The latest Africa business report looks at the realities of the xenophobic violence sweeping the country.

Bruce Whitfield:
Victor Kgomoeswana from Money Biz with the Africa Business Report, as he is every week and we can't kick off an African business report without talking about xenophobia unfortunately, I mean, it is a reality that we are living with in South Africa, we like to talk about the continent, about the transformation of the continent and the marvellous opportunities that are happening elsewhere on the continent and in our backyard South Africans are killing people who weren't born here.

Victor Kgomoeswana:
Shame on us. If you imagine that the borders were artificially created if I may say by colonial powers just to share the resources and here we are glorifying them so much as if they are worth anything, it's a shame on us but you know what I also want to say there is an underlying problem there that is not necessarily xenophobic and it has to do with living conditions of people. People with nothing to lose can't be asked to be constructive; it has going to have to be something much more comprehensive as an intervention to sort out the problem. It's a shame also that I hear leaders talking about whether it is a crisis to warrant this or that, I would say solve the problem whatever it takes, not talk about whether if you have that point yet. I don't know but as I'm saying you know what it's a shame on South Africans because we can't be the beacon of a renaissance or the rebirth of the African continent if we don't have the common sense amongst our own people.

Bruce Whitfield:
We are unpopular enough as it is in other parts of the continent, we certainly don't need this on our consciences as well. Let's talk about coffee because that is a great African success story, Rwanda, I saw a story on Reuters today, its coffee output could double this year, 93 percent growth there as well, good rains in that country. The good news on the Rwanda also on the coffee front is Ugandans are celebrating a good crop too.

Victor Kgomoeswana:
Well, in Uganda you walk around and the trees that you see are coffee trees most of the time so it is not surprising but they earned $265-million in 2007 from coffee exports, compare that to $97-million in 2001, that is huge growth and although there was something called coffee wilt disease that has affected a couple of districts but it was still a phenomenal growth, there so you know it is something that Uganda can't mess with because it is one of the base commodities that they rely on for export or foreign currency earnings.

Bruce Whitfield:
You would have heard Peter Lucas from Ashburton talking about Africa, talking about South Africa and the fact that our public image is suffering as well but I like that Standard and Poor's were saying that Africa might at least have a degree of protection from the global economic crisis which was quite encouraging in a way because boy, we do need some kind of insulation from than.

Victor Kgomoeswana:
Yes, well high commodity prices, although we end up paying the price ourselves for it but coupled with improvements in economic stability and don't make any mistake, Africa is improving, if you watch Africa as I do, you will know that on average, you count the last 10 elections except for Zimbabwe and Kenya and maybe the DRC, the elections were fairly smooth and some didn't even make the headlines and that is how you know there is stability that is on the horizon but you are right, Standard and Poors obviously giving us the thumbs up could only work for us in spite of the slow down there with China and India scrambling for Africa with foreign direct investment going to over 20-billion in 2006 from about 15-billion in 2001 that cannot be small change and we have to be happy that opinion makers think highly of the continent.

Bruce Whitfield:
And they are eager to invest in it; you have got Canadians for example, mining in Eritrea of all places. Obviously there is value.

Victor Kgomoeswana:
Well Canadian companies in East Africa are big, I mean there is a couple of them trying to get into the resources, they battle like everybody else because there is a lot of red tape sometimes to go through and then when you think you have sorted it out there is a land issue and you have to wait a bit but they are expecting their first output in 2010 and they are talking cost of $246-million that was revised but look 431 ounces of gold per year and 700 ounces of silver per year in the first two years of production couldn't be bad.

Bruce Whitfield:
But also African countries not giving away their mining assets, we know that South Africa has tidied up, the Tanzanians now saying hold on a second everybody wants our resources let’s up the mining charges.

Victor Kgomoeswana:
Look, every developing economy is going to have to tighten or is tightening as we speak but if you have companies that are exempt from 30 percent corporate tax and customs duties maybe Tanzania was selling itself short there but you will know Zambia was talking the same thing, South Africa has its BEE, everybody has more or less a way of trying to say let's get a share of the action and I think that is another thing that the private sector must takes seriously.

Bruce Whitfield:
Victor Kgomoeswana, thanks very much indeed, from Money Biz with the Africa Business Report.