While Africa still lags behind other continents in telecommunications, the growth in recent years in mobile phones and internet connectivity has been extraordinary. Six countries - South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and Kenya - have more than 10 million mobile phones each, with South Africa and Nigeria each topping 40 million mobile phones. Seven countries -- Seychelles, Gabon, South Africa, Tunisia, Botswana, Mauritius, and Libya, have more than 70 mobile phones for each 100 persons, ranging from 89 percent in the Seychelles to 73 percent in Libya.

The community of Motala Heights, set on the edge of Pinetown between the factories and the hill that runs up to Kloof, dates back to the early years of the last century and has a rich history. For the last three years it has been under sustained and violent attack from a local gangster businessman who seems to be able to direct the local state, including the police and the Municipality's Housing Department, at will.

Reporters Without Borders is concerned about the detention of freelance journalist Al-Ghali Yahya Shegifat, who has been held incommunicado in an unknown location since 14 May. Neither his family nor his lawyer have been able to contact him and it is not known what he is charged with.

The 8th CIVICUS World Assembly will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from 18th to 21st June 2008. The theme for the World Assembly is ‘Acting Together for a Just World: People, Participation and Power’. This focus is in response to the need to look at civil society's capacity to act in concert to realise shared goals while recognising there are allies in government, business, media and donor bodies who are working towards the same end and from whom strength can be drawn.

Managing and Transforming Global Conflicts in the 21st Century is a two-day experts level seminar arranged for government and political leadership, diplomats, representatives of national and international organizations, and experienced practitioners, mediators and field workers for the UN and other international agencies.

In March 2007, the Sonke Gender Justice Network partnered with Silence Speaks to co-ordinate two digital stortelling workshops focused on issues of gender, violence and HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Working with a team of trainers, men and women participants shared their own stories with one another; wrote and recorded first-person voiceover narrations; collected and generated still images and video cilps with which to illustrate their work; and gained the computer skills they needed to edit these materials into short digital videos.

My writing this letter emerges from realisation of the seriousness of the scenes of "xenophobic attacks" we have been experiencing in South Africa over the past couple of days and as such would like to refer to this situation as "Democracy Betrayed-The Struggle Betrayed".

When the African National Congress (ANC) ascended to power in 1994, the politico-socio economic landscape of South Africa changed drastically. The people of the country, through their elected representatives, draw up a Constitution that stands to be one of the best in the world. The RDP was seen as the path to be taken in ensuring that the imbalances and inequalities that characterised the new South Africa would be addressed. Employment, education, health, housing and social security among others were promised. Due to perceived economic difficulties in the period of 1996-1997, RDP had to be removed and replaced by a neo-liberal economic policy, the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR), which, it was suggested, would "generate the necessary wealth which would ensure that the South African society realises the objectives as contained in the Freedom Charter adopted 55 years ago.

However, this policy has not "delivered" on its promises. As Paul Kingsnorth observes, the poor of South Africa have realised that the task of rebuilding their nation ultimately rest with them. "The foreigners are taking our jobs, women, homes, etc" the poor claim, therefore, "lets get rid of them". One of the things that needs to be realised is that this results from the frustration and dissatisfaction over service delivery in general and in particular, the economic situation that the poor find themselves in. The assumption, particularly with regards to employment, is that the foreign nationals are undermining the struggles that the "people" endured so as to ensure that SA has the labour laws and regulations it has, by overlooking such issues as the minimum wage, healthy working environment, proper working hours and so on.

People live in informal settlements with no access to sanitation, clean drinking water, electricity, housing, employment opportunities and so on. The need has arisen for the people to make known their feelings. However, how will killing fellow Africans correct the situation? The Constitution of South Africa guarantees rights and privileges to all people, including foreign internationals. Where do people get the idea that by ill-treating others, we can capture the attention of leaders and hence demand their immediate action? Indeed, most of us may not be experiencing what these people are experiencing on the ground, but definitely there are other mechanisms that can be used to raise such issues. Many people still have the conviction that by having a political leader and government come to our level and address the situation, then we can consider changing. This has not been the case, senior political figures and government officials are only sending press

Statements to condemn the situation, how the hell wills this work? It just shows the people that officials are not taking the situation with the seriousness that they should. This indeed is sending a negative reflection of SA to the world and the political leaders need to show some degree of leadership now!! People are dying and their only sin is of being foreigners. We all accept that the services promised to the people have not been delivered, Democracy has been betrayed, the struggle has been betrayed, but this is not the way to deal with the situation. South Africans need to realise that violent action is not the only way to solve problems, there are various legislations that have been promulgated to deal with such issues and people need to make use of these avenues.

Political education and sensitization around issues of xenophobia, service delivery and legislation need to be ensured. The culture of violence needs to be removed from Africa if Africa is to ensure that the dream of a better continent for all is realized.

The Africa Commission is holding a conference on youth and education on 16 June. At the first meeting of the Africa Commission in Copenhagen on 16 April it was decided to set up five thematic conferences in various places in Africa during the next half year. Here the participants will discuss and investigate various aspects of the Commission’s focus on youth and employment.

Regarding : please create a petition on one of the popular petition sites to facilitate a louder voice than a few emails; This issue applies to many civil war torn countries and should be made public to the widest public to get the support it deserves.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/372/48212zimbabwe-police.jpgArg... that Mugabe has been "talking left" while "walking right" Grace Kwinjeh analyses Zimbabwe through regional, African and global capitalism.

The post election crisis in Zimbabwe and the SADC region is a manifestation of much deeper, complex issues to do with global capitalism and its vampire-like tendencies.

At the root of the problems is the failure of our nationalist governments to deal with these dimensions of the global crisis: food shortages and price hikes; oil speculation; financial meltdowns and higher interest rates. These manifest themselves as rising inequality and unemployment and competition between very poor people in places like Alexandra, Tembisa, Diepkloof and the Johannesburg inner city for scarce resources.

It is only by addressing these issues that we can meet the aspirations of the masses for freedom and decent lives.

Forces both local and global may seem to be worlds apart in the definition and context of the Zimbabwean struggle but we African citizens are all in an awkward position.

GLOBAL CAPITALISM

While we are fighting the Robert Mugabe dictatorship, we Zimbabweans have not been spared from the negative impact of global capitalism on our livelihoods especially in poor communities - as we are currently witnessing, in the current xenophobic attacks against us in South Africa.

The xenophobia exposes not only working-class people's fears of lower wages, higher crime and new cultural influences, as is the explanation at first blush. In addition, we can see in the attacks on non-nationals the duplicitous role our national elites play in pushing us further to the mercy of capitalist forces while they label us in the opposition – puppets of the West.

The attacks are being condemned by progressive forces in SA, including COSATU Secretary General, Zwelinzima Vavi, who said: "I want to send out this message: It is not the Zimbabweans (exiles) that cause the problems (of the poor)".

He cited the capitalist system as the problem and argued that South Africa should focus on building an economic system that could: "seriously eradicate poverty".

The same position reiterated by the Anti-Privatisation Forum:"Let us not forget that it is South African corporate capital – through the framework of NEPAD – that has, over the last decade, moved into other African countries, most often causing many local, smaller businesses to close down and thus contributing to a situation in which many poor people have lost their jobs."

THREE MILLION EXILES

There are over three million of us eking out a living outside Zimbabwe's borders, a result of the failure of our national leaders to deliver both politically and economically for us at home. The situation gets more ridiculous when looked at within the context of the aspirations spelt out in the reformed African Union, in the New Partnership for Africa's Development, and its dream of an African Renaissance.

These programmes are again full of empty rhetoric framed, more to attract international donor funds and less to deliver dignity to African citizens, negating our 'ubuntuness', which espouses values to do with compassion, value for human life, respect for each other and harmonious existence.

Even as Frantz Fanon prophesied back then on the dilemma of African Unity in post–colonial Africa: "Now the nationalist bourgeois, who in region after region hasten to make their own fortunes and to set up a national system of exploitation, do their utmost to put obstacles in the path of this 'Utopia'. The national bourgeoisies, who are quite clear as to what their objectives are, have decided to bar the way to that unity, to that coordinated effort on the part of two hundred and fifty million men to triumph over stupidity, hunger and inhumanity at one and the same time."

Fanon’s insight helps us understand the failures of Mugabe and his allies beyond their “leftist” rhetoric. They are forever trapped in the awkward “talk left – walk right” jive as they remain arguably the best custodians of capitalist/imperialist forces, in our countries.

Mugabe flirted with the US military for many years, and until 1998 was considered amongst the highest-performing of World Bank and International Monetary Fund puppets, earning a "highly satisfactory" rating from the Bretton Woods Institutions in 1995. Did he not use $205 million in hard currency in 2006 to repay the IMF for failed loans?

In Zimbabwe today those suffering under the yoke of Mugabe's oppression are us black citizens. We are the homeless, the jobless, the battered and the bruised.

MAJORITY NOT RESPECTED

We are in the majority of those whose vote is not respected, in a negation of that very national liberation struggle aspirations of 'one man one vote.'

At the moment, Zimbabweans are just as good as people who did not go out to vote. We remain at the mercy of the dictatorship, as Mugabe is determined at each turn to reverse our hard-earned victories.

The elections did not deliver change. Instead, the moment of triumph against Mugabe and his cohort soon turned into a nightmare. The opposition won against one of the most entrenched liberation movements on the African continent. We romped to victory with a narrow parliamentary majority, equal seats as Zanu PF in the Senate and a majority votes in the Presidential election count. It was a great achievement given the odds placed against any possible opposition electoral victory.

DEVASTATING RETRIBUTION

“One group grabbed a 79-year-old widow, yanked up her skirt, then lashed her bare buttocks with barbed-wire whips as two dozen terrified relatives looked on. The woman, Martha Mucheto, said she cried in pain and shame. ‘If none of you confesses, we will hit this granny until she's dead,’ Mucheto, a great-grandmother and former nurse's aide, recalled hearing. She spoke from a hospital bed in Harare.”

The story of Mugabe's retribution against innocent civilians gets more devastating each day – from abductions, torture to cold blooded gruesome murders.

Old grannies such as gogo Mucheto are not spared in this brutality. Young men are killed in cold blood. The latest case is of Better Chokururama who was shot once and stabbed four times around the chest area by Mugabe's thugs. Chokururama was buried on 17 May 2008, one of at least two dozen MDC members killed for their beliefs in recent weeks, and one of several hundred since 2000.

Most affected are the already-struggling and impoverished rural folks. Scores are being displaced our national leaders to deliver both politically and economically for us at home. The situation gets more ridiculous when looked at within the context of the aspirations spelt out in the reformed African Union, in the New Partnership for Africa's Development, and its dream of an African Renaissance.

MAJORITY NOT RESPECTED

We are in the majority of those whose vote is not respected, in a negation of that very national liberation struggle aspirations of 'one man one vote.'

At the moment, Zimbabweans are just as good as people who did not go out to vote. We remain at the mercy of the dictatorship, as Mugabe is determined at each turn to reverse our hard-earned victories.

The elections did not deliver change. Instead, the moment of triumph against Mugabe and his cohort soon turned into a nightmare. The opposition won in their own areas while others find their way to towns, many being victims of torture.

Zanu PF, the liberation movement that defeated the colonialists in a protracted struggle, somehow concluded that they should hold state power in perpetuity. The era of democratization has not yet arrived. The elites in Zimbabwe, like their despotic friends elsewhere in the world, disdain the notion that elections are the process through which people elect leaders of their choice.

Elections remain a privilege that is denied to the masses. As Zimbabwe prepares for a run-off on the 27th of June, we expect once again to be fed nauseating fascist propaganda on good citizenry and patriotism. Mugabe has declared war against the people of the world.

We have an obligation to organize ourselves and fight back. As Fanon advised: "…we must understand that African Unity can only be achieved through the upward thrust of the people, and under the leadership of the people, and that is to say, in defiance of the interests of the bourgeoisie."

The marches on 17 May 2008, led by COSATU, helped to strengthen people-to-people solidarity. The way our SATAWU comrades exposed and fought against the 'ship of shame' and stopped it from offloading its cargo of arms in Durban, is a show of solidarity that the people of Zimbabwe will forever remember.

Zimbabwe does not need arms. We are not at war. We want decent jobs, homes, schools and food.

*Grace Kwinjeh is an NEC member of the MDC and the Chairperson of the Global Zimbabwe Forum.

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

The Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) welcomes the steps taken by Liberia to adopt a Freedom of Information law for the country and calls on the National Legislature to expedite action in passing the Freedom of Information Bill submitted to it last month by a coalition of ordinary citizens, media and civil society organizations.

Unity Radio, a station run by the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), was on May 8, 2008 shut down on the orders of the Minister of Information and Communication, Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo. Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the closure according to Kargbo, was due to the installation of an illegal antenna which disturbed the transmission of other radio stations, and the fact that SLPP did not go through the right procedures to register Unity Radio.

The Director–General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Guinea, Alfred Saury Guilarogui and two of his officers on May 8, 2008 stormed Nostalgie FM, a privately-owned radio station in Conakry and forcibly interrupted the station’s broadcasting.

The Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Guinea, Alfred Saury Guilarogui and two of his officers on May 8, 2008 stormed Nostalgie FM, a privately-owned radio station in Conakry and forcibly interrupted the station's broadcasting.

A new report by Dr. Fareda Banda, “Laws that Discriminate Against Women,” reveals the harsh realities of these discriminatory laws around the world, and explores possibilities for new processes to eliminate such discrimination. Dr. Banda used existing UN mechanisms and national data on the subject to inform the report, which finds that the female half of the population continues to experience state-sanctioned and state-condoned discrimination.

Shell says it requires an additional $3 billion (N375 billion) and the resolution of the Niger Delta crisis to be able to end gas flaring in the country, insisting that it will be unable to meet the December 2008 deadline due to insecurity in the oil-rich region and funding shortfalls.

The EISA has availed information on the proportion of women in the lower house of parliaments of Southern African countries. As far as is possible, every effort has been made to exclude nominated and ex officio members from the tallies.

The consultation proposed by the WSF International Council (IC) is already online at It aims to identify objectives of action that will allow us to reinforce even more the dialogue and the construction of alliances between various organizations, movements and networks from the Pan-Amazon region and from the world.

When tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in Mexico last year to protest a 60 percent increase in the price of tortillas, many analysts pointed to biofuel as the culprit. Because of US government subsidies, American farmers were devoting more and more acreage to corn for ethanol than for food, which sparked a steep rise in corn prices, says Walden Bello.

An inter-departmental task team is being urgently set up to investigate the causes underlying the recent attacks on foreign nationals in Alexandra township and elsewhere, Government Spokesman Themba Maseko said Thursday. He was briefing reporters on the outcome of the latest cabinet meeting, held on Wednesday.

With the ascendance of China as a robust force on Africa’s economic and political scene, plans are afoot in the European Union (EU) to pre-empt the Asian nation’s dominance on the continent by forming a trilateral partnership that places Europe squarely in the centre. The idea of a multilateral triumvirate was conceived by Louis Michel, the EU’s commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, and seeks to lay out common ground in what has occasionally been a contentious relationship between these three actors.

For a long time woman’s place in the political landscape has been too rough especially in Africa. For a woman to feature in politics, she must be having a skin as thick as that of an elephant as Wangari Maathai Nobel laureate equips it in her memoir Unbowed.

When Jacinta Marete discovered that she was pregnant, she was in her first year in one of the public universities in the country. Having been among the chosen few who secure themselves a place in these institutions of higher learning, her dream of becoming a pharmacist was slowly shaping up.

May 17th is the International Day against Homophobia. ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association, has chosen this date to launch a yearly report on State-sponsored homophobia around the world. The impressive collection of laws presented in this report is an attempt to show the extent of State-sponsored homophobia in the world.

The United Nations has evacuated most of its staff from the Sudanese town of Abyei, located in a disputed oil-rich area, amid continued shooting between Government forces and the former southern rebels with whom they reached a peace deal in January 2005.

Political parties in Sierra Leone have underscored their commitment to holding peaceful local council elections in July at an inter-party dialogue meeting hosted by the United Nations. The main political parties in Sierra Leone have agreed to refrain from engaging in “any activity which is detrimental to the holding of a peaceful election.”

Three African trade blocs plan to harmonise trade policies so Africa can compete more effectively on world markets.Analysts say analogous regimes would help increase intercontinental trade, make the blocs more attractive for foreign investment and make trade negotiations less complicated.

The runoff for Zimbabwe's presidential election will be held June 27, Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission said Friday. The runoff is the second round of voting after the March 29 election, which saw opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai receiving more votes than President Robert Mugabe.

Reports from around the country indicate that the army is at the forefront of the violence against innocent civilians and opposition officials. Not only have army officers been instructed to vote for Robert Mugabe in the runoff election, they are also being used to intimidate the electorate at huge gatherings that they call “re-education” rallies. Each army violence unit has been assigned a group of over 30 youth militia, who are now reported to be uniformed and are being paid for their brutal deeds. But voters around the country say no amount of violence or intimidation will ever make them vote for ZANU-PF.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has urged the country's main opposition party to return to talks to break deadlock of more than a year in forming a power-sharing government in semi-autonomous Zanzibar. Talks between the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM, or Party of the Revolution) and the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) faltered earlier this year, leaving the Zanzibar islands, where politics have often turned violent, in limbo.

One by one, they come. They talk about the incessant beatings, the water that was poured over their nose and throat until they couldn’t breathe and the bricks that were tied to their testicles. One says a soldier cocked a gun in his mouth and said “Now you’re dead.” Another recounts how a bagful of chopped, fresh red pepper was pulled over his head, how his eyes and skin felt like they were on fire and he couldn’t breathe. A young man says dead bodies were dropped off in his room, and he was ordered to clean off the blood. Right, demonstration of torture in Karamoja.

The absence of last mile equipment and high cost of bandwidth have been identified as the major reasons why broadband Internet access penetration is low in Nigeria. Latest figures released by Internet Statistics, a global Internet usage measurement firm, put the number of broadband users in Nigeria at just 500, compared to over 800,000 in South Africa.

Qatari satellite TV news channel Aljazeera was ordered by Moroccan officials on Tuesday (May 6th) to cease broadcast operations from its Rabat studios. The pan-Arab news station aired daily news bulletins on the Maghreb.

Elizabeth Kineelwe, the cook at a drop-in centre that provides meals and support to orphans and impoverished families in Soweto, Johannesburg's largest township, is on the frontlines of a nationwide struggle to cope with rising food prices. The cost of basic foods like bread, rice and maizemeal is climbing, but the amount of money the organisation, called Nanga Vhutshilo (Choose Life in the Venda language) Positive Living, receives from the Department of Social Development is not.

According to Vía Campesina, an international movement that coordinates farmer organizations from Asia, Africa, America and Europe, food sovereignty is the right of all peoples, their nations or unions of States to define their agricultural and food policies, without dumping involving third-party countries. Food sovereignty goes beyond the more common concept of food security, which merely seeks to ensure that a sufficient amount of safe food is produced without taking into account the kind of food produced and how, where and on what scale it is produced.

More than 300 Kenyan refugees have returned home from Uganda weeks after fleeing their homeland in the wake of the inter-ethnic violence that followed last year's presidential election in Kenya.

The World Bank says it is recalibrating its financing for anti-AIDS efforts in Africa, which shoulders more than two-thirds of the world's HIV/AIDS burden. Some 22.5 million Africans are HIV-positive, and AIDS is the leading cause of premature death on the continent, according to the bank. Hardest hit are productive young people and women. So much so, that many private firms recruit two workers for every job in anticipation of losing staff to the disease.

A positive twist towards human rights for Zimbabwean citizens, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community, seems imminent if elections favour the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). While President Robert Mugabe has over the years condemned homosexuality in Zimbabwe, MDC spokeperson Nelson Chamisa revealed that the his organisation will build a new Zimbabwe for all its citizens irrespective of their social associations or even sexual orientation.

The government of Sudan has announced suspension of dialogue with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfur rebel group accused of unleashing fatal attacks on Omdurman at the weekend. Sudanese officials said the international community is already informed about the decision, and is at the brink of consulting it regarding negotiations with other Darfur armed groups.

A human rights group said on Thursday that 800 000 residents of the Nigerian capital, Abuja, were forcibly evicted over a four-year period as town planners sought to clear space for the fast-growing city. The Swiss-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions said in a new report that many of those removed from their homes by authorities between 2003 and 2007 were not given due notice or afforded other usual rights. The group said some evictees were tear-gassed or beaten.

Progressio has a policy of recruiting nationals for Country Representative posts. For this post, we can only consider applications from Zimbabwean nationals. Educated to a degree level in a relevant field, the postholder will have a minimum of fiveyears of direct experience in NGO management, strategic planning and project appraisal, as well as financial management. In addition, s/he should have relevant work experience in Zimbabwe and/or in the Southern Africa region; and experience of fundraising and of recruitment.

The 11th African Union (AU) Summit will be held in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, between June 24 and July 1, 2008, under the theme of “Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation”. The Permanent Representatives’ Committee will be held between June 24 - 25, the Executive Council between June 27 -28 and the Assembly of heads of states and government between June 30 and July 1. The draft agendas for each of these sessions are available to download at In addition, the Citizens and Diaspora Directorate of the AU Commission will hold an AU-civil society meeting on June 17-19, in Sharm el Sheikh.

The Center for Citizens’ Participation in the African Union (CCP-AU) has written an essential policy brief for civil society detailing the key issues that will be discussed during the summit as well as providing logistical information for civil society participants. Among the issues highlighted are the adoption of a social policy framework for Africa, peace and security in Africa, the union government proposal and the audit of the African Union. Indeed, the Executive Council of the AU has just concluded an extraordinary session to discuss the audit report of the union. During this meeting, the chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), H.E. Mr. Jean Ping, noted that: “The Commission of the African Union agrees with the bulk of the Panel’s recommendations and would wish to see them implemented as soon as possible. In other areas, we have reservations based on experience and our own contact with the facts on the ground”. Also in preparation for the summit, the Committee of heads of states and government will meet later this month in Arusha, Tanzania, to discuss the union government proposal.

As civil society continues to advocate for African Union (AU) intervention in Zimbabwe, urging the AU leadership to call for the immediate cessation of violence and the protection of the Zimbabwean people as well as to deploy an exploratory mission of experts into Zimbabwe to assess the electoral environment, the African Union issued a statement on the situation in Zimbabwe following an official visit to the country by the chairperson of the AUC. Within the statement, the AU “urges the ZEC to ensure that the said run off [election] is undertaken as provided for in the Electoral Act”; “re-emphasizes the need for Zimbabwe to implement the conditions set out in the Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa; urges that agreements reached and the conditions prevailing prior to the 29 March polls be upheld; appeals to all the Zimbabwe political actors to conduct their activities in a free, transparent, tolerant, and non-violent manner to enable eligible Zimbabweans exercise their democratic rights”. Further, “the AU will continue to play an active role in assessing all further developments in preparing for the effective observation of this election with a view to providing an independent judgment on its outcome.

Following the presentation on peace and security in Africa by the chairperson of the Committee on Cooperation, International Relations and Conflict Resolution at the session of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) this week, Hon. Euggene Kparkar of Liberia charged PAP to be firm and decisive on issues related to Heads of State, adding that “even though PAP must be commended for sending election observer missions to both Kenya and Zimbabwe, African leaders must be told in the face that too much of staying in power brews conflict. Therefore, they must always prepare their minds to vacate the presidential seats whenever their time is due”. However, recognizing the weaknesses of PAP’s mandate, the chairperson of the committee noted that PAP cannot hold African presidents entirely to account because it is currently an advisory, and not yet legislative, organ.

In further peace and security news, the AU has condemned the attacks on the Sudanese capital of Khartoum by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) from the Darfur region, saying that their actions could jeopardize efforts to find a political solution to the crisis and escalate regional peace and security tensions. The chairperson of the AU Commission and the Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra are expected to visit the country.

As continued economic growth is predicted in 2008 and 2009 by the African Development Bank, the Monetary Affairs Committee of the East African Community has said high interest rate spreads, budget deficits, high domestic debt and relatively high levels of non-performing loans continue to be major challenges that need to be addressed before a monetary union can be realised. Seeing information and communication technology as central to African development, the AUC is engaging development partners to fund nine flagship projects under the Africa Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge Economy programme. While, Jose Graziano da Silva argues that “agro-energy emerges from the current financial crisis as a safe haven of real consistency and strategic continuity”, further stating that “agro-energy can help sustain the expansion of poor countries and usher in a new dynamic of trade independence by industrialising biofuel crop farming and creating bridges between family agriculture and a peak sector of the global economy that is here to stay.” Lastly, as African leaders will attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development this month, Felix Osike explores the courting of Africa by so-called emerging powers such as Japan, China and India.

As long as the legacy of Apartheid has not been fully erased, and the playing field levelled so that ALL South Africans benefit from the alleged Independence and the end of apartheid, I would say, Jeremy Cronin - Why South Africa will never be like Zimbabwe; better believe that the Jewish saying, "from your mouth to God's ear," is in place.

I am always fascinated by those who regard the current state of South Africa as being the best that can be, for the masses of black and brown South Africans. I even went to a lecture at an American graduate school, where a white American had gone and used a pool of 1000 different people. He came back to give a talk on how South Africans of color are wishing apartheid would return, since things were better for them. I also find alot of skilled black South Africans still in exile, or in the diaspora, because they are being told that dual citizenship is the problem or some other excuse. I see nothing in the quality of life of the majority of South Africans of color to make me believe that their patience with the "Tommorrow" that even one of my siblings used to describe the slow changes will continue indefinitely.

There is also something else, the world is getting very hostile to those of a different hue, setting up Fortress Europe, and the Fence along the US border, etc. etc. It becomes harder and harder to accept that we, Africans, who have been exploited and abused for so long, and even after the alleged dismantling of apartheid, will continue to tolerate the stories that come out, throwing the kaffir to the lions, abuse on farms, forcing workers to eat...

We read about South Africans being used as laboratory animals for experimental drugs, and then read about the disasters created by this. We read and hear about South Africa being turned into a place where Brazilians are brought for the their organs to be harvested for a market that is not in South Africa, and knowing the legacy of apartheid; this is just a small part of what is really happening.

We see the disasters that are happening in the mines, and the fact that many miners where let go to a bleak future whilst DeBeers moved its trading to the UK and now has a huge flagship store in New York...

The only constant is change, and South Africa still has the chance to avoid a Zimbabwe, but from what one hears and sees, Apartheid is still alive and well, and doing a brisk business. So, I do not see anyone forcing the redressing of wrongs, whites never give up what they deem theirs by some right of skin, or belief in a god that has made the earth theirs. I do not see or hear anything from South Africa that shows that the "droit de seigneur" that whites feel has changed. Instead, one sees the slow attempts to continue the 'cape to cairo' fantasy of Rhodes and the other imperialists. The recolonization of Africa that is now being implemented.

My parents gave up alot in leaving their homeland, and took us with them. I was born a month before Apartheid became the law, and saw what it did to ALL of us of color. I was also in Zimbabwe when the Federation of Rhodesias and Nyasaland was dismantled, and the Ian Smith era.

I still have not been fortunate to go home, though my siblings have returned. I do not read or see anything that makes me in a hurry to go home, though life in the diaspora is no paradise. My father advised me on his return to South Africa, not to come home yet, and I will follow his advice, it would be difficult to go home to the same "For Whites only" system. So, Jeremy Cronin, I do hope you are right, and believe the redressing of a lot of the wrongs of the Apartheid era would go far in preventing a Zimbabwe, but from what I hear, "it is too soon, ten more years!!" I find myself not as optimistic, the Wheel turns, and lost opportunities can come back to haunt those who believe that "South Africa will never be like Zimbabwe," it could in fact be a lot worse.

Ian Angus looks at the various forces behind the food crisis in Haiti. During previous waves of food price inflation the poor often had at least some access to food they grew themselves, or to food that was grown locally and available at locally set prices. Today, in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, that is just not possible. Global markets now determine local prices, and often the only food available must be imported from far away. Food is not just another commodity, he argues. It is absolutely essential for human survival. The very least that humanity should expect from any government or social system is that it tries to prevent starvation, and above all that it does not promote policies that deny food to hungry people.

‘If the government cannot lower the cost of living it simply has to leave. If the police and UN troops want to shoot at us, that's OK, because in the end, if we are not killed by bullets, we'll die of hunger.’ (A demonstrator in Port-au-Prince, Haiti)

In Haiti, where most people get 22 per cent fewer calories than the minimum needed for good health, some are staving off their hunger pangs by eating ‘mud biscuits’ made by mixing clay and water with a bit of vegetable oil and salt.[1]

Meanwhile, in Canada, the federal government is currently paying $225 for each pig killed in a mass cull of breeding swine, as part of a plan to reduce hog production. Hog farmers, squeezed by low hog prices and high feed costs, have responded so enthusiastically that the kill will likely use up all the allocated funds before the programme ends in September. Some of the slaughtered hogs may be given to local food banks, but most will be destroyed or made into pet food. None will go to Haiti.

This is the brutal world of capitalist agriculture, a world where some people destroy food because prices are too low, and others literally eat dirt because food prices are too high.

Record prices for staple foods

We are in the midst of an unprecedented worldwide food price inflation that has driven prices to their highest levels in decades. The increases affect most kinds of food, but in particular the most important staples: wheat, corn, and rice.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation says that between March 2007 and March 2008 prices of cereals increased 88 per cent, oils and fats 106 per cent, and dairy 48 per cent. The FAO food price index as a whole rose 57 per cent in one year; most of the increase occurred in the past few months.

Another source, the World Bank, says that that in the 36 months ending February 2008, global wheat prices rose 181 per cent and overall global food prices increased by 83 per cent. The Bank expects most food prices to remain well above 2004 levels until at least 2015. The most popular grade of Thailand rice sold for $198 per tonne five years ago and $323 per tonne a year ago. On 24 April the price hit $1,000.

Increases are even greater on local markets. In Haiti, the market price of a 50kg bag of rice doubled in one week at the end of March. These increases are catastrophic for the 2.6 billion people around the world who live on less than US$2 a day and spend 60 to 80 per cent of their incomes on food. Hundreds of millions cannot afford to eat. This month, the hungry fought back.

Taking to the streets

On 3 April demonstrators in Haiti’s southern city of Les Cayes built barricades, stopped trucks carrying rice and distributed the food, and tried to burn a UN compound. The protests quickly spread to the capital, Port-au-Prince, where thousands marched on the presidential palace chanting ‘We are hungry!’ Many called for the withdrawal of UN troops and the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the exiled president whose government was overthrown by foreign powers in 2004.

President René Préval, who initially said that nothing could be done, has announced a 16 per cent cut in the wholesale price of rice. This is at best a stop-gap measure, since the reduction is for one month only and retailers are not obligated to cut their prices.

The actions in Haiti paralleled similar protests by hungry people in more than twenty other countries. In Burkino Faso, a two-day general strike by unions and shopkeepers demanded ‘significant and effective’ reductions in the price of rice and other staple foods. In Bangladesh, over 20,000 workers from textile factories in Fatullah went on strike to demand lower prices and higher wages. They hurled bricks and stones at police, who fired tear gas into the crowd. The Egyptian government sent thousands of troops into the Mahalla textile complex in the Nile Delta to prevent a general strike demanding higher wages, an independent union, and lower prices. Two people were killed and over 600 have been jailed. In Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, police used tear gas against women who had set up barricades, burned tires and closed major roads. Thousands marched to the President's home, chanting ‘We are hungry’, and ‘Life is too expensive, you are killing us.’ In Pakistan and Thailand, armed soldiers have been deployed to prevent the poor from seizing food from fields and warehouses.

Similar protests have taken place in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Niger, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Zambia. On 2 April the president of the World Bank told a meeting in Washington that there are 33 countries where price hikes could cause social unrest.

A Senior Editor of Time magazine warned:
‘The idea of the starving masses driven by their desperation to take to the streets and overthrow the ancien regime has seemed impossibly quaint since capitalism triumphed so decisively in the Cold War.... And yet, the headlines of the past month suggest that skyrocketing food prices are threatening the stability of a growing number of governments around the world. .... when circumstances render it impossible to feed their hungry children, normally passive citizens can very quickly become militants with nothing to lose.’[2]

What’s driving the food inflation?

Since the 1970s, food production has become increasingly globalised and concentrated. A handful of countries dominate the global trade in staple foods. 80 per cent of wheat exports come from six exporters, as does 85 per cent of rice. Three countries produce 70 per cent of exported corn. This leaves the world's poorest countries, the ones that must import food to survive, at the mercy of economic trends and policies in those few exporting countries. When the global food trade system stops delivering, it's the poor who pay the price.

For several years, the global trade in staple foods has been heading towards a crisis. Four related trends have slowed production growth and pushed prices up.

a) The end of the Green Revolution. In the 1960s and 1970s, in an effort to counter peasant discontent in south and south-east Asia, the US poured money and technical support into agricultural development in India and other countries. The ‘green revolution’ — new seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, agricultural techniques and infrastructure — led to spectacular increases in food production, particularly rice. Yield per hectare continued expanding until the 1990s.

Today, it is not fashionable for governments to help poor people grow food for other poor people, because ‘the market’ is supposed to take care of all problems. The Economist reports that ‘spending on farming as a share of total public spending in developing countries fell by half between 1980 and 2004.’[3] Subsidies and R&D money have dried up, and production growth has stalled.

As a result, in seven of the past eight years the world consumed more grain than it produced, which means that rice was being removed from the inventories that governments and dealers normally hold as insurance against bad harvests. World grain stocks are now at their lowest point ever, leaving very little cushion for bad times.

b) Climate change. Scientists say that climate change could cut food production in parts of the world by 50 per cent in the next 12 years. But that isn't just a matter for the future. Australia is normally the world's second-largest exporter of grain, but a savage multi-year drought has reduced the wheat crop by 60 per cent and rice production has been completely wiped out. In Bangladesh in November, one of the strongest cyclones in decades wiped out a million tonnes of rice and severely damaged the wheat crop, making this huge country even more dependent on imported food. Other examples abound. It is clear that the global climate crisis is already here, and that it is affecting food.

c) Agrofuels. It is now official policy in the US, Canada and Europe to convert food into fuel. US vehicles burn enough corn to cover the entire import needs of the poorest 82 countries.[4]

Ethanol and bio-diesel are very heavily subsidised, which means, inevitably, that crops like corn (maize) are being diverted out of the food chain and into gas tanks, and that new agricultural investment worldwide is being directed towards palm, soy, canola and other oil-producing plants. The demand for agrofuels increases the prices of those crops directly, and indirectly boosts the price of other grains by encouraging growers to switch to agrofuel. As Canadian hog producers have found, it also drives up the cost of producing meat, since corn is the main ingredient in North American animal feed.

d) Oil prices. The price of food is linked to the price of oil because food can be made into a substitute for oil. But rising oil prices also affect the cost of producing food. Fertiliser and pesticides are made from petroleum and natural gas. Gas and diesel fuel are used in planting, harvesting and shipping.[5] It has been estimated that 80 per cent of the costs of growing corn are fossil fuel costs, so it is no accident that food prices rise when oil prices rise.

By the end of 2007, reduced investment in third world agriculture, rising oil prices, and climate change meant that production growth was slowing and prices were rising. Good harvests and strong export growth might have staved off a crisis — but that isn't what happened. The trigger was rice, the staple food of three billion people.

Early this year, India announced that it was suspending most rice exports in order to rebuild its reserves. A few weeks later, Vietnam, whose rice crop was hit by a major insect infestation during the harvest, announced a four-month suspension of exports to ensure that enough would be available for its domestic market.

India and Vietnam together normally account for 30 per cent of all rice exports, so their announcements were enough to push the already tight global rice market over the edge. Rice buyers immediately started buying up available stocks, hoarding whatever rice they could get in the expectation of future price increases, and bidding up the price for future crops. Prices soared. By mid-April, news reports described ‘panic buying’ of rice futures on the Chicago Board of Trade, and there were rice shortages even on supermarket shelves in Canada and the US.

Why the rebellion?

There have been food price spikes before. Indeed, if we take inflation into account, global prices for staple foods were higher in the 1970s than they are today. So why has this inflationary explosion provoked mass protests around the world?

The answer is that since the 1970s the richest countries in the world, aided by the international agencies they control, have systematically undermined the poorest countries' ability to feed their populations and protect themselves in a crisis like this. Haiti is a powerful and appalling example.

Rice has been grown in Haiti for centuries, and until 20 years ago Haitian farmers produced about 170,000 tonnes of rice a year, enough to cover 95 per cent of domestic consumption. Rice farmers received no government subsidies, but, as in every other rice-producing country at the time, their access to local markets was protected by import tariffs. In 1995, as a condition of providing a desperately needed loan, the International Monetary Fund required Haiti to cut its tariff on imported rice from 35 per cent to 3 per cent, the lowest in the Caribbean. The result was a massive influx of US rice that sold for half the price of Haitian-grown rice. Thousands of rice farmers lost their lands and livelihoods, and today three-quarters of the rice eaten in Haiti comes from the US.[6]

US rice didn't take over the Haitian market because it tastes better, or because US rice growers are more efficient. It won out because rice exports are heavily subsidised by the US government. In 2003, US rice growers received $1.7 billion in government subsidies, an average of $232 per hectare of rice grown.[7] That money, most of which went to a handful of very large landowners and agribusiness corporations, allowed US exporters to sell rice at 30 to 50 per cent below their real production costs. In short, Haiti was forced to abandon government protection of domestic agriculture, and the US then used its government protection schemes to take over the market.

There have been many variations on this theme, with rich countries of the north imposing ‘liberalisation’ policies on poor and debt-ridden southern countries and then taking advantage of that liberalisation to capture the market. Government subsidies account for 30 per cent of farm revenue in the world's 30 richest countries, a total of US$280 billion a year,[8] an unbeatable advantage in a ‘free’ market where the rich write the rules. The global food trade game is rigged, and the poor have been left with reduced crops and no protections.

In addition, for several decades the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have refused to advance loans to poor countries unless they agree to ‘Structural Adjustment Programmes’ (SAP) that require the loan recipients to devalue their currencies, cut taxes, privatise utilities, and reduce or eliminate support programmes for farmers. All this was done with the promise that the market would produce economic growth and prosperity. Instead, poverty increased and support for agriculture was eliminated.

‘The investment in improved agricultural input packages and extension support tapered and eventually disappeared in most rural areas of Africa under SAP. Concern for boosting smallholders' productivity was abandoned. Not only were governments rolled back, foreign aid to agriculture dwindled. World Bank funding for agriculture itself declined markedly from 32 per cent of total lending in 1976-8 to 11.7 per cent in 1997-9.’[9]

During previous waves of food price inflation the poor often had at least some access to food they grew themselves, or to food that was grown locally and available at locally set prices. Today, in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, that is just not possible. Global markets now determine local prices, and often the only food available must be imported from far away.

Food is not just another commodity. It is absolutely essential for human survival. The very least that humanity should expect from any government or social system is that it tries to prevent starvation, and above all that it does not promote policies that deny food to hungry people.

That is why Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was absolutely correct on 24 April in describing the food crisis as ‘the greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model.’

*Ian Angus is the editor of 'Climate and Capitalism'. This article first appeared at

** Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

For additional notes, please follow this link:

The Africa Public Health 15% Now Campaign has launched a 30 day countdown to the mid year African Union summit which holds in Egypt from the 24th of June. The 30 day countdown which starts from the 15th of May to the 15th of June is aimed at mobilising national level and continental support for a civil society message to urge African Heads of States to restate their commitment to and urgently implement the Abuja 2001 pledge by African Heads of State to allocate 15% of national budgets to health.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/371/48136vote.jpgThe challenges confronting Africa's democratic experiments are many and complex and include entrenching constitutionalism and the reconstruction of the postcolonial state, writes Femi Falana. To move Africa forward, emerging democratic governments would have to confront a legacy of poverty, illiteracy, militarization, and underdevelopment produced by incompetent or corrupt governments.

After several decades of colonialism, Zimbabwe became independent in 1980. Having regard to the progressive antecedent of the leaders of the liberation movement expectations were high that the country would witness rapid socio-economic transformation and political stability. Instead of facing the challenge of the development, President Robert Mugabe turned the country into a one party state. Human rights were suppressed whilst some of the colonial laws were refurbished and applied with ferocity. Many opposition figures were either jailed or driven to exile.

Farmlands, which had been illegally acquired under colonial rule, were violently seized by war veterans at the instance of the government when the national parliament controlled by the ZANU-PF could have promoted land redistribution through legislation. The mismanagement of the economy has led to the unemployment, poverty, deprivations and general dislocation, which has virtually brought the country to her, kneels. The silence of African leaders and connivance of the South African regime led the opposition to turn to the West. Ironically, Mugabe’s anti-imperialist rhetoric, in the circumstances, won him sympathy in many African countries. This development has divided government and even civil society groups with respect to taking a united stand against the misrule of President Mugabe.

Recent experiences from Kenya and Zimbabwe illustrate the difficult and daunting task of consolidating democracy on the continent. Available evidence indicates that many of the new democratic regimes remain fragile and some of the euphoria of the early 1990s had evaporated. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the authoritarianism and statism of the early post-independence years was in retreat, and, where it persisted, was vigorously contested in a context in which democratic aspirations were firmly implanted in popular consciousness and the pluralization of associational life was an integral part of the political landscape. It was indeed a mark of the changed times that, whereas previously development had been regarded as a prerequisite of democracy, now democracy is seen as indispensable for development.

The challenges confronting Africa's democratic experiments are many and complex and include entrenching constitutionalism and the reconstruction of the postcolonial state; ensuring that the armed forces are permanently kept out of politics, instituting structures for the effective management of natural resources; promoting sustainable development and political stability; nurturing effective leadership, and safeguarding human rights and the rule of law.

In Africa, as elsewhere, democratic government and respect for human rights are closely linked. Democracy is the best means the world has produced to protect and advance human rights, based on individual freedom and dignity. In turn, respect for human rights is the only means by which a democracy can sustain the individual freedom and dignity that enables it to endure.

Despite some improvements in some parts of the continent, Africa remains the site of very serious human rights problems. For example, in the Sudan, the armed conflict in Darfur continues and the dismal human rights situation shows no signs of improvement. Both government and rebels commit horrendous abuses. In Somalia, the civil war continues unabated and the human rights situation goes on deteriorating; the civilian population has been the ultimate victim, as recently reported by Amnesty International. Only a handful of countries that hold the regular multi-party elections in Africa are rated as free, and in line with international and regional standards.

In addition, most of the countries in Africa operate ‘semi-authoritarian regimes’ because they have the facade of democracy; that is, they have political systems, they have all the institutions of democratic political systems, they have elected parliaments, and they hold regular elections. They have nominally independent judiciaries. They have constitutions that are by and large completely acceptable as democratic institutions--but there are, at the same time, very serious problems in the functioning of the democratic system.

Semi-authoritarian regimes are very good at holding multi-party elections while at the same time making sure that the core power of the government is never going to be affected. In other words, they are going to hold elections, but they are not--the regime is not going to lose those elections. Semi-authoritarian regimes intimidate voters, as it happened in the recent elections in Zimbabwe. Semi-authoritarian regimes manipulate state institutions for self-ends—governments don’t respect the laws, and don’t work through institutions. Semi-authoritarian regimes amend constitutions anytime they want.

Semi-authoritarian regimes will not introduce fully participatory, competitive elections that may result in their loss of power, and some are even unsure of how far they really want to go toward political pluralism in their countries. African politics is generally speaking, a matter of personality, not programs. For example, during the Obasanjo administration the prevailing idea was that the president was the father of the nation, the big man, or Kabiyesi, that is, no one dared question him.

A strong and effective democratic process should be able to establish a functioning administrative structure; and address the issue of how leaders are chosen; the issue of how different institutions relate to each other; the issues of how officials should act, for example, how the judiciary should act, the independence of the judiciary from other branches of government, and the problem of how the decisions that are taken by these democratic institutions can be implemented.

To move Africa forward, emerging democratic governments would have to confront a legacy of poverty, illiteracy, militarization, and underdevelopment produced by incompetent or corrupt governments. The syndrome of personal dictatorships and the winner-take-all practice as we have in Zimbabwe for example would need to be addressed, and there must be full respect for human rights; constitutional government and the rule of law; transparency in the wielding of power, and accountability of those who exercise power.

The basic rule of the democracy game is that the winners do not forever dislodge the losers. It is important for the consolidation of democracy that losers believe in the system and think that they can get back into the game. African governments must create an enabling environment in which traditions and values of the constitution will be able to take root and where rights and duties are set out. In this process, the separation of powers must be facilitated. Government must allow institutions to work and must allow citizens to exercise their rights, to live in accordance with their religious beliefs and cultural values, without interference. The legal order must be based on human rights, societal awareness of the instrumental and intrinsic values of democracy, a competent state, and a culture of tolerance.

Democracy requires that those who have authority use it for the public good; a democratic system of government begins by recognizing that all members of society are equal. People should have equal say and equal participation in the affairs of government and decision making in society, because, in the final analysis, government exists to serve the people; the people do not exist to serve government. In other words, governments must enhance individual rights and not stifle their existence. Repressive laws on many African countries’ statute books against personal liberty and habeas corpus must be removed from the statute books.

In most African countries, a tremendous amount of information does not circulate beyond a small portion of the urban population, owing to illiteracy, language barriers, and costs. Because the individual ignorance of personal rights and understanding of what democracy means has encouraged authoritarianism in Africa, political education at the grass roots is necessary. If a genuine democracy is to become a reality in Africa, the participation of the masses has to be sought by politicians, and not bought by manipulators.

Politicians should try to understand what the masses know, because they sometimes lack the ability to articulate their interests and grievances. However, politicians also should be educated about human rights and respect for the constitution. Education is crucial to the development of a culture of tolerance, which, it is hoped, would contribute immensely to the creation of an enabling environment for democracy.

We must encourage citizens to learn the habits of civil disobedience on a massive scale. We must encourage people to go out and demonstrate, to show their opinion regarding issues, because we must eliminate the culture of fear.

Role of civil society

It is unrealistic to expect that African countries will suddenly reverse course without internal pressure from civil society groups and institutionalize stable democratic government. The significance of a strong and energetic civil society in the transition to democracy cannot be over-emphasised. Perhaps one reason that Africa has not crumbled into total absolutism is because civil society has managed to survive, providing a mode of expression against authoritarianism, despite systematic efforts by the state to destroy it.

It is incumbent upon civil society to promote socialization by moving people away from thinking about the state and encouraging them to think what they want without fear. The public must fully participate in the affairs of state, with the state protecting their rights to be recognized. In this context, the value of the role of citizens and civil society is to organize and articulate the interests of local communities and the grass roots to the highest levels—even bringing about the change of laws—by serving as effective pressure groups.
Many governments are not willing to create an enabling environment. But by standing up, civil society organizations can insist and force governments to create a space. We must keep the culture of resistance alive and continue to question authoritarian rule especially on the important issues of human rights, constitutionalism and rule of law.

Political parties, human rights organizations and other civil society groups should mobilize the people to reject economic policies dictated to African governments by the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which have exacerbated poverty in Africa. The demand for participatory democracy should not be limited to conduct of free and fair elections only. It must also include the management of the economy in the interest of the people, otherwise, the fragile democratic process in bound to collapse.

With the pending elections in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Guinea, civil society organizations in West Africa gathered in this forum should unite in sending a clear message to the ECOWAS and AU that the subversion of democracy under whatever guise. Following this meeting, our engagement should be to immediately commence sensitization and mobilization of the population against the manipulation of constitutions and electoral laws, as well as the electoral process.

* Femi Falana is President West African Bar Association

* This article is based on a presentation at the West African Bar Association held in Abuja, Nigeria, 13 May 2008. The final communique from thetwo-day regional dialogue on the political situation in Zimbabwe can be found at the link shown below

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