46 Middle East and Africa The EconomistFebruary 10th 2018
Africa’s energy drinkBacchus goes bananas
S
TRONG, smooth, with notes of melon
and a hint of a buttery aftertaste. Leo-
pord Lema’s banana wine may not de-
light the critics, but it is a hit in northern
Tanzania, where it sells for 500 shillings
($0.23) a bottle. It’s cheaper than beer,
says Samuel Juma, a security guard, and
“brings more energy”. Localsglugtheir
way through 12,000 litres a day.
“I come from a family where we used
to brew,” says Mr Lema, his office thick
with the pungent smell of baked ba-
nanas. His wine keeps longer than home-
made mbege, a banana beer, and is safer
than local moonshine, which sometimes
contains methanol. He has also devised a
pineapple version, using up fruit which
quickly rots after the harvest.
Mr Lema is not the first to bottle tradi-
tional African booze. In the 1950s Max
Heinrich, a German, recorded the process
of making sorghum beer in present-day
Zambia; hischibuku(“by the book”) is
now churned out by corporate brewers.
Fruity firms are bubbling up elsewhere.
Palm Nectar, in Nigeria, sells palm winein bars and supermarkets, with plans to
export to America and Europe. “It’s the
same drink that comes out of the tree,”
boasts Maraizu Uche, its boss.
In Mr Lema’s factory women funnel
amber wine into recycled bottles. He
employs more than 60 people. Mr Lema
made 200m shillings ($90,000) in profit
last year and is expanding into a new
8-acre site. His success shows that indus-
trialisation isnot just about vast sweat-
shops or belching chimneys. In much of
Africa it is more likely to mean small
businesses, processing agricultural pro-
ducts for local tastes. Bananas can also be
turned into flour, crisps and jam. Yoweri
Museveni, the Ugandan president, wants
to use oil revenues to finance banana-
juice projects, among otherthings.
Mr Lema hopes to win middle-class
customers with his pricierpineapple
drink. But the main buyers of his banana
brew are poorer folk, unable to afford
branded lagers. “It helps you live more
days on this earth,” shouts one connois-
seur, staggering joyously in the street.MWANZA
African businesses are putting traditional wines into new bottlesT
HE new era began brightly. Since be-
coming leader of the ruling African Na-
tional Congress (ANC) in December, Cyril
Ramaphosa has moved swiftly to stop Ja-
cob Zuma, South Africa’s president, from
wrecking the place more than he already
has. It is an immense task. Yet a burst of
movement across several areas of govern-
ment suggests that Mr Ramaphosa is wast-
ing no time in tackling the corruption that
has hollowed out South Africa.
Start with the police and prosecutor’s
office, which were paralysed for the best
part of a decade under Mr Zuma, who faces
783 charges of corruption. Within weeks of
Mr Ramaphosa’s elevation to president-in-
waiting (parliament picks the president,
and the ANC controls parliament), police
and prosecutors had opened investiga-
tions into several of Mr Zuma’s friends.A commission of inquiry into allega-
tions of “state capture” by the Gupta fam-
ily, businessassociates of Mr Zuma’s son, is
about to start its probe. Separately, prose-
cutors have identified some $4bn in assets
that they believe are the proceeds of crime
and that they hope to recover.
Mr Ramaphosa is moving quickly on
the economy too, installing a new board of
Eskom, the state power monopoly that
was run into the ground by Mr Zuma’s ap-
pointees. At the World Economic Forum in
Davos, the business-savvyMr Ramaphosa
won over investors with his market-friend-
ly talk. The rand is the strongest it has been
against the dollar in nearly three years.
But if Mr Ramaphosa really wants to
halt the rot he will have to push Mr Zuma
from the presidency before the end of his
term next year. He (and many more in the
ANC) would like to do so, not least because
they fear that the party will fare badly in
national elections if it is not seen to have
made progress against corruption. This
week the party delivered an unprecedent-
ed humiliation when it postponed the an-
nual state-of-the-nation address that Mr
Zuma was due to have given at the opening
of parliament on February 8th. Yet the
president has a thick skin. Unlike Thabo
Mbeki, who resigned from the presidency
in 2008 when “recalled” by the party, Mr
Zuma has refused to go quietly. When re-
portedly asked to step down by party big-wigs at the weekend, he said no.
If Mr Zuma does not step down volun-
tarily, Mr Ramaphosa may try to increase
the pressure by getting the party’s national
executive committee, its highest decision-
making body, to “recall” him. Yet such a
declaration has no force under the consti-
tution and he can legally ignore it.
Moreover, Mr Ramaphosa seems un-
willing to test his own support in a direct
conflict with the president, particularly
given the deep divisions within the ANC. A
recent street fight outside Luthuli House,
the ANC headquarters in downtown Jo-
hannesburg, pitted supporters of Mr Ra-
maphosa against a group of rival protesters
supporting Mr Zuma.
Mr Ramaphosa was only narrowly
elected leader of the ANCin December and
is hemmed in by allies of Mr Zuma at the
top of the party. These include powerful
figures such as Ace Magashule, the premier
of the Free State and recently appointed
secretary-general of the ANC.
Even so, the tide seems to be turning in
Mr Ramaphosa’s favour as allies of the
president defect or see their influence di-
minish. In January an elite police unit raid-
ed Mr Magashule’s office as part of a probe
into allegations of corruption. As the com-
mission into “state capture” gets under
way it is likely to sweep up people who
have benefited from Mr Zuma’s rule (and
who have fought to keep him in power).
The clock is ticking. On February 22nd
(and possibly sooner ifopposition parties
have their way) Mr Zuma faces a vote of no
confidence sponsored by the Economic
Freedom Fighters, a firebrand party. The
ANCwill not want to let it claim victory for
kicking out Mr Zuma, but it can hardly ask
its members to vote against the motion
only to propose its own soon after. The end
of the Zuma era is nigh. 7South African politicsLong waltz to
freedom
JOHANNESBURG
The delicate dance to depose President
Jacob ZumaZuma down, rand up. DiscussCorrection:In last week’s story on Mali we misquoted
Andrew Lebovich as saying the government has little
interest in quelling insecurity. In fact, he was speaking
of its lack of commitment to a 2015 peace agreement.