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Lloyd Gumbo Senior Reporter
African parliaments must enact legislation strong enough to curb capital flight while at the same time ensuring that countries beneficiate their natural resources if Africa is to develop, National Assembly speaker Advocate Jacob Mudenda has said.
Adv Mudenda said this during his welcome remarks to delegates attending the African Parliamentarians Network on Development Evaluation (APNODE) Second Annual General Meeting in Harare yesterday.
Legislators from across the continent are attending the meeting that ends today.
The speaker said Africa can only develop if it has strong legislation that promotes beneficiation of its natural resources, curbs capital flight and corruption.
Adv Mudenda said APNODE is best positioned to influence policy direction in the African continent with the sole objective of developing the bloc.
“The first one, is to address the African conundrum and the African conundrum is that Africa is endowed with a variety of rich natural resources, yet these national resources are not fully exploited by us the Africans,” said Adv Mudenda.
“What is happening now is that we are exporting, in raw form some of these natural resources without some measure of value addition, without some measure of value beneficiation. And yet these two should be the anchor of industrialisation of Africa.
“As a consequence, Africa remains poor and yet so rich. That is the conundrum that Development Evaluation (APNODE) must address through our parliaments in terms of the exercise of our oversight on the Executive in making sure that we have appropriate policies that address this African conundrum, which is indeed a big irony.”
Adv Mudenda said APNODE can help African parliaments in enacting legislation that creates a conducive environment for both domestic and foreign investment.
He said the continent has most sought after natural resources that could easily attract investment, adding that these kind of laws could accelerate the Ease of Doing Business in Africa.
“The second aspect that Development Evaluation must pursue vigorously is the issue of capital flight. We have a number of multinational companies that come to Africa and through their complicated or intentionally complicated accounting systems, end up creating opportunities for capital flight from Africa, depriving therefore, Africa of the necessary capital to fight poverty, to improve education, to improve social services.
“We are all aware that the AU appointed a taskforce led by the former President of South Africa, His Excellency Thabo Mbeki. They made some investigations two years ago and indicated that every year not less than $50 billion leaves Africa through unceremonious, unscrupulous and crooked means and in the process depriving Africa of the necessary capital to develop itself. Development Evaluation must therefore must come up with strong legislation that will ensure that capital flight is a thing of the past,” said Adv Mudenda.
Zanu-PF MP for Mutoko South, Cde David Chapfika, who is a member of APNODE, said the organ is there to promote the development of Africa through tackling political, social and economic issues affecting the continent.
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