Pambazuka News 536: Polluters and corporates: Stealing the commons
Pambazuka News 536: Polluters and corporates: Stealing the commons
Gay Kenya has welcomed the passing of a United Nation Human Rights Council resolution that protects and defends the human rights of LGBT persons. 'The UN Human Rights Council resolution sought equal rights for everyone regardless of their sexual orientation, marking progress for gay rights despite strong Arab and African opposition,' said a statement.
In 17 June, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. It is the first time the UN has adopted a resolution on LGBT issues. This post reproduces the introductory statement for the resolution by South African permanent representative, Ambassador JM Matjila, during the 17th Session of the Human Rights Council.
Nigeria’s Boko Haram bombings, militants in the Niger Delta, attitudes towards homosexuality in Ghana, the censorship of internet pornography in Tunisia and a Canadian couple’s decision not to gender their child all feature in this week’s review of African blogs, compiled by Sokari Ekine.
The situation in Egypt is increasingly complex writes Sokari Ekine, where power still lies with the remnants of the state and military, and the old mechanisms of repression are starting to reappear.
If the US really believes in democracy, how can it support Abdoulaye Wade’s plans to have his son succeed him as Senegal’s president, asks Amy Niang.
The 17th African Union Summit takes place from 23 June to 1 July in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Will the African Union violate its own Constitutive Act and policy standards by hosting the summit in Equatorial Guinea? asks Geoffrey Njora.
Dawit Kebede, editor-in-chief of Ethiopian newspaper, the Awramba Times, speaks to Ron Singer about the perils of working in the media – from his arrest by the government to his struggle to get a license for a new paper – and his disappointment with US academics’ failure to support Ethiopian democracy.
An initiative to have Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lectures in every constituency in Ghana is starting with a Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture in the South Dayi District in Volta Region. This event is being coordinated by Constance Ayer, an Nkrumaist based in the constituency.
Outraged by President Bongo Odimba’s visit to the US from 6-9 June, Gabonese civil society has written to US President Barack Obama, calling on him to take a stand against the Bongo government’s devastation of democracy. The letter also asks Obama to revisit the speech he made in Accra after his election, which it says should inform his relationship with African leaders.
Dismayed by the AU’s willingness to host its summit at a luxury complex in Equatorial Guinea despite the government’s violation of human rights, Eyob Balcha says the summit will not improve the lives of ordinary Africans. What’s more, given the ongoing crises across the continent, the summit’s theme of youth empowerment will be the last thing on the mind of delegates.
Can the new post-Mubarak Egypt succeed in addressing the socio-economic grievances that helped spark the January 25 uprising? The ‘prevailing discourse among Egyptian elites and opinion makers, however, already signals that the answer is no,’ writes Hesham Sallam.
Stray elephants from Kenya’s Tsavo National Park are destroying the crops and livelihoods of communities in Taiva Taveta County, leaving them dependent on unaffordable maize flour and government relief supplies. The Unga Revolution committee made a solidarity visit to the area on June 14, to look at how to ensure that the government fulfils its constitutional obligation to ensure the community’s right to food and protection of livelihood. This is the committee's report on the visit.
A group of Twitter users are calling on the site to prevent NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) from using the service to obtain logistical information for its military campaign in Libya, arguing that Twitter appears ‘to be in violation, not only of the law, but also of its own Terms of Service.’
A new book by Lang T.K.A. Nubuor will help to make the ideas in Kwame Nkrumah’s ‘Consciencism’ more accessible to readers, says the Centre for Consciencist Studies and Analyses.
Following the arrest of human rights defender Agostinho Chicaia in Kinshasa at the request of the Angolan authorities, OSI Angola and the Association for Justice Peace and Democracy (AJPD) are calling on Angola and the DRC ‘to state clearly what are the circumstances and the legal grounds for Mr Chicaia’s detention.’
'There is a violent uprising happening now here. In the city center of Dakar, in the suburbs and in the provincial areas. A lot of demonstrations and riots are happening,' writes Tidiane Kassé, as Senegalese people take to the streets to oppose a new law being discussed in parliament, which would allow a presidential candidate to take power with just 25% of the vote. Meanwhile, as a Yellitaare statement calls on the Senegalese government to ensure the safety of human rights activist Alioune Tine, reports from Dakar suggest that Tine is 'seriously wounded', after being hit on the head by attackers alleged to be the body guards of a minister close to President Abdoulaye Wade.
Nigerian born writer Ikhide R. Ikheloa made it a point to ‘diss’ the shortlisted stories for the 2011 Caine Prize, says Emmanuel Iduma, but ‘there are deeper concerns than the sweeping conclusions he makes in his short essays’, for example, whose story are we supposed to write, how real can we be about Africa, and does the story of the real Africa belong to only one person?
We are not all in this together, begins this article in the UK's The Guardian newspaper. 'The UK economy is flat, the US is weak and the Greek debt crisis, according to some commentators, is threatening another Lehman Brothers-style meltdown. But a new report shows the world's wealthiest people are getting more prosperous - and more numerous - by the day. The globe's richest have now recouped the losses they suffered after the 2008 banking crisis. They are richer than ever, and there are more of them - nearly 11 million - than before the recession struck.'
The government has declined a loan from the World Bank because it found the terms of the loan incompatible with the national interest, Egyptian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Fayza Abul Naga said. The minister added that the government would not accept conditions dictated by the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund, especially since the 18-day uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.
In order to meet the intensifying climate challenge, the global energy system must undergo a fundamental transformation, with a rapid increase of renewable energy worldwide, states this working paper. 'Developing countries are at the forefront of this challenge, since they are expected to add around 80 per cent of all new electric generation capacity worldwide in the next two decades...This working paper seeks to assist in this process, by identifying key components of smart renewable energy policy in developing countries, focusing on the power sector.'
The African National Congress (ANC) bowed to pressure on the Protection of Information Bill and promised major concessions to bring the legislation in line with the Constitution. The ruling party agreed to restrict the power to classify, which it had previously sought to extend to all organs of state, to bodies dealing directly with security and to scrap mandatory prison sentences for leaking secret information.
The Sonke Gender Justice Network has welcomed Julius Malema’s court ordered apology to rape survivors, despite it being 15-months late. Malema, the ANC Youth League President, who had been sued by Sonke apologised to all women, particularly the woman known publicly only as Kwezi, who in 2006 accused then deputy president Jacob Zuma of rape. Malema told students in 2009 that Zuma’s accuser had had a 'nice time' because 'those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money'.
Judges at the UN court for Rwanda have sentenced a former Rwandan minister for women's affairs, to life in prison for genocide and incitement to rape. The ruling by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) means that Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, 65, is the first women to be ever convicted of genocide. She was found guilty on seven of the 11 genocide charges she faced for atrocities committed in Rwanda's southern Butare region in 1994.
The Sengalese president has dropped a controversial electoral law amid opposition protests in the capital, Dakar. The current law requires that a candidate be elected with a 50 per cent majority in the first round of voting to avoid facing a run-off. The draft law would reduce that number to only 25 per cent and create a position of vice-president, leaving Wade's rivals concerned that he has plans to bring his 42-year-old son, Karim, into power.
Reporters Without Borders says it is relieved to learn that six contributors to opposition radio station La Voix de Djibouti – Farah Abadid Hildid, Houssein Ahmed Farah, Houssein Robleh Dabar, Abdillahi Aden Ali, Moustapha Abdourahman Houssein and Mohamed Ibrahim Waïss – have been released after more than four months in Djibouti’s Gabode prison. After several appeals to Djibouti’s supreme court, an appeal court ruled on 22 June that they should be released conditionally and placed under judicial control pending trial.
Reporters Without Borders says it is deeply saddened by the murder of Kambale Musonia, a journalist working for Radio Communautaire de Lubero Sud in Kirumba, in the eastern province of Nord-Kivu. Aged 29, Musonia was shot three times in the chest at close range by three unidentified men who were waiting for him outside his home as he returned from work.
The UNHCR says it is alarmed by a dramatic rise in the number of new refugee arrivals from Somalia into Kenya. Over the past two weeks the Dadaab refugee complex in northern Kenya has received more than 20,000 Somali refugees. The new arrivals are mostly farmers and animal herders from Lower Juba and the city of Dhobley. During 2010, Dadaab received an average of 6,000 to 8,000 Somalis every month. This year the monthly average has increased to 10,000 refugees.
Egypt has initiated a proposal in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to ban export restrictions on farm products to poor countries that are net food importers. The Group of 20 has also exhorted the upcoming WTO ministerial conference to adopt a specific resolution on export restrictions. After Egypt’s democratic uprising earlier this year, food security has become a main aim in its quest to achieve social justice. Therefore, Cairo has initiated a proposal at the WTO to ban export restrictions of agricultural products to net food importing developing countries (NFIDC).
In what is being hailed as a victory for conservationists and the wildlife of the Serengeti, the Tanzanian government has cancelled plans for a controversial highway that would have dissected the Serengeti National Park. According to scientists, the road would have severed the migration route of 1.5 million wildebeest and a half million other antelope and zebra, with indirect impacts, such as poaching and new development, exacerbating the situation.
The Egyptian authorities must earn the trust of the people by abolishing repressive laws and ending abusive practices, the Secretary General of Amnesty International said in Cairo. Speaking after his week-long visit to Egypt, his first official trip to the Middle East and North Africa, Salil Shetty called on the Egyptian authorities, including the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), to use the post-Mubarak transition period to carry out urgent reforms and lift new repressive steps such as the law banning strikes and the use of military trials against civilians.
Algeria has witnessed unprecedented unrest in the past few months. Since the beginning of this year, law enforcement officers have carried out no fewer than 2,777 riot control operations. A record was set in March, when more than 70 rallies and sit-ins were staged. In response, the government has issued calls for dialogue, bowed to demands for pay hikes and promised greater political freedom.
On 16 June the government of Chad signed an action plan to end recruitment and use of children in its national army and security forces. The new action plan is an agreement between the Chadian Government and the United Nations to end recruitment and use of child soldiers. The action plan spells out concrete steps, which when taken, will result in Chad being removed from the Secretary-General’s list of parties who recruit and use children.
At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Cancún in December 2010, the World Bank was granted the interim trusteeship of the newly established Green Climate Fund (GCF). Recent events indicate that the Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) will also have an influential role in the design of the fund. The Climate Investment Funds (CIFs), a collaborative MDB climate finance initiative housed at the Bank, are being pointed to as ‘a best practice’ model for the GCF. This paper critically assesses the appropriateness of the CIFs as a model for a global climate finance fund. It finds that in terms of institutional arrangements the CIFs have achieved some notable progress that acknowledges some of the critical issues raised by civil society groups. However, in operations and performance there are serious concerns.
Members of the Unga revolution committee in Nairobi received an invitation of solidarity from Taita Taveta community leaders to visit their area to witness the violation of their rights to food by an increasing number of elephants that stray from the Tsavo National park during planting and harvesting seasons. 'The systematic destruction of the maize crops during this season has exposed the said peasant farmers in Taveta to food insecurity and hunger.'
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry has announced a project to build a common digital platform which will help streamline the identification of protected musical works across 11 West African countries, helping creators from these countries get paid for their work through a simplified and standardised rights registration system. US firm Google will be WIPO’s technology partner in developing this new web-based system, which builds upon WIPOCOS (WIPO Software for Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights).
On 15 June, the whistleblower web site WikiLeaks began releasing US diplomatic cables from the period immediately following the devastating Haitian earthquake of January 2010. The cables, from among the 251,287 in WikiLeaks’ possession, provide important information on the machinations of US politicians, on their tight control over Haitian government functions, and about their drive to reopen Haiti to capitalist exploitation. WikiLeaks has reached an agreement with Haiti Liberté, a weekly paper and web site published by Haitian immigrants in the US, under which the paper has first access to the Haitian cables and also helps to post them on the WikiLeaks web site.
The African Union panel on Libya met on Sunday in Pretoria on mediation efforts to end the four-month war, after South African President Jacob Zuma’s visit to Tripoli last month failed to reach a deal. The leaders of Mauritania, Uganda and Mali as well as Congo-Brazzaville’s foreign minister met with Zuma as Libyan rebels said they expect to receive an offer from Muammer Gaddafi 'very soon' that could end the four-month war.
Some Chinese companies are being blamed for importing fake anti-malaria drugs into Ghana, a country where China has so far enjoyed a very good name for its massive economic investment. On 19 June, Ghana’s Food and Drugs Board (FDB) issued a statement to warn the public against the sale of counterfeit Artesunate tablets on the market which laboratory analysis had confirmed contained no active anti-malaria ingredient.
Sierra Leone`s main opposition party has said it will not accept the outcome of the 2012 general election. Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) said there are indications that the process would be flawed if the current head of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Ms Christiana Thorpe, presides over the polls. The SLPP, who lost power to the ruling All People`s Congress (APC) party in 2007, continues to blame Ms Thorpe for their defeat. The electoral body had rejected 477 votes cast in some polling stations in the eastern region of the country, an area considered to be SLPP stronghold.
The agriculture ministers of major economies, rich as well as emerging, meeting for the first time as the world verges on another food crisis in only four years, have disappointed. Their decisions, summed up in a 24-page Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture, lacked the teeth to bite the neck of the crisis, according to food experts and NGOs. Shenggen Fan, director-general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFRPRI), a US-based think-tank, who was in Paris for the meeting, said the G20 did not identify the 'most pressing priorities', nor provide details on how to deal with them to help everyone move beyond 'words and rhetoric to action and implementation'.
More than 300 Swazi cancer patients being treated in South African hospitals have been repatriated, according to the Cancer Association of Swaziland, (CANASWA), after the government of King Mswati III could not meet their medical costs. Most of the cancer patients in South Africa were recipients of a special fund for the poor - in the absence of a national health system - but Health Minister Benedict Xaba told parliament recently the fund was exhausted.
At the Centre for Treatment of Acute Malnutrition with Complications (CRENI) in the town of Amboasary Sud in the Anosy region of southeastern Madagascar, Samina Tahiaritsoa, 20, cradles her son, Lambo, 3, who still weighs less than six kilograms after 10 days at the centre. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), two out of three Malagasy live in poverty and 50 per cent of children younger than five have stunted growth due to malnutrition.
Research from social and digital media research firm Mediabadger on the role of Muslim women in social media concludes that: 'Muslim women are a multi-dimensional part of societies all over the world and this is no exception in social media. They enjoy a rich, complex and overall positive presence online. They are very engaged and have adopted social technologies as rapidly as any societal group. The roles of Muslim women in Islamic and Western societies are changing drastically, perhaps more than any other online demographic we have researched to date. With the changes in Egypt, Muslim women there are working to better define their role and emancipation.'
Ethiopian authorities have been holding a newspaper columnist incommunicado since Tuesday (21 June), local journalists told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Reeyot Alemu, a regular contributor to the independent weekly Feteh, was expected to spend the next four weeks in preventive detention under what appears to be Ethiopia's sweeping anti-terrorism law.
A new analysis of the global power plant market launched by Greenpeace International shows that since the 1990s, installations of wind and solar grew faster than any other power plant technology. In addition, renewable energy expanded rapidly, to reach its biggest market share in 2010 and providing enough capacity to supply electricity to the equivalent of one third of Europe. The Greenpeace report, 'The Silent Energy Revolution: 20 Years in the Making', also highlights how renewable energy power plants accounted for more than a quarter (26 per cent) of all new power plants added to the worldwide electricity grid over the past decade, compared to nuclear power stations representing just two per cent of new installations in the same period.
Minority Rights Group International has expressed serious concern regarding the worsening situation of Nuba people trapped and displaced in recent heavy fighting in South Kordofan. Fighting during the last couple of weeks in South Kordofan has left approximately 60,000 displaced and there are reports emerging of serious human rights violations directed at Nuba people, MRG says.
Following a series of shipwrecks and deaths, as well as reports in the Guardian newspaper about the failure to rescue migrants in boats or dinghies that are adrift by ships and patrols deployed in the Mediterranean by NATO and the EU to stop migrants reaching Europe, Migreurop has issued a press release to mark the fact that over 1,000 people have died in this context since January 2011. It argues that the failure to assist migrants who are in distress at sea is in violation of the 1951 Geneva Convention and international maritime law.
'Handbook for Local Journalists in Crisis Areas' is a practical guide for journalists in crisis areas, which is based on the wide experience of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in training and working with journalists in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The handbook teaches international reporting standards, explaining the journalistic process clearly, from subject choice to final editing. The modules are enhanced with examples and extracts from previously published IWPR stories from around the world.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first female president, has been proactive about fighting sexual and gender-based violence. The Liberian government and the United Nations jointly committed to reducing gender-based violence by 30 per cent by the end of 2011. The Ministry of Gender and Development also has a special unit dedicated to tackling sexual and gender-based violence, the Gender-Based Violence Task Force, which aims to coordinate violence prevention and response. Despite the end of the nation's civil war, many Liberian women still face violence daily.
There are 245 million widows in the world, yet their problems are often ignored, states this article in The Guardian UK on the occasion of International Widows Day on 23 June. 115 million widows still live in extreme poverty. In many cases, their children have to leave school to go to work to plug the gap in the household income left by their father's death; their daughters, in particular, are therefore often at a high risk of sexual exploitation.
Women in Africa may be the backbone of the continent’s agricultural production, but they are not profiting as much as they should from agroforestry - the growing of trees on agricultural land, according to a study by the World Agroforestry Centre. It recommends women increase their income by moving into producing high end items like soap and wine from the same products they currently sell as raw materials.
Google Trends, a tool to track internet searching patterns, is a window onto the internet habits of nations, states this article, which examines what can be learned about Africa by using Google Trends. 'By assessing people's searches, and the frequency of key terms in internet news media, it is possible to construct a picture of what matters to people, when, and where. Generally, the patterns that emerge with regards Africa are predictable: an apathetic, uninterested world, whose only interest in the continent appears during the World Cup, or when a ship is hijacked by Somali pirates. Beyond this, however, we can track the associations of global internet users between certain terms to gain a sense of connections between places and events.'
Dr Amadou Scattered Janneh, a detained former Minister of Information and Communication and three others have been charged with treason for allegedly distributing anti-Jammeh materials, demanding an end to the authoritarian rule of President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia. Dr Janneh, an outspoken former minister went missing after his arrest on 7 June 2011. Dr. Janneh was whisked towards Banjul, the capital to an unknown location. On 13 June 2001, he was seen publicly for the first time after his arrest.
Fifteen associates of Cote d'Ivoire's ex-president Laurent Gbagbo, including two former ministers, have been charged with harming state authority, setting up armed gangs and economic crimes, the Abidjan prosecutor said Sunday. Those charged this week included former prime minister Gilbert Ake N'Gbo, former foreign minister Alcide Djedje and Philippe-Henri Dacoury-Tabley, a former governor of the Central Bank of West African States, Simplice Koffi added.
Civil society groups from more than 25 countries in Africa issued a report on 27 June urging African member countries of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to show support for the court at the upcoming African Union (AU) summit meeting. The report, 'Observations and Recommendations on the ICC', is endorsed by 125 African organisations and international groups with a presence in Africa. The 17th AU summit will hold its assembly of heads of state from 30 June to 1 July 2011, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Meetings of ministry-level officials in advance of the heads of state discussions began on 23 June.
Eritrea has rejected Ethiopian claims it trained the rebels who plotted to carry out bombings during an African Union summit in Addis Ababa in February. Ethiopia routinely accuses Asmara of supporting rebel groups, and declared in April it would support Eritrean guerrillas fighting to overthrow President Isaias Afewerki. Both sides have often traded tough rhetoric since their 1998-2000 border war, which killed around 80,000 people and left the frontier demarcation unresolved.
The latest statistics from the UNHCR show where refugees come from, where they go to and how many return. The Guardian UK has created a map that explores the data by region and country.
South African President Jacob Zuma slammed Nato’s operation in Libya at the opening of the African Union’s (AU) Libya panel meeting in Pretoria. Rebels said they expected a proposal from Moamer Kadhafi 'very soon' through French and South African intermediaries. The UN resolution authorising the Nato bombing campaign 'was not to authorise a campaign for regime change or political assassination', Zuma reportedly told opening talks of the AU panel on Libya.
The announcement by SADC in its final communique on 12 June that it would immediately deploy monitors to Zimbabwe and raise money to assist the country's cash-strapped Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee, JOMIC, has unnerved Mugabe, says this article, which argues that South African President Jacob Zuma is getting tough on Mugabe. 'JOMIC is a tripartite body created under the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) to monitor cases of continuing violence, intimidation and other violations of the power-sharing deal brokered by SA on behalf of SADC and endorsed by Mugabe, Arthur Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai, the perceived winner of the disputed poll.'
The latest issue of the Biowatch Bulletin is out and includes the following:
- Planned US control of SA seed supply threatens food security
- SA GM update
- Biowatch comments on SA's climate change response Green paper
- World Social Forum, COP 17 and other events
- Agro-ecology - workshops and trainings
Visit for more information.
The High Court on Sunday freed Jameson Timba, a key aide of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai but there was drama outside the courts as lawyers and MDC-T officials tried to prevent what they feared was a ploy by the police to re-arrest him. Timba, a minister of state in Tsvangirai's office, was detained on Friday after he allegedly called President Robert Mugabe a liar.
'Thursday June 23 was indeed a historic day in the life of the Nation that we the youth of Senegal will never forget,' says this article on the afro-optimism blog. 'The Nation came out, in all of its glory and fury, men and women, youth and old, poor and rich, swift politicians and lay common men/women, and took to the streets together as one to contest a law proposal orchestrated by the Presidency that was to change the rules of the electoral game to enable an easy reelection for Abdoulaye Wade for a third seven-year term in the upcoming February 2012 election.'
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and two of his confidants, citing evidence of crimes against humanity committed against opponents of the Libyan regime. Judge Sanji Mmasenono Monageng announced the decision on behalf of a three-judge panel in The Hague on Monday, saying the warrants were meant to force Gaddafi, his son and his intelligence chief to appear before the court and prevent the possibility of a cover-up.
Authorities in Nigeria have said that three separate bomb explosions in the country's northeast have killed at least 25 people and wounded many others. The attack on Sunday targeted outdoor beer gardens in the city of Maiduguri. Authorities have accused the Boko Haram group, which demands the adoption of sharia law, or Islamic law, throughout Nigeria, of being behind the attacks.
'We write to express our grave disappointment that the African Union Summit currently taking place in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, unlike previous summits, does not include a parallel civil society gathering for foreign and domestic groups.'
Pambazuka News 535: From aid and humanitarianism to solidarity
Pambazuka News 535: From aid and humanitarianism to solidarity
A gay woman was stabbed four times by men who accused her of stealing their girlfriends in Crossroads in the Western Cape, the Times reported. Noxolo Nkosana (23) was getting out of a car, returning home after work when two men, both Crossroads residents, approached her.
South Africa's best-known cartoonist, Zapiro, could again be facing legal action by the African National Congress (ANC) following the publication of a new cartoon of President Jacob Zuma. In Zapiro's latest cartoon in the Mail & Guardian newspaper, published on June 10, Zuma is portrayed with his belt unbuckled, while ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe holds a woman depicting press freedom. 'Lady Justice' is also drawn, and shouts: 'Fight, sister, fight!!' The cartoon is a comment on the ruling party's Protection of Information Bill and the proposed media appeals tribunal.
The planned creation of a 26-nation African Tripartite Free Trade Area (FTA) will draw industrial investment to South Africa by making it a springboard for low-duty access to other parts of the continent, trade and industry director general Lionel October said. The proposed free trade zone will merge the three regional blocs covering southern, central and eastern Africa. These are the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), and the East African Community (EAC), which have a combined population of 580-million people.
In an open field 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of Angola's chaotic capital, a $3.5-billion city seems to rise from nothing, a showpiece in government's drive to build one million new homes. Dubbed the 'new city of Kilamba Kiaxi', it's the antithesis of overcrowded Luanda's traffic-choked streets and is being built - like so much else in Angola - by Chinese contractors.
Botswana’s government deployed heavy security in the capital Gaborone for the second day on Friday 10 June as despairing union leaders announced a suspension of a seven-week civil service strike that has driven the peaceful nation to the brink of full-scale violence. Armed police backed by the paramilitary Special Support Group (SSG) and a helicopter were out in force on Thursday 9 June to prevent the striking workers from engaging in acts of violence and destruction that have accompanied the strike.
Police in Bulawayo are still camped at a house used for meetings by Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), following a raid on the premises, the organisation has said. It’s understood the police are after WOZA leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, as well as the owner of the house, who is not a WOZA member and is understood to be out of the country. 'Since the beginning of the year, 38 WOZA members have been arbitrarily arrested and 24 detained and charged under the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act. Threats were made that upon the eventual arrest of Williams and Mahlangu, they would be denied bail and imprisoned in the male prison,' a WOZA statement said.
South African President Jacob Zuma reportedly got into a verbal confrontation with Robert Mugabe, after the ZANU PF leader challenged him over the ‘inaccuracy’ of the Livingstone Troika resolutions. The Johannesburg Summit went on and ‘noted’ the decision of the Organ Troika in Livingstone, dealing a major blow to ZANU PF who had wanted the resolutions thrown out altogether. But the regional leaders also appeared to soften their language towards Mugabe.
More than 43,000 Angolan refugees living in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be voluntarily repatriated starting next month, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR announced last Wednesday. Of about 80,000 Angolan refugees in the DRC, '43,085 have expressed their desire to immediately return to their country of origin,' said Mohamed Boukry, UNHCR representative in Kinshasa. The repatriation should start on 4 July and wrap up early next year.
Chinese analysts have dismissed a statement by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that warned Africa to be wary of 'new colonialism' as China expands its ties in the continent, saying that trade and economic cooperation between China and African countries are conducted on the basis of mutual benefit. Clinton said that 'we don’t want to see a new colonialism in Africa', when asked about China’s growing influence in the continent during a television interview in Lusaka, Zambia.
Mobile phone users should not expect any further call price cuts for now. This is after Safaricom and Telkom Kenya got backing from the country’s top offices - that of the President and of the Prime Minister to suspend implementation of new termination rates. Safaricom and Telkom Kenya had warned that a further cut would have a negative effect on the sector’s profitability, risk of job losses, curtail new capital investments, reduce government revenue and competitiveness.
Discriminatory laws and a largely homophobic society mean that men who have sex with men (MSM) in Kenya generally find it difficult to access HIV-related information and health services, but rural MSM have an especially hard time. When Kibet Kipsowen*, 30, a cattle keeper in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province, and his partner have sex, they use the oil-based jelly he applies when milking his cows; he’s never heard of a water-based lubricant, let alone used one. Health practitioners discourage the use of oil-based lubricants for anal sex, as the oil degrades condoms, increasing the likelihood that they will break. Studies have found that most African MSM use oil-based lubricants, heightening their risk of contracting HIV.
Human rights campaigners have demanded the immediate release of a Cameroonian man jailed for three years for homosexuality. Jean-Claude Roger Mbede appears to have been a victim of entrapment by the security forces, which regularly target and prosecute gay men. Mbede sent an acquaintance a text message and arranged to meet him on 2 March, according to human rights watchdogs. Before the meeting, the acquaintance showed police text messages from Mbede.
The UN food agency has warned of worsening food shortages due to drought in the Horn of Africa region, saying eight million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia need aid now. 'The current crisis is not an unusual or chance event, but rather a chronic feature of the region,' Rod Charters, regional emergency coordinator for the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said in a statement. 'The region has now experienced two consecutive seasons of significantly below-average rainfall, resulting in failed crop production, depletion of grazing resources and significant livestock mortality,' FAO said.
Dale T. McKinley takes a clause by clause look at South Africa’s Protection of Information Bill (POIB) – known publicly as the Secrecy Bill. It is ‘all very real and even more dangerous’, he writes, and South Africans should speak up now before it is too late.
South Africa’s Protection of Information Bill (POIB) – known publicly as the Secrecy Bill – represents the biggest threat to academic freedom since 1994. Yet the voice of universities has been missing from the uproar over the bill, writes Jane Duncan.