Prof Bonang Mohale is the chancellor of the University of the Free State, professor of practice in the Johannesburg Business School (JBS) College of Business and Economics, and chairman of both Bidvest Group and SBV Services. He is the past president of the Black Management Forum and author of Lift As You Rise. Will a Marshall Plan for Africa combined with an enormous free-trade agreement be the tonic for the economic ailments among the continent’s nations? On 5 June 1947, US Secretary of State George Marshall announced the European Recovery Program (later known as the MarshallPlan) in a famous commencement address at Harvard University. He said that it was “logical” for the US to do whatever it could to restore the region to economic growth, “without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace”.