Botswana was placed first in a new survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF) rating African countries for good governance, pushing its neighbour, South Africa, into fourth place.
The study ranked 21 countries on the rule of law, impressions of corruption, and the enforcement of contracts.
Botswana was ranked as the least corrupt and best in adhering to contracts and the rule of law.
According to the WEF, the overall impression of South Africa was dragged down by the perceived costs linked to organised crime.
Zimbabwe was ranked 16 of the 21 countries, with its judiciary seen as the least independent in the region. And Nigeria and Chad propped up the list as having the worst public institutions.
The index was calculated from almost 2 000 responses to the Swiss-based forum’s Executive Opinion Survey 2003, which captured the impressions of national business leaders on the quality of the business environment in which they operated.
Meanwhile Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel was upbeat on Thursday on the progress achieved in making the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) a reality, describing the fledgling peer review mechanism as a world first.
”We must recognise the African peer review mechanism as a major breakthrough from anything that has happened anywhere previously,” he told delegates at the WEF’s Africa summit in Durban. More than 600 delegates are meeting in Durban to discuss how to move Nepad from the drawing board to action.
The peer review mechanism aims to monitor whether countries are adhering to Nepad principles.
”There is no other part of the world that has taken issues that far because that’s laying your soul bare, and I think that’s an important element,” he said.
Manuel, however, stressed the developed world was not doing enough to help resolve the massive debt problems plaguing Africa.
”There is still too much money that flows off the African continent as part of debt service,” he said.