Jeremy Cronin contests the assertion by John S. Saul in his article, ‘A Poisoned Chalice’, that the ANC is a lost cause and that a new political formation is needed to continue the liberation struggle.

The ANC has been transformed from a broad based liberation movement to a governing party, largely serving the interests of local and international capital.

In 1955, openly racist, all-white juries made certain that the confessed killers of Emmett Till walked free in Mississippi. In Florida today, the Stand Your Ground law may yet block the workings of justice.

A declaration at the end of the forum included commitments to speed up access to safe drinking water and sanitation for all, boosting efforts to cut water pollution, reusing wastewater and enhancing the coherence between water, food and energy policies.

This workshop aims to enhance our understanding of the nature of social change and transformations (at global, national or local levels) in which poverty alleviation, eradication, and prevention is either the axis of a social strategy or a tangible result.

Pambazuka Press is able to offer three months' unpaid work experience to a part-time, Oxford-based volunteer who would like to gain experience of working in a small, hard-working publishing team, mainly on marketing and promotions.

Opposition candidate Macky Sall defeats Abdoulaye Wade, Sénégal’s president, in the country’s second round, election. Once again, the Sénégalese electorate, arguably Africa’s most sophisticated and resilient, has shown that it can be done! A salute to this beacon! This electorate has not only stopped Wade from his attempt to unconstitutionally extend his maximum two-term duration in office, implicitly supported by Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo (the AU and ECOWAS so-called mediating envoy to Sénégal), it has, also, resoundingly voted against the president despite that much bandied, seeming armour of certitude so beloved by Africa’s dictators – ‘incumbency’.

Social policies and instruments will need to be developed to ensure that the Green Economy not only alleviates poverty and improves equity, but that the interests of the people who depend on Green Economy are deliberately safeguarded from the very outset.

Almost all the flexibilities in policy choice that Africa and other developing countries won under the WTO are lost under the EPAs.

In Nigeria, the powers that be have decided that opposition politicians, people like Senegal's Macky Sall, will have to wait for sixty years before they can ever become president.

What happens when a corrupt old policeman and a market woman switch bodies? The latest in the 'Crossroads' series hit the airwaves for Women’s Month in South Africa. Community Media for Development (CMFD) produced the isiZulu, South African adaptation for People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA), supported by Oxfam GB. Previously produced in English, Swahili, French and Portuguese, the drama uses humour to get people thinking, and talking, about women’s rights. POWA is facilitating discussion groups, listening on stations such as Alex FM, Kasie FM, Eldoz FM and Ndofaya FM.

The killing of Trayvon Martin serves as an inspiration for those who want to speak out against the demagoguery and hatred that has been spread in the United States in the midst of the capitalist depression.

Reporters Without Borders has written to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Mendez, to inform him of its deep concern about the persecution of journalists in Djibouti. The press freedom organization asked the UN official to intervene urgently on behalf of radio journalist Farah Abadid Hildid, who works for the Europe-based station 'La Voix de Djibouti'. The station broadcasted on short wave and is now available on the Internet, although access to its website is blocked in Djibouti.

Health workers manning five health centres in two refugee camps in the southwestern Ugandan district of Isingiro say they are overwhelmed by the high number of refugees and local residents in need of HIV services. Severe personnel shortages in Nakivale and Oruchinga refugee settlements have led to long queues at the clinics and placed a heavy burden on the few health workers available, many of whom often have to take double shifts to meet demand.

A pilot version of an online mapping tool has been launched in Africa which enables researchers and policymakers to identify how climate change vulnerability, conflict, and aid intersect. Researchers from the Strauss Center's Climate Change and African Political Stability (CCAPS) programme, United States, integrated data from areas of climate change vulnerability and active aid-funded projects in Malawi, and mapped this information onto the locations of Malawian conflicts up to 2010.

The Times of Swaziland censored itself when it reported Wikileaks was asking people in the kingdom to leak documents to its website. The Times, the only independent daily newspaper in Swaziland, reported 26 March that Wikileaks asked people to send it documents relating to the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), a banned organisation in Swaziland where King Mwsati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. But, what it did not report was that Wikileaks had a higher priority from Swaziland than PUDEMO on its wanted-information list: ‘Expense accounts of King Mswati, the Queen Mother and the King's wives.’

Israel was swift to recognize the new state of South Sudan in July 2011, reports the LA Times. 'Following the formation of the state, Israel ended collective protection for those from South Sudan and wants asylum seekers to leave the country. The window for voluntary departure and a $1,300 incentive closes March 31; those still in Israel would be deported after that.'

This month the UN Commission on the Status of Women failed to adopt agreed conclusions at its 56th session on the basis of safeguarding 'traditional values' at the expense of human rights and fundamental freedoms of women. 'Together with our partner feminist and women's rights organisations, we say NO to any re-opening of negotiations on the already established international agreements on women’s human rights and call on all governments to demonstrate their commitments to promote, protect and fulfill human rights and fundamental freedoms of women.'

Egypt’s Free Egyptians liberal political party issued a statement on Monday warning the government of serious repercussions from the shortage of basic commodities and the rise in prices across the country. The party said that the shortages 'have become a huge burden on the shoulders of the Egyptian family, especially the poor and low-income workers.' It said an uprising of the poor could take place if the government is not careful.

Egypt’s military courts have investigated or tried at least 43 children over the past year, Human Rights Watch says, including the pending trial of 13-year-old Ahmed Hamdy Abdel Aziz in connection with the Port Said football riots. Children prosecuted in military courts have not had access to lawyers, and often to their families, until after military authorities have investigated and sentenced them. Since coming to power in February 2011, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has referred over 12,000 civilians for prosecution by military courts before military judges, though these courts fail to meet minimum due process standards.

Blog Africa is a Country highlights how Nigerian producers Chris Dada and Funmi Iyanda, the creators of chopcassava.com which documented fuel subsidy protests in Nigeria, have stitched together their short viral films and video-blog diary made during the protests. What ChopCassava’s reporting made increasingly clear was, says Africa is a Country, was that the protests developed into the question of 'the way how we are governed as a people'.

Jerry Cole, a senior television cameraman of the state-owned Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), was on 12 March attacked by some supporters of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) in Freetown, the capital. Cole and his colleague reporter, Unisa Deen Kargbo, had gone to record an interview with the SLPP officials at the party’s headquarters on the ongoing voter registration exercise for the 17 November general election.

All seven districts in Barotseland, the western region of Zambia, where a two day mass rally was convened Monday, have backed calls for the region to secede from the rest of Zambia, state radio reported Tuesday 27 March. The Barotse National Council which called for the meeting said Mongu,Sesheke,Kalabo, Senanga,Kaoma,Shangombo and Lukulu supported the secession of Barotseland.

The South African agriculture economy has little or no room for emerging farmers; with no strong support system, being an emerging farmer in South Africa can be a hopeless adventure, writes Davison Chikazunga on the blog Another Countryside. 'Introducing market liberalisation in 1992 has aggravated the difficulties; it was naïve for the country to introduce such measures at the dawn of democracy when the state presence needed to do much to establish new black farmers. South Africa’s agriculture economy under apartheid blossomed because of state subsidies, and similar support programs in America and Europe helped their agricultural economies to thrive.'

Post-election violence victims living in Uganda want the government to help them return home. The more than 1,500 Kenyans at Kiryandogo camp, about 300km from Kampala, however, want assurances of safety and that they will be given land. 'We have been in Uganda for four years and we believe there can never be peace and reconciliation when some of the affected people are languishing in poverty outside Kenya,' the group said in a memorandum to Special Programmes minister Esther Murugi.

The government has denied reports that public hospitals are experiencing drug shortages. On Tuesday 27 March, doctors took to the streets to demonstrate against drug shortage and lack of adequate medical personnel in public hospitals. The doctors marched from the University of Nairobi to Treasury to demand that the government clearly states when it intends to post medical personnel to public health institutions.

The Euro crisis is expected to weigh heavily on Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Africa because the European Union (EU) is the largest aid provider to the continent, an Economic Report on Africa 2012, released by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) warns. The report, 'Unleashing Africa’s Potential as a Pole of Global Growth', released at the ongoing meeting of African Finance Ministers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, notes that a handful of countries, such as France and Italy, had already reduced bilateral assistance to Africa because of the global economic crisis.

Residents in Khayelitsha came to the defence of Somali traders when local business owners threatened to burn down the Somali-owned shops. In an attempt to enforce a 2008 agreement between Zanokhanyo Retailers Association and Somalian shopkeepers following that year’s xenophobic attacks that no new Somali-owned shops would open, local business owners in Harare threatened to burn down Somali shops to force their closure. But local residents stood in front of the nine shops under threat, preventing the local business owners from taking action.

IMF policy recommendations are often criticised for being too restrictive, procyclical and paying little attention to country-specific circumstances. In the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, the Fund showed some policy rethinking, bringing about expectations of change. However, Rathin Roy and Raquel A. Ramos of the UNDP Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth analyse IMF policy recommendations given to developing countries and conclude that headquarters’ receptiveness to new approaches has not been translated into policy analysis or recommendations.

Each year, the nine nuclear-armed nations spend a combined total of more than US$100 billion on their nuclear forces – assembling new warheads, modernizing old ones, and building ballistic missiles, bombers and submarines to launch them. Much of this work is being carried out by private companies. How can we stop it? 'Don’t Bank on the Bomb' is the first major global report on the financing of companies that manufacture, modernize and maintain nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles. It identifies more than 300 banks, insurance companies, pension funds and asset managers from 30 countries that invest significantly in 20 major nuclear weapons producers.

Rights activists have begun a legal bid to compel South Africa to investigate and prosecute citizens of neighbouring Zimbabwe suspected of crimes against humanity. The activists argue that South Africa is failing to meet its obligations in international law. A court ruling in their favour would cause a headache for South Africa, which could see its courts clogged with prosecutions and its diplomacy with the power-sharing government in Harare hobbled.

Swaziland is planning a censorship law that will ban Facebook and Twitter users from criticising its autocratic ruler, King Mswati III. Africa's last absolute monarch is facing growing protests over his undemocratic regime which has pushed the tiny mountain kingdom to the brink of bankruptcy. But Mswati's justice minister, Mgwagwa Gamedze, told the Swazi senate: 'We will be tough on those who write bad things about the king on Twitter and Facebook. We want to set an example.'

Public hearings on the 'secrecy' bill kicked off in the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday 27 March with strenuous demands for the inclusion of a public interest defence. The absence of a public interest defence for the protection of whistle-blowers and investigative journalists has been cited as one of the most serious remaining flaws in the bill. The Open Democracy Advice Centre (Odac), the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) and Print Media South Africa (PMSA) all argued before the Ad Hoc Committee on the Protection of State Information Bill that a public interest defence should be included in the bill.

Cardiologist Wouter Basson is appearing before the Health Professions Council of SA to face a remaining four charges of unprofessional and unethical conduct. The charges relate to his conduct as a medical doctor when he headed the country's chemical and biological warfare research programme for the defence force in the 1980s and early 1990s during the apartheid era.

Tullow Oil, the British multinational, has struck oil in northern Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, the country’s president, announced on Tuesday 27 March at an oil, gas and energy conference in Nairobi. At the conference in the Kenyan capital, some of the world’s biggest oil companies discussed their exploration plans for East Africa, which has attracted significant interest from energy multinationals as well as national and independent oil and gas companies.

A South African lawyer has said he was preparing a class action lawsuit against leading gold mining firms on behalf of thousands of former miners who say they contracted silicosis, a debilitating lung disease, through negligent health and safety. Attorney Richard Spoor, whose legal battle against a South African asbestos-mining company led to a $100m settlement in 2003, said he would file class action papers with the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg 'within the next few months'.

This BBC Africa page examines the controversy surrounding the perceived bias of the ICC in focusing only on cases involving Africans. It has the views of two experts, one who argues that the ICC is not biased and the other who argues that it is. 'Ordinary Africans are not complaining. Many have suffered at the hands of the perpetrators of mass crimes - and know that there is little chance that they will see justice done without international tribunals like the ICC,' argues Abdul Tejan-Cole, a former prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. 'The International Criminal Court is in fact a pathetic continuation of an imperial tradition, a way for western powers to pretend they are protecting human rights in Africa, that they are teaching Africans right from wrong,' argues Zaya Yeebo, a writer and commentator on Africa.

Some remain sceptical of what a massive gas find will mean for Mozambique's 23 million people, reports the UK Guardian. They question whether the government will direct enough of its new revenue towards infrastructure, which is still sorely lacking, and improving agricultural productivity – the biggest single tool for reducing poverty. Erik Charas, director of @Verdade (the Truth), Mozambique's biggest circulation newspaper, warned: 'There is a lack of transparency in these deals. They're making deals for generations to come and I have no idea about them. The lack of transparency is a major flaw. The people in power are negotiating on their own behalf. We might end up with 50 billionaires who own private planes and the rest of the population impoverished. That is our biggest fear.'

Two French judges sought an international arrest warrant for the son of Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema on money laundering charges, a judicial source said on Tuesday 27 March. The two judges, Roger Le Loire and Rene Grouman, consider there are grounds to suspect that Teodorin Obiang, who is agriculture minister in the small, oil-rich central African country, acquired real estate in France by fraudulent means.

Landmines planted about a decade ago in parts of Kabalo territory in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) southeastern Katanga Province are adversely affecting farming livelihoods, and an important World Food Programme (WFP) project. 'In our area, there are villages where we get much harvest but the road leading to those villages [has] landmines,' a food trader from Kabalo said. Lorries often get blown up by the landmines, Birindwa Murhula, a leader of one of the local food traders’ associations, told IRIN.

The European Union has agreed to expand its mission against Somali pirates by allowing military forces to attack land targets as well as those at sea. In a two-year extension of its mission, EU defence ministers agreed warships could target boats and fuel dumps. Up to 10 EU naval ships are currently on patrol off the Horn of Africa.

A year later and South Africa has still not convinced the world or the creator of Brics why it belongs in the exclusive emerging-giant grouping that includes Brazil, Russia, India and China. 'It's just wrong. South Africa doesn't belong in Brics,' said Jim O'Neill, global chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, who coined the term 'Bric' 10 years ago. In an interview with the Mail & Guardian in London this week, O'Neill was highly critical of South Africa's position in this political bloc. 'South Africa has too small an economy. There are not many similarities with the other four countries in terms of the numbers. In fact, South Africa's inclusion has somewhat weakened the group's power.'

The March edition of the TaxCast by the Tax Justice Network is available. The 15 minute podcast follows the latest news relating to tax evasion, tax avoidance and the shadow banking system. The March show covers Apple i-tax dodging, reclaiming Arab Spring country assets, the rich country club of the OECD and the ABCs of setting up letterbox companies.

Four American cities are gearing up to host regional meetings of the World Court of Women on Poverty in the US Founded by Tunisian activist Corinne Kumar, the World Courts of Women (WCW) are public hearings featuring testimonies of survival and resistance from people on the margins. Since 1992, there have been 37 Courts in cities around the world, including the International Court of Women on Crimes Related to Population Policies in Cairo, Egypt in 1994; the World Court of Women against War, for Peace in Cape Town, South Africa in 2001; and the World Court of Women on U.S. War Crimes in Mumbai, India in 2004.

As the debate over Helen Zille’s use of the word 'refugees' in relation to the education crisis in the Eastern Cape raged on the social network site Twitter late last week, an ANC provincial coordinator raised eyebrows by calling her a 'racist bitch'. Zille’s remarks on ­Twitter that Eastern Cape pupils were ­moving to schools in the ­Western Cape in order to access better educational resources, and calling them 'education refugees' sparked fierce debate on radio talk-shows and social network sites. Asked why he called Zille a 'racist bitch' on a public site, Mphila said: 'She is racist and is behaving like a bitch.'

Thousands of people are celebrating in the streets of Dakar after preliminary results showed Senegalese opposition candidate Macky Sall has won over Abdoulaye Wade, the incumbent president who sought a third term in office. Sall supporters gathered in the streets of the capital on Monday, chanting, dancing and sounding car horns. Wade conceded election defeat and congratulated Sall, as preliminary results gave an overwhelming lead to his runoff rival.

Trade envoys of India, Brazil, and South Africa have warned industrialised countries not to hijack the Doha multilateral trade negotiations by adopting the controversial plurilateral approach to liberalise trade in services. A plurilateral agreement allows member countries to voluntarily agree to new rules. In contrast, in a multilateral agreement all members have to be in agreement. This, they say, could ultimately undermine 'the possibility of resuscitating the Doha Round'. The Doha Development Agenda was launched almost 11 years ago to correct the historical imbalances and asymmetries in the global trading system and was designed to enable poorer countries to integrate into the system.

Life in the Malian capital Bamako is slowly returning to normal after mutinous soldiers seized power, toppling the democratically elected government of President Ahmed Toumani Toure. Fuel stations and market stalls reopened on Sunday after a decrease in the gunfire and looting that followed Wednesday's (21 March) overnight coup. The military junta that ousted Toure has ordered all soldiers back to barracks, but rebels in the country's north exploiting the coup have been pushing towards three northern towns, the Reuters news agency reported.

The African Union has said it will deploy a 5,000-strong military force to hunt down the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. The force - with troops from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic - will be led by Uganda where the LRA, headed by Joseph Kony, abducted and massacred civilians in a decades-long armed rebellion. The AU announced the launch of the force after Kony's global profile shot up recently thanks to a celebrity-backed internet campaign to bring him to justice.