Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. Arab and Sub-Saharan Countries Share Issues of Poverty, Unemployment Joe DeCapua February 21, 2011 Sub-Saharan African countries are closely watching developments in North African and Middle East countries, according to a South African foreign policy analyst. Thomas Wheeler, whoâs with the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg, is a former ambassador. In Libya, where violence has perhaps claimed hundreds of lives, Wheeler says, âIt certainly is in one sense unexpected because up until now theyâve managed to avoid becoming involved like so many other countries in the region. And now they seem to be deeply into it and itâs come about really rather quickly.â Similarities He says some of the issues that sparked the spreading protests in Arab countries are similar to those in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. âOne of our more prominent commentators here has opined in one of the major newspapers, Business Day, that South Africa could soon have its own Tunisia moment. Now this doesnât refer to Libya, but it refers to the whole situation because in South Africa we have some of the similar problems that the Arab countries have. We have a great deal of poverty and a great deal of wealth in the same country.  Thereâs a lot of discontent about local service delivery,â he says. That discontent has been playing out in the small, poor South African town of Wesselton, east of Johannesburg, where riots lasted for days. Residents there are angry over high unemployment, poverty and a lack of basic services. âAnd also about the candidates,â he says, âwho will be standing later this year, about May I think, in a local government election. And they feel that the candidates are being imposed on them from above and they are not being consulted,â he says. Wheeler says the incident is by no means on the scale of whatâs happening in Arab countries. Nevertheless, he says, âYou have some of the same sort of characteristics that play here, that ordinary people are fed up with governance and theyâre taking to the streets to show their dissatisfaction.â United States of Africa During his more than 40 years in power, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has tried to exert influence on sub-Saharan countries. He once proposed a United States of Africa. But Wheeler says Gadhafiâs influence has been minimal. âIn fact,â he says, âformer (South African) president Thabo Mbeki was very strongly opposed to this idea.  Thereâs a sort of pan-African sense that you should have a closer union in Africa. But he (Mbeki) certainly didnât agree to the idea of a United States single government for the whole of Africa, which was Gadhafiâs idea.â Other sub-Saharan leaders were also lukewarm to the idea. âWho gets the big car? To sum it up in one sentence. If you have one president of Africa, what happens to all the other 53, who donât happen to become head of state? They lose all their perks. And, of course, none of them are going to agree to that,â says Wheeler. Religion While poverty and high unemployment are helping to fuel the Arab protests, religion may play a role as well. The analyst believes it would have less of a role in most sub-Saharan countries.  But he says it could be a factor in Ivory Coast and western countries with large Muslim populations. âItâs certainly not an issue in southern Africa. South Africa has freedom of religion. Itâs a secular state. And we have the lowest level of anti-Semitism in the world allegedly, even though we have a large Muslim community here. So there is a great deal of tolerance on religious grounds in southern Africa,â he says. .