Chaos down South : What do South Africans really want?

Africa has been known as a continent of paradoxes however, many developments are being experienced as a result of direct and indirect decisions made by countries as well as top advisers and professionals apart from the wealthy businessmen who have built large empires from scratch. Influence from the west and lately the east have been seen to drive opinions as well as heavily influence the way countries operate and how their formulate strategiess for the future like the Kenyan vision 2030.

Politics undoubtedly however is the single most mover and almost akin to the swing vote during elections. In 2011 Africa was at the epicenter of the most incensed uprisings famously dubbed the Arab uprising. While some countries like Tunisia have gone back to normally, Egypt and Libya are still experiencing gruesome effects of the riots.

South Africa during those times was seen as a formidable leader that would make decisions that would affect how the diplomatic decisions were made, but well nothing much ever happened in terms of duly impacting the tumultuous times of the Uprising.

Enter the internet;

Just recently, at the close of 2012, there was a major WCIT ITU conference that yielded the most negative criticism and was majorly regarded as a failure despite the attempts to change the current ITR’s that have been in existence since late 80’s despite the major developments that have been experienced in the telecom and computing industry, the main bone of contention being the internet and its impact. Many developed nations refused to sign the document, however some countries supported the proposed changes.

The most vocal were the South Africans who signed the treaty with a report saying ‘‘S. Africa has signed up to a controversial treaty that has internet companies and free speech advocates up in arms.” With the development which has cast doubt on the country’s ability to maintain the momentum of growth in its internet economy, which makes roughly the same contribution as the agricultural sector to GDP.

This is not the first time SA has featured in the news for some of the controversial global issues, Cape –town was to be the host of the Proposed Africa Intellectual Property Forum that was eventually postponed owing to strong criticism by civil society organizations around the globe.

Its not clear how South Africa who are now trying to lead an ICANN multistakeholder process under the AU auspices for  .africa when its rushing in the clamor for regulations that would harm internet freedom. S.Africa is seeking to be the home of the .africa registry . Its clear that its fighting hard to be seen as an opinion maker on matters of AFRICA.

Kenya on the other hand surprised many when it refused to sign showing that it alliance with democracy and multi-stakeholderism. Its even reported by some African blog that the leader of the SA delegation openly scolded the Kenyan lead for being independent minded rather than group minded regarding accepting the ITR’s as they were.