OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday
INTERNATIONAL financier George Soros has criticised South Africa’s policy on Zimbabwe and launched a fierce attack on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in an interview published on Sunday.
“Mugabe has poisoned the neighbourhood,” the Hungarian-born philanthropist told the Sunday Independent.
South African President Thabo Mbeki’s policy of “quiet diplomacy” towards its neighbour had failed, he said.
“This is one point where I am actually critical of the policy followed by President Mbeki. It is doing damage to South Africa.
“Yet South Africa continues to help Mugabe stay in power. I was shocked to find out that the South African electricity utility reduced the cost of its electricity to Zimbabwe by 25%, while it is going up here (in South Africa). And it has also allowed Zimbabwe to run up big arrears.”
Soros told the newspaper he had dropped three board members from the South African branch of his Open Society Foundation because they had since joined Mbeki’s office.
He said it was not appropriate for the foundation to be so close to the source of power, adding that he had told Mbeki “that this was … just a conflict of interests. He accepted and saw the point.”
“I happen to be a fan of Mbeki’s,” he added. But he also warned of problems in the government.
“One concern looking at South Africa from the outside is that there is excessive use of influence, lack of transparency and business-government contracts that are not awarded on merit, but on connection,” he said.
Soros warned of an emerging tendency towards greater corruption. Black empowerment threatened to create inefficiencies if it entailed having “some black straw-man to make it possible for non-black businesses to get contracts.”
The philanthropist has spent some $40m dollars on projects in South Africa over the past seven years and is a member, along with other world financial and business leaders, of Mbeki’s International Investment Advisory Council.
His projects here include criminal justice assistance, education, community radio, and mortgage guarantees. – AFP