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Organisation to stop looting of resources launched

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BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE A NEW organisation, One54 Transformational Trust, which is set to stop looting of natural and mineral resources from all 54 African countries was launched in Harare yesterday.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

A NEW organisation, One54 Transformational Trust, which is set to stop looting of natural and mineral resources from all 54 African countries was launched in Harare yesterday.

The organisation’s founder Khumbulani Mhlophe said their lobby group had set 18 points which African leaders and business people should follow and adhere to as the foundation on which to make policies and decisions on doing business and protecting resources.

Mhlophe said the 18 points would stop the looting of African natural and mineral resources and would change the mindsets of Africans to be more productive.

“Many big companies in Africa are linked to politics, they take money from the fiscus and they do not have a desire to develop. You find a president giving his relative US$500 000 instead of investing it so that many can get employment. They take the money and deposit it in Dubai banks,” Mhlophe said. Mhlophe said many African leaders were creating briefcase companies which they then use to steal from State coffers.

He said Africans were suffering because they did not have the right mindset.

“We have road engineers but our roads are dead. All sort of engineers we have, but they fail to design a bridge. We sell our products because of a piece of paper which depreciates in value.”

“We lose our gold because of money, we pay insurance, tax but the companies took the money and sold it in London where dividends are high. Every African country must have a sovereign wealth fund which will help our future generation. Africa is losing a lot through these illicit trades,” Mhlophe said.

Africa, Mhlope added, should have a central bank which will regulate its currencies.

“Military intelligence in Africa is only used to protect leaders but fails to protect the intelligence of our economy; we need a medium of economic intelligence. In most Western countries, the intelligence is used to protect financial flows for developments,” Mhlophe said.

The 18 points laid out to develop Africa are to establish a single currency, development of nuclear power, development of ICT, research and development, mobilising African money for collective investments, among others.