A top official from a German foundation that promotes human rights and freedoms has urged African leaders to be tolerant to criticism as that creates a conducive environment for economic development.
Friedrich Naumann Foundation head for sub-Saharan Africa Jules Maaten made the remarks in Victoria Falls, where the foundation held a four-day workshop for 50 academics from various local universities and entrepreneurs.
The workshop discussed ways to help local municipalities improve service delivery, data collection and utilise new technologies.
Maaten said Zimbabwe had many intelligent academics because of its education system and authorities must not see them as a threat.
“Once you’re able to do that, l think the sky is the limit for Africa and certainly for a country like Zimbabwe,” he said.
“The underlying challenge in Zimbabwe and other African countries politically and economically is that there is fear of criticism from leaders because it makes them feel undermined.
“It is much nicer when everybody says how wonderful you are when you are in charge of something, but that does not teach you anything because many leaders are surrounded by people who tell them how wonderful they are,” he added.
“Maaten said African leaders also needed to be more democratic and draw a line between political party loyalties and citizenship governance.
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Nokuthaba Dlamini
