating in terms of its economic practice.

“If only we could read keenly our circumstances, embark on ideologies which suit those circumstances and have the consistency to implement what is decided upon than maybe our prospects would improve.”

Meanwhile, the recent coo in Africa is dispiriting for many people who have had hopes of an Africa that had started to entrench democracy.

Dr Matambo said it’s baffling that a military is toppling a military government which came into power in January.

He added that some civilians endorsing the current coo show that Burkino Faso’s situation has worsened in the last ten months.

Listen below to the Africa Report with Moulana Habib Bobat and Dr Emmanuel Matambo on Radio Islam’s podcast.