Pambazuka News 585: Of flowers, thorns and coups d'état
Pambazuka News 585: Of flowers, thorns and coups d'état
A UN report indicates that the rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have killed at least 50 civilians in eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since the beginning of May. 'Since the start of this month, at least 50 people - including displaced persons - have been killed by presumed FDLR members under similar conditions,' the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said.
Gumede is right in his conclusion that people will seek refuge in tribalism when democratic institutions are made to fail.
New data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) titled, 'World Health Statistics 2012 Report' has focused on the growing problem of the non-communicable diseases burden. According to the report, one in three adults worldwide has raised blood pressure, a condition that causes around half of all deaths from stroke and heart disease; while one in 10 adults has diabetes. WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan, said: 'This report is further evidence of the dramatic increase in the conditions that trigger heart disease and other chronic illnesses, particularly in low-and middle-income countries. In some African countries, as much as half the adult population has high blood pressure.' And although no new case of the Wild Polio Virus (WPV) was reported in the last two weeks in Nigeria, the country accounts for 56 per cent of global cases recorded in 2012.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has denounced the crackdown of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) and Security Services on the freedoms and rights acquired by the Egyptian people after the revolution. 'ANHRI considers the raid on the office of al-Alam news channel in Cairo on May 13th as a new episode in the series of stifling press freedom and clamping down on media work in Egypt for exposing the violations committed in the transitional phase.'
It is unfair for a small group of individuals to disenfranchise Zimbabweans through a premature campaign to abandon the constitutional review process without affording the people an opportunity to engage directly with the draft.
On 10 May 2012, Egypt's first ever presidential debate took place between two presidential candidates, Amr Moussa and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh. The debate was three hours long and the candidates were asked questions on various topics such as human rights, health plans, the economy, foreign relations, sharia law, and the role of the military. Both Egyptians and Arabs around the region were tweeting the candidates' replies - a summary of the tweets is included in this post.
The Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process relating to former rebels in the Central African Republic (CAR) is back on track: More than 1,000 already disarmed fighters of the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD) led by Jean Jacques Démafouth began to be demobilized on 12-13 May. APRD says 1,431 disarmed ex-combatants were demobilized on 12 May in the northern-central prefecture of Nana Gribizi in the presence of the Central African Armed Forces; representatives of the Mission for the Consolidation of Peace Central Africa (MICOPAX); Jean Jacques Démafouth in his capacity as senior vice-president of the DDR Steering Committee; and CAR Disarmament Minister Gen Xavier Sylvestre Yagaongo (second vice-chairman of the committee). The process is due to take a week to complete.
Do I have a right to a fair hearing? Do I have the right to freedom from torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment? Do I have the right to live in dignity as a human being? That’s what I demand.
Dr Nawal al Saadawi’s continued hope, after decades of persecution by the Egyptian political and religious authorities, and the as yet unfilled promise of Tahrir, offers inspiration to everyone challenging the violence and abuses of patriarchy and capitalism.
The celebrated Kenyan writer reflects on how much India has been an important thread in his life and in the wider anti-colonial struggle in Africa, and calls for greater interaction between Africa, Asia and South America to escape the long shadow of the ‘Age of the European Empire’.
The story of Haiti represents that of the Africa of today: trying to stand up, to reconstruct, to rebuild, she stumbles, hesitates, and sometimes retreats in the face of threats from the watchdogs seeking to liquidate humanity and replace it with a substitute known as humanitarianism.
‘I’ve dedicated my entire life to documenting queer lives. I wanted to make sure I document (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) lives. All my major projects are gone.’ -Zanele Muholi, Cape Town
Transgender and intersex people in Uganda face physical and verbal abuse, are denied access to health services, are victims of blackmail and extortion as well as unlawful arrests and mob justice.
La Via Campesina has called on all the peasant organisations of the world and their allies to organise actions in the month of June. 'The advance of the capitalist system that has reached unprecedented dimensions in the past two decades is resulting in crises that are of equally unprecedented dimensions. The financial, food, energy and environmental crises are phases of the structural crisis of capitalism, which has no limits in its search for more profits. And, as in other structural crises, it impacts the peoples of the world and not the elites.'
Activist Zackie Achmat writes about the recent showdown between Cosatu and the Democratic Alliance on the streets of Johannesburg: 'Cosatu’s counter-demonstration was an elephant dealing with a mosquito by stamping on it instead of snorting. Cosatu conceded the moral high-ground to the DA. The federation’s power and the moral force of its leaders particularly Zwelinzima Vavi has protected our society and politics from an uncontrolled slide to corrupt authoritarianism and courageously addressed the ANC government’s betrayals of democracy and social transformation.'
There are at least four million young people without jobs in South Africa. This is the country’s worst crisis, yet some people still say that the ANC has done well with the economy.
A Somaliland military court has sentenced 17 people to death and jailed five others for life following what it said was their role in attacking an army base. The ruling by the court sitting in Hargeisa, some 1,500 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu were immediately seen as harsh and raised concerns over its impartiality given the speedy delivery and absence of independent lawyers for those charged.
An international group of research organisations are collaborating on a project to boost Internet access in rural Sub-Saharan Africa. The project was discussed at a meeting of the board of the Global Research Alliance (GRA) - an international organisation that seeks to align the efforts of its members with the UN’s Millennium Development Goals - in Sydney, Australia, this month that looked at new strategies for improving access by the developing world to science and innovation.
The twelfth volume of Gender, Poverty and Environmental Indicators on African Countries is published by the Statistics Department of the African Development Bank Group. The publication also provides some information on the broad development trends relating to gender, poverty and environmental issues in the 53 African countries.
Journalists in Mali are accusing the military authorities of illegally tapping their telephones as a means of silencing critical opinion in the country. The accusation followed the arrest and subsequent detention of Birama Fall, managing editor of Le Prétoire, a privately-owned Bamako-based bi-weekly newspaper on May 12, 2012. The authorities had illegally listened to Fall’s phone conversation with a former government minister over civilian deaths during the recent counter coup attempt. Fall was, however, released after two hours without charge.
‘I find myself marking these dates as if they were personal milestones because they are two of many landmarks, not only for the entire modern world, but for my own family’.
For Guinea-Bissau to achieve stability, there must be a return to constitutional order and a conclusion of presidential elections.
A recent crackdown on doctors in Nigeria is symptomatic of a wider state attack on the working class.
Is the authority of the UN and regional bodies divine, such that it cannot be challenged by the Somali people? The only ‘crime’ the Somali democratic movement has committed is to dare dream of freedom in the land of its birth.
As central bankers from China to Venezuela and from Argentina to Japan are seeking ways to exit from the contagion of the speculative trading of US bankers, progressive forces must renew the call for the nationalization of the big banks, which are supposed to be too big to fail.
Date: 24th May 2012
Venue: UN Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
In honour of notable Pan-African civil activist - the late Dr. Tajudeen Abdul Raheem (6 January 1961 – 25 May 2009)
PANELISTS
1. Prof. Horace Campbell
2. Prof. Mohamed Salih
3. Dr. Kayode Fayemi
4. Dr. Funmi Olonisakin
5. Mr. Napoleon Abdullahi 6. Dr. Patricia Daley
7. Mr. Brian Kagoro
8. Mr. Ahmed Rajab
9. Ms. Uduak Amimo
For registration and attendance please contact :
Ms. Abijah Yeshaneh (email: [email][email protected] or 011 544 3536) or Mr. Gideon Gamora (email: [email][email protected] or 011 544 5479).
Last day for registration 21st May 2012.
Organized by the Governance and Public Administration Division (GPAD/UNECA)
Press release
Pambazuka Press and GRAIN
17 May 2012
Pan-African publisher Pambazuka Press in collaboration with GRAIN, a small international non-profit that works to support small farmers, is to launch a vital text in the studies of food, land and climate, The Great Food Robbery: How corporations control food, grab land and destroy the climate. Available worldwide in May 2012, this publication marks the five-week countdown to Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
After the failure of the United Nations Climate Change Conference at Durban last December to formulate a united response strategy, there are mixed feelings on what Rio+20 will be able to achieve. But what is clear is that all participants will need to be well informed. ‘Everyone should read The Great Food Robbery – every citizen, every political leader – to understand how agribusiness, which has created hunger and disease, is now contributing to the biggest resource grab since Columbus,’ said Dr Vandana Shiva, physicist, internationally renowned activist and founder of Navdanya International. Shiva is one of many high profile academics from around the world who have endorsed The Great Food Robbery. Others include Dr. Hans Herren, Naomi Klein, Eric Holt-Giménez, and UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Prof. Olivier De Schutter.
Henk Hobbelink, of GRAIN, in his speech to the Swedish government upon receiving the Right Livelihood Award stated the latest trend in global land grabbing for outsourced food production is just one facet of a much greater attack. ‘Land grabs for mining, tourism, biofuels, dam construction, infrastructure projects, timber and now carbon trading are all part of the same process, turning farmers into refugees on their own land.’
The Great Food Robbery is an advocate for the rural communities that have fed the world for millennia. It examines how agribusiness is driving today’s global food crisis and highlights the culpability of the industrial food system regarding the climate crisis, revealing how land grabbing is being fuelled by a financial industry unconcerned by its exploitation of the world’s poorest.
GRAIN has collected materials on topics ranging from agribusiness and food sovereignty to land grabbing and the climate crisis to produce The Great Food Robbery. It is an essential introduction to understanding the powers that are controlling our food system and crucially offers the means to challenge the status quo. It will be of interest to activists, academics, students, journalists, development and NGO professionals.
???FOR INTERVIEWS:
Contact
- Aaron O'Dowling-Keane (Ms.)
Publishing and Marketing Coordinator, Pambazuka Press
Tel: +44 (0)1865 727006 x204
Email: [email][email protected]
www.pambazukapress.org
- Dexter X
Information worker, GRAIN
Tel: +1 (0) 514 585 3987
Email: [email][email protected]
www.grain.org
NOTES TO EDITORS:
GRAIN supports small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. In 2011, GRAIN was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (the Alternative Nobel Peace prize) for ‘its worldwide work to protect the livelihoods and rights of farming communities and to expose the massive purchases of farmland in developing countries by foreign financial interests’.
BOOK DETAILS
17 May 2012
9780857491138
Paperback
GB pounds 14.95 / US dollars 24.95 / CAN dollars 24.95
216 x 279 mm
164 pp
Shailja Patel’s unique artistry is a provocative global mash-up of genres. She’s a slam poetry champion and star of her award-winning, one-woman play “Migritude” about the intricate webs of global migration and cultural identity. As an acclaimed poet of South Asian and Kenyan ancestry, through her fearless art she embodies the authentic voices of women, South Asians and Africans who are otherwise seldom heard. For her, the ultimate destination of poetry is justice -- too heart-breakingly beautiful to be denied.
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Large-Scale Land Investments are violating human rights and undermine food security in Ethiopia.
The world's wildlife has declined by nearly a third over the past 40 years, a new estimate of the health of the planet suggests. In some parts the figure is much higher - in the tropics, losses are estimated at more than 50 per cent, while in tropical freshwater ecosystems specifically, average losses may be as high as 70 per cent, according to the 2012 edition of the Living Planet Report, produced by the WWF.
Amnesty International has accused armed Tuaregs and groups fighting to impose Sharia law in northern Mali of carrying out grave rights abuses such as rape, murder and using child soldiers. A report released by the London-based rights group said government soldiers had also carried out extrajudicial killings, branding the crisis Mali's worst human rights situation in 50 years.
Islamists who say they are being unfairly held in Moroccan prisons are staging hunger strikes to put more pressure on the new government to release them, according to campaigners who are in contact with the prisoners. Letters sent from jail by the inmates and shown to Reuters news agency by their supporters, describe a series of protests by prisoners, followed by punishments by their gaolers that include force feeding and torture.
Niger employees of Areva must benefit from the same compensation as their French colleagues, a Niger non-governmental organisation said Friday after a court near Paris said the French state-owned nuclear firm was liable. The court at Melun ordered 200,000 euros ($260,000) in damages to be paid by France's state health fund to the widow of an employee of the Areva subsidiary Cominak, a Niger company which runs an Areva uranium mine at Akokan. The deceased, Serge Venel, died of lung cancer in July 2009 at the age of 59.
When it comes to inheritance in Africa, patriarchal systems often receive criticism from women and women’s rights advocates. But members of Cameroon’s Balue tribe say that their matrilineal inheritance system is actually worse. Not only can women not inherit property, but it also passes land and belongings out of the immediate family and into the extended family, reports Global Press Institute.
Vast groundwater resources have been revealed in Africa by the first continent-wide quantitative maps. But the resources may not be easily accessible because of political and technical challenges and costs, say experts. The new groundwater maps, published last month (19 April) in Environmental Research Letters, are based on an extensive review of available maps, publications and data. They show the continent has a total underground water storage capacity of 0.66 million cubic kilometres - more than 20 times the freshwater storage capacity of lakes on the continent.
On 7 May, police authorities in the Ugandan city of Gulu – a city located approximately 320km north of Kampala by road with 150,000 inhabitants – ‘dropped by’ a sex worker drop-in centre. They raided the small office and arrested two staff and three members of the Women’s Organization Network for Human Rights Advocacy (WONETHA), a duly-registered group that runs the centre. 'We find this to be an attack on WONETHA and sex workers’ freedom of association, assembly, speech and expression, and we strongly protest against this,' says a release by Macklean Kyomya, WONETHA’s Executive director.
InsightsAfrica is an interactive tool providing critical data about the online behavior of urban consumers in six key African markets: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.
Primary school has been free since 2003, with the help of 19 billion dollars of donations from the UK, Canada, and the World Bank, with the World Food Programme, UNICEF and Kenyan NGOs providing advice, training and support. In terms of enrolment numbers, it has been a great success. Enrolment rates in Kenya are up to 97 per cent. Less great is that there are now up to 70 children in each classroom and the free primary school fund has been plagued with government corruption, says this Panos feature.
Independent TV director Amon Thembo Wa’Mupaghasya was shot dead at around 1am on 12 May as he was returning to his home on the outskirts of the western city of Kasese after covering a wedding. Thembo was gunned down by unidentified individuals who took his bag and video camera. The police have arrested several suspects but have not yet said what they think the motive was. Kasese is located near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Drawing on the Land Matrix database, this paper contains an in depth analysis of large-scale agricultural land transactions that entail a transfer of rights to use, control or own land, that have been concluded since the year 2000. It particularly focuses on (i) land acquisitions or investments targeting the Global South and Eastern Europe; (ii) transnational deals, excluding deals where only domestic actors are involved;(iii) and deals where the envisioned land use is agricultural.
Female protesters continue to participate in pro-democracy demonstrations that remain deadly more than a year after President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown. Primary school teacher Reham El Hakim, for instance, was on the front lines on 5 May when the 12th person was killed during demonstrations against the military government in Abbasaiya. It's now commonplace, however, to hear people say that the military government and Islamic politicians, who did not at first approve of the anti-Mubarak demonstrations, have 'hijacked' the revolution, reports
Two human rights groups in Uganda have launched a documentary entitled 'She is My Son - The Pain of being an Intersex person in Uganda.' At the launch the groups urged the Uganda government to protect intersex people by making available information on intersexuality to families. The two organizations, Support Initiative for People with atypical Sex Development (Sipd Uganda) and Uganda Health and Science Press Association noted with concern that many intersex people are denied their full potential in life for simply being who they are.
Based on the Wikipedia model, FarmAfriPedia is a platform for different stakeholders in the agricultural sector from the African continent to collectively learn and share from each other; and especially on issues pertaining to best farming practices using local content.
Clinical trials are underway to test a new treatment for pregnant women, which could tackle some of the leading preventable causes of death for babies in sub-Saharan Africa, researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) said. A large number of pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with both malaria and sexually transmitted - reproductive tract infections (STIs - RTIs), according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Several political parties, largely Islamists, are challenging the results of Algeria's legislative election. The National Liberation Front (FLN) came away with 220 out of a possible 462 seats in the People's National Assembly, according to the preliminary tally released Friday (11 May). But those displeased with the outcome have spoken of irregularities and alleged fraud in the way the election process was handled.
This Amnesty International report looks at the crisis in Mali over the last five months. 'Since the beginning of 2012, Mali has been faced with the worst crisis of its recent history, one that has questioned both the integrity of its territory as well as almost 20 years of political stability. A Tuareg rebellion, fueled by fighters arriving from Libya after the fall of Mouammar Gaddafi, launched attacks against the Malian garrisons in the North of the country in early January 2012. The armed groups also committed serious infringements of international humanitarian law by executing the soldiers they caught in combat. The Malian army responded by bombing indiscriminately the civilian population.'
South Africa has been urged to deal with the situation at its border with Zimbabwe, which an activist has described as ‘chaos’. There are ongoing reports of victimisation and violence at the border where thousands of Zimbabweans cross between the two countries every week. While many of the crossings are legal, others continue to be done illegally, with Zimbabweans still risking jumping the border into South Africa to flee the situation back home.
Everlyne Wanjiku, a single mother of five, has earned a living selling vegetables in the sprawling Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya, for over three decades. And even though her earnings were meagre, she was able to provide all her children with a tertiary education. But now, like her many fellow poverty-stricken slum dwellers in this East African nation, she is feeling the pinch of the high cost of food and other commodities, which have skyrocketed globally.
During almost 20 years of exile in Guinea, Joseph did not know if his family was alive or dead. When he recently found out by chance that they had survived the attack that caused him to flee his native Liberia, he decided he must go back. 'For the first time, I am eager to return home. I want to see my family,' said the 55-year-old fisherman, who is joining a growing number of Liberian refugees who are returning home with UNHCR help before they lose refugee status.
Botswana’s security forces are arresting and intimidating Bushmen, despite the tribe’s legal right to live and hunt in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), says Survival International. 'Survival has received several reports that a large group of police officers have set up a permanent camp close to the community of Metsiamenong, which famously resisted Botswana’s brutal evictions.'
Are you a Kenyan based community women’s rights activist aspiring to strengthen and develop new knowledge and skills in movement building? Then the forthcoming Women’s Rights Movement Building Boot Camp organised by Fahamu is for you. This one-week learning camp will develop knowledge and praxis on community organizing strategies, theories of change and much more. Follow this link for more details about the application process
Charlotte Hill O’Neal aka Mama C, visual and spoken word artist, musician, filmmaker, long time community activist and co Director of United African Alliance Community Center UAACC based in Tanzania, East Africa is pleased to announce that plans for UAACC Heal the Community Tour 2012 have begun!
Mama Charlotte will be visiting the United States starting from late September for up to three months. She will be available to visit your community or school to speak on more than two decades of UAACC outreach in America and East Africa including the UAACC Leaders of Tomorrow Children’s Home program; screen unique and inspiring films; perform her music and poetry and spread the inspiration and love!
To make arrangements to bring Mama Charlotte to your school or community contact her at: [email][email protected]
Mama Charlotte was born in Kansas City, KS in 1951 and has lived in Africa with her husband Pete O’Neal, founder of both UAACC and Leaders of Tomorrow Children’s Home (LTCH), since 1970. She is the mother of two children, Malcolm and Ann Wood ‘Stormy’.
The Chinese government is eager to balance the international media coverage of Chinese image and this approach is becoming more and more urgent for Beijing’s strategy of engagement in Africa.
More than 70 000 illegal abortions are carried out in Zimbabwe every year, with Zimbabwean women running a 200 times greater risk of dying of abortion complications than their counterparts in South Africa, where the procedure is legal.
Something fishy is definitely going on in the belated trial of journalist Ramiro Aleixo over articles he wrote nearly five years ago. It is an extraordinary opportunity to evaluate the Angolan judicial system.
Just as secessionist leader Odumegwu Ojukwu moved in 1967 to declare the independence of Biafra to protect his people from genocidal killings, the group is asking ICC to intervene on their behalf before they are completely exterminated.
By the late 2000s, the bed had turned into a fully fledged forest. Not content with what were already very decent wage packages financed by the public purse, high-ranking politicians and public sector officialdom at every level were awarding themselves with super-salaries and a huge range of benefit sweeteners. Indeed, South Africa has to be one of the countries in the world where the majority of this public sector ‘cadre’ are made millionaires every year and that’s not counting what many of them make on the side.
18th May, 2012 Royal Commonwealth Society in London
8.30-18.00hrs
SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
• Dr AlisonBisset
• Prof .ColmCampbell
• Mrs CarlaFerstman*
• Mr CourtneyGriffiths*
• Mr DonaldDeya
• Mrs FatouBensouda*
• Prof. HansKo?echler
• Hon. JusticeAwaNanaDaboya*
• Mr Luis Moreno-Ocampo*
• Prof. MaxduPlessis
• DrPaulMoorcraft
• Dr Sarah Nouwen
• Prof.StephenChan
• Dr Suleiman Baldo
• Prof. Susana Sa? Couto
• Prof. Tim Alley
• Dr William Pace
*To be confirmed
As the ICC approaches its tenth anniversary and makes its first conviction, we cordially invite you to participate in an engaging and enlightening one- day debate to review the effectiveness of this highly controversial court. Through this forum we will assess the role of the court and its impact especially in Africa, where all of its indictments have been made. We will look at alternative solutions in the administration of justice to achieve reconciliation and the restoration of peace. Bringing together some of the most knowledgeable and experienced experts from the fields of law, academia and civil society, as well as policy makers, this unique one-day forum will seek to determine whether the court has met its mandate, how it works and its impact. We will also discuss what can and should be done to resolve and deal with some critical issues which affect the stability of many countries across Africa and the world.
ATTENDANCE IS FREE BY INVITATION
Registration is essential:
or contact Toma?s Paquete at +44 (0) 20 7841 3237 or [email][email protected]
Organised by IC Events
Although Egypt is a signatory to international refugee conventions, it refuses to allow refugees to work in Egypt, often denies them residency, imprisons them without due process, and harasses their community leaders.
‘We oppose any attempt by sections of the religious sector to stifle informed, open and honest public debate on this important issue on the basis of their own perceptions and beliefs on private morality.’
The members were jailed for wearing the regalia of the defunct Republic of Biafra.
The WSF Free Palestine will be a global encounter of broad-based popular and civil society mobilizations.
Struggle to end Israel’s oppression and international complicity continues.
Widespread opposition to the document stems from the way it was formulated in secret without public mandate or the input of Somali civil society, intellectuals and constitutional experts.
South Sudan will soon acquire anti-aircraft missiles to defend its territory against air attacks it says are frequently carried out by warplanes from neighbouring Sudan, the South Sudanese military said. South Sudanese army spokesman Philip Aguer told Reuters on Wednesday Juba's military intended to acquire anti-aircraft missiles as part of the new African nation's plans to modernise and re-equip its armed forces, which had previously fought for years as a rebel guerrilla army against Khartoum.
The South African academic community should break out of its “silent and inert”, albeit sympathetic, posture toward the Palestinians and fully reject cooperation with Israeli institutions.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) estimates that that more than U$1.6-billion in additional funding will be available over the next two years. A statement released in Geneva said the new forecast was a result of 'strategic decisions made by the Board, freeing up funds that can be invested in countries where there is the most pressing demand'. It added that the Board had adopted a plan to transform the Global Fund, leading to improved financial supervision and overall efficiency.
Helen Zille must honour her promise to resign should wrongdoing be found in the W Cape communications tender, says the Christian Democratic Party. ” ... Helen Zille can only blame herself for tweeting that she will resign if any wrongdoing is found in the Western Cape communications tender,” said party leader Theunis Botha in a statement on Sunday. In the draft report, Madonsela reportedly found that the tender awarded to advertising agency TBWA/Hunt Lascaris in 2010 to centralise communications was invalid. Madonsela’s report was leaked to newspapers a week before a deadline for the province’s response. Botha said the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) leader Zille had often criticised members of the ruling party, and should therefore take this opportunity to be “an example to her opponents in the ANC and resign, so saving the DA’s reputation”.
The trial of journalist Ramiro Aleixo began on 11 May, 2012, at the Luanda Provincial Court, in Angola. Aleixo stands accused of the crimes of defamation, slander and injury against the military justice system, namely its Supreme Court and office of the military attorney. From a legal standpoint, the accusation against Mr. Aleixo has two serious flaws, says the blog makaangola.org.
In this BBC video, Komla Dumor reports that luxury cars are selling fast Luanda, the capital of Angola. In fact, the local Porsche dealership cannot keep up with demand.
A Zimbabwean human rights group has threatened South Africa's chief crime fighting unit with international legal action, over on ongoing probe into the illegal renditions of Zimbabwean citizens from South Africa. Several senior officials in the Hawks criminal unit and the South African police were last year accused of conducting the renditions, in partnership with Zimbabwean police. This has reportedly led to a number of Zimbabwean 'suspects' being arrested in South Africa and then sent across the border illegally, and killed. The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) has also threatened to refer the Hawks members involved to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if they are not brought to justice, explaining that a thorough, credible investigation needs to done.
One of the most significant human rights organisations in Swaziland has called on the Times Sunday to take action against its columnist who wrote hate speech against homosexuals in the newspaper. The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (the Coalition) condemned the writer Qalakaliboli Dlamini who used words such as ‘satanic’ and ‘evil’ in an article about homosexuals in the kingdom.
Employees at Kayerekera Uranium Mine in Karonga have gone on strike demanding a 40 per cent salary increase in the wake of the recent devaluation of the Malawi currency, the kwacha last week. Effectively, this has completely halted all activities at the mine which is supposed to run for twenty fours on daily. A senior management employee was reported as saying that their demands are justified by the 49.7 per cent devaluation of the kwacha.
There is still much poverty in Mozambique and president Armando Emilio Guebuza has twice had to deal with outbreaks of social unrest. Since the end of the 16-year civil war, the country has been ruled by his Frelimo party - the main opposition are their former enemies Renamo, led by Alfonso Dlkhama. The relationship between the two has become uneasy in recent times - Mr Dlkhama recently threatened to overthrow the government. In this BBC podcast, Guebuza in interviewed by Audrey Brown.
On 30 April 2012, Chairperson of the Technical Committee On Drafting The Zambian Constitution (TCDZC), Justice Annel Silungwe launched the 2012 First Draft Constitution for purposes of wide consultation with the public. The committee started work on the draft charter on 1 December 2011 and was supposed to have produced the draft in February 2012 but failed to do so. Regardless, this first draft consists of several progressive articles and clauses on media freedom, freedom of express, right to access information and even freedom to state-owned media.
Reporters Without Borders has deplored community radio presenter Habarugira Epaphrodite's detention since 24 April in the main prison of Gitarama, the capital of Muhanga district, on a charge of 'minimizing' the 1994 Tutsi genocide and 'spreading genocide ideology'. Epaphrodite was arrested because, while reading a report about ceremonies marking the 18th anniversary of the genocide on community radio Huguka's morning new broadcast on 22 April, he mixed up the Kinyarwanda words for 'victims' and 'survivors', making it sound as though he approved of the genocide.
The sentencing of a rapper on 11 May 2012 to one year in prison for 'insulting the police' shows the gap between the strong free-expression language in Morocco's 2011 constitution and the continuing intolerance for those who criticize state institutions, Human Rights Watch said. The sentence was handed down one week before the opening of the international Mawazine music festival in Rabat, which is held under the patronage of King Mohammed VI. Mouad Belghouat, better known as 'al-Haqed' (the sullen one), has been in pretrial custody since March 29 because of his rap song 'Kilab ed-Dowla' (Dogs of the State), which denounces police corruption, and a YouTube video set to the song.
With only one year to go before deadline, the finalisation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is increasingly becoming important for Namibia. In this regard, a meeting is scheduled in a fortnight, where Namibia, along with other smaller member states of the Southern Africa Customs Union, hope to reach consensus with South Africa on outstanding issues that have blocked the signing of the EPA. Issues include market access for South Africa, something which Namibia and Botswana are particularly wary about as market access agreed to between South Africa and EU have direct impact on their individual economies.
The trade and development agreement concluded by the EU and four Eastern and Southern African states Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles and Zimbabwe will take effect today. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said: 'Today, our first interim Economic Partnership Agreement with an African region is applied. This is excellent news and I salute the hard work of negotiators and colleagues on all sides. With this trade deal we hope to accompany the development of our partners in Eastern and Southern Africa and open up better and lasting business opportunities.'
A tenuous peace has taken hold in Libya’s southwestern city of Sebha more than a month after tribal clashes killed at least 70 people, with tensions still high between communities living here, many of whom have their own armed militias, according to local residents. The latest clashes erupted in March between the Tubu ethnic group and the Arab Awlad Sulayman and Awlad Abu Seif tribes. The clashes are said to have begun after a man belonging to the Abu Seif family was killed allegedly by the Tubu. But other narratives suggest the conflict followed a dispute over several million dollars which the ruling Transitional National Council (TNC) was planning to spend in Sebha.
Pambazuka News 584: Struggles for the promised land: Letters from West African sisters
Pambazuka News 584: Struggles for the promised land: Letters from West African sisters
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce its 2012 Child and Youth Institute that will be held for three (3) weeks, from 3rd to 21st September 2012. The institute is one of the components of the Child and Youth Studies Programme and is aimed at strengthening the analytic capacities of young African researchers on issues affecting children and youth in Africa and elsewhere in the world. The institute is designed as an annual interdisciplinary forum in which participants can reflect together on a specific aspect of the conditions of children and youth, especially in Africa.
The African Commission of Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) has issued a stinging rebuke to the Swazi government - and called on it to respect human rights and take all necessary measures to ensure the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in 2013. The Swazi Media Blogspot says even though the Swazi authorities seem immune to most criticism of their anti-democratic antics and their contempt for human rights, they will surely be embarrassed to read that the Commission is deeply concerned and even alarmed by some of their actions.
The fallout between factions in the Swaziland prodemocracy movement has thrown into relief the disagreements over their objectives for the future of the kingdom. The People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) has indefinitely suspended the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) after the SSN criticised PUDEMO’s leadership in the struggle for democracy. In very broad terms SSN supporters seek a republic in Swaziland, reports the Swazi Media Blogspot.
Small farmers are central to a push to deploy genetically modified (GM) technology within Kenya. In recent years, donors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have invested millions of dollars. But serious concerns about viability, corporate dependency and health effects linger - even while leading research firms and NGOs do their best to smooth them over.
The tough times for Malawians after the kwacha was devalued by 49 per cent on are finally here, reports Malawi Today. The announcement made on Friday of the rise in fuel prices is expected to trigger a reciprocal upward movement in the prices of other basic commodities. Petrol is now selling at K490 from K380, representing a 29 per cent increase. Diesel is selling at K475 from K360 representing a 31 per cent surge while paraffin has been pegged at K171 for domestic use and K388 for industrial use from K171, translating to 126 per cent increase.
Former president FW de Klerk must retract comments he made in a CNN interview, the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac) said on Saturday. 'Casac condemns in the strongest terms the reckless attempts by former president FW de Klerk to justify and defend the apartheid system,' it said in a statement. 'The very notion of 'separate development' was at the centre of the apartheid ideology, and was predicated on notions of racist supremacy as was Nazism.'
Egypt’s liberal leaning Free Egyptians Party declared its support for the calls and demands by women’s rights organizations and NGOs in the country, which have called for woman’s rights. The party also said it stands against 'the phenomenon of sexual harassment' and called for the passing of a law criminalizing the act. The party condemned in a statement on Sunday the 'shameful stance of the female parliament members of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), who stand against a woman’s right to defend herself and refuse to condemn the man who assaulted the woman and only blame the society and the woman, who is the victim.'
Women’s rights in Morocco have come under the spotlight recently after a young woman was assaulted in a Rabat market by people she called 'Salafists', or ultra-conservative Islamists. She said she was accosted by the men because of the short dress she was wearing. Other witnesses were reported by the Magharebia news portal as saying the girl was attacked with stones and beaten after the assailants said the dress was 'too revealing'.
Egypt’s state-owned MENA news agency reported on Saturday that a court ruling in Switzerland has been issued in favor of Egypt, which would allow Egypt to recover funds embezzled by former President Hosni Mubarak and his cronies. The ruling was in response to Egypt’s efforts to recover the money since the January uprising ousted the former president, who smuggled money illegally into Switzerland, and had been frozen since February 2011.
Global mortality among children younger than five years declined by 26 per cent between 2000 and 2010 - meaning that the lives of some two million children were saved - but this is still not enough for many countries to meet the Millennium Development Goal of reducing deaths in this age group by two-thirds by 2015, according to recent US research. 'Too much emphasis has been placed in recent years on global numbers and mortality, and less on understanding the determinants and direction of trends,' wrote Zulfiqar Bhutta, head of the maternal and child health division at the Aga Khan University Medical Centre in Karachi, Pakistan in a commentary accompanying the study.
As dusk settles over the isolated Saharan town Kufra, young guards order a few hundred migrants lined up at a detention centre to chant 'Libya free, Chadians out', before they kneel down for evening prayers. Most of the prisoners in the small, squalid compound called the Freedom Detention Centre – run by Kufra’s military council – are from Chad. Hundreds more, from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, were moved to bigger facilities due to overcrowding.
Although Zimbabwe is a mineral-rich country, mine laborers and owners say that profits aren’t enough to cover costs, leading to low or little pay and unsatisfactory working conditions. The government has implemented laws aiming to reform both issues, but fee hikes to boost federal revenue have been problematic, says this article from the Global Press Institute.
The Talking Box is an initiative for girls in Nairobi’s Kibera slum that invites students to write down concerns that they are afraid to discuss with their teachers or parents. According to this article from Global Press Institute, educators say it’s reducing school dropouts and improving academic performances.
A deadly lead poisoning outbreak that began two years ago in northern Nigeria continues to claim young victims even today, an aid agency official has said. Ivan Gayton of Doctors Without Borders criticised the government of oil-rich Nigeria on Thursday for not taking the threat seriously, despite 4,000 children already being sickened by the outbreak linked to gold mining.
Algeria's National Liberation Front and a sister party have won legislative elections, defeating an Islamist alliance. Dahou Ould Kablia, interior minister, said on Friday the National Liberation Front took 220 seats and its sister party in government, the National Democratic Rally, took 68 seats. The two parties now form a majority in the 462-seat parliament.
With an average of 100 children under five dying each day, it may be hard to believe that Zimbabawe was once the country of choice for medical treatment in Africa. In this video report, Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, in Harare, explains why the healthcare system there has not been able to regain its title.
At least 41 people have been injured in clashes in Guinea between police and opposition protesters demanding long-delayed parliamentary elections. A total of 24 protesters were hurt in Thursday's (10 May) riots, including one in a serious condition after being shot, hospital sources said, while 17 police officers were injured by missiles, according to local television reports.
Guinea-Bissau coup leaders and west African mediators agreed on Friday that parliamentary speaker Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo will lead a transition government, ruling out the return of the toppled team. The Nigerian official leading the west African mediation effort said there was no chance the former government would be restored.
The first group of ethnic South Sudanese among up to 15,000 camped in crowded conditions in Sudan has begun their journey home. Roughly 400 people, mostly adults, travelled to Khartoum by bus on Saturday (12 May) from a town 300 kilometres south of the capital ahead of a major airlift that had been planned for early Sunday, said Jill Helke, country director for the International Organisation for Migration.
On 8 May 2012, the Johannesburg High Court declared that a girl taken in and treated as a daughter by a woman in Soweto could inherit as her customary law heir. Judge Coppin declared the daughter (who prefers to remain anonymous and will be referred to as ‘Ms K’) to be the descendant of a woman who died intestate in 2006. This was despite the fact that the woman never formally adopted Ms K and was not her birth mother. Lawyers for the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) successfully argued that Ms K had been adopted in terms of customary law and should be recognised as her mother’s descendant in terms of the Reform of Customary Law and Succession and Regulation of Related Matters Act 11 of 2009.