42 Middle East and Africa The EconomistFebruary 24th 2018
A fuss over FreemasonsFist bumps and rolled-up trousers
I
T WAS too much of a coincidence for
the members of “No to Freemasonry
and Homosexuality”, a coalition of
religious groups. Emmanuel Macron,
France’s president, Rihanna, a pop star,
and several hundred African Freemasons
were all due to visitSenegal around the
same time this month. The group decid-
ed that sinister forces must be at work, no
doubt plotting against the country.
Every yeardozens of Masonic lodges
from across Africa come together to
discussthe issues of the day. This year, for
their 26th shindig, the Freemasons
booked a plush hotel in Dakar, Senegal’s
capital. On the agenda were worthy
topics such as education, freedom, go-
vernance and economic development.
But the hotel, rattled by the conspiracy-
minded protesters and worried about
violence, cancelled the event.
Still, the brouhaha has shone a light
on how Freemasonry, a secretive move-
ment that originated in 16th-century
European guilds, has taken root on a
continent where finger snaps and fist
bumps are more common than secret
handshakes and rolled-up trouser legs.
David Harrison, a researcher of Masonic
history, says the movement spread fromEuropean countries to their African
colonies when settlers set up lodges.
After independence some Africans
continued to practise Freemasonry, but
many were driven underground. Masons
say that theirs is a fraternal order of men
who believe in a creator (the Great Archi-
tect) and do good works. But because this
is a secret society, they are widely viewed
with suspicion; in Africa, because of their
association with former colonial mas-
ters, perhaps even more so. Alexandre
Cleven, a formergrand master of the
Regular Grand Lodge of Belgium, says the
way Freemasons are treated in different
countries is an “excellent barometer of
human freedom”. He estimates that there
are 10,000 African Freemasons (out of
about 3m worldwide). Lodges can be
found in Ghana, South Africa, Liberia
and various parts of Francophone Africa.
After taking on the Freemasons, the
protesters in Dakar turned on Rihanna,
who was to share a stage with Mr Macron
and Macky Sall, Senegal’s president. Mr
Sall did not back down. The event was a
success, extracting pledges from donors
of more than $2.3bn for children’s educa-
tion. Some might be well spent on teach-
ing the virtues of tolerance.DAKAR
First they came for the Freemasons, then they came for RihannaS
OUTH AFRICANS had only a few days
to celebrate the resignation of Jacob
Zuma and the swearing-in of a new presi-
dent, Cyril Ramaphosa, before the hang-
over set in. A new budget hiked taxes, cut
public spending and reminded people
how big a mess Mr Zuma left behind.
The budget was presented by Malusi
Gigaba, a finance minister whose appoint-
ment by Mr Zuma almost a year ago
sparked protests against what was seen as
a hostile takeover of the Treasury, a depart-
ment that had stayed professional even as
corruption and incompetence flourished
elsewhere in the government. Embarrass-
ingly, Mr Gigaba’s budget was marred by
the release of a high-court ruling that he
had lied under oath in his previous job as
minister of home affairs (and photos of
him playing “Candy Crush” on his iPad in
parliament). Mr Ramaphosa kept him on
until the budget so as not to unsettle mar-
kets. He may not last much longer.
Mr Ramaphosa’s most urgent task is to
kick out of his cabinet the cronies and
hacks put there by Mr Zuma. This is harder
than it sounds. Fire too many and he risks
splitting the ruling African National Con-
gress (ANC), some pundits worry.
At the same time, he must risk upsetting
voters by taking the fiscal measures neces-
sary to avoid a downgrade of South Afri-
ca’s debt, which would see it kicked out of
the major bond indices used by interna-
tional investors. The budget includes an
unpopular increase in value-added tax to
start shrinking a yawning fiscal deficit.
Even so, a big increase in spending on uni-
versity education means that public debt is
forecast to keep rising until 2023, when it is
expected to peak at about 56% ofGDP.
Mr Ramaphosa may not be able to act
much more boldly, particularly in cutting
the wage bill for civil servants. This con-
sumes nearly 35% of the budget, and 14% of
GDP, a jaw-dropping figure even by the
standards of the OECD, a club mainly of
rich countries, where the average is closer
to 11%. Public-sector workers are heavily
unionised, and the ANC relies on unions to
send people door-to-door canvassing for
votes at election time.
Too much austerity would risk sparking
public-sector strikes. Instead, Mr Rama-
phosa hopes to attract investment and
spur the economy so that South Africa can
grow its way out of its debt crisis. He has a
lot of work to do. Although growth is pick-
ing up this year, it is still forecast to come inat a sluggish 1.5%, barely above the rate of
population growth.
However, Mr Ramaphosa can reason-
ably expect a post-Zuma bounce. Goolam
Ballim, an economist at Standard Bank,
reckons that if South Africa had had a bet-
ter economic manager than Mr Zuma for
the past nine years, itsGDPwould be as
much as 25% larger. One reason was that
firms held back from making all but the
most essential investments so long as Mr
Zuma was in charge. Now, under the busi-
ness-friendly Mr Ramaphosa, they mightsee things differently. “I see a flood of in-
vestment being unleashed,” Mr Ballim
says. Even more would flow if Mr Rama-
phosa were to scrap a mining charter that
scared off investors by forcing companies
to hand over shares to black owners.
In time, Mr Ramaphosa may have to
pick a fight with unions to help lift the rate
at which South Africa’s economy can grow.
Currently, unions have immense power:
for example, they can impose minimum
wages on whole industries, forcing firms
that cannot pay them to close. Mr Rama-
phosa would be wise to change labour
laws that discourage companies from tak-
ing on new workers because it is so hard to
fire them. Such reforms would make it easi-
er for the unemployed, who are 36% of the
workforce, to find jobs. But they would en-
rage the unions and the South African
Communist Party, the two other members
of the ANC’s electoral alliance.
With such a daunting in-tray, Mr Rama-
phosa is eager to court popularity. Unlike
his predecessor, who whizzed around in a
motorcade, he has been taking a regular
5am walk, joined by dozens of well-wish-
ers. One ANCofficial accompanying the
president complained to the local press
that he had never woken up so early. 7South Africa after ZumaThe hangover
JOHANNESBURG
Cyril Ramaphosa needs to dish out
tough medicineZuma’s years of gloomSources: Bureau for Economic Research; Haver AnalyticsSouth Africa
Business confidence
index, 50=neutralPrivate investment
% change on a year earlier2006 10 1517020406080100
Zuma
becomes
president2006 10 15 17151050510+