The Tanzanian High Commissioner to South Africa, Mr. Ami R Mpungwe, is to join CSIPER Consulting as a director and senior patron of the company`s Black Economic Empowerment Trust when he takes an early and voluntary retirement from the diplomatic service at the end of September 1999.
He will commute between South Africa and Tanzania, where he is establishing a consulting company. With the backing of CSIPER, he will provide consulting services throughout East Africa.
CSIPER Consulting, a SAP Southern Africa Logo Partner with a global presence in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market, has been involved in major information technology systems implementation and integration since 1990, including major undertakings in North America, Europe, South-East Asia and Australia as well as South Africa.
A diplomat for more than 25 years, Mr. Mpungwe has been intensely involved in developing SA-Tanzania economic ties since his appointment as High Commissioner more than five years ago. These ties include substantial investment by South African companies in the mining, brewing, tourism, agriculture and agro-processing, petroleum and energy, and banking sectors of his country`s economy.
"I have accepted an invitation to join the board of CSIPER Consulting primarily because the company has the kind of skills and knowledge that are vital to the transformation of Africa`s economy and the realization of the African Renaissance," he says.
"We have taken important steps to achieving a dramatic economic turnaround in Tanzania since we began privatizing state-owned industries. Now these industries need to become world class in order to compete in the global economy. That means implementing the type of knowledge management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions in which CSIPER excels.
"I intend to champion this technology through a consulting company I am setting up with CSIPER`s help in Tanzania and to encourage its spread throughout the rest of Africa. As High Commissioner in South Africa, I was also accredited to the SADC Secretariat and so have been involved with regional developments.
"The emergence of efficient and effective public services and globally competitive private enterprises is critical to the kind of transformation and growth that we envisage for our economies. profound appreciation of and spread of such leading-edge, business solutions are, therefore, an imperative."
Mr. Mpungwe, who says he will be dividing his time mainly between South Africa and East Africa, believes that CSIPER, as an African company, has more to offer Africa than an overseas consultancy.
"Some of the solutions that work well in the developing world do not always work well in less-developed countries," he says. "A knowledge of the African environment is critical, and one of the areas in which I expect to make a contribution is to align the values inherent in African society with leading-edge business solutions to make them more effective."
This aspect is also important in regard to CSIPER`s black economic empowerment (BEE) policy, he says.
"CSIPER`s BEE policy appeals to me as one of the most realistic strategies to empower previously disadvantaged people that I have seen. Given Africa`s history, there are very few black people who have had the exposure that is needed in a consultancy such as CSIPER -- skills and exposure far beyond MBA level.
"CSIPER is focusing on developing human capital from a low level up through to the highest level of professional excellence. This is significant not just for South Africa, but for Africa as a whole. I shall be playing a role in this and, heeding the Government`s call for contributions to the development of a meaningful black empowerment strategy, would like to see CSIPER make an input.
"Again I think the benefits of this will spread beyond the borders of South Africa, which could serve as a role model for the rest of Africa. Much as we all need each other to succeed in Africa, significant success on the part of South Africa, is critical in that process. It will make our own success much easier to achieve. This is something we have to do for ourselves -- it is the essence of the call for an African renaissance. We have been complaining about the legacy of our history for too long; the rest of the world has stopped listening."
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