Pambazuka News 428: South Africa’s 2009 National election: Waiting to exhale
Pambazuka News 428: South Africa’s 2009 National election: Waiting to exhale
cc Despite a sense of euphoria among significant sections of South Africa’s poor and working class that a Jacob Zuma presidency will usher in the long awaited better life for all, write John Appolis and Dale McKinley, socialists know that Zuma will not dismantle the alignment of class forces consolidated by the ANC since the early 1990s, but rather further entrench them. Since social movements are not in a position to present an alternative parliamentary option to the masses, the
Ivor Hartman speaks to about StoryTime, his online ezine to showcase new African writing, and his desire to tell the world about the Zimbabwean situation through writing.
cc Despite studies which suggest that as many as one in two women in some parts of South Africa are affected by domestic violence, political parties in South Africa lack concrete, practical strategies to address violence against women, a debate organised by Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, Women’sNet and the department of political studies at Wits University has revealed. Party manifestos failed to adopt a multi-dimensional response to violence against women that go beyond the parameters of the criminal justice system, responses to the societal, economic and material dimensions are almost entirely absent, and no party recognises the unique circumstances and needs of marginalised groups of women who experience violence, write Lisa Vetten and Sally Shackleton.
cc Amid fears that Polokwane and the split in the ANC, and the uncertainty that these have generated, will unravel South Africa’s national potential for a rosier future, Adam Habib writes that ‘Economic development, service delivery, and poverty alleviation are dependent on a legitimated and capacitated state’. As the country’s national elections approach, Habib cautions that behaviour that ‘undermines the legitimacy and capacity of state institutions will compromise the new political elite’s own long-term goals’. Exploring the reasons behind former ANC leader Thabo Mbeki’s loss of support and what a Zuma presidency might mean for South Africa, Habib argues that the ‘substantive uncertainty’ introduced into South African politics by COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) and the SACP’s (South African Communist Party) mobilisation against Mbeki has opened up political space and created debate on a range of policy issues, that would otherwise not have taken place. But for this ‘substantive uncertainty’ to be sustainable, it must be institutionalised within the political system as a whole.
cc As South Africa nears its fourth election since 1994, Andile Mngxitama laments the country's overall lack of progress toward genuine black liberation in the post-1994 era. Highlighting Steve Biko's emphasis on 'conscientisation' to counter the normalisation of black people's material and mental subjugation to the entrenched white power structure, Mngxitama decries the continued suffering of the poor black majority in post-1994 South Africa, arguing that the race-based understanding of impoverishment once used to describe marginalisation has now been effectively eradicated under the anti-racialist hegemony dominant in national discourse. With the state still essentially rooted in its apartheid-era model of white capitalist accumulation and exploitation – albeit with a new black leadership at the helm – Mngxitama contends that the country has simply moved into a neo-apartheid phase of little discernible distinction from its past, stating that to vote within such a system would merely be to grant it legitimacy.
I congratulate your efforts in Pambazuka News to celebrate and promote the Pan-African symbols like Nyerere and Nkrumah.
You may not know that I listened to Kwame Nkrumah's speech in 1960, as member of Egypt's Nasser delegation, at that time headed by his assistant on African Affairs.
We really felt the revival of Pan-Africanism after the independence of Ghana 1957.
I remember all that now, when reading on your innovated celebration of these spiritual events. Best wishes for all.
cc Surveying the range of manifestoes and political stances offered by South Africa's political parties, Liepollo Lebohang Pheko exposes a common paternalistic thread underpinning parties' approaches to women's representation and rights. With many women legitimately concerned about politics being a 'dirty' game in the country – as elsewhere across the world – Pheko writes that those championing women's greater involvement face considerable obstacles, not least of which is the lack of space for critical thinking around how a dominant, masculined state fails to provide for women's citizenship. Female political candidates are at once excluded from their parties' strong backing through prejudice and the persistence of a self-serving 'old boys' club' behind the selection of candidates, the author notes. Attaining true liberation for women, Pheko argues, requires tackling injustice at each and every level it is encountered, a strategy that will ultimately necessitate an effective challenge to the state's ghettoisation of women's issues.
cc With South Africa's election fast approaching, Roger Southall predicts a triumphant yet problematic victory for Jacob Zuma’s African National Congress (ANC). Southall examines the shifting electoral terrain within South Africa, indicating that younger voters are changing the political demographic. Despite the ANC’s respected economic record, increasing concern surrounds government policy, with injustice and inequality still prevalent across the country some 15 years after 1994's 'liberation' election. The author argues that regardless of the ANC’s predictable success in the April 2009 election, the party’s sanctity has been shattered as a result of its corruption and role in worsening the livelihoods of ordinary South Africans. The ANC’s dominance in the electoral arena is subsiding, Southall contends, a reality which will prove key in shaping the future development of South Africa's democracy.
cc In this special edition of Pambazuka News, Sanusha Naidu sets out the background to the upcoming South African election and introduces the wide array of perspectives informing this week's articles. While some commentators have chosen to emphasise the changing nature of the ANC's (African National Congress) political dominance and the party's current difficulties, others have focused on the ultimate absence of genuine liberation for South Africa's poor majority some 15 years after the historic 1994 election. With some calling for the 2009 election to be boycotted entirely, the contributors to this issue share a common desire to offer piercing analysis and powerful insights into South Africa's political landscape as the country approaches voting day on 22 April.
Dibussi Tande reviews the following blogs:
The Spear in Arabia
Marvin Tumbo
Startups Nigeria
Scribbles from the Den
I stumbled into your site while searching for something else. I was interested in . Obviously your position is based on 'patriotism', i.e. we must support our people even in the face of obvious fabrications. As a Nigerian, I know that it is not possible to do the kind of thing Pfizer came to do without our government's permission. How was the equipment for the trials imported? I work for an NGO and our investigations revealed that Pfizer was permitted to carry out the trials by the federal government, NAFDAC and the Kano State government. We have been in the forefront of those clamouring for an out-of-court settlement because we have seen that the case against Pfizer is not as tight as we had thought.
You seem to be convinced that because a company is rich, it should be blackmailed to part with a large slice of its profit. I can't really confirm the total amount involved in the settlement aside from the figures carried in the newspapers. US$75 million is a lot of money. That is about 13 billion Nigerian Naira – almost three times the health budget of Kano state for the whole year. Who do we blame for the meningitis epidemic killing people in the northern parts of the country this year?
As a mother and a social activist, I have seen the misery our people are exposed to every year. Our governments should wake up. The World Health Organisation came to our rescue this year but their assistance fell short of our requirements. I don't want potential helpers to have the impression that we are just a bunch of blackmailers. If there hadn't been court cases over the Trovan trials who knows, maybe we would have called on Pfizer again this year to come to our aid. I am all for the settlement. I get your point about the litigation against Shell. But there is no parallel between that and the Pfizer case.
Yash Tandon's are well articulated and sober. However, he makes a sweeping criticism about the absence of East Africans and the EAC at the Geneva Conference. In fairness, he should ask the conference organisers why, as he aptly puts it himself, ‘were there so many people from Europe and so few from East Africa apart from Kenyans themselves’?
Recently I was in Darfur for fieldwork research. The situation of violence is complex. However, for a sociologist, it would be impossible to resist the reality that the state authority organises an intent discrimination of specific ethnic groups in the region of Darfur to be killed inclusively at their villages. For instance, Tingo, a small village in the Southern Darfur State of Nyala was attacked on Friday by an armed force, which the victim called Janjaweed. The owners of the village are Fur from African origin and even though they were in a public prayer in the mosque of the village, the attackers whom they believe to be of the same faith – Islam – could not spare them in the mosque. In that particular assault, more than 263 people were killed in the mosque and the market.
In conclusion, when a killing is racialised to the extent of searching for the particular group, then that is genocide. But who says this? The UN Security Council is incompetent to act at least to stop the killing, even if it refuses to categorise it as a genocide. China, as a giant state with a moral obligation to respect of humanity, is badly enslaved by economic interest hence, it blocks all possible attempts to force President Bashir to stop the war.
Thank you for . I've been following what is going on in Guinea for some time now, but as often is the case with Africa and its countries, there are so many hidden pages, and this article enlightened me a bit more on Guinea.
My long trip started on the 20th January 2009 when I traveled from Cape Town to Durban by bus. I spent 26 hours on a City to City bus, moving from Cape Town via PE, East London and Umtata and then to Durban. As much as it was a long journey I must say it I really enjoyed it. I think it was nice touring my own country, getting the opportunity to be exposed to different corners of South Africa from Cities and Townships to Rural areas where the poorest of the poor are located as a result of the past.
A Libode community rejoiced when land, from a settlement claim worth R93 million, was handed over to it by South Africa's minister of Land Affairs. The claimant community is made up of five villages – Magcakini, Tyarha, Mamfengwini, Mdlankomo and Moyeni – which, when the claim was made, had a total of 907 households, the members of which are the direct descendants of the originally dispossessed individuals.
Pambazuka News 427: African unity: Feeling with Nkrumah, thinking with Nyerere
Pambazuka News 427: African unity: Feeling with Nkrumah, thinking with Nyerere
In an interview with Conversations with Writers, Zukiswa Wanner discusses her books Behind Every Successful Man and The Madams.
cc Following the resignation of Kenyan Justice Minister Martha Karua, 
cc With Dar es Salaam on the verge of hosting the Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week from Monday 13 April, Issa G. Shivji, Mwalimu Nyerere Professor of Pan-African Studies at the city's university, offers his reflections on the pan-African struggle. Though Africa has undoubtedly suffered from the neoliberal onslaught of the past two decades, Pan-Africanism as a progressive ideology is now firmly back on the historical agenda, Shivji states, uniting in the process the continent's dual quest for unity and liberation.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/427/55474_Paul_Muite_tmb.jpgHaving been credibly informed that his life could well be in danger, Paul Muite considers the implications of his willingness to speak out against the Kenyan government's involvement in the assassinations of Oscar Kamau King'ara and Paul Oulu. With the Kenyan authorities themselves at the forefront of extrajudicial killings and threats, Muite highlights the Kenyan citizenry's complete lack of confidence in the government or police to protect people's rights.
The debate on how to unite African states has not changed significantly since Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere locked horns on the matter in the early 1960s, writes Chambi Chachage. Exploring Nyerere’s ‘step by step’ approach to building African unity in relation to Nkrumah’s desire to ‘fast track’ the creation of a Unites States of Africa, Chachage concludes that while Nkrumah’s Pan-African vision remains powerful, his approach is unrealistic even today.’ ‘To that end, I will feel with Nkrumah, yet I shall think with Nyerere’, he writes, ‘Africa must unite, albeit pragmatically’.
cc Pan-Africanism gave rise to the civil rights movement in the US and to independence and anti-imperialist movements in Africa, writes Salma Maoulidi, but what is Pan-Africanism to the average African today? To a large extent, Maoulidi argues, it remains a global phenomenon that has focused on global political agendas and less so on struggles on the ground. What is missing, suggests Maoulidi, is ‘a popular expression of Pan-Africanism and a matching consciousness such that the concept does not appear surreal, abstract and out of touch with reality and the populace, particularly the youth who are the inheritors of its future.’
cc Attending a conference on Kenya’s national dialogue and reconciliation in Geneva, Yash Tandon, notes that the issues of power sharing, ethnicity, and governance overshadow matters related to economics and welfare. He also ponders why, other than the 50-60 Kenyans present, he and Tanzania’s former president Benjamin Mkapa are the only attendees from East African countries. Given the ‘many daily cross-border interactions between the people of the region’, this lack of interest in Kenya, he says, demonstrates ‘a serious slip-up of the principle of solidarity among East African neighbours’. Help from European friends to Kenya has, Tandon suggests, allowed Uganda and Tanzania and the East African community ‘an exemption from their moral responsibility’.
cc The Kenyan government must issue orders for the military and police to ‘cease and desist from acts of intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders and to make public the text of such instructions’, Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, has said in a statement issued on 7 April. Alston said that dozens of prominent and respected human rights defenders who provided information to the UN have been targeted in ‘a blatant campaign designed to silence individual monitors and instil fear in civil society organisations at large’, with all indications seeming to point to the fact that the campaign ‘has been carefully coordinated within the government’.
cc In light of a recent general strike in Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France, Kont Pwofitasyon (LKP) addresses the people of Guadeloupe and seeks to encourage their continued political involvement in the struggle to end economic oppression and exploitation. The group indicates that the recklessness of employers, elected officials, representatives of the French government, and colonial institutions within this archipelago in the French Antilles has threatened the livelihoods of Guadeloupians. Through Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (LKP), a social movement of trade unions and social organisations, activists are exposing the injustices endured by the masses and mobilising the country by demanding an increase in the minimum wage, the people's access to commodities, and the promotion of new social relations.
The Refugee Consortium of Kenya writes with concerns on refugees and asylum seekers rights abuses by law enforcement officers and by extension the Government of Kenya.
We understand that the Kenya government has applied for an emergency credit for US$100 million to cushion its currency from the International Monetary Fund. We also understand that this application is due for consideration at your next board meeting. The Partnership for Change is concerned that while Kenyans continue to demand accountability from the Government of Kenya on our public debt, the government continues to ignore the public and continues to borrow and indebt the poor people of Kenya.
My had been shortlisted for the SA Blog awards 2009 in the 'politics' category and it recently featured on the Pambazuka newsletter. I am pleased to tell you that my blog has since won the category and I am especially grateful to Pambazuka for bringing the blog to the attention of your vast readership, and for encouraging them to take part in the voting process. This is much appreciated!
The privatisation of land – a public resource for all that has now become a false commodity – was the original sin, the original cause of this financial crisis. With the privatisation of land comes the dispossession of people from their land, which was held in common by communities. With the privatisation of land comes the privatisation of everything else, because once land can be bought and sold, almost anything else can eventually be bought and sold.
Following the G20 meeting in London last week, Stephen Marks unpacks the spin behind the apparent swelling of financial resources available for a global recovery plan. While the IMF remains free to impose the infamous conditionalities that have been the bane of many of its recipient countries, Marks highlights the glaring irony of an organisation that has long pressured others into reform without ever being subject to self-reflection and change itself. While the motives of each G20 player may differ, Marks writes, China at least has a clear interest in seeing the reforming rhetoric of the meeting turned into genuine action and greater representation for developing nations.
Following the arrest and trial of novelist Magdy El-Shafei on grounds of ‘publishing and distributing publications incompatible with public morals’, the is calling for the Egyptian government to drop the charges against the writer, which violate the freedom of opinion and expression, and to amend the existing criminal legislation to ensure the practice of freedom of opinion and expression.
is encouraging people to contact US President Barack Obama to urge him to send an official US delegation to the 20-24 April 2009 Durban Review Conference, the follow-up to the 2001 World Conference on Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance.
Sokari Ekine reviews the following blogs:
cc With African and European ministers set to meet in Brussels on 28 April to assess the progress of the Joint Africa EU Strategy (JAES) adopted in Lisbon in December 2007, Carmen Silvestre emphasises the importance of the meeting for both African and European civil society. Setting out the background to the JAES and Human Rights Dialogue and civil society's participation, Silvestre argues that the meeting represents a key opportunity for groups from both continents to discover areas of common ground and find ways of influencing official strategies and policy.
© While many African leaders have aspired to inherit Nkrumah’s mantle as the visionary and driver of Pan-Africanism and continental unity, writes Yao Graham, a gaping political leadership vacuum remains at the heart of the continent’s collective expression. From an age when there were a number of outstanding African leaders, among whom Nkrumah was preeminent, Graham argues that the African Union’s election of Gaddafi as its leader is a statement of a collective failure of leadership and underlines the crisis in which the Pan-African project is currently mired at the inter-state level. Where, asks Graham, are the African leaders who see opportunities for change in the current crisis, and who are ‘ready to dare and look beyond guaranteeing the sanctity of aid flows?’
Pambazuka News 426: The deepening economic and climatic crisis
Pambazuka News 426: The deepening economic and climatic crisis
The peace and security council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) has proclaimed that the process leading to the assumption of power by opposition leader Andry Rajoelina in Madagascar was unconstitutional and therefore has decided to suspended Madagascar’s membership from the organisation. Other African leaders, including the president of South Africa and current chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Kgalema Motlanthe, also condemned the ousting of President Ravalomanana as the product of unconstitutional action against democratic institutions. Prior to Ravalomanana’s resignation, the PSC had urged all Malagasy parties to uphold the spirit of dialogue and compromise in order to find a peaceful and consensual solution to the crisis and to carefully follow the provisions of the constitution of Madagascar on interim arrangements in the event of resignation. In a communiqué that the PSC issued on Madagascar, it reiterated that ‘the transfer of power was made in violation of the relevant provisions of the Malagasy Constitution and that the subsequent decisions to confer the office of the President of the Republic to Mr Andry Rajoelina constitute an unconstitutional change of government’.
The Libyan leader and chairman of the AU, Mouammar Kadhafi, met with officials of the AU Commission to discuss on a range of issues including the peace and security in Africa, the monitoring and implementation of decisions made at the 12th AU summit and the preparations for the next AU summit among others. Meanwhile, Mauritius has expressed its interest to host the 13th AU summit that was due to be held in Madagascar in July citing the need for the summit to be held in a country of the Indian Ocean region.
SADC leaders, who brokered the power-sharing agreement between Zimbabwean President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai, pledged to mobilise economic support for Zimbabwe to the tune of $8.3 billion from international donors at their recent summit. Further, African trade ministers are meeting to discuss the impact of the global financial crisis on African economies, increasing food prices, climate change and global trade. They are also ‘expected to reflect on how to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha round of negotiation and the EPA negotiations can be successfully concluded’. Meanwhile, India is seeking to strike comprehensive economic cooperation agreements with the Common Market of Southern Africa and the East African Community (EAC). Also in development news, the self-evaluation report published by the African Peer Review Mechanism forum warned that Mozambique’s development model is creating a wide moat separating the rich from the poor, which could lead to social convulsions in the medium term.
Civil society organisations gathered in Tanzania to talk about their increased participation in discussions on the integration process of the EAC, a contribution that would go a long way in deepening the democratic foundations of the bloc. Meanwhile the EAC deputy secretary general Julius Rotich, stressing the importance of the civil society in the affairs of the region, used the gathering to urge non-state actors to actively take part in the organisation. Participants in the sixth African Development Forum aimed at reviewing progress made towards achieving gender equality in Africa put their leaders to task over their failure to implement international declarations made to end violence against women. Also in regards to civil society, the Forum for the Participation of non governmental organisations in the ordinary sessions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights will take place in Gambia from the 13th to the 27th of May, 2009, to deliberate on the human rights situation in Africa.
Members of the Pan African Parliament, who feel that they are ready to be vested with some authority, are blaming the AU for slowing down the process of transforming the continental body into fully legislative organ rather than the current advisory role it enjoys. Also in regards to continental integration, Azubuike Ishiekwene analyses the difficulties that the United States of Africa agenda will face as African leaders continue to struggle to put their houses in order.
Commenting on the G20 (The Group of Twenty), Jacques Depelchin asks why, when Africans have suffered so much under the ’most predatory system ever invented by humans’, African leaders are helping to prop up that system, rather than encouraging new ways of doing things.
From the 28th March to the 4th April, women and men from all over the world will be in the streets to protest against capitalism and war and to affirm that they will not pay for the crisis. Launched by the Social Movements’ Assembly, that gathered during WSF 2009 in Belem.
In a strongly worded letter to the president of Zambia, the country's Catholic bishops called on the government not to ratify an African Union protocol with articles that would threaten the sacredness of life and the sanctity of marriage.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation SABC, has produced a remarkable documentary about conditions in Zimbabwean prisons which will be screened nation-wide on Tuesday. Produced by SABC’s Special Assignment team, the film entitled “Hell Hole” takes viewers into Zimbabwe’s prisons – which it ways have become virtual death traps for prisoners.
Moremi Initiative is pleased to announce its call for applications to the Moremi Initiative for Leadership Empowerment and Development (MILEAD) Fellows Program. The MILEAD program is a one-year leadership development program, designed to identify, develop and promote emerging young African women leaders to attain and succeed as leaders in their community. Interested candidates from Africa or the Diaspora are invited to apply by contacting Moremi Initiative>
Israel carried out air strikes in January on a convoy moving through Sudan which it believed to be carrying weapons destined for Hamas in Gaza, according to a report by the US television network CBS. Two Sudanese politicians confirmed that unidentified aircraft targeted the convoy in a remote desert region north-west of Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.
In 2008, total net official development assistance (ODA) from members of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) rose by 10.2% in real terms to USD 119.8 billion. This is the highest dollar figure ever recorded. It represents 0.30% of members' combined gross national income
IGLHRC, Global Rights, INTERIGHTS, ICJ-Kenya and CAL are pleased to announce a call to writers, in the broader sense of the word, to submit pieces of writing of less than a thousand words on the topic LGBT rights are human rights.
SOCFEX condemns the arbitrary detention of Jama Ayanle Fayte, freelance reporter of Lasqorey website and the subsequent sentencing to two years today by the regional court of Puntland. A regional court in semi autonomous state of Puntland has sentenced Mr. Jama Ayanle Fayte of Lasqorey.net – a Somali news website after has been accused of publishing unfounded reports that the authorities deemed as false. The interior minister pressed the charges against Mr. Fayte who appeared the court without defense lawyer.
Hundreds of African migrants are believed missing after the boats they were using to try to reach Europe capsized on Sunday and Monday. At least 21 bodies have already been recovered, and search-and-rescue operations are ongoing, Libyan officials told Reuters. News agencies, citing Italian media reports, claimed 23 survivors had been recovered. One of the boats was believed to be carrying around 250 passengers, and another had as many as 365.
The mountain kingdom of Lesotho faces a number of unique hurdles with regard to HIV and AIDS. The country is landlocked within South Africa, the epicentre of the pandemic, and because of limited job opportunities and high unemployment rates within Lesotho, many of its citizens work as migrant labourers in neighbouring South Africa.
Madagascar's transitional leader Andry Rajoelina unveiled his new administration Tuesday and immediately froze all mining contracts, defying regional powers who have ordered him to reinstate his toppled predecessor. Rajoelina, who forced president Marc Ravalomanana to step down earlier this month, said he was ordering a review of all mining contracts with foreign firms to ensure greater revenues from drilling and extraction rights.
Across nearly the breadth of North Africa, the head of state enjoys a lifetime appointment. Morocco has a king. In Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, president since 1987, pushed for a constitutional amendment removing term limits and has now announced a bid for a fifth term in office. President Husni Mubarak of Egypt, who assumed office in 1981, is already serving his fifth term.
In the wake of the 2008 global food crisis, African capitals have been buzzing with renewed talk of the need for food self-sufficiency, and rice is often at the top of government agendas. Although everyone agrees on the need to increase production, the solutions coming out of the corridors of power boil down to the tired old formula of getting more fertilisers and “high-yielding” seeds to farmers.
Thank you for the attention you have brought to the country of Haiti. In response to your New York Times op ed piece I wanted to widen your perspective a bit. I don't pretend to represent anyone. I've been living in Haiti since 1985. I grew up in New England with my Haitian mother and my American father during the 1960's and 1970's. Though my parents were both teachers, I'm nothing more than a musician/innkeeper. When I arrived in Haiti, the Creole pig, an indigenous Haitian pig which was the backbone of Haitian peasant life, had recently been wiped out because of a supposed threat of swine flu.
Join us as we seek to remember and celebrate Haiti and its Revolutionary history. We shall remember the slave revolution of 1791-1804 which was the only successful slave revolution in history. In addition we shall seek to create awareness about recent political events in the country such as the kidnapping of Aristide, the disappearance of Pierre- Antoine Lovinsky and the deployment of a United Nations military force (MINUSTAH), actions that were all coordinated by imperialist forces.
In Sotho there is a saying, “Matlo ho cha mabapi” — a fire at a neighbour’s house is likely to spread to yours. Look no further for proof of the proverb’s wisdom than how the chaos north of the Limpopo has rippled into SA . The Basotho are silent, however, on the consequences of a fire started by a neighbour. And fire is exactly what SA is about to unleash on its poorer neighbour in the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu).
In less than one month, South Africans go to the polls to elect a government for the next five years. We have already witnessed pre-election violence in KwaZulu-Natal and legal problems regarding the right of South Africans to vote abroad. While no election proceeds without hitches, the question is whether South Africa is setting a good example for the rest of the continent with the way its elections will be conducted.
Aghast, betrayed and angry describe the reactions of many South Africans to their government's refusal of a visa to the Dalai Lama. They describe, too, widely held views on the role that South Africa has played on the UN Security Council, the UN Human Rights Council, and in respect of the crisis in Zimbabwe. Why, many are asking, has South Africa squandered its enormous moral capital and its commitment to human rights to side with some very questionable regimes?
As leaders of the world's most productive economies meet in London on Thursday, street activism around the need for poverty alleviation and action on climate change is expected to divert the world's gaze from official proceedings. For African governments and civil society organizations, any diversion which focuses attention on issues of social justice will be welcome.
In an April 1, 2009 article titled Inflation and Speculation: Ingredients for the Next Food Crisis? published by Common Dreams, Food First executive director Eric Holt-Gimenez and Policy Analyst, Annie Shattuck propose the re-regulation of speculation in commodities--a regulation that was lifted in 2000. The petition to Obama and Congress points out that the 2008 food price volatility "could have been stopped with sensible rules that, if enforced, would have staved off the malnutrition and starvation... caused by excessive gambling on food prices."
First there were "blood diamonds," the gems that fueled conflict and human rights abuses in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Then there was "conflict cocoa," the chocolate source that's harvested by children and funds civil war in Ivory Coast. Now concern is rising about the minerals that go into common consumer electronics. Could that be a BloodBerry or a Conflict Cell in your pocket?
In 2006 while we were being forced to live on the pavement – due to evictions – the Mayoral Committee of Housing promised the Gympie Street Residents that they would be given accommodation in old Woodstock Day Hospital after negotiating with Provincial Government. At the same time as this was going on Mrs Zille ignored a personal plea from the children of Gympie Street to address their educational needs, which were being denied due to the fact that they were being forced to live on the pavement and did not have access to proper meals for six weeks.
China’s contribution to the International Monetary Fund will exceed Japan’s when new quotas are implemented, making it second only to the U.S., under a new formula agreed by the IMF last year, a People’s Bank of China official said. The central bank official, who declined to be identified, told Caijing that the IMF passed a resolution in 2008 to adopt the new formula this year. But the implementation was postponed after G20 finance ministers agreed in London last month conduct the next IMF quota review in 2011, bringing it forward from the original schedule of 2013.
As China expands its engagement throughout Africa, it increasingly finds itself involved in African conflict zones either by design or accident. This involvement takes essentially three forms: Chinese participation in UN peacekeeping operations, Chinese weapons, especially small arms, which make their way into conflict zones, and kidnapping of Chinese nationals or attacks on Chinese facilities and nationals.
China has agreed to buy bonds issued by the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, to help finance trade credit, the People’s Bank of China said. The central bank did not give further details about the transaction in a statement on its website on April 1. The IFC’s new trade finance program “aims to provide liquidity support to financial institutions engaged in trade finance by providing them additional credit lines so as to restore the damaged trade finance channels and to fight the global economic recession triggered by the crisis,” the central bank said.
To the dignitaries gathered at Johannesburg's convention centre last month, haunting tales of a Chinese exodus from Africa must have seemed far from the truth. Beneath vast red banners, South African officials and their counterparts from Beijing unveiled a plaque to mark the opening of the first representative office of the China Africa Fund, a $5bn vehicle to further the Asian giant's investment splurge on the continent.
2 April 2009 may yet be marked as the day on which, through the catalysis of a global economic crisis, China definitively emerged as a 21st-century world power. Just a few months ago, the talk in western capitals was still about graciously inviting China to join the western club of G7 plus Russia. Now G20 is widely accepted as the new top table of world politics, and China is already seen as one of the biggest players at that table. The question now is: what kind of world power will China be?
China's presence in Africa, "taken to be massive," is no t a threat to economic good governance, Carlos Oya, lecturer in development economic policy at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of London Univer s ity, said here on Monday. According to Oya, who spoke at a seminar on the theme of "governance for African development", said there was a manipulation effect through the media which described China's presence in Africa as a threat to economic good governance.
Cabinet ministers were among the dignitaries who witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony of Daheng Botswana Textile Industry in Phakalane on Monday morning. The project is funded by two Chinese companies, Daheng Holdings Group and Touch International Holdings Group, for US$52 million. The Phakalane Industrial Park will be the first phase of the project, which will major in textiles and clothing products.
Conventional wisdom has it that, in the eyes of China, Latin America and Africa are largely interchangeable: vast tracks of land full of precious commodities. It’s simple, really: China invests billions building mines, derricks, roads and schools abroad in exchange for a steady supply of oil, iron ore, copper and bauxite to feed the factories back in Zhejiang.
The summit of the Group of 20 leading high-income and emerging countries in London on Thursday seems set to achieve progress. But achievement must be measured not just against past performances, but against “the fierce urgency of now”. Unfortunately, it will come up short.
The tiny, sweltering shop where Barnabus Ossai sells boxes of imported A4-sized printer paper is a world away from the trading floors and banking offices where the global economic crisis was born. Ossai doesn't hold a subprime mortgage — the 28-year old bachelor shares a small Lagos rental apartment with some 10 family members. And with a net worth hovering somewhere around zero, he's hardly exposed to risky collateralized securities.
China has adopted an active and responsible attitude and substantial measures to confront the global financial crisis in cooperation with the international community. It has decisively implemented an active fiscal policy and moderately loose monetary policy in a timely fashion in order to stimulate the economy.
Japan, the world's second largest economy, is calling for global initiatives to reactivate financial flows to Africa, including government grants, concessional loans and lines of credit. This is the crux of a message Prime Minister Taro Aso is carrying to the G20 summit in London Thursday, Japan's ambassador Takahiro Shinyo to Germany told German parliamentarians last week.
The East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSY) will be operational in June 2010 instead of June this year, according to a project official. The delay means that the cable, owned by African and international telecommunications operators, is again the subject of speculation and allegations about the lack of seriousness of the project developers.
According to FDI: Source from the State Property Management Commission recently, China Hydropower Group and CEB recently signed the commercial contract of Adjarala hydropower station project in Lome, capital of Togo, with the contractual amount of nearly EUR282m. The Adjarala hydropower station project is located on the Mono River where Togo and Benin meet.
A delegation of the China-Africa Development Fund (CAD-Fund) led by Mr. J. P. Zhao, Chairman of the CAD-Fund, met with some officials of the African Union Commission, the Chief Executive Officer of NEPAD, representatives of the African Development Bank (ADB) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Monday 30 March 2009, at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Thailand's commerce minister and rice exporters will visit African countries next month in a bid to secure rice deals, a senior official said on Monday. "It's a roadshow that includes trade and investment in Africa and, of course, rice will be the main issue we'll talk about," said Apiradi Tantraporn, director general of the foreign trade department at the ministry.
Standard Chartered has restated its confidence in the continuing resilience of the Africa-China trade and investment corridor. Commenting, Anil Dua, Regional Head of Wholesale Bank, Africa, said: "Trade between Africa and China exceeded $100 billion in 2008." Standard Chartered Bank's senior Wholesale Banking executives have just returned from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzen, China where they met with leading Chinese corporates with commercial interests in Africa.
Zimbabweans can get permits to stay legally in South Africa for six months, the authorities have announced. Some three million Zimbabweans are believed to have crossed the border to escape the economic collapse and human rights abuses at home. The permit gives migrants the right to work and get healthcare and education.
The challenge of making a fresh start in Britain is the subject of a darkly comic and fast-paced new novel, Harare North, by Zimbabwean writer Brian Chikwava. The novel is set in Brixton in south London, and it offers a view of London as seen through the eyes of its migrant population, particularly Africa's dispossessed. Hence, Harare North, the title and ironic name the book's unnamed hero gives to London.
A spectacular concert in an atmosphere of joy and freedom marked the end of the inaugural Nguva Yedu ~ Thuba Letu ~ Our Time youth arts festival in Harare. 600 people packed the Book Café car park for the final concert on Saturday 28 March, which presented 10 hours of outstanding poetry and some of the southern African region´s top music acts.
Despite the challenges that the global economic crisis poses to Africa and other developing regions in the southern hemisphere, South-South trade still offers huge opportunities as there is room for growth beyond the current levels. According to Jean-Louis Ekra, president of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) - a multilateral organisation that finances and promotes trade with African countries - the potential benefit from South-South trade may offer the same financial gains as trade with richer, Northern countries.
Chinese investment in the West African state of Benin has brought substantial and visible benefits to the country but local workers mutter about exploitation and even slavery. The Beninese government and Chinese entrepreneurs insist that all is well on Chinese-run infrastructure projects but here, as in other parts of Africa, notably Zambia, there is a backlash against Chinese methods and focus on the continent’s vast natural resources.
The advancement of the next generation of nuclear reactors has received a boost with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Beijing between the Chinese and the South African developers of pebble bed technology. Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty) Ltd (PBMR) of South Africa has been developing the pebble bed technology in parallel with the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) of Tsinghua University and Chinergy Co Ltd of China, whose pebble bed concept is based on a 10 MW (thermal) research reactor that was started up in Beijing in December 2000 and achieved full power operation in January 2003.
Top Asian oil refiner Sinopec Corp (0386.HK) is eyeing overseas projects for its exploration and production business, as the sharp fall in crude oil prices spurs bargain-hunting among oil giants. Sinopec (600028.SS), who has aggressively pursued acquisitions beyond China, is focusing on opportunities in Africa and South America in the near term, Chairman Su Shulin told reporters at a media briefing on Monday.
A lecturer in African Politics at the Oxford University, England, Dr. Abdul Raufu Mustapha has called on Nigeria to be cautious in its relationship with China, a technological giant and rising world power. He said that while the technology and friendship of China could be beneficial, Nigeria and Africa must be discerning enough not to allow China undermine their interests.
China Friday called on the international community to "act cautiously" on the Darfur issue as it is afraid rash action could damage peace and stability in Sudan. "The involved parties should fully respect and listen carefully to the voices of the African Union (AU), the Arab League and African and Arabian countries," Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping said in his meeting with visiting Sudanese president's envoy Awad Ahmed al-Jaz in Beijing
“On March 26, the Japanese government offered the Zambian government a loan worth US $274 million for the implementation of the Increased Access to Electricity Services Project to cover five areas in the country”, observes Tina Nanyangwe-Moyo, Coordinator of the JCTR’s Debt, Aid and Trade Programme.
Stated-owned Sinohydro Corp, the largest hydropower engineering and construction company in China, recently won a hydroelectric project in West Africa, according to information released yesterday by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), sources reported. The EUR 282 million contract was signed by Communaute Electrique du Benin (CEB), Benin's state-owned electricity company, and Sinohydro Corp, in Lome, the capital of Togo, on Mar. 12.
Macau and South Africa can benefit from a co-operation between the two, Jerry Vilakasi, chief executive officer of the Business Unity of South Africa (BUSA), has said. Speaking to the Macau Daily Times before attending a dinner and cocktail reception with the South African Consul where he was invited as a key speaker, Vilakasi said that with tourism, infrastructure investments and gambling as the major sectors in Macau, both would benefit from a co-operation.
In the Great Depression, as in the current economic crisis, the downturn was particularly severe because of a lack of leadership in the international order. The dominant financial power of the 19th century, Britain, was financially exhausted by the First World War. The new major creditor, the United States, had emerged as a strong economic player, but did not yet have leadership committed to the maintenance of an open international economic order. The simple diagnosis was that Britain was unable to lead, and the United States unwilling.
In China’s long history, its leaders have managed other rises in power and preeminence, but the current rise confronts them with a different set of challenges on a global scale. This two-part series reflects on how China handles its rise and responds to other global powers. In the first article of the series, leading historian of China’s foreign relations, Wang Gungwu, details the considerations for Chinese leadership as the country moves beyond a global role largely limited to trade, exports and economics.
The main militant group in Nigeria's oil producing Niger Delta region has scoffed at an amnesty offer announced on Thursday by President Umaru Yar'Adua, describing it as "unrealistic". "Such an offer by a government known for its insincerity must first be given to those who are being held captive by the Nigerian state for the rest of us to take seriously," the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in a statement e-mailed to journalists, in an apparent reference to its leader, Henry Okah, who is being tried for treason by the government.
The police fired several canisters of tear gas to disperse opposition protesters in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, late on Thursday. The demonstration was held in response to the call by the National Front for the Defence of Democracy (FNDD), which is opposed to the 6 August 2008 military coup, on Mauritanians to resist the coup.
Former Guinean Minister Lansana Kouyate has said his country cannot 'technically' hold elections this year to return the country to democratic rule. Instead, Kouyate, leader of the newly-formed Party for Hope and National Development (PEDN), told journalists here Thursday that a national forum of key stakeholders should be convened to decide on the date for elections in the West African nation, where a military government took power in the wake of the death, on 23 Dec. 2008, of long-serving President Lansana Conte.
A regional conference on security on the Sahelo-Saharan strip running from Mauritania to Darfur, in Sudan, will be organised in Bamako in the coming weeks, President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali announced here. Toure said the decision followed the endorsement of the proceedings of consultations between experts from two countries in the region, Algeria and Libya, by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Sahelo-Saharan countries.
The International Organisation for the Francophonie (OIF) has suspended Madagascar, describing as unconstitutional the process through which the current leader, Andry Rajoelina, assumed office.In a resolution adopted at the close of its standing committee meeting here on Thursday, OIF said the suspension would affect the overall multi-lateral cooperation between it and Madagascar, except humanitarian programmes.
The Rwandan Foreign minister, Ms. Rosemary Museminaly, said here Thursday that some legal technicalities were still stalling the extradition, to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), of rebel leader Laurent Nkund a batware, who was arrested in Rwanda in January. Museminaly, who was speaking as a guest of the European parliament, said, however, that the question of extradition had already been agreed upon in principle by the authorities concerned.
The most powerful opposition group in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, has debunked fears that it will sit out a planned national opposition boycott and demonstration on 6 April, when it announced on Thursday that all Egyptians should join in the Monday activities. The move came after the 6 April Movement entertained fears that the powerful Islamic group would not participate in the strike.
ECOWAS ministers responsible for women and children will meet in Accra, Ghana, on Fridayto adopt the regional policy for the rehabilitation of victims of human trafficking in West Africa. In a statement issued in Abuja, Nigeria's federal capital city, Thursday, and received by PANA here, ECOWAS said the policy seeks to establish and maintain a supportive and friendly environment where the victims, including those subjected to exploitative and hazardous child labour, enjoy equitable access to assistance in the region to enable them become functional members of the society.
Gweru based freelance journalist Kudzai Musengi was on 31 March 2009 allegedly abducted by three unknown men who bundled him into their car and blindfolded him before speeding off to a bushy area where he was subjected to intense interrogations. According to MISA-Zimbabwe, Musengi who was eventually released around 7pm on 1 April 2009, was interrogated about his alleged involvement with reports that were being beamed by Voice of America’s Studio 7 on farm invasions. Musengi denied having any links with Studio 7.