A Beautiful East African story

Before people start thinking I met a new love interest, let me clarify, I fell in love, again but not with a woman. This is a disclaimer for my beautiful wife

So here we go… This past week I went to visit one of my favourite cities in Africa, Dar Es Salaam. I haven’t been to Dar since before lockdown but more importantly I haven’t been to East Africa since around 2015. Back then the region was finding its feet and the EAC was taking off like a house on fire. I would land at their airports either in Nairobi or Dar and they were small little old structures that catered mainly for regional and local air travel. Of course at the time SAA was still the leading African airline and this based on the multiple Skytrax awards they were winning. Fast forward 6 years later, the amount of development that has taken place left me breathless this week. Ok, apart from SAA, which one can suppose is a reflection of the inept South African government, or an disorganised regional body in SADC Community, the rest of the continent is developing at a rate that SADC can only dream of right now.

In Nairobi JKIA has become a regional hub with multiple terminals. When I landed in Nairobi I actually could not believe just how awesome and grown the airport and Kenya Airways are. Then I arrived in Dar Es Salaam and the JNIA airport there is something to wonder at also. Most impressive though is the growth of Air Tanzania as a regional carrier. Then as you drive through the streets of Dar, a high speed train construction project underway, a BRT system in operation, multiple roads and bridges being constructed, port expansion projects, buzzing markets with entrepreneurs from all corners of life doing the most. My final stop was Addis Ababa. Ok guys the sight at Addis airport left me totally awestruck. I’m not sure how many of us know just how big an airline Ethiopian Airlines is. These guys have a fleet of over 125 jets, with 50+ more in order. The airline is fully government run and makes over $250m profit! Can I hear someone say government can’t run business? Their MRO unit is the biggest in the continent and the airline connects the whole world through a single entry point bringing millions of dollars in foreign currency to Ethiopia. But the reconstruction of the airport by Ethiopia Airports company, is incredible in such a short space of time. Just a few years ago you couldn’t even have WiFi at that airport, now it has multiple runways and for kilometres it’s just a row of Ethiopian airline planes, from small propeller planes to the Boeing Dreamliner. What an incredible sight.

The death of SAA (and let’s not blame Covid for it) has left a massive gap in the sub Saharan region which clearly Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia are keen to fill, real quick. But it’s not just the death of SAA as I alluded to earlier, I think it’s the death of vision. It’s the death of good leadership, the domination of the corridors of power by people of bad character. SADC leaders have proven to be selfish and uninformed, driven by greed that leads to uncontrollable corruption. I’m not saying East African leaders are pure, but what I am saying is that the growth of their economies should serve as some proof of the broader vision they have for their people. If you throw Rwanda into this mix, the scales are tipped so far in East Africa’s favor that not even the recovery of South Africa will create a challenge for these brothers and sisters from the east. I salute the East Africa Community for the work taking place there. I salute Ethiopia for the work taking place there and can only hope that at some point our leaders will catch a massive wake up, (not really sure coz we still struggling with basics such as eliminating passports for regional travel) all because some xenophobic fools think everyone wants to come to SA. At this rate, I suspect the next major migration will be North East wards.

I remain hopeful however knowing that a full recovery of the SADC region in the competitive sense, will need both RSA and Zimbabwe and all other member states firing on all cylinders. Perhaps just like EAC, we need a fresh clean slate when it comes to political leaders, coz these madalas running our countries have totally lost the plot!