Wolfowitz applauds Africa’s anti-corruption fight

PRETORIA, South Africa - New World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, wrapping up a four-nation African tour has hailed a new leadership in Africa that was fighting corruption.

Wolfowitz was speaking at a news conference standing beside South African President Thabo Mbeki, who last week fired his graft-tainted deputy Jacob Zuma.

"There is new leadership in Africa that is taking responsibility, that is taking on these decisions and it is one of the reasons why I agree with what (Nigerian) President (Olusegun) Obasanjo said to me; Africa is on the move," Wolfowitz said.

"I feel like it is on the move and I hope the World Bank can help it move faster."

Wolfowitz said there was increasing recognition that Africa's debt load was due to corruption and bad governance.

"I want to tip my hat to leaders of Africa, including particularly President Mbeki, as there is an increasing recognition that the reason we have these unpayable debts is because a lot of governments in the past did not spend money well and that is an understatement.

"You know I'm talking about corruption and bad governance," he added.

Mbeki sacked Zuma after his deputy's former financial adviser Schabir Shaik was convicted of corruption and fraud. The move was hailed across the continent and among international donors as a firm step in rooting out corruption.

Wolfowitz has spent the past seven days seeing for himself the plight -- and hope -- of the world's poorest continent, where about 15 countries are growing at a rapid pace of 6 to 7 per cent annually but are still mired in poverty.

Wolfowitz said he had felt opportunities for the World Bank to develop partnerships in Africa.

"The more I travelled through Africa I have felt that sense of opportunity and what I call the 'can do' attitude," he said.

He also said he would push for more representation for Africa on the 24-seat World Bank's board that would give the continent more say in the decision-making of an institution that spends the bulk of its aid on projects in African countries.

Africa is represented by only two executive directors, while European governments like France and Britain each have one. European countries have resisted scaling down their representation on both the boards of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund because it would mean adjustments in their voting rights.

"There is no question in my mind that we increasingly got to pay attention to the needs of developing countries if we want to help them properly," Wolfowitz said.

Earlier, Wolfowitz met former South African President Nelson Mandela and played football with children in Soweto township.

The former US deputy defence secretary, who was one of the architects of the Iraq war and says Africa will be his priority in his new role, was surrounded by 20 orphans and abused children at a hostel in Soweto.

"He is a loving and kind man. Not a lot of people come to this centre and think about us. He cares," 15-year-old Mahlodi Mashiawe, an abused child now living in the Salvation Army's Carl Sithole Children's Centre, told Reuters.

The centre also cares for orphans and children suffering from HIV/Aids, which infects more than 25 million people in Africa.

Wolfowitz went on to play football with the children and allowed them to clamber all over him, before moving on to meet anti-apartheid icon Mandela to discuss Africa's future and the role the World Bank could play in boosting its economies.

- REUTERS