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Old habits die hard

Oil companies still oppress southern Sudanese after the return of peace

Leben Nelson Moro

2007-08-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/42865

Leben Nelson Moro critically assesses the impacts of oil after the return of peace in South Sudan. He reviews the situation of the the Dinka of Paloich, Melut County, and the Shilluk of Manyo County, two counties which are part of the oil-rich Upper Nile State.


The Government of Sudan (GOS) and Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) concluded the landmark Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 to end 22 years of fighting. A root cause was the contest over oil resources in the south of the country.

The agreement guarantees southern Sudan a 50 per cent share of oil revenues from oil extracted in the south. Implementation of the CPA promises not only an end to the violence, but also economic prosperity for the Dinka, Nuer and other indigenous people, who have suffered massive atrocities – including summary killings, ‘ethnic cleansing’ and looting of livestock and other property – at the hands of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and allied militias.

Oil development has rapidly expanded since peace returned to southern Sudan, bringing huge rewards to the government. Sudan began exporting oil in August 1999, when production was 150,000 barrels per day. Now, production is about 500,000 barrels, expecting to rise to 1,000,000 barrels per day in two to three years. This year’s revenues from oil will exceed US$4 billion. Economic growth is expected to be about ten per cent. Clearly, the country is witnessing an economic boom fuelled by oil.

The indigenous people of the oil areas, however, have languished in abject poverty. Oil companies have appropriated their lands without paying compensation, and have largely excluded them from employment opportunities. Indeed, some indigenous people, whom I interviewed in 2006, claim that their living conditions have deteriorated.

This article critically assesses the impacts of oil after the return of peace on the Dinka of Paloich, Melut County, and the Shilluk of Manyo County, two counties which are part of the oil-rich Upper Nile State.

Relocating Dinka of Paloich, Melut County

Prior to oil development, Paloich was an insignificant location along the Melut-Malakal road. The local people inhabited about 220 villages before the war, according to Laila, the MP representing Melut and Renk counties.

During the war, Paloich was occupied by the SAF. Most of the local people were killed or forced to flee. Most of the killings and displacement were carried out to protect oil companies from SPLA attacks. However, violence, lack of water, roads and markets in nearby areas compelled destitute and displaced people to seek shelter in the garrison town, which had water and other basic services provided by oil companies.

After the government and the SPLA agreed on a ceasefire in October 2002, Paloich town rapidly expanded. All-weather roads, built by oil companies, connect Paloich to several large towns. Commercial vehicles regularly ply the road linking Melut and Renk, well connected with Khartoum and other northern towns.

The transport and oil companies attract traders from the north. The prospects of employment in oil companies drew a horde of job seekers. Paloich was transformed into a bustling town, by war and the presence of oil companies.

The people of Paloich, however, are restless and burdened by memories of a terrible past and burgeoning new problems. In March 2006, I ventured into a residential area close to a Paloich police post. Many huts were under construction by people who had just returned. Most returnees stay with relatives until they were able to build their own houses. Some humanitarian assistance had flowed to returnees to help them to become self-supporting. According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) Office in Malakal, lack of land was one of the key factors compelling returnees to depend on humanitarian assistance.

Close to the police post, there was a huge open pit. A community leader, who showed me around the town, said that oil workers had removed human bones from the pit, sparking protests by the local sheik (chief) and other elders. The army had rounded up all the people opposed to the action of the oil companies. So, the local people were silenced and the oil companies continued throwing away the remains of the dead they uncovered.

Since peace has returned, nothing has been done to relieve the trauma of the people, who suffered the desecration of graves by oil companies.

On the outskirts of the residential area, a Chinese factory was apparently producing construction materials. My local informant said the residents of the area were worried about the impact of the factory on their health. ‘We demonstrated against the factory but the Chinese did not stop the fumes from poisoning our environment’, he lamented.

It appears Petrodar, an oil exploration company working in Sudan, hoped to quell the rising anger through relocating the local people elsewhere. Without consulting the local people, Petrodar selected a new site, situated about five miles south of Paloich town, and named it ‘New Palouge’. A school, primary health care unit and a mosque were built in the new location. Most of the people required to relocate were Christians or believers in local religions. Why a mosque was constructed, instead of a church, was a puzzle to many.

Petrodar dispatched vehicles to Paloich, under army escort, to move the local people to the new site. But no one agreed to board the vehicles, and they returned empty. According to Laila, the MP, the local people resisted the relocation for several reasons: firstly, they were not consulted. Secondly, the new location belonged to the rival Agwer Dinka clan called Pidhe. Thirdly, the new site was too small and was always under water during the rainy seasons. Fourthly, no compensation for losses suffered by the local people was given or promised.

Evidently, Petrodar and the ministry of energy and mining still conducted ‘business as usual’ despite the achievement of the CPA. But local civilians of Paloich were determined to get adequate compensation before considering leaving their ancestral villages. Some of these civilians had lived in the north during the war. They had learned about the generous compensation packages provided by the government to northerners asked to leave their homes to make way for national projects. They wanted the same treatment as displaced northerners.

For many of the people asked to relocate, the dramatic arrival of trucks, escorted by the SAF, was reminiscent of the violent relocations of southern displaced persons from Khartoum to desolate camps under the guise of urban renewal or re-zoning. In fact, rumours spread in Paloich that the people who carried out the brutal relocations in Khartoum had moved to Paloich to do the same thing.

The intention of Petrodar to relocate the people of Paloich to ‘New Palouge’ to make way for expansion of oil operations has failed so far. This failure was to be expected, for Petrodar had not changed the old habits of appropriating land without paying compensation during the war years. The company did not involve the local people in the decisions. Instead, it brought in the army to intimidate and coerce the people to move. Unsurprisingly, the local people refused to budge, instead, insisting on adequate compensation in line with the CPA.

Expanding seismic activity disrupts lives of the Shilluk of Manyo County

Rapid increase in seismic activity in the oil areas has disrupted the lives of many communities recovering from the ravages of war. The experiences of the Shilluk population of Manyo County illustrate this problem.

Manyo is one of the four counties comprising the Shilluk kingdom in Upper Nile. It has about 200,000 people, who depend on agriculture, fishing and Gum Arabic.

Petrodar crossed the Nile in March 2006, and began seismic exploration in Manyo County. Without adequate prior consultation, Petrodar workers made many seismic lines through large parts of Manyo. A southern geologist informed me, ‘these straight paths/lines go for hundreds of kilometres, destroying crops, fruit trees, and houses in their way’. The people of Manyo have lost acacia trees, from which they tape ‘Gum Arabic’, as well as houses and other property. Local leaders said that the Chinese recorded the damaged assets, and promised to pay compensation, but nothing has happened.

In fact, Petrodar held a meeting with the local people, but only after seismic work was already in progress. Most probably the meeting was held to soothe rising resentment; but it was a fiasco. According to Nazir or Paramount Chief Ogwal, who represents the Shilluk Mek (king) in Athidwoi payam: ‘At the meeting, the Chinese and their Arab companions were told to stop work and seek permission to operate in the area from the regional government in Juba.’

Instead of heading for Juba, the Chinese went to Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile State, and brought a letter authorising them to operate from the state governor, a member of President Omer al Bashir’s party. The local people were left reeling with bitterness against the Chinese and the unpopular governor.

The problems the Shilluk faced were compounded by the arrival of armed Arab nomads, locally called Jangaweed. Arab nomads claimed the ‘Gum Arabic’ areas, which the Shilluk insisted belonged to them. The contest over this valuable resource has deepened distrust of northerners in the south. In anger, some southerners have introduced new names for this resource. The minister of agriculture in southern Sudan, Dr Martin Elias, for example, introduced the name ‘Gum Africa’.

The struggle over Gum Arabic has resulted in violence and human displacement. The WFP reported violent clashes between Arab nomads and Shilluk civilians in Kaka in December 2005 that caused the death and displacement of many people. Another UN agency report warned that the border between Upper Nile and Kordofan is a threat to the stability of the whole region.

Worsening unemployment

As oil companies have expanded their activities, the lack of employment opportunities has fuelled frustration among local people. Most of the recruits in oil companies have originated from the north. Local people of the oil areas have largely been excluded from jobs in oil companies.

Paloich town has been particularly hard hit. I saw many young men roaming the dusty streets of the town in search of jobs with oil companies. One of the young men approached me. I talked to him briefly. He came from the area and had tried to secure a job with a company, in vain. The companies have not recruited for a long time, which makes local people furious.

At a meeting with local leaders in the administrative centre in Paloich, I learned more about the hardships of the unemployed. A local midwife said women had to brew alcohol to make ends meet because men were idle. ‘People of Paloich are automatically excluded because oil companies recruited in Khartoum.’

The despair that gripped this community has already given way to conflict. Oil companies have resorted to the old brutal tactics of the war years. I saw a Nuer man in a hospital ward in Melut in severe pain. Bandages covered most of his body. Oil company security men were responsible for his suffering. The security men arrested him, tied him up, and set fire to him. His crime was insisting on a job!

In the war years, brutality of this kind was commonplace. It is surprising that even after CPA, such brutality still exists. Indeed, old bad habits die hard!

These employment problems, also encountered by other communities in the oil areas, will worsen with the arrival of more returnees. Unless they change and begin addressing these grievances, oil companies should expect stiffer challenges by frustrated communities.

Conclusion

Since the CPA was concluded in 2005, local communities in the oil areas have continued to face oppression by oil companies, which have rapidly expanded their activities. The local people have been increasingly dispossessed from their land without compensation, and have continued to be denied employment opportunities. Some communities have started to confront the abusive oil companies. It is probable that local agitation will boil over into violence if oil companies fail to shed their old bad habits of doing business in Sudan.

* Leben Nelson Moro is a DPhil Candidate at the University of Oxford. A southern Sudanese, he has many years involvement in humanitarian work and refugee studies in Sudan and Cairo, Egypt.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Farewell to political activism: Reflections from South Africa

Mukoma Wa Ngugi

2007-08-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/42869

Mukoma Wa Ngugi, reflects on the third international Toward an Africa Without Borders Conference and concludes that political activists 'must invest time and energy in developing a Pan-Africanism from below'.


We either value African life, understand a black life as equal to a white life, and the poor as equally deserving as the wealthy – or we do not. This reformulation of Frantz Fanon’s 'a given society is either racist or not'; or better yet of Malcolm X’s 'If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches, that is not progress' are reminders that there are no fractions when it comes to human dignities and freedoms. They either exist in full or they do not. Africans, however, have been prescribed quarter-doses of health and education, one-sixteenth dignities, and piece-meal freedoms for so long that what would not be acceptable elsewhere is welcomed in Africa.

These were my thoughts recently as I travelled back from Durban, South Africa, where I spent the last two weeks of June and the first week of July as one of the organisers of the third international Toward an Africa Without Borders Conference.

This simple recognition, that we either value Africans or we do not, was fuelled by one more frightening thought. The kind of activism that we, the political activists, have been doing is not enough. It can never be enough. Problems facing the African continent, from slavery through colonialism, neocolonialism, and now the hurricane of globalisation that opens up African markets, leaving more poverty in its wake, have never been fully addressed.

Slavery was abolished and the millions who died were swept under the rugs of progress. When colonialism ended, true independence was bargained away at the Lancaster and Paris tables, colonial history and its dead blown away by the 'winds of change'. In the 1970s and 1980s we struggled against neocolonialism; but against our dying and the dead we have globalisation which has swept the idea of social justice under the carpet of a democracy without content.

At what point in history do we simply say what we are doing is not enough? Not because the path we have chosen is bad, or entirely wrong-headed. But simply because the problem is clearly much bigger than the solution we are struggling for? And if we keep doing the same things but expecting different results, aren’t we just a little bit mad?

Whether we are conservatives, World Bank officials, NGO activists, philanthropists, political and scholar-activists, the whole lot of us, we all share the same statistics. We find them indicating that in Africa infant mortality is on the rise (the only place in the world where such indicators are actually worsening). We find that millions are projected to die from Aids and the poverty that feeds the fury of treatable diseases like Malaria and TB. We look at the statistics that find African economies counting foreign aid as part of the national budget; that indicate Africa loses more money through unfair trade than it gets in foreign aid. We find indicators of the extent of environmental degradation, and the human misery caused through exploitation of resources such as oil in places like the Niger Delta. We look at statistics which, like bread crumbs, can be followed back to days of slavery; that show present day exploitation of resources and a rather bleak future if things continue as they are.

Yet, in the face of these enormous problems, based on our ideological professions, we proscribe solutions that have one thing in common – inadequacy. Conservatives launch an anti-corruption campaign, and prescribe more foreign aid, but to accountable governments. World Bank officials call for the opening of markets and transparency. Philanthropists set up more save-the-African-child foundations. NGO activists call for strategic donations and fairer US intervention. Political and scholar activists have their international conferences and alternative world summits only to pass resolutions calling for better representation of Africa in international media. In the meantime, in a most myopic move, African leaders at the helm of this sinking ship gather in Accra to call for a United Africa to be led by one president and a 2,000,000 strong army.

In a word, our various remedies have long been outstripped by the maladies. Cynicism is not mine alone here. Nelson Mandela, the face of the anti-apartheid struggle, started in 2003 a joint foundation with the apartheid/colonialism crusader Cecil Rhodes’ Trust. The Mandela-Rhodes Foundation, the website declares, seeks 'to build exceptional leadership capacity in Africa'. What could be more cynical? Who is fooling who here? In another context, this would be unbelievable: we could never imagine Jewish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel starting a Wiesel-Himmler Foundation, for example – but somehow in Africa we are willing to suspend our disbelief. With all due respect - is this madness? Have we become this cynical, or are we suffering from collective schizophrenia that allows us launder history through foundations and other self-help projects?

We are in a peculiar position of being behind history. We misread the present. And for it, the future is not ours. Each day unveils what the future will hold – the US Africa Command Centre, wars on terror that, like globalisation, have no boundaries, and an African leadership whose best foot is Mbeki’s embrace of international capital at the expense of the majority of South Africans. We must stop sending one another congratulatory notes after each successful rock concert, international conference, or summit.

These were my thoughts as I stood in the middle of Inanda Township in Durban, as I walked through settlements demolished under the watchful eye of the ANC government. Near a chemical plant, children tickled by our presence broke into giggles; but my laughter died where their feet were discoloured by walking barefoot in chemical soaked homes and playgrounds.

I could trace these thoughts to 2004 in Kenya’s Dandora slums. Sitting under a tree with writer Binyavanga Wainaina, my brothers and sisters, and members of the Kalamashaka Hip Hop band, we could hear random gunshots announcing random deaths a few miles away. Later that evening we left the slum for Runda Estate, one of the richest estates in Nairobi, to visit a progressive Kenyan politician, where we were served food by maids and cooks dressed in snappy white checkered uniforms. Then it occurred to me that our political leadership really do not see the people in Dandora, Mathare or Kangemi slums as having lives with value.

The anger and the most basic humanism that moved the revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries are gone. They have been replaced by 'progressive' politics laced with contempt for the poor; as if history did not happen; as if – here comes another statistic - the 380,000,000 Africans living in dire poverty are stubbornly refusing to take advantage of the all-you-can-eat democracy buffet. These politicians do not have the political imagination or the will to deal with the devastation of extreme poverty and the historical legacies of colonialism.

But in 2004 it had not occurred to me that even we, the political activists, had lost that imagination, if not the will. We too were speaking the same language as the politician. Realising earlier this month that African life lacked as much value in South Africa as in Kenya, that there was nothing more Pan-African than shared poverty, and the many of ways of dying, that Aids is as much a Pan-African issue as African culture, I had to admit that my way of doing things has been wholly inadequate. Not because I was waiting for a magic wand that can be waved (it is locked away in coffers of the global rich in the little drawer titled stop living at the expense of others); rather, my activism was miles away from comprehending, let alone squarely addressing, problems that were multi-generational, sanctioned by history, and local and international at the same time.

Understanding the problem, history not withstanding, lies in comprehending when and why the revolutionary became a political activist. The activist, as I understand it, was born in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the revolutionary died. Revolutions under the banner of Marxism had degenerated to coups and counter-coups which produced paranoid movements and dictators. By the early 1990s, even the thin banner of Marxism was no longer being hoisted. It was war for power, one group against the other for the state house. Communism in the East collapsed; and with the chaos and deaths that followed, it was no longer fashionable to talk about the masses, classes and revolution.

But movements of trickle-down economics and welfare also produced the same results – war for profit, coups and counter-coups, paranoid dictators. Only the left took the blame. So when Margaret Thatcher declared that there was no alternative to capitalism, not only did the conservative, liberal and radical politicians believe her, but so did the would-be revolutionaries who, looking to the East, only saw chaos and turmoil.

Political activism as the mainstay of change rose out of the ashes of revolutionary activism. And imbedded in the idea of political activism is the belief that there are no other alternatives. Herein is the paradox: we, the political activists work within a closed system of no alternatives even when we think we do not. Anti-globalisation will not make a dent on globalisation; and anti-capitalism cannot counter movement of massive international capital. We simply have to break way from this closed system; offer, and fight for other alternatives.

If we are to stare boldly at the problems facing the African continent, we must dare to say that there are alternatives not only to how societies are arranged but to how we can bring about those changes. We must return to these two twin aspects of change: the boldness of revolutionary thinking and dreaming and the boldness of action. People power movements in Latin America, exemplified by Chavez, are one alternative. We must speak about their potential as well as their limitations. We cannot turn our back on what is happening in Latin America. It is our duty to keep Cuba alive, that star the United States has been trying to dull, so that it remains an example of what is possible. But if we see potential in Latin America, we must use it to jump-start our own ideas and approaches to change, not as a template to be blindly copied.

In Africa we must invest time and energy in developing a Pan-Africanism from below, one that recognises we are not uniting governments but the people; one which is revolutionary, in that it will unite the people as it frees them from local and international exploitation; that sees the emancipation of women as an integral part of its vocation, and has the content of social and economic justice. The only way to make sure of this, contrary to the July African Union meeting in Accra, is by a people’s mandate.

Pan-Africanism cannot be a lofty idea that comes from an enlightened leadership. The days of the missionary, the small glorious band of men, the talented tenth, the revolutionary van-guard are gone. Pan-Africanism will have to travel through the same borders as refugees, breaking down barriers and borders along the way. It has to travel through African languages, dynamic cultures, and the shared politics of anti-colonial struggles (after all, anti-apartheid was a pan-African struggle), and resistance in this day of globalisation. Only then shall Africans become visible to each other. And it is only when Africans are visible to each other that African solutions become possible.

There are collective questions that cannot be answered by one person in the same way a solution cannot be an individual affair. And what do the African people want? What would the economy of a united Africa look like? What kind of political systems would we create? What kind of culture would pan-Africanist frameworks produce? What kind of social-gender relations should the Africa of the future embrace? What would a borderless Africa look like? In trying to answer these questions from our various locations, we will be creating the much needed alternatives – and implementing them.

Political activism would not dream of changing governments or unifying African people. Revolutionary thinking that is cognisant of the world as it stands will. In this 21st century of a thousand changes: we are either revolutionary, or we are not.


* Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change (Kimaathi Publishers, 2002), the collection of poetry Hurling Words at Consciousness (Africa World Press, 2006), and editor of the forthcoming New Kenyan Fiction (Ishmael Reed Publications, 2008).

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Katrina: Nearly two years on

Yobachi Boswell

2007-08-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/42866

Yobachi Boswell returns to Katrina two years on and finds 'hope juxtapose to some despairing scenes, and simmering anger'.


Perspective of an outsider

I’ve always considered the Mississippi Coast my home away from home. I didn’t grow up there, but my family is from the Coast, and I spent many a summer there tip-toeing through the hot beach sand to get to the water, braving the heat of insufficiently air-conditioned homes, and sucking down succulent crayfish and crabs.

That’s why with the onslaught of Katrina bearing down via my television screen two years ago, I took it a little more personally than others not living there; not to mention I had a lot of family in the middle of it. Seeing the sturdy 1.6 mile Biloxi Bay Bridge, which I had ridden over from Ocean Springs to Biloxi numerous times, lying in the water in tattered pieces is what really brought home the power of the storm for me. Having seen and ridden over it in person and then seeing it humbled in the water; served as a great reference point.

On 30 June, I travelled back to the Gulf Coast, for the first time since Katrina, for my annual family reunion that is held around the 4 July every year. Last year, it was held outside of Mississippi for the first time, hosted by my mom in Montgomery Alabama; so I had not had opportunity to go back until now.

I arrived in Ocean Springs off I-10 a little after noon. It was a straight shot from the interstate to Highway 90, the main thoroughfare running through Ocean Springs (a small costal town of 17,000). Having not been there since before Katrina, I braced as I approached, wondering would things look spectacularly different, or would it all be easily recognisable. I made a left at the Burger King and headed up 90, and all was normal. That’s the same Burger King that had been there at least since when I was in junior high in the early 1990s; when my parents let me roam the area free with cousins and we would walk through the park across 90 to get burgers and fries. Particularly memorable for me, because free reign wasn’t exactly a hallmark of my folks parentage; but vacation, particularly in the laidback, water front atmosphere that the easy summers of the Gulf Coast brings, seems to loosen things up. To this day, I’m always more relaxed just being there, that’s why I always hate to leave; but the threat of a Katrina is why I never stayed.

Apparently though, natives of the region don’t share my concern. There has been no appreciable decline in population in Ocean Springs since Katrina, according to all anecdotal information. I would say that holds true for my family members who live in Moss Point, Ocean Springs and Biloxi. Only one cousin moved away, but then she wasn’t from there. She grew up in Oakland California and Kansas City Kansas.

As I travelled up Highway 90 and back down Government, and through various neighbourhoods for two days. As far as lingering damage goes, I tell you what – I couldn’t tell the damn difference. Maybe it was there and I didn’t see it, but if so that says something that one can go about there way and not notice unless someone went out of their way to show it to them.

I took a ride over to Biloxi with my cousin Joe to go see the rebuilt house of my Uncle Kitten, as we call him. Kitten’s nearing 70, and his home, only blocks removed from those casinos you saw pushed up on shore across Highway 90; sustained major damage though it remained standing. He still lives in a trailer in his own yard while he puts the final touches on the rebuilding; much of which he’s doing himself.

Across the street from his house and all down his street you can see the new fabricated homes waiting for occupancy. There are more remnant signs of destruction here, but it didn’t appear overwhelming at this point. The Highway 90 strip with all the Casino’s was as lit up and bright neon lights as 90 has ever been; and to my understanding they are just about all back up and running.

On 1 July, Joe and I moseyed over to New Orleans; about an hour East of Ocean Springs/Biloxi on I-10. Joe grew up and went to college there. He’s lived elsewhere since, but has been back a couple times since Katrina, including as recently as November 2006.

As we entered the city by first crossing the five mile stretch of bridge connecting Slidell Louisiana to New Orleans over Lake Pontchartrain, the culprit of the Katrina disaster, having spilled over into New Orleans flooding the city after the storm had seemingly passed; we noticed a number of large trees sticking up out of the lake that looked as if the tops had been chopped off. This juxtaposed to brand new multi-story houses on the other side of the levy; behind the trees that had not yet recovered.

Joe was impressed that the city in large had at least cleaned up the piles of debris from the street and that it was looking significantly better since his previous trip seven months earlier. He cautioned though that it is 'not a whole lot of improvement, but improving'. He initially had come down three months after the Katrina in the fall of 2005 'It was dead the first time I went, no street lights; it looked hopeless', Joe told me.

Well, here in the summer of 2007 I found both plenty of hope juxtapose to some despairing scenes, and simmering anger. World famous Canal Street was humming with traffic, and the large grassy medians that line the middle of the city’s major thoroughfares were cast over by well groomed oaks and even imported palm trees.

But just as things look like a normal American city for a spell, you then see a house still bearing the red X mark that rescue workers used to denote that a house had been checked and whether dead bodies had been found there or not.

After making our way through down town we headed east on Claiborne. I’ve seen great urban decay before, but nothing like a standing house with whole front ripped off of it on 'Maine Street'. We headed over the Industrial Canal into the much devastated Lower 9th Ward community. And guess what, it still is devastated. The interior neighbourhoods look like ghost towns. The housing lining the main street aren’t a great deal better. Gutted house after house characterises the area, but with a depressing note - people are living on the same streets where the majority of houses are unlivable. Most of the ones that they’re living in aren’t a great deal better. In the subdivision that you often saw on television, it still looks like what you saw on television - rows and rows of devastated houses. In some cases just the cement slabs where house used to be. At one point I saw a slab with three stairs on the backside. Undoubtedly those steps once led into someone’s backyard.

All the debris is not off the streets here, but most of it. Never mind that though, most houses are gutted and in ill repair. The majority still carry the rescue worker markings. In the midst of this, you’ll see one newly rebuilt home almost ready to come back online - on a block full of other houses that look like they were hit by a bomb. We turned the corner at one point and I thought “wow, that house is nicely rebuilt”. As we got closer we realized it was just a nice new roof. The inside of the house was still bearing the repercussions of being trounced by Lake Pontchartrain.

We also visited higher ground where water damage didn’t do as much devastation, in the Garden District an Uptown. We met up with folks rebuilding on the weekends while living out of state during the week. We also visited the French Quarter and Bourbon Street that evening. I’d been to Bourbon St. before, about 7 years earlier during Essence Festival weekend. It wasn’t the same, but the strip was readily active. Not a stalwart of people, but a pretty steady stream. Then again, this was a Monday night and no festivals were in town (Essence was coming back the following weekend); though my cousin Joe didn’t feel that it was up to par for even a normal pre-storm Monday night.

Things are coming back around in Mississippi and Louisiana, for some anyway, in some places. There are still a lot yearning to go back home who don’t have the means, who’s insurance didn’t pay, and who’s president didn’t follow through on his empty promises in the weeks after the disaster.

According to Mitch Carr of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, the Biloxi Bay Bridge will have two lanes open by November of this year, and will be fully functional by Spring of next year; with 6 lanes and dual-use walking and biking paths as well.

* Yobachi Boswell is author of the Black Perspective Blog.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Murder by memory: Remembering Biko to forget him

Mphutlane Wa Bofelo

2007-08-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/42880

Mphutlane Wa Bofelo says that the programme planned by the Steve Biko Foundation as part of the 30th anniversary of the killing of Steve Biko looks like a homage to a writer and cultural worker rather than a tribute to a freedom fighter.


Looking at the weeklong programme planned by the Steve Biko Foundation at the BAT Center in Durban as part of the 30th anniversary of the martyrdom of Steve Biko, I realized that it is focused on literary and cultural discourses and the exhibition of works on, about and by Biko. It is noteworthy that the joint programme of the Steve Biko Foundation (SBF) and the newly established Biko Legacy Reference Committee (BLRC) are also focused on literary and theatrical activities. It is as if the initiative is paying homage to an ingenious writer and cultural worker rather than a tribute to a freedom fighter whose work and that of the movement he belonged to straddled the worlds of socio-political activism, mass mobilisation, community development, labour and working class politics. Biko is presented as an icon whose only claim to fame is the monumental piece of literature, 'I write what I like', and dying a lonely and gruesome death in an Apartheid cell rather than as a social and political activist who was a member and leader of a socio-political movement.

There is a conspicuous absence of activities and themes overtly dealing with the local and global socio-political and economic state of affairs. There is nothing in the programme that investigates how far the country that Biko laid his life for is with regard to the reclamation of the collective human dignity of Black People and the enhancement of their socio-economic wellbeing, and how far it is towards advancing Biko's vision of a South Africa with a human face; an anti-racist society in which there is equal allocation of power and equitable distribution of the wealth and resources of the land.

However, it will be a travesty of history and the truncation of the legacy of Biko to remember Biko without raising issues such as genuine transfer of political and economic power to the black majority and without any initiative to let Biko (and BC) speak to the issues and challenges facing black people and humanity in the era of the attack on the environment and the economies, cultures and natural resources of the global south by the regimes and regiments of global capitalism and the Washington consensus in the form of the structural adjustment programmes (implemented as GEAR in South Africa), liberalisation, privatisation, deregulation, socially unequal taxation and dependence on direct foreign investment and speculative capital.

The historical fact is that his writings, political activism and community work clearly articulates that, as opposed to the ideologically neutral humanist that he is portrayed to be, Biko subscribed to the philosophy of Black Consciousness and his affinities were towards a pro-poor, pro-working class political agenda geared towards an egalitarian society. He was a member of the BCM under the flagship of SASO-BPC. He led and was led within the structures of the BCM. If not combated, the subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to de-link Biko from the philosophy of Black Consciousness, the BCM and radical working-class oriented politics in order to look sexy and to court corporate capital and be in the good books of the powers that be, will result into turning Biko into a piece of iconoclast and a collectors item the same way that corporate capital and the corporate media is doing with Ernesto Che Guevara.

Simply put, this will be the case of remembering Biko so as to forget him, or as others have said, a matter of murder by memory. While the Steve Biko Foundation is said to have insisted on the exclusion of the Umtapo Center (which held up the name of Biko and BC when doing so invited being 'necklaced' and other things), it is interesting to see who the important figures in the BLRC are. Muntu Myeza's assertion that renegades cannot be advocates of a cause they have deserted will be instructive in this case. Sello Rasethaba jumped from the BCM to join the ruling ANC, saying the philosophy of BC and the BCM has run its course and went on to become an associate of the late corporate hooligan, Brett Kebble.

Rakhs Seakhwa's credentials in as far as governance and fiscal discipline is concerned include virtually leading the once dynamic Congress of South African Writers to its (un)natural death. The tale of how Rakhs and his comrades through COSAW directed the Staffrider magazine away from a BC line is another story. Duma Ka Ndhlovu was recently reported to have received R4.5 million shares from Tokyo Sexwale as part of Sexwale's attempt to have influential people in society tied to his wallet. People who allegedly received Sexwale's shares include the SBF's Xolela Mangcu. Let's remember how Mangcu wrote an opinion piece extolling the virtues of Sexwale and overtly canvassing for him, immediately his chief announced his availability for the ANC presidential race.

I might be accused of being subjective in my argument that people with a proclivity to dance to the tune of corporate capital are not the right candidates to preserve the legacy of Biko. But who can argue that as it stands, the current programme of the SBF and the BLRC points in the direction of fossilising the legacy of Biko, restricting our memory of Steve Biko to the remembrance of 'that guy who wrote "I Write What I like" and died in a prison cell', and steering away from any recollection of Biko the member and leader of SASO-BPC and founder of the Black Consciousness Movement; Biko the activist, Biko the militant, let alone Biko the socialist? Otherwise, why is the BLRC constituted only by individuals who represent themselves instead of also including representatives from the various segments of the BCM, and why is the programme so apolitical?

US Social Forum

Jason Pramas

2007-08-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/42864

Nice piece on the US Social Forum, but I'd like to make a couple of quick comments.

First on the issue of food/drink costs at the USSF, this a common problem that organisers of large events have to deal with in the US.

Large event venues here often have exclusive contracts with specific corporate vendors and force event planners to use those vendors - regardless of the high prices they always charge to event attendees. If event organisers want to use the space, they are not allowed to bring in their own (cheap, people-friendly) vendors.

Second, no disrespect intended to your publication or the USSF organisers, but the USSF was not the first social forum in the US. Far from it. The first social forum in the US was the New York City Social Forum held in early 2002. Since that time there have been around a dozen social forums in the US - at least five of which have been recognised as 'official' within the World Social Forum process. Many have been smaller affairs of a few hundred attendees each - but the Boston Social Forum in 2004 had over 5000 attendees from all over the US and over a dozen other countries, and was considered a 'regional' or continent-level forum. All of these earlier forums in the US have been quite grassroots - put together by individuals and organisations with few resources but lots of heart - which should give social justice activists the world over cause for cheer.

Just thought your readers should be aware of this information. I'd recommend the following web links for more information:

http://www.bostonsocialforum.org
http://www.mwsocialforum.org/
http://maineindymedia.org/newswire/display/3926/index.php
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/wef/socialforum.htm

Book Review: The Bottom Billion

Charles Abugre

2007-08-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/42868

The former head of development research at the World Bank and current Professor of Economics at Oxford University, sets out a broad agenda for the G8 to tackle the problems of the (unidentified) countries at the bottom of the development heap.

Using statistics to cut through persisting preconceptions, he analyses their problems as a series of “traps” - conflict, natural resources, landlocked, and bad governance – before setting out an agenda to solve them including aid, military intervention, legal reforms and trade.

There is much to be commended in the book – especially its accessible style and its quest to take a fresh and facts-based approach to old controversies. Unfortunately this does not always result in the unbiased analysis and objective solutions that the author (and the reader) are seeking. The importance of inequality, of geopolitics and of history in determining both problems and solutions, for example, is given little analytical space and resulting policy advice is therefore skewed.

This is most evident in the chapter on trade – one of the most hotly contested topics in development circles.

During his time at the World Bank that institution’s trade research was criticized as failing to take a balanced view of the evidence and favouring research that suited its own policy agenda. In the Bottom Billion, this selectivity and bias is evident.

The trade chapter opens with a three page attack on Christian Aid and its campaign on trade justice as part of the Make Poverty History coalition. Nowhere is it acknowledged that many of the policies he prescribes are similar if not identical to those of the charity – reforming farm subsidies, ending mercantilist approaches to trade negotiations with poor countries and better market access for their exports.

Instead he criticizes Christian Aid for being misled by Marxist advisors on the basis of advertising slogans and an (inaccurate and) unflattering look at the credentials of its researchers and advisors. He does not go into the substance of the original debate that he and colleagues had with Christian Aid and its advisors within the letters pages of the Financial Times.

In the research in question Christian Aid estimated GDP losses for Africa in the 1980s and 1990s due to aggregate demand effects arising from trade deficits resulting from trade liberalization of that period. That imports grew faster than exports with a reduction in net demand for domestically produced goods and services and national income is consistent with historical observations and other studies carried out by UNCTAD and the Carnegie Foundation, among others.
It is a result that is not palatable for those, like Mr Collier, who favour liberalization as the only trade policy choice for developing countries and who decry the use of selective, outward looking protectionism.

In Mr Collier’s book, therefore, we find the usual warnings against rent-seeking protectionists but no examination of its success stories that range from the Japanese car industry to the dairy sector in India.

The politics of trade policy is also ignored. He does not explor the role of rich countries his former employer, the World Bank in imposing economic reforms on poor countries and in creating the problems they now face in harnessing trade for development. This tradition of externally designed and driven solutions is one of the key changes that needs to happen before the prospects of the Bottom Billion can improve.

* Charles Abugre, Head of Global Advocacy and Policy, Christian Aid, London, UK.

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What can be done about it. By Paul Collier. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. 205 pp.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

To read the more detailed response from Christian Aid, see the link below.
The Bottom Billion and Christian Aid’s Trade Policy

Paul Collier devoted 3 pages of his book, the “Bottom billion”, rubbishing Christian Aid, calling it a “headless heart”, either uninformed about trade or misled by Marxist advisors.

Christian Aid’s Marxist credentials are apparently derived from an advertising campaign in which Christian Aid depicts global economic injustice in the form of a poor person carrying the burden of a greedy world, depicted as a fat pig. Our advertising campaigns are designed to shock, and we do not apologise for that. The source of Christian Aid’s apparent incapacity to grasp the “complex issue of trade policy” is a report we published in 2005 which estimated GDP losses due to aggregate demand effects arising from trade deficits due to trade liberalization in the 1980s and 1990s. The report’s findings were consistent with similar studies conducted by UNCTAD, the Carnegie Institute and others, in showing that although trade liberalization led to increases in exports, increases in imports were even higher thereby, worsening the trade balance. In addition, trade liberalization led to a reduction in the net demand for domestically produced goods and services, especially in the manufacturing and services sectors. This latter effect in particular may have been the most likely cause of the decrease in domestic income our estimates produced, which in the case of Africa, amounted cumulatively to $270bn over the 2 decades. These findings were not palatable for those who have often presented trade liberalisation as the only option available to poor countries.

Following the publication of this report, , Mr Collier went on the attack with a group of people he names in his book, denouncing our work and triggering a string of debates on the letters page of the Financial Times. In his current book, as in the FT denunciation, he offers no substantive critique of our work safe the fact that the lead author of our paper was merely a “young man” whose work was not supervised by those Mr Collier consider credible trade economists but merely by “two gentlemen whom the author himself had chosen”. The truth is that these unnamed “gentlemen” included a former Chief Economist of UNCTAD, a renowned professor of economics whose accolades include being the “father of CGE models”, the Head of the Economics Department of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi and a Professor of economics at SOAS. For Christian Aid, these people are credible enough to advice our work. We must hasten to add of course that none of these people or their affiliated institutions should take any responsibility for work published by Christian Aid.

But it is not worth the space to discuss whose academic allies are better than whose. Academics should disagree with one another. It is healthy to recognize areas of controversy as this advances understanding. A high-handed and ideologically driven approach does not.

Mr Collier’s team during his time at the World Bank would have done well to learn this lesson. A recent evaluation of the Bank’s research on trade during his time as Head of Research reported that the bank had failed to take a balanced view of the evidence and tended to favour research that favoured its own policies, without expressing the appropriate skepticism. Another findings was that the Bank did not properly count trade costs or compile information on how industries, regions, firms and households respond to changes in trade barriers.

If we put aside the contest of credentials and labels there is much that Christian Aid agree with the substance of Mr Collier’s analysis and of course a lot we disagree. It is a pity that he does not recognize this so that we can properly debate our differences, such as why he dismisses trade protection as a valid tool for economic development despite overwhelming evidence from around the world?

Christian Aid on the other hand has based its position firmly on the evidence of the experience of trade reforms in practice, and come to the conclusion that a variety of solutions need to be available to developing countries in harnessing trade for poverty reduction.

In attacking the mantra of free trade, we are attacking an ideology. Free trade is not a policy, at least not one that any country has ever adopted. It is an ideal. Whether or not you believe in this ideal is, frankly, academic, what’s important is that the free trade mantra has been pushed on developing countries to impose only one solution for all their trade problems.

Our position is simple, that countries must be allowed to use the mix of policies that work for their development: lowering, maintaining or even raising trade barriers might each be the appropriate solution depending on the circumstances, and each will depend on sound implementation and a mix of other policies to determine their success.

Saying this doesn’t make us Marxists, unless it also makes most country governments, including the most successful ones, north and south, Marxists too.

In some things we are not so far apart as Mr Collier suggests.

Mr Collier’s call for a new non-mercantilist approach to trade negotiations with developing countries and for an end to incoherent trade and development policies by donors resonate with our own work and writings on the WTO’s “development” Round. He may be surprised to read in our report on the EU’s trade talks with African countries an echo of his own call for an upfront offer by the EC to maintain Africa’s existing preferential access to European markets and to upgrade it by addressing problems that currently limit their usefulness, such as overly stringent rules of origin.

From here, however, our views diverge.

First, we disagree with respect to the usefulness of regionalism as a strategy for Africa. Mr Collier is dismissive of this “politically correct” solution to the trade problems of the Bottom Billion. He sees regional integration as necessarily inward looking, relying on stagnant domestic markets that have overly similar production patterns and as detrimental to the weakest members. This can and has been the experience of some regionalism efforts, but need not be the case.

Regional integration does offer possibilities of economies of scale and to make markets attractive to investors. It also offers the possibility for joint production and infrastructure projects, a pooling of resources for research and technology development and potentially a more dynamic diversification of production and of exports. These are just a few of the potential benefits. However, in order for these regional projects to be successful, countries must be able to manage those processes carefully, including to protect the weakest members – not have the pace and design determined by external interference such as World Bank advice or trade talks between the EC and the African regions.

Mr Collier also writes off tariff protection as a means to achieve economic diversification and globally competitive firms. Although he recognizes that big bang liberalization is undesirable as it can push potentially competitive firms “into sudden death”, he does not accept that protectionist measures can be successfully used to develop competitive industries and to diversify production and exports. Yet this has been the experience of many industries across many countries from the Japanese car industry to the milk industry in India.

Mr Collier’s solution for export diversification is that Africa should be guaranteed preferential access to OECD markets over Asian exporters. In effect, this already exists, although imperfectly, and has done little to overcome the production and competitiveness constraints that these countries face in grasping export opportunities. No active intervention to tackle these is advocated, rather it is discouraged for fear of aid leading to problems of “dutch disease”. It also assumes that the success of these regions is tied up in exporting to OECD markets, when trends suggest that South-South trade within and between developing country regions is becoming more important.

Similarly, whilst he recognizes the injustice of farm subsidies in preventing farmers “who have few alternatives” breaking into OECD markets, he does not seem to realize that trade can travel in the other direction and that subsidized imports have a devastating impact on those farmers in their key market – the local one. Even without subsidies, farmers in OECD countries will still swamp domestic competition if trade protection measures cannot be used to safeguard the livelihoods of small-scale farmers.

Perhaps most disappointing is what is missing from this book: the role of rich countries and Mr Collier’s former employer, the World Bank in creating the problems developing countries now face in harnessing trade for development. He finds blaming rich countries for the ills of malfunctioning developing country economies contrived – and does not concede its relevance beyond the case of OECD farm subsidies and tariff escalation. Yet economic conditions of the international financial institutions and unequal trade negotiations continue to impose reforms on developing countries – despite past evidence of the harm this causes.

Mr Collier has underplayed in his book the financial impacts of trade liberalisaton, including revenue and capital flight effects . A report by the IMF came to the conclusion that revenue losses brought about by trade liberalisation tend only to be partially recovered from consumer taxes and growth effects. Since as much as 30% of government revenues are derived from trade taxes in many poor countries, these losses can be very significant. He treats capital flight either as the act of corrupt elites slashing their ill-gotten gains abroad or otherwise the result of rational investors and high networth individuals seeking to minimize risks in chaotic countries by keeping their wealth abroad. Both factors are clearly valid but relatively trivial. This narrow focus, which has unfortunately imposed itself in policy circles denies or ignores the fact that by far the largest component of capital flight is illicit in nature, and mainly commercially related, including abusive transfer pricing, mispricing and the web of infrastructure, including tax havens, offshore and banking secrecy laws, anonymous trusts, fake foundations, disguised corporations , all designed to facilitate tax evasion and the avoidance of regulations designed to protect society. In this narrow approach, when the negative effects of tax havens are recognized, they tend to be largely limited to their effects as magnets of corrupt funds whilst ignoring the commercial angle.

As we have mentioned before, there is much in Mr Collier’s work we admire, learn from and agree with, but there are clearly others we don’t. It is our hope that Mr Collier is equally open to differences in opinion and look forward to working with Mr Collier in the future.

Review of Imagine This

Tola Ositelu

2007-08-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/42867

Imagine This is the debut novel of one-time Radio 4 playwright Sade Adeniran.

The young author funded the publication of the book herself after several positive but non-committal responses from various publishing companies. I had the pleasure of attending the book launch of 'Imagine This' earlier this year. Adeniran's belief in her first novel was clear from her impassioned reading of excerpts. It is hard to fault her for her sense of confidence - it is a strong start to a promising literary career.

The book takes the form of a journal kept by the prodigiously articulate, assertive and oft misunderstood protagonist Lola Ogunwale. She spends her early years in foster care in Kent with her brother Adebola. Fearing that they might be taken permanently out of his care, the two are plucked from the relative comfort and affection of Aunt Sue and Uncle Eddie by their self-absorbed and emotionally distant father to live first in Lagos, Nigeria and then to be passed from uncaring relative to uncaring relative in various surrounding villages. Through Lola's diary entries addressed to her cherished confidante Jupiter, the book chronicles her transition from childhood to young adulthood- peppered with all the things that typify this difficult time in a young girl's life alongside the astounding levels of misfortune that befall her. Adeniran deals with the harshness of Lola's surroundings, the callous treatment she experiences at the hands of resentful family members with a pathos and vulnerability that makes the story instantly accessible. This is evident most in the early journal entries.

The author retains the endearing childish bewilderment of someone who cannot understand the arbitrary nature of injustice. Yet at the same time she convincingly conveys that Lola is a little girl of great social awareness who can articulate her feelings of discontent in a way that intimidates those around her.

The book raises questions of how much a person is a victim of circumstances, the choices made by those around them and the role of personal responsibility. This is embodied in the fraught relationship between Lola and her father. After his seeming neglect of Lola and her brother, which inadvertently leads to Adebola's death, only to set up house with another woman and her children Lola takes to referring to her father as 'HIM', her angry response to his betrayal and seeming indifference. Then there's the looming spectre of Lola's longing for her lost mother, whose absence is only half-explained towards the end of the book leaving the reader with more questions than answers. This seems quite deliberate on the part of the author, perhaps in an effort to avoid the book being brought to an unrealistically neat and tidy resolution. Although Lola is often perplexed as to what is going on around her Adeniran seems wary of making her a victim of self-pity. That's why it seems particularly harsh at one point in the story, when a 'friend' chastises her for what she perceived as Lola's 'put-upon-attitude'.

The book is not without moments of hope and levity - in fact it's in these areas that Adeniran's shows particularly deftness as she balances the severity of Lola's environment with the accidental humour found in the things going on around her. Lola's time at boarding school in Idogun serves as some welcome comic-relief and it was from this part of the book Adeniran chose to read at the launch, shielding the audience from the darker aspects that are more prevalent in the novel.

The latter half of the novel shows a more philosophical Lola, trying to forge ahead and retain her dignity as the difficult situation facing Nigeria in the 80s under Buhari and Babangida successively, as well as her father's reluctance to get involved emotionally or financially force her to be at the mercy of various relatives. At times Lola's musings become a bit too laboured as she quotes and repeats ad nauseum, at times barely relevant, Yoruba adages. In this respect the author's approach seems somewhat heavy-handed as she tries to highlight Lola's evolution from beleaguered but optimistic little girl to world-weary young woman. Nevertheless Adeniran redeems her debut by introducing more colourful characters in the form of Lola's college friends and love interests proving that there is more to her lead character than domestic anguish and despair.

When asked, Ms Adeniran denied that the book was autobiographical - all the more reason she should be commended for making Lola's story so credible. Imagine This does not necessarily make for thoroughly comfortable and light hearted reading but Adeniran's sensitivity and the intimate nature of the writing make for a compelling and ultimately rewarding first novel.

* Tola Ositelu is a trainee solicitor living in London.

Imagine This is published by SW Books ISBN-13: 978-0955545306 Paperback: 331pp.


* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Police torture in Nigeria

Damien Ugwu

2007-08-02

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/broadcasts/podcasts.php

Damien Ugwu from the Nigerian Civil Liberties Organisation speaks to Sokari Ekine from Pambazuka News about endemic police torture in the Nigerian justice system.

CLO estimates that five people a day are being unlawfully killed by the police. Most vulnerable are unemployed youths accused of armed robbery. Damien Ugwu explores the reasons why torture and murder are common place and the cultural and political roots of the problem.

Music in this podcast is brought to you by Busi Ncube from Zimbabwe, kindly provided by Thulani Promotions.

Africa: China's crucial role in Africa

2007-08-03

http://www.africafiles.org/atissueezine.asp#art1

Entering the 21st century, China has a global agenda. Its aim is to establish itself as a genuine super-power to rival the United States militarily, politically and economically. In the context of these ambitions over the past decade and a half, China has endeavored determinedly to develop an array of economic relationships, beyond its traditional trading partners of Asia, North America and Europe. In no uncertain terms, it is aggressively integrating itself into the economies of South America and, of course, Africa.

Africa: Nigeria to benefit after Chinese piracy raid

2007-08-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/42944

The recent raid on a Chinese software piracy syndicate would benefit the fight against piracy in Nigeria, according to the Licensing and Compliance Manager at Microsoft Nigeria, Mr. John Okereke. Speaking in Lagos, Mr. Okereke said, the result of what he described as the largest investigation and raid of its kind in the world,would boost the Nigerian software market.
Highway Africa News Agency

The recent raid on a Chinese software piracy syndicate would benefit the fight against piracy in Nigeria, according to the Licensing and Compliance Manager at Microsoft Nigeria, Mr. John Okereke.

Speaking in Lagos, Mr. Okereke said, the result of what he described as the largest investigation and raid of its kind in the world,would boost the Nigerian software market.

Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) recalls that fortnight ago, raids and arrests were made in southern China of the syndicate reported to be behind a $2 billion worth of counterfeit Microsoft software by a combined team of the Public Security Bureau (PSB) in China, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and hundreds of private companies and partners.

Throwing more light on the raid, Mr. Okereke noted that well-meaning entities and security had been working together to crack this major software counterfeiting syndicate.

He therefore expressed delight that it has finally come to pass, adding that Nigeria would benefit from the raid in that the level of shipment of pirated Microsoft software would drastically be reduced.

"Microsoft Nigeria appreciates the work of China's Public Security Bureau in taking such strong enforcement action with these arrests and raids in southern China," he said. He pointed out that the syndicate was allegedly responsible for distributing US$2 billion worth of counterfeit Microsoft software, to 27 countries around the world including Nigeria.

Noteworthy, he said, is the effect of piracy on resellers, stressing that apart from not enabling resellers to make legitimate revenues, "it also exposed users to the risks associated with using pirated software."

Mr. Okereke equally informed that the counterfeit goods seized in the raids comprised of 13 Microsoft's most popular products, including Windows Vista, Office 2007, Office 2003, Windows XP and Windows Server.

"This case should serve as a wake-up call to counterfeiters. Customers and other organisations around the world are turning you in, and decisive action will be taken to protect intellectual property," he urged. He underscored the fact that Microsoft software users and resellers globally played a significant role in bringing the software counterfeiters in China to book.

"Numerous customers identified counterfeit software utilising anti-piracy technologies like those used in conjunction with Windows Genuine Advantage. The software could be forensically linked to the syndicate in China," he said.

Software piracy, he said, costs the international software market in the region of US$ 40 billion every year.

"In the last 18 months, law enforcement agencies worldwide have seized almost one million units of counterfeit software and with the help and co-operation of private organisations, anti-piracy activities are intensifying," he said.

He quoted recent IDC research, saying that Nigeria?s 82 per cent piracy rate is higher than the African average and amounts to millions of dollars of losses in the region.

"Microsoft invests a lot of time and money into protecting its legitimate customers and resellers from the threat of counterfeit software," Okereke added.

African Crossroads: Whither Africa?

Ikael Tafari

2007-08-02

http://www.aumonitor.org/comments/293/

Africa is today at mid-course, in transition from the Africa of yesterday to the Africa of tomorrow. Even as we stand here we move from the past into the future. The task on which we have embarked, the making of Africa, will not wait.

African Union Ambassador to the USA

2007-08-02

http://www.aumonitor.org/comments/297

Washington, DC, July 26, 2007---The African Union (AU) Ambassador to the United States of America yesterday presented her Letters of Credence to President George W. Bush at the White House in Washington, DC. The presentation of credentials accrediting Ambassador Amina Salum Ali, a national of the United Republic of Tanzania, marks a new chapter in the relationship between Africa and the United States.

African Youth Coalition Against EPAs

2007-08-02

http://www.aumonitor.org/comments/294/

Press Release - African Governments must not sign EPAs but double its efforts to achieve MDGs

No Unity Without Emancipation

2007-08-02

http://www.aumonitor.org/comments/295/

Interview with Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, Open Society Justice Initiative. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu is the Senior Legal Officer for Africa Open Society Justice Initiative. He is based in Abuja, Nigeria. In March 2007, Emily Mghanga interviewed Odinkalu in his personal capacity as an African citizen on the proposal to form an African Continental Government. While this interview took place before the Accra Grand Debate at the AU summit in July, many of the issues are still relevant. This interview is part of the Peoples’ Voices series of interviews with African citizens and CSO leaders on the AU proposal for Continental Government. Ivy Maina of Pan Africa Programme Oxfam edited this interview.

Ordinary SADC Summit

2007-08-02

http://www.aumonitor.org

The 27th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government will take place from 10 - 18 August 2007 in Lusaka, Zambia. The draft program and media program are now available at www.aumonitor.org

Ownership of African Institutions Is Central

2007-08-02

http://www.aumonitor.org/comments/296/

Interview with Janah Ncube, Agency for Co-operation and Research in Development (ACORD). Janah Ncube is currently the Senior Policy Advisor on Poverty and Development at the SADC Secretariat in Botswana. At the time of this interview she was the Gender Thematic Manager at ACORD in Nairobi, Kenya. In March, Emily Mghanga interviewed her on the proposal to form a Continental Government. While this interview took place before the Accra Grand Debate in July, many of the issues are still relevant. This interview is part of the Peoples’ Voices series of interviews with African citizens and CSO leaders on the AU proposal for Continental Government. Ivy Maina of Pan Africa Programme Oxfam edited this interview.

Zimbabwe: Calls for more women in politics

2007-08-03

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73470

Women in Politics Support Unit (WIPSU), a Zimbabwean non-governmental organisation, is leading a campaign for the achievement of gender parity in choosing candidates for office, while a new report by human rights advocacy organisation Amnesty International shows women are increasingly becoming victims of political repression.

Southern Africa: SADC ministers endorse Gender Protocol ahead of Lusaka Summit

2007-08-03

http://www.sardc.net/Editorial/Newsfeature/07360707.htm

Ministers for gender and women’s affairs from southern Africa have endorsed the contents of a Gender Protocol that would make regional decisions on gender equality legally binding for the first time. The protocol contains several measures to address the attainment of commitments to gender equality, justice and women’s empowerment in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Morocco: Group voices women's demands in upcoming elections

2007-08-03

http://tinyurl.com/2g4wtj

The Social Movement for Equality and Citizenship, a movement established by the Democratic League for Women's Rights in Morocco, has put forth a new project in which it calls on Moroccan women to vote responsibly during the coming legislative elections and to defend their demands. The movement named the project, which receives support from the Fund for Supporting Equality between the Sexes, the "Responsible Citizen Project".

Global: UN-backed meeting aims to foster ways to eradicate female genital mutilation

2007-08-03

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23396

Dozens of experts from around the world – including representatives from United Nations agencies, religious and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), law enforcement agencies, Government and research institutions – are meeting in Addis Ababa on ways to eradicate the practice of female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C). More than 100 million women and girls worldwide have undergone a form of FGM/C, which has serious physical and psychological effects.

Ethiopia: Female circumcision declines in southern region

2007-08-03

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73509

The number of girls and women who undergo female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) has declined in Ethiopia's Southern Regional State, and could be reduced further if stronger penalties were enforced, an NGO leader said. "Previously people did not even mention FGM/C; it was a taboo," said Bogaletch Gebre, executive director of Kembatta Women's Self-Help Centre, a local NGO engaged in educating the public in Kembatta, Alaba and Tembaro zones.

Angola: Rights groups appeal to EU over harassment

2007-08-03

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=315611

Human rights groups accused Angola on Wednesday of intimidating their activists ahead of elections next year and urged the European Union to press the African country to stop the harassment. Amnesty International, Global Witness and other NGOs said a firm EU response was needed to ensure groups could continue their work in preparation for the elections.

Sudan: Darfur: The evidence of war crimes

2007-08-02

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2826189.ece

Dramatic new evidence of the attacks on the people of Darfur by Sudanese government troops has emerged in 500 drawings by children who escaped the violence by fleeing across the border to Chad. In a ground-breaking move, the remarkable collection of images will now be submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has started proceedings against a Sudanese government minister and a militia commander accused of committing war crimes in Darfur.

Zimbabwe: 8 MDC activists arrested for singing anti-Mugabe songs

2007-08-03

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news020807/Singing020807.htm

Eight opposition activists were arrested in Mutare on Thursday for allegedly singing political songs that denounced and denigrated Robert Mugabe. Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC spokesperson for the Tsvangirai MDC, said one of the activists, Llyod Mahute the provincial youth secretary, was severely beaten by a Chief Inspector Innocent Rigomeka of Chisamba Police Station. He is being held at an unknown police station and the other seven activists are being held at Mutare Central police station. We could not get a comment from the police.

Sierra Leone: War-crimes court convicts govt militia chiefs

2007-08-03

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=315682

Sierra Leone's United Nations-backed Special Court convicted two former leaders of a pro-government militia on Thursday for war crimes, but acquitted them of some of the most serious charges of crimes against humanity. The two were leaders of the Civil Defence Forces (CDF), which fought for President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in a 1991 to 2002 civil war. Kabbah is due to stand down after August 11 elections in which his deputy is standing as his chosen successor.

Tunisia: Training course for human rights activists concludes

2007-08-03

http://tinyurl.com/ynrpfb

The 17th annual Arab Institute for Human Rights (AIHR) training course for human rights defenders in the Arab region came to a close Monday (July 30th) in the Tunisian city of Hammamet. Salhi Oussama, President of the Algerian League for Legal Thought, said, "I learned a lot during this course, which enabled us to become thoroughly familiar with human rights mechanisms and offered us the legal means with which we can confront our opponents in this field."

Global: Draft guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights

2007-08-03

http://www.atd-fourthworld.org/IMG/pdf/Guiding_Principles_English_aug06.pdf

The Draft Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights were developed over a five year period to formulate rules of action to put an end to extreme poverty and realize human rights for all, including the poorest of the poor. For the first time in its history, the United Nations proposed an international law document which considers the fight against extreme poverty as an obligation for all States. Consultations on this text were launched for 2007 by the Human Rights Council.

Kenya: Parliament maintains death penalty

2007-08-03

http://www.afrol.com/articles/26311

Kenyan lawmakers yesterday disapproved a motion that sought to repeal the death penalty, fearing the abolition could be a catalyst to more capital offences in the country. The motion is tabled at a time when Kenyan security is trying to contain insecurity posed by armed bandits and secret cult societies. A cult group calling itself Mungiki, whose followers have been bent on beheading people for not obeying their orders, has been the biggest threat to Kenyan security.

Southern Africa: Law to stop human trafficking

2007-08-03

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=38717

Over 1,000 Mozambicans, including children, are trafficked to South Africa every year where they are forced into prostitution or to provide free or cheap labour. In response, Mozambique’s government last week approved a new law which will make human trafficking a crime punishable with long prison sentences. It will probably be cold comfort to Sonia to know that Mozambique’s council of ministers approved a law against human trafficking last week. She was rescued just over a year ago after having been trafficked to South Africa to provide domestic work free of charge.

South Africa: Home affairs in denial over Zimbabwean refugees

2007-08-03

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news020807/Homeaffairs020807.htm

The growing number of Zimbabweans flooding into South Africa has clearly become a serious problem for the government of President Thabo Mbeki, yet officials there continue to deny there is a problem next door in Zimbabwe. SABC news reported on Thursday that the department of home affairs said “Zimbabweans streaming into South Africa cannot be classified as refugees, as they are not facing persecution in their home country.”

South Africa: Zim refugee camp a hive of rape, theft

2007-08-03

http://www.swradioafrica.com/pages/Camp020807.htm

Gauteng's biggest refugee centre in Marabastad has turned into a slumland where women are raped every night and where refugees - mainly from Zimbabwe - squat for months hoping to get legal documents. The national assembly's Home Affairs committee paid an impromptu visit to the Home Affairs centre on Wednesday and its chairperson, Patrick Chauke, labelled the situation "inhumane" and a "massive crisis". The smartly dressed MPs were met by hundreds of hungry, haggard looking refugees pushing and shoving to get into the building.

Sudan: Darfur rebel factions gather for talks

2007-08-03

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN323501.html

Darfur rebel factions began arriving in Tanzania on Friday for U.N.-AU sponsored negotiations aimed at reconciling their differences ahead of peace talks with the Sudanese government. The talks to end the 4-year-old conflict in western Sudan have taken on a new importance since the U.N. Security Council decided on Tuesday to approve the deployment of 26,000 peacekeeping troops and police to stem the bloodshed in Darfur.

DRC: 'Pendulum displacement' in the Kivus

2007-08-03

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73524

Janet Furaha fled the violence in her home area of Kaniola in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) South Kivu province in May to live with relatives in Walungu, but she has often returned to tend her farm. "I have not been there in the past few weeks because attackers have intensified their activities, but if I hear the situation is calmer, I will go and see if I can get any food," she said.

CAR: Civilians in northwest still afraid of going home

2007-08-03

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73544

Thousands of people who fled their homes in northwestern Central African Republic are reluctant to return despite improved security conditions, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. The 18-month conflict between government forces and the rebel Army for the Restoration of the Republic and Democracy (French acronym APRD) has displaced tens of thousands of people, especially around the towns of Kaga Bandoro and Paoua, according to aid workers.

Kenya: Minister clashes with police

2007-08-03

http://www.afrol.com/articles/26288

Kenya’s firebrand Minister of Health, who has been known for contradicting government policies, has clashed with police for detaining a women’s rights activist. Charity Ngilu forced her way to a police station and freed Anne Njogu from cell, despite police resistance. Ms Njogu, who leads the Centre for Rights Education and Awareness, was re-arrested at her home. She and three others were arrested for protesting against parliamentarians’ move to allocate a US $20 million bonus for themselves before the dissolution of parliament takes place.

Zimbabwe: Mugabe only winner in opposition catfight

2007-08-03

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=315657

Renewed bickering among Zimbabwe's opposition only months after a vow to bury their differences looks set to wreck prospects of a united challenge to President Robert Mugabe at elections next year. After they both fell victim to a crackdown by the security services in March, leaders of the two factions of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) promised they would no longer be distracted from their primary task of ending Mugabe's 27-year rule.

Swaziland: King faces trouble amid protests over lack of reforms

Kitsepile Nyathi

2007-08-02

http://allafrica.com/stories/200707300437.html

Swaziland is ripe for a revolution following widespread pro-democracy protests that brought the tiny kingdom to a standstill. The capital Mbabane ground to a halt last week as thousands of workers took to the streets - in what has been described as the biggest demonstration in a decade - pushing for multiparty democracy. Led by unionists, the protesters demanded an end to monarchical rule and the lifting of a ban on political parties imposed in 1973

Guinea: At least 14 injured in clashes

2007-08-02

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20070729215038244C590215&set_id=1&click_id=68&sf=

At least 14 people were injured in Guinea when supporters of regional prefect Mouctar Brada Drame clashed with demonstrators demanding he obey a government order to step down, police sources said on over the weekend. The groups armed with batons, knives and stones fought on Friday in the eastern town of Dubreka, about 50km from the capital Conakry and a stronghold of support for veteran President Lansana Conte.

Cameroon: More than 100 petitions filed against election

2007-08-03

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=315407

A total of 103 petitions have been filed to Cameroon's highest court to annul results of this month's legislative elections that handed President Paul Biya's governing party a landslide victory, a court official said on Monday. A number of the 45 parties figuring on the election lists on July 22 had filed petitions, but most of the appeals came from the main opposition parties, especially the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the supreme court official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Africa: AFRICOM: Wrong for Liberia, Disastrous for Africa

2007-08-03

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4427

Just two months after U.S. aerial bombardments began in Somalia, the Bush administration solidified its militaristic engagement with Africa. In February 2007, the Department of Defense announced the creation of a new U.S. Africa Command infrastructure, code name AFRICOM, to “coordinate all U.S. military and security interests throughout the continent.”

Tunisia: Poverty rate down, middle class growing

2007-08-03

http://tinyurl.com/24f9rd

Tunisia's Ministry of Development revealed recently that the poverty rate in the country has fallen to 3.8%, compared to 4.2% in 2005. The Ministry report specifies that 376,000 people are living beneath the poverty threshold in Tunisia. During a press conference, Mohamed Nouri Jouini, Minister of Development and International Co-operation, said the National Census Institute used new methods to determine the poverty figures.

Global: Aid to fragile states: do donors help or hinder?

2007-08-03

http://www.eldis.org/go/country-profiles&id=32670&type=Document

This paper published by WIDER examines the relationship between state failure and development assistance. It begins by looking at poor development performance as a criterion for state failure and then examines common causes why states fail, looking in particular at the cases of Burma, Rwanda and Zambia. The author argues that donors much be strongly engaged in fragile states in order to build political accountability and institutional capacity, including in cases where fragile states lack political will.

Sierra Leone: Imported food a threat to domestic agriculture?

2007-08-03

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73474

Food imports are keeping Sierra Leone from realising agricultural self-sufficiency and meeting the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating hunger by 2015, experts say. In a country where 80 percent of food is imported, mostly from the USA and Europe, the local agricultural industry is feeble and local farmers struggle to compete.

Zimbabwe: Rural living standards now apply in the capital

2007-08-03

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73551

The lifestyle normally associated with an urban society is fast disappearing from Zimbabwe's once bustling capital, Harare. The city's 2.8 million residents are adopting a way of life more akin to the country's rural areas, where drinking water is drawn from shallow pits and electricity is all but unavailable, although the metropolitan area's population density has produced its own quirks, such as untreated sewage spilling onto the streets.

Africa: Falling HIV rates tell complex story

2007-08-03

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73541

When it comes to sub-Saharan Africa's devastating AIDS crisis, there is an understandable tendency to latch onto any scrap of good news. Figures suggesting the epidemic is waning in some countries are being trumpeted by governments and international donor agencies as evidence that their prevention efforts are succeeding.

Global: Globalization and social determinants of health - New report

2007-08-02

http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/3/1/5

In three articles just published in the electronic journal Globalization and Health, two Canadian researchers warn that the “asymmetrical” nature of contemporary globalization may increase health disparities between rich and poor. Ronald Labonté and Ted Schrecker, from the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Population Health, focus on social determinants of health: broadly speaking, factors that affect the chances people will have to lead healthy lives.

Kenya: Traditional circumcision shows protective effect against HIV in rural men

2007-08-03

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/20203C0D-BB7D-49A0-8866-335E65E214F9.asp

Traditional circumcision protects low-risk rural Kenyan men against HIV infection, according to the findings of a prospective observational study published in the August 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. There is currently a surge of interest worldwide in the possible protection provided by male circumcision against female-to-male HIV transmission in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa: HSV-2 increases the risk of HIV up to eightfold

2007-08-03

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/7DABD73E-0380-4EE9-936E-6EC09CBF6778.asp

Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection significantly increases the risk of HIV infection in Ugandan and Zimbabwean women, according to the findings of a prospective cohort study published in the July 31st edition of the journal AIDS. Among women who acquired HSV-2 during the study, the risk of HIV infection was eight times higher than for women without HSV-2.

Botswana: Report delves into HIV risks of sex workers and their clients

2007-08-03

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73482

They sell sex for money or goods. It's a risky business - and illegal in Botswana - but female sex workers are out there, and so are the clients who keep them in business. Until now, not much was understood about sex workers in Botswana: what risks they take and what motivates them, but a recent report, HIV Needs Assessment of Female Sex Workers in Major Towns, Mining Towns, and Along Major Roads in Botswana, has taken a comprehensive look at how the world's oldest profession is practiced here.

South Africa: Government encouraged by latest HIV figures

2007-08-03

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73552

After a steep increase in the 1990s, and several years of plateauing, South Africa's HIV prevalence may finally have entered a phase of decline. The first evidence of this downward trend comes from the government's 2006 National HIV and Syphilis Survey, which tested more than 33,000 pregnant women at antenatal clinics in all nine of the country's provinces.

Zambia: Government forges ahead with mass male circumcision plans

2007-08-03

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73310

There is standing room only in Room 3 of the urology clinic at University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia's capital. About 30 young men and a handful of mothers with male children listen attentively as Sitali Mulope, clinical officer, briefs them on the benefits of surgically removing the foreskin of the penis.

Africa: Protecting health in the proposed EPAs

2007-08-03

http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0002684/index.php

EQUINET/SEATINI have produced a policy brief to outline the health implications presented by the EPAs being negotiated between the EU and ACP states. The brief suggests ways forward to safeguard public health within the EPA.

South Africa: Lack of funding keeps varsities out of reach

2007-08-03

http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=2917285

It’s never easy for working class households to pay for a university education. Family members must tighten their belts to the backbone so a favoured child can get a degree. But the rewards for society and the household are great. And few things are more moving than the graduation of a student who was the first in their family to make it through university.

South Africa: Gay people to march for justice on women’s day

2007-08-03

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=southafrica&id=1649

With a view to highlight the impact of hate crimes against lesbian women in South Africa, gay rights groups have invited concerned members of the public to a protest action on 9 August –Women’s Day at Meadowlands. Calling for an efficient and effective investigation on the murders of Sizakele Sigasa and Salome Masooa, Positive Women’s Network (PWN), Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW), the Joint Working Group and the recently established alliance for the 07-07-07 campaign, will picket, read messages of solidarity and deliver a memorandum to Meadowlands police station commander.

South Africa: Government takes practical steps to combat xenophobia

2007-08-03

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/46b1dc564.html

Muslah Ahmed, a Somali asylum seeker, had been in South Africa's KwaNobuhle Township barely a week when he became the victim of an attack that left him burnt, disfigured and severely traumatized. On 1 July 2007, he and three of his countrymen were set alight for making a citizen's arrest on a thief in their store. KwaNobuhle Township, situated some 30 kilometres outside the coastal city of Port Elizabeth, received notoriety in 2001 for looting and expelling Somali refugee traders.

Africa: Africa needs better data to combat global warming

2007-08-03

http://tinyurl.com/28msfr

Effective adaptation strategies will require reliable scientific data both on the nature of climate change and on its potential impact. It is now widely accepted that despite developing countries' lack of responsibility for human-induced global warming, they are likely to be hardest hit, and that the hardest hit of all will be African countries.

Burkina Faso: A province too popular for its own good

2007-08-03

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=38783

Kompienga, in eastern Burkina Faso, is the country's most verdant province -- but for how long? Research conducted over the past three years has shown that forests there have receded by 1,600 square kilometres in 15 years, while shrublands extended their reach by some 31 percent between 1984 and 2007. "We have found that the degradation of soils is significant in the Kompienga region because of human activity, notably migration (and) agriculture…" says Ardjouma Ouattara, co-ordinator of a team that studied the situation in the province from 2004 to 2007.

Uganda: A dam that activists simply can't make peace with

2007-08-03

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=38745

As preparations for construction of the Bujagali dam on the Nile River in Uganda gain momentum, a local civil society coalition is calling on the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to reconsider their decision to release funds for this hydro-electric project -- which the World Bank estimates will cost 799 million dollars. While the World Bank and AfDB are the main financiers of the dam, the German Bank for Development and the European Investment bank are also helping to fund the initiative.

Sudan: Will water discovery douse a genocidal conflict?

2007-08-03

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5268

News last month that researchers at Boston University had discovered a huge underground aquifer in western Sudan’s Darfur region has set off feverish speculations. This article by World Watch Institute discusses whther development of this vast water resource will help quell the vicious conflict raging in one of the world’s most arid regions.

Global: UN report highlights children's vulnerability to pollution at different ages

2007-08-03

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23348

With over 30 per cent of the global burden of disease in children attributable to environmental factors, the United Nations health agency today released the first ever report highlighting youngsters’ special susceptibility to harmful chemical exposures at different periods of their growth, and the potential effects later in life.

Horn of Africa: Food security in Eritrea: The need to safeguard the heartland

2007-08-03

http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/2883.cfm

A country and people are food secure when their food system operates efficiently in such a way as to remove the fear that there will not be enough to eat. In particular, food security will be achieved when the poor and vulnerable, particularly women, children and those living in marginal areas, have secured access to the food.

Kenya: Displaced farmers pay for police escorts

2007-08-03

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73546

Ongoing clashes that have displaced more than 100,000 people in Mt Elgon District near the Kenya-Uganda border have disrupted farming and trading activities, sources said. "Those who had planted potatoes on their farms need to pay police escorts to go to their farms and to go to the market to sell the produce," Sokwony Laikong, a teacher in the affected areas, said.

Madagascar: Home flattened ahead of Ocean games

2007-08-03

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=315512

Malagasy authorities have destroyed 137 houses and expect to knock down more ahead of next month's Indian Ocean Games, an official said on Tuesday. The structures were built illegally on land set aside for the August 9 to 19 competition, said Elyse Razafimahefa, a senior official in the capital, Antananarivo's, city council.

Mauritius: ''Our sea and lagoon are not for sale''

2007-08-03

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=38753

‘‘We are selling everything in this country: from our bodies to our land and now our sea and lagoons. Is there anything left for us?’’ asked Jack Bizlall, spokesperson for a nongovernmental network of organisations called Kalipso. Together with local fishermen and others who earn their living from the sea and the lagoon, they are struggling to stop the government from implementing the Aquatic Business Activities Bill, presently being circulated.

Namibia: Getting balance right

2007-08-03

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A530299

Sadly, many people in southern Africa are dependent on the benevolence of landowners or the protection of the government for their housing needs, thanks to the vestiges of colonialism, which placed land resources in few hands. Recognising these inequities requires that African courts apply the law in such a way that addresses housing needs while enforcing traditional property law.

Africa: Boom in blogs gives Africans a voice on the Web

2007-08-02

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2826183.ece

Daudi Were, a 28-year-old Kenyan, still reads newspapers. But if he really wants to know what's happening - in African countries where newspapers are state-owned or censored - he turns to the blogs. And he's not alone. Blogs are taking off across Africa as a new tech-savvy generation takes advantage of growing internet access. The African blogosphere was, until recently, filled by the African diaspora and westerners living in Africa. But native African voices are now being heard.

Zimbabwe: Journalist assaulted by army commander’s wife

2007-08-03

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news020807/Comanderswife020807.htm

Jocelyn Chiwenga, the wife of the commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, assaulted award winning photojournalist Tsvangirai Mukwazhi at Makro Wholesalers in Harare on Wednesday. Mukwazhi was attacked while covering a tour of supermarkets by MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai, who was assessing the impact of the government’s price control war.

Morocco: Bloggers comment on journalists' arrest

2007-08-03

http://tinyurl.com/2ora52

The attention of Moroccan bloggers turned recently to the latest report by the Committee to Protect Journalists on the state of press freedom in the country. Baraka wrote that "the report accurately describes the contradictions of a power that wants to open itself up, but without giving up the ability to censor the independent press." In his blog on journalism and freedom of speech, Larbi shared his take on the arrest of journalists Abderrahim Ariri and Mustapha Hormatallah for allegedly publishing elements of a classified report from the secret service.

DRC: Continuing attacks on journalists draw concern from UN mission

2007-08-03

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23403

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has denounced the recent series of attacks on journalists in the troubled country, especially those working for a UN-backed radio station with the largest Francophone audience in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ghana: Journalist harassed, forced to delete photographs of politician

2007-08-03

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/85297/

n 31 July 2007, three men accompanying Sherry Ayittey, a functionary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ghana's main opposition party, forced a photographer of the "Daily Guide", a pro-government newspaper, to remove images of Ayittey from his camera. Policemen from the Striking Force Unit of the Ghana Police Service prevented the three men from further harassing journalist Ken Yankah.

Gabon: Jailed journalist hospitalised, sentenced

2007-08-03

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/85292/

The director of a private newspaper in Libreville, the capital of Gabon, was handed a suspended prison term and a fine today, but could not appear in court after he was hospitalized as the result of poor detention conditions, local journalists told CPJ. "We condemn this verdict and call on Gabonese President Omar Bongo to deliver on his 2004 pledge to eliminate prison sentences for press offences," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.

Haiti: UN vows no early withdrawal of peacekeepers

2007-08-03

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01404589.htm

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon vowed on Wednesday that there will be no quick withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti, who have helped stabilize the deeply impoverished country for the first time in years. Speaking during his first visit to Haiti since becoming leader of the world body, Ban said he would recommend a 12-month extension of the mission of the nearly 9,000-strong, Brazilian-led peacekeeping force when its mandate comes up for renewal before the U.N. Security Council in October.

Sudan: Darfur: colonised by 'peacekeepers'

2007-08-03

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3697/

The United Nations (UN) Security Council yesterday passed resolution 1769. It establishes another peacekeeping mission in Sudan, UNAMID, for Sudan’s war-torn western province of Darfur. With a total authorised strength of 26,000, UNAMID is expected to be the largest UN peacekeeping operation in the world by next year. What’s more, UNAMID peacekeepers will deploy under the terms of ‘Chapter VII’ of the UN Charter, which legally entitles them to use force beyond self-defence. In other words, this will not be a neutral, monitoring contingent, but a militarised force and de facto protagonist in Darfur’s conflict.

Sudan: Arabs pile into Darfur to take land 'cleansed' by janjaweed

2007-08-02

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2768232.ece

Arabs from Chad and Niger are crossing into Darfur in "unprecedented" numbers, prompting claims that the Sudanese government is trying systematically to repopulate the war- ravaged region. An internal UN report, obtained by The Independent, shows that up to 30,000 Arabs have crossed the border in the past two months. Most arrived with all their belongings and large flocks.

DRC: Train crash kills at least 100

2007-08-03

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnBAN325009.html

A train crash in a remote part of Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 100 people and injured more than 200, the central African country's minister of information said on Thursday. "We are still discovering the dead. So right now we are putting the death toll at about 100," Toussaint Tshilombo told Reuters, adding that the cause of the crash was still unknown.

Sudan: Dozens killed in Darfur tribal fighting

2007-08-03

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=315663

At least 65 people have been killed in renewed tribal clashes in Sudan's Darfur, a tribal leader said on Thursday, two days after the United Nations approved a massive peacekeeping force for the war-wracked region. The fighting, in which another 25 people were wounded, took place in Southern Darfur on Tuesday and raised the toll from two days of clashes between the Rzigat Aballa tribe and the Torjam to at least 140 dead.

Africa: Former child soldiers want revenge, study shows

2007-08-03

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=315606

Reconciliation efforts in countries where children have been press-ganged into fighting wars need to pay more attention to the severe trauma suffered by many of these combatants, German researchers said on Tuesday. The United Nations estimates about 250 000 children worldwide are currently fighting in wars -- mostly in Africa -- but very little research has gone into the effects of such violence on the mental health of young combatants, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Africa: DBSA launches information hub

2007-08-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/42943

Information regarding Africa's development can now be accessed at the click of the button, thanks to a new information system known as the 'internet and networking hub'. The hub is made possible by the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) to set up an 'internet and networking hub' where knowledge on Africa?s development can be deposited and shared free of charge.
Highway Africa News Agency

Information regarding Africa's development can now be accessed at the click of the button, thanks to a new information system known as the 'internet and networking hub'.

The hub is made possible by the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) to set up an 'internet and networking hub' where knowledge on Africa?s development can be deposited and shared free of charge. This was during the last day of the '2nd Biennial' conference on Knowledge Management Africa (KMA) that brought together academics, bank officials, government representatives and other development partners.

Officiating at the launch, the CEO of the South African based development bank Paul Baloyi said that researchers, investors and other people interested in Africa could access any information at the click of the button, "The hub contains information covering a wide range of topics on the continent's development. This includes information about investment opportunities, tourism, history and culture governance, knowledge systems and service delivery," he said.

The new hub is part of a wider African governments' project aimed at enhancing the image of the continent that has hitherto been potrayed differently. African policy-makers can use the hub to accelerate development and service.

Knowledge Management Africa is an initiative that seeks to facilitate the harnessing of knowledge to improve development in the economic, social, cultural and political spheres in Africa.

Through the years, KMA has created forums for knowledge exchange where it identifies and mobilises African expertise on various development challenges.

The first KM Africa conference was held in Johannessburg South Africa, in 2005. The third meeting will be held in Dakar, Senegal.

Tanzania: New Wireless Internet Service to be launched

2007-08-03

http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/current1.html#internet

In three months Tanzania will be braced with one of the world's fastest, cheapest and most reliable communication technologies. This comes after the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) granted an International and National Application Services license to a newly registered firm (wireless phone and internet Service Company) known as WBS (iBurst) Tanzania.

Africa: ICT Update on podcasting: A new way to reach rural communities

2007-08-03

http://www.iconnect-online.org/News/ICTUpdateJuly2007

Podcasting has been around since 2004 but it is still very much at the experimental stage when it comes to applying it to development efforts. In this issue we highlight some early initiatives from organizations currently testing the technology, and so far their results are all very positive. By using audio - speech and music - there is no need for expensive printing or distribution costs since the podcast can be downloaded from a single, central site on the web.

Zambia: Can ICTs improve living standards?

2007-08-03

http://africa.oneworld.net/article/view/74252/1/4197

Many initiatives have been undertaken, mostly by civil society organisations, towards the bridging of the digital divide between the north and the south. The pressing concerns have been on the ability of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to improve the standards of living of the poor in societies. If harnessed and directed properly, ICTs have the potential to improve aspects of our social, economic and cultural life.

Kenya: Internet-based sex education to guide youngsters

2007-08-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/42942

At the click of a button, youngsters who often grapple with the question of sex issues will now get first-hand information regarding the topic, thanks to a new innovative computer-based sexuality and HIV Aids education programme dubbed the 'World Starts With Me'. The new programme is an initiative of the Centre for the Study of Adolescence (CSA) whose epicentre focuses on sexuality issues such as puberty, pregnancy, reproductive health and HIV Aids.
Highway Africa News Agency

At the click of a button, youngsters who often grapple with the question of sex issues will now get first-hand information regarding the topic, thanks to a new innovative computer-based sexuality and HIV Aids education programme dubbed the 'World Starts With Me'.

The new programme is an initiative of the Centre for the Study of Adolescence (CSA) whose epicentre focuses on sexuality issues such as puberty, pregnancy, reproductive health and HIV Aids. The program seeks to address many questions that trouble the youth such as, "How do I get pregnant". "How can I protect myself against HIV Aids". "What are Sexually Transmitted Diseases among", etc.

Ms Rosemary Muganda Onyando, the Executive Director of CSA, explains that as many youngsters enter their teenage years, they fail to understand the changes in their bodies and how to react, hence they end up in trouble due to ignorance. Cultural constraints also contribute to the grim consequences as many parents and guardians still find it a taboo to discuss sexuality issues with the young ones.

Through the new computer-based programme, teenagers will access all information required to enable them make informed choices regarding sexuality and reproductive issues. It will also encourage interaction among students on issues surrounding the hitherto a 'closed' topic.

The Provincial Director of Education in Kenya, Mbarak Said Twahir says that the initiative is part of the ministry's sexual education curriculum programme which should be embraced by all schools in the country.

The ministry through the help of UNESCO has pledged to donate computers to schools and other youth organisations in order to effectively implement the programme.

"Teenagers with access to appropriate sexuality and reproductive health information are less likely to become pregnant or contract sexually transmitted infections including HIV Aids."

Moreover informed teenagers appreciate and see the physiological and physical changes they undergo as natural but ignorant youth are easily taken advantage of.

This software programme targets teens between the ages of 12-19 as they are the most vulnerable and naive. Older ones can also benefit.

The programme is participatory; and at the click of a button students can participate in games, questions and discussions. Topics tackled include sex, teenage pregnancy, abortion and voluntary counselling and testing.

According to Onyando, the programme is timely as many youths have been misled by the media to indulge in irresponsible sexual activities and the programme seeks to reverse the trend and also prepares teenagers to be responsible.

Launched in Africa in 2001 in collaboration with the World Population Foundation , the programme has been introduced in 40 local schools.

A similar program has been introduced in Uganda, South Africa, Indonesia and India.

South Africa: Youth empowerment - Amy Biehl Foundation

2007-08-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/42953

The Amy Biehl Foundation is a non-profit organization in Cape Town South Africa whose programmes are designed to develop and empower youth in the impoverished and poverty-stricken townships, contribute to community building efforts and give children hope and a brighter future.
The Amy Biehl Foundation is a non-profit organisation in Cape Town South Africa whose programmes are designed to develop and empower youth in the impoverished and poverty-stricken townships, contribute to community building efforts and give children hope and a brighter future. Our mission statement of weaving a barrier against violence is achieved by providing educational and cultural activities that offer students healthy alternatives to all the negative influences such as crime, drugs, sex, idleness etc and unlocks their creative talent with the aim of creating future leaders, entrepreneurs and well rounded citizens in a global society. Our programmes reach over 3,000 children every week, and include:

* After School Care
* Music, Including Violin, Guitar, Recorder, Marimba, Choral Singing and Brass
* HIV / AIDS Peer Education
* Greening and Environment
* Youth Reading Role Models
* Creative Arts, Including Drama and Dance - Kwaito, Modern, Traditional and Ballet
* Sport including soccer, hockey, swimming, diving, cricket and the only Golf Driving Range in a township * Computer Literacy
* Prison Outreach These programmes place a focus on the creative side of the children's brain, and supplements the shortcomings of the educational system in the townships of South Africa. There are great inadequacies in the impoverished township schools in which we work, creating a great need for our programmes. Through our programmes, we allow the children to supplement what they learn during the course of the school day with creative programmes that let them express themselves and think freely in an imaginative environment. Providing these students with meaningful opportunities helps to grow the economy moving forward, as the next generation will be better equipped to deal with the challenges of tomorrow. Funding and support is needed to continue and grow our vast array of programmes, which have been running very successfully for 9 years. The number of children that we can reach is directly proportionate to the amount of funding that we are able to raise. We are appealing to individuals and organisations for support so that we can continue our vision of providing a brighter future with greater opportunities for children from disadvantaged communities.
How can you help? Make a once-off donation or a monthly donation to the programmes or a specific programme of your choice. You can send a cheque or make an electronic transfer to the Foundation's bank account ( details below)

In return the Amy Biehl Foundation would like to offer individuals and organisations the following: The opportunity to visit our programmes and see the difference the donation is making,. Updated reports and pictures of the programmes through our quarterly newsletter, As the Foundation is registered as a Non-Profit organisation donations are tax deductible. Many fantastic marketing opportunities for organisations, including logo and company name displayed in our office, on our grant proposals and on our website, which is being updated. Great exposure to an international and national market as the Foundation has visitors daily from all over the world. In the past 6 months over 2000 visitors have visited our offices and programmes. In addition, individuals and organisations who support the Foundation will be: Ensuring the sustainability and continuation of current Amy Biehl programmes.
Providing the means for the Foundation to continue offering educational programmes to make certain that the alarming rate of high school students dropping out of school ends.
Helping to give children an alternative to a life of crime. The current level of crime in South Africa has a negative effect on all citizens and businesses, and causes many to live in fear. By participating in our programmes, the youth are better equipped to ward of the temptations of drugs, gangs and unsafe sex.
Providing a beacon of hope for disadvantaged youths, and creating a future healthy society of emotionally equipped and well-rounded individuals.
Enabling South African youth to reach their full potential, regardless of their current economic standing.
Helping students develop life skills, such as cultural awareness, public speaking, and creative thinking, that will carry them forward as the future leaders of our society. When in SA take the Amy Biehl Cultural Township Tour and/or encourage visitors to take the tours - Best rates in CT and visitors get to experience and interact with the children in the various activities described above. “ ….Inspiring.……motivating…… captivating…… life changing….” Some of the words used by visitors to describe the tour Contact details of the Amy Biehl Foundation :
7th Floor, No. 1, Plein Street, Cape Town, 8001 South Africa Phone: (021) 462-5052 Fax: (021) 462-7325 Email : info@amybiehl.co.za Banking Details: Name : Amy Biehl Foundation Trust Bank : First National Bank Branch : Adderley Street Branch Code : 201409 Account Number : 62085677890 Swift Code : FIRNZAJJXXX THANK YOU 'You make a living by what you earn but you make a life by what you give'

Sudan: Youth peace building training - trainers manual

2007-08-03

http://www.eldis.org/go/country-profiles&id=32712&type=Document

This document presents the trainers manual which accompanies the participants pack for a youth peace building training session. The long term objective of the training is to bring about changes in attitudes, behaviours, systems and structures that build peace as a result of processes and linkages initiated in the workshops.

Global: Senior Fellows Program - Synergos

2007-08-02

http://www.synergos.org/programs/fellowsapplication.htm

The Synergos Institute’s Senior Fellows Program is an international network of distinguished philanthropic and other civil society leaders committed to collaborative efforts that address the underlying causes of poverty and inequity. Synergos Senior Fellows participate in a three-year learning and action program that aims to build their skills, spread their knowledge, and deepen their impact. The deadline for applications is 20 August 2007.

Tanzania: Workshop on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights - Femnet

2007-08-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/42888

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network held a two day regional workshop on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights in Tanzania from July 31- August 1, 2007 with the aim of supporting African women organizations to act and advocate around reproductive and sexual rights and influence national and policy frameworks to protect and promote reproductive and sexual rights.
The African Women’s Development and Communication Network held a two day regional workshop on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights in Tanzania from July 31- August 1, 2007 with the aim of supporting African women organizations to act and advocate around reproductive and sexual rights and influence national and policy frameworks to protect and promote reproductive and sexual rights.

The workshop was informed by a regional research project covering Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda on the status of sexual and reproductive health and rights. The workshop involved about 36 local organizations from all over the country working on sexual and reproductive health issues such as FGM, child and maternal mortality and morbidity, fistula, and maternal health services as well as sexual and reproductive rights of women and young girls.

The workshop process intended to produce and national advocacy strategy for activist organizations working on sexual and reproductive health and rights. It also indicated some of the gaps in the way existing interventions on sexual and reproductive rights are conceived and implemented. On analysis it seemed easier to engage with the health aspect of sexual and reproductive health issues i.e. the scientific aspect rather than the rights aspects i.e. the ideological aspect.

Thus sexual and reproductive rights were largely advocated on the basis of commitments to provide particular health services to women, men and young people and not so much from the premise of the body and personal autonomy over the body. Perhaps this was an indication of the general sensitivity surrounding advocacy over as sexual and reproductive rights where the criminalization of certain aspects of as sexual and reproductive rights like the right to choose and the influence of religious forces turn legal questions into moral questions. In such instances the question of women’s general powerlessness in the sexual relationship as well as in society are thrown out of the equation. Instead the status quo is reinforced with activists unable to achieve real shifts in guaranteeing women their sexual and reproductive rights and accordingly a greater realization of their as sexual and reproductive health. The general feeling of helplessness over the situation makes advocacy initiatives all the more imperative. Nonetheless great strides were made in identifying key areas for collective interventions. Legal reform into marriage and personal laws was seen as critical in promoting women’s as sexual and reproductive health and rights. Likewise improving the quality of reproductive health services through holistic interventions that address human resource issues, essential drugs and equipment; and improving the environment was emphasized. Networking between key actors and allies was equally stressed as vital in creating the critical mass to pressurize for action.

To get this audacious agenda moving political will is necessary at both the government level as well as among activists engaged in the struggle for women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. Participating organizations will further the initiative by finalizing the plans and implementing some of the short term strategies before the 16 Days of Violence Against Women and World AIDS Day. Coordinators for specific zones would assure that the process is coordinated.

Salma Maoulidi Sahiba
Sisters Foundation is a member of FEMNET in Tanzania.

Gender Budgeting Adviser - Zimbabwe

2007-08-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/42877

Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN. Based in Harare, Zimbabwe Two-year contract (with the possibility of renewal)
For further information and an application form visit www.progressio.org.uk (see section "jobs @ Progressio").
Closing date: 16 August 2007

Interviews: End of August 2007

Gender Programme Development Adviser: Zimbabwe

2007-08-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/42878

The National Faith-Based Council of Zimbabwe (NFBCZ)
Based in Harare, Zimbabwe. Two-year contract (with the possibility of renewal)
For further information and an application form visit www.progressio.org.uk (see section "jobs @ Progressio").
Closing date: 19 August 2007
Interviews: End August 2007

South Africa: Mandarin lecturer - Stellenbosch University

2007-08-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/42930

An exciting opportunity exists within the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences for a dynamic person to join and give direction to this fast-growing section of the Department of Modern Foreign Languages. All foreign language programmes are based on an intercultural and communicative approach and are designed to provide thorough competence in the spoken and written form of the target language.
Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer/ Lecturer (one post)
(Three-year Contract with Option of Renewal)
(Ref. 07MS24)
An exciting opportunity exists within the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences for a dynamic person to join and give direction to this fast-growing section of the Department of Modern Foreign Languages. All foreign language programmes are based on an intercultural and communicative approach and are designed to provide thorough competence in the spoken and written form of the target language.
For further information regarding the Department and its activities, visit http://academic.sun.ac.za/forlang/
Duties:

Teaching of Mandarin language, culture and literature at undergraduate and/or postgraduate level • development of course material, and assessment of opportunities for academic and short courses • performing administrative and organisational functions as required by the Department • student development • active participation in the Department's research and publication programme • community involvement • liaising with cultural representatives of countries where Mandarin is spoken • liaising with the Centre for Chinese Studies.

Requirements:
An appropriate academic qualification in Mandarin Language & Literature Studies or Mandarin as a foreign language or a related field (a doctorate and a proven research and/or publication record for appointment as Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer and a Master's degree or equivalent for appointment as Lecturer) • experience in teaching Mandarin as a foreign language • ability to maintain and improve the existing academic offering for Mandarin • proven ability to develop new course material • ability to function within a team • ability to communicate fluently in Mandarin and English.

Recommendations:
Proven interest in and record of research • experience in teaching Mandarin as a foreign language in a foreign context • knowledge of Afrikaans or another European language.

Commencement of duties:
January 2008 Closing date: 15 August 2007 Enquiries: Prof. C. von Maltzan on 021 808 2034 Applicants are requested to submit, apart from the prescribed application form and a CV, a concise exposition of their expertise, their view of the future of the Department's Mandarin section and their envisaged role and contribution to such a future.

The University will consider all applications in terms of its Employment Equity Plan, which acknowledges the need to diversify the demographic composition of the staff corps, especially with regard to the appointment of suitable candidates from the designated groups.
The University reserves the right not to make an appointment.
A competitive remuneration package and excellent service benefits are attached to this position. For further details, contact 021 808 4829.
Obtain the prescribed application form by either contacting 021 808 2369 or by e-mailing sm3@sun.ac.za or on our homepage at http://www.sun.ac.za/applicationforms Completed application forms, accompanied by a comprehensive curriculum vitae which includes the names and contact details of at least two referees, must be forwarded to The Manager: Personnel Provisioning & Planning, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602 or fax 021 808 2484 or via e-mail to sm3@sun.ac.za Applicants should request their referees to forward confidential reports by the closing date direct to the same address.

Fahamu