Pambazuka News 542: Libya: The true costs of war
Pambazuka News 542: Libya: The true costs of war
Thirteen activists from Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe (ROHR) were arrested by the police outside the High Court on Wednesday (27 July), for protesting against ongoing human rights abuses in the country. ROHR said their activists were protesting against the continued incarceration of eight MDC-T activists who have remained behind bars since they were arrested on 29 May.
Journalists in Zimbabwe are concerned over a fresh warning that they face being jailed, if they report on issues discussed in cabinet. It is understood that the government plans to use the Official Secrets Act to silence the media, as it forges ahead with its culture of keeping ordinary Zimbabweans in the dark.
Government ministers are said to be getting increasingly uncomfortable with media reports of their deliberations in parliament, especially over issues they disagree on.
The appointment of Dr Willy Mutunga as chief justice in Kenya is a welcome development, writes Katto K. Wambua, but the wider public’s optimism needs to be tempered with pragmatism to avoid unrealistic expectations and subsequent frustration.
Eritrea was behind a plot to attack an African Union summit in Ethiopia in January and is bankrolling al Qaeda-linked Somali rebels through its embassy in Kenya, according to a UN report. A UN Monitoring Group report on Somalia and Eritrea said the Red Sea state's intelligence personnel were active in Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya and Somalia, and that the country's actions posed a threat to security and peace in the region.
South Africa's health system is on the brink of a dramatic change, with the National Health Insurance White Paper expected to be considered by Cabinet this week. The main priority will be to provide free health care to all South African’s regardless of what they earn or where they live. On this page, listen to - or read - a Health-e report on a visit to South Africa's west coast where an innovative programme is leading the way.
The debate on the United States public debt ceiling is ‘really another gambit to step up class warfare against the majority of American citizens and the planet by the growing political power of the top one per cent of US society,’ argues Horace Campbell.
In April of this year, Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika delivered his state of the nation address, entitled ‘A Promise Delivered’. Well, from what is currently happening in the country (which some observers liken to the ongoing uprising in the Arab world), nothing there remotely resembles a promise delivered. As far as I can make out, things in Malawi look more like a promise undelivered to me. Now 19 people have reportedly been killed by the police in an attempt to squash the anti-government protests.
Here is the deal: unleashing soldiers and police on a peaceful citizens’ demonstration protesting against economic mismanagement is not delivering a promise. Signing a bill into law that bans any publication deemed not to be in the public interest (including a law that makes it impossible for individuals to obtain a court injunction and seek judicial redress against the government) cannot be termed as a promise delivered. Nor can postponing the local government elections mean a promise delivered.
Stifling academic freedom as with the detention of Dr. Blessings Chinsinga because he discussed the Arab uprising during a political science lecture is not a promise delivered. Currently four Chancellor College lecturers, including Dr Chinsinga and Dr Jessie Kabwila-Kapasula, have been fired under mysterious circumstances. And neither is lavish spending to promote your own book (as the president did in January) a promise delivered.
Expelling the British High Commissioner from Malawi for a leaked embassy cable that referred to you as ‘autocratic and intolerant of criticism’ is not delivering a promise. In response, the UK (the largest aid donor to Malawi) decided to go on the offensive by expelling the Malawian representative, and froze all new aid, the country’s main life support as 40 per cent of Malawi’s budget comes from international aid. The outcomes: fuel and energy shortages, severe foreign exchange (forex) shortages, and depreciation of Malawi’s local currency, the kwacha.
But the big picture is that wa Mutharika’s behaviour and his response to citizens’ demands for more democracy are similar to how dictators behave when their reign is threatened. They try by any means to stifle criticism through state violence, using the soldiers and police at their disposal.
But also the behavior also tells the true but sad story of this relatively peaceful southern African country. For decades Malawi has seen leaders/rulers who treated the country as a private company for personal gains. The first postcolonial president, Dr Kamuzu Banda (Ngwazi, the great lion, or Mkango wapfuko laMalaw, the lion of Malawi, as he preferred to be called) turned Malawian citizens into subjects, and the country into Kamuzu Banda’s Malawi, Inc. Kamuzu’s successor, Professor Bakili Muluzi was accused of dictatorial tendencies, including imposing Mutharika on the people. There is no love left between Bakili and Mutharika now, but if there is anything Mutharika learned from his predecessor it is how to impose his will on the Malawian people. Apparently, he is also now plotting to pave a political path for his own brother, Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika (yes another professor!) to be Malawi’s next president.
The bottom line: despite the presidential rhetoric, promises of economic and social development, reduction of poverty, and promotion of peace have not been delivered to the citizens of Malawi.
Ever since a man in Tunisia burned himself to death in December 2010 in protest at his treatment by police, pro-democracy rebellions have erupted across the Middle East. This interactive timeline produced by The Guardian UK traces key events.
Of the millions of dollars spent on climate change projects in developing countries, little has been allocated in a way that will benefit women. Yet, in Africa, it is women who will be most affected by climate change. According to United Nations data, about 80 per cent of the continent's smallholder farmers are women. While they are responsible for the food security of millions of people, agriculture is one of the sectors hardest hit by climate change.
Concerned with a low rate of voter registration, Tunisia's Independent High Electoral Commission (ISIE) is in the midst of a major push to encourage citizens to register for the country's historic 23 October elections. Tunisians have until Tuesday (2 August) to register to vote for the Constituent Assembly elections.
A group of civil society organisations have issued a statement that requests that the government removes the restrictions imposed on civil society organisations and human rights activists in order to enable these actors to contribute to the change called for by the revolution and in implementing a peaceful transition of power towards a civil government freely elected by the people.
A Zambian newspaper editor has appeared in a Lusaka High Court to commence his defence in a defamation suit brought against him by President Rupiah Banda. President Banda, in power for almost three years now, sued The Post editor Fred M’membe and his publication for defamation ahead of the 2008 polls after the paper allegedly said he was 'corrupt and a liar'.
The Pan African Parliament (PAP) recently held a meeting of parliamentarians from across the continent to discuss an appropriate African response to resource grabs, reports the blog anothercountryside.wordpress.com. 'The meeting noted the strategic potential of countries with natural resource wealth, but also the inequitable deals that have been approved by many governments, providing long-term leases of 50 to 99 years to companies at minimal or even no cost, and with few guarantees about development. Of priority concern was evidence that local communities are often displaced, undermining local food production and aggravating vulnerability to hunger and chronic poverty.'
The government failed to stop a teachers’ strike last week after the ministers responsible insisted there was no money to meet their demands. Education Minister Jessica Alupo and other line ministers told MPs on the Parliamentary Social Services Committee that their hands were tied and that the matter had been forwarded to Minister of Public Service Henry Kajura, who asked teachers to be patient as there was no money.
Sudan is urging the UAE to begin developing the vast expanses of farmland it has acquired in the country, as the north loses the majority of its oil revenues following the independence of South Sudan. The country, ravaged by years of conflict, is now turning its focus to its agricultural sector, as it desperately tries to generate cash. Investors from the UAE, including the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, have been given a total of 600,000 feddans of farmland in Sudan, either for free or at nominal rent costs, on condition they will invest in the land, said Salih Ibrahim Salih Mohammed, a senior researcher at the Sudan Economic Advisor's Office, a division of the country's embassy in Abu Dhabi.
The trend of international land grabbing - when governments and private firms invest in or purchase large tracts of land in other countries for the purpose of agricultural production and export - can have serious environmental and social consequences, according to researchers at the Worldwatch Institute. Deals that focus solely on financial profit can leave rural populations more vulnerable and without land, employment opportunities, or food security.
The US has suspended a $350m (£213m) aid package to Malawi after the security forces were accused of killing anti-government protesters last week. A US government agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), said the money was to have been spent on developing Malawi's power sector. But it had suspended the aid because it was 'deeply upset' by the deaths of 19 people during the demonstrations.
Inmates in Ugandan prisons are subject to brutal compulsory labour, frequent violence, miserable overcrowding, and disease, Human Rights Watch said in a report examining conditions in 16 prisons throughout the country. Over half of those in Ugandan prisons are in pretrial detention and may be held for years without having been convicted of any crime, Human Rights Watch said. Profits from prisoner labour often benefit individual prison officers, while prisoners suffer illness from inadequate food, water, and basic hygiene.
This issue of South Bulletin focuses on the adverse effects of the boom and bust cycle in capital flows into and out of developing countries, which has caused adverse effects in many economies. After the financial crisis, capital flows resumed their large surge into some developing countries. This has caused them many problems, such as currency appreciation affecting their trade, excess money, asset price boom and inflation.
As African Union and NATO leaders push for a political solution to the Libyan crisis, many of the thousands of refugees and migrants stranded on the Libyan- Tunisian border say their plight continues to fall on deaf ears. Sitting outside her makeshift tent with her daughter and grandson, 63-year-old Somali refugee Hawiyeh Awal tries to find a bit of shelter from the scorching sun on the Tunisian desert. 'I’m so scared that I’m going to die in this hot desert,' she says. 'I have diabetes and I’ve lost more than eight kilos since coming here because of the hot weather.'
Rwanda is the first country in the world where women outnumber men in parliament, with women occupying 45 out of 80 seats. However, despite this, experts say that the country still needs a gender equality perspective on how national resources and programmes are implemented. 'The move will help ensure government spending addresses the needs of women and men equitably,' said Susan Mutoni, referring to the situation in Rwanda. Mutoni is the project coordinator of gender responsive budgeting in Rwanda’s ministry of finance and economic planning. Since 2009, the country has been part of a three-year pilot programme, the Gender Equitable Local Development (GELD), which is organised by UN Women and the United Nations Capital Development Fund.
For the first time ever, the Kenyan finance minister has allocated almost four million dollars, about 3.6 per cent of the primary education budget, to provide free sanitary pads to schoolgirls. This comes after persistent pressure from women parliamentarians who took the issue of girls’ absenteeism from school, due to lack of sanitary pads, to parliament. It was a campaign that left their male counterparts speechless, for such matters are rarely spoken about in public, let alone in parliament, in Kenya’s conservative society.
Mandela Park Backyarders say they have 'proof of corruption' in a Khayelitsha housing project and have called for the 'immediate' resignation of Western Cape Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela. The call follows the organisation’s online publication of results of their investigation into the occupation of houses in the Mandela Park Housing Project, of which 150 houses out of a planned 950 have been completed.
A call for applications to grantees seeking to organise activities to mark 16 Days of Activism against Gender based Violence has been issued by African Women’s Development Fund. The maximum amount of grant disbursed per organisation will be US$1,000.
The government of South Africa should provide access to protective measures such as condoms and water-based lubricants in prisons and other places where forced and consensual anal sex is prevalent, say some advocates for improved health services for men who have sex with men. Sensitivity training for health care workers, improved counselling for HIV-infected men and the provision of condoms and lubricants in prisons and other places where men have sex with men are among solutions being advanced to combat rising HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in major cities of South Africa. The solutions are among measures urged by participants to the first South African conference, the 'Top2Btm MSM [men who have sex with men] Symposium,' held to 'brainstorm about prevention, care and treatment for MSMs'.
Health workers say an apparent rise in contraceptive use in Nigeria stems largely from a willingness by traditional and religious leaders in some regions to use their influence in promoting reproductive health. In the predominantly Muslim north, where contraceptive use has historically been far lower than the national average, the support of traditional leaders has helped change attitudes in communities where contraception was long regarded as taboo.
After walking for days to escape drought and insecurity, often barefoot and with almost no food or water, Somali refugees who arrive at Dadaab camps in northern Kenya are met with delays and red tape. Some wait up to two weeks to be registered as refugees, and longer to get food and shelter. The sluggish pace of the registration process is partly because refugees may only register and receive ration cards at Ifo camp, at the centre of the three Dadaab camps set up to 10km apart.
Post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problems experienced by Somalis who fled their country to settle in the UK, according to Abdi Gure, a community development worker for Mind, a mental health organization based in Harrow, north London. Uncertainty over immigration status, housing and language barriers can compound mental illness but fear of being stigmatized may prevent sufferers from seeking support from their community as well as from the mental health services.
Several districts in Uganda will need urgent relief aid to mitigate the risk of starvation following poor rains that have affected this year's harvest, the Minister for Disaster Preparedness warned. Most of the affected districts are in Karamoja where the situation was particularly unique because crop failure and a prolonged drought had aggravated the region's food crisis, Musa Ecweru said.
Zimbabwe’s Justice and Legal Affairs ministry has dismissed reports that the country has failed to recruit a hangman since 2005, after several people rushed to hand in their applications for the supposedly vacant post. The ministry has said there is no opening for the job and instead blamed the cabinet for 'sitting' on requests to carry out executions since last year. There are 55 convicts on death row, some who have been there for up to 13 years.
Claims that eating GMOs leads to giving birth to goats cause complaints…
UK Prime Minister David Cameron may want to get his own house in order before lecturing African leaders…
Will there be an end to impunity and the cultivation of the rule of law and justice for the Kenya people? Beth Maina Ahlberg writes about the fresh winds blowing through the Kenyan judiciary and the vested interests wanting to maintain the status quo.
‘South Africa became the regional economic powerhouse that it is today partly on the backs of immigrant labourers from the SADC who helped build the country’s economy. Is it unreasonable for people to want to share in the fruits of what they helped create?’ asks Mandisi Majavu.
In a review of Rasna Warah’s 'Red Soil and Roasted Maize: Selected Essays and Articles on Contemporary Kenya', Oby Obyerodhyambo praises a hard-hitting collection of commentaries from the Daily Nation columnist.
For the past three decades, neoliberalism has insisted that ‘there is no alternative’ to semi-colonialism and the diktats of the IMF and World Bank. But, writes Senegal’s Guy Marius Sagna, our people ‘have enough common sense to understand that things have to change’.
‘Storytellers accounting for the role of terrorism in defining modern societies have chosen to tell a story in which communities are constituted and bound by an irrational fear of difference,’ writes H. Nanjala Nyabola.
Government departments have been called upon to cut their 2011/2012 budgets by 25 per cent. According to Bheki Bhembe who is Director of Budget and Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance, meetings with the ministries on the issue are underway. 'We have issued Circular No.3 of 2011 to cut ministries’ budgets by 25 per cent. We are meeting them to look at reducing their budgets hoping to reduce level of commitment going forward,' he said. He noted that the reality of the government financial crisis has hit home with the ministries and they are cooperating.
Sun Biofuels Mozambique, a subsidiary of United Kingdom-based Sun Biofuels, has exported the first batch of 30 tonnes of Jatropha oil, from its fields in the central Mozambican province of Manica, to the German airliner 'Lufthansa'. Cited in the daily paper 'Noticias', Sun Biofuels Mozambique manager for corporate affairs, Sergio Gouveia said that the exports of Jatropha oil follows an order placed by Lufthansa for testing on its planes, Mozambique's news agency, AIM, reported. 'Civil aviation is an interesting market, that's why we are looking forward for Lufthansa test results, which has shown a keen interest in our production,' stressed Gouveia.
Barely four months to the 17th round of the United Nations-backed climate change conference scheduled for Durban in South Africa, Nigeria’s place as a leading voice seeking justice for the African continent appears to have taken a free-fall. Proceedings from the recently-held climate talks in Bonn, Germany indicated that, out of the over 200 negotiators appointed as Africa’s representatives under the platform of the African Group, only one Nigerian was acknowledged. The list showed that South Africa had 29 negotiators, including the national focal person; Ghana had six; Sudan, five; Gambia, three; Senegal, eight; Mali, four; Kenya, five; Malawi, four; Egypt, six; and Ethiopia, two.
Malawi journalists were beaten by police in churches and hospitals in Lilongwe, and were blamed for the demonstrations that swept the country last week. The country's radio stations were also shut down in the 'national interest'. Meanwhile, private media houses shut down last week after they heard that their buildings were about to be torched, said Kondwani Munthali, a journalist from Nation Publications.
Several key Malawi leaders of last week's anti-government protests are in hiding after President Bingu wa Mutharika threatened to arrest them following the deadly riots, a leading rights activist said. 'The leaders have received death threats from unknown people. They are in hiding for their personal safety and that of their families after the President said he would arrest them,' Moses Mkandawire, one of the main organisers of the protests in the northern city of Mzuzu, said.
After being filed two weeks ago, it is now only a matter of time before the MP for Gaborone Central, Dumelang Saleshando, presents a motion of no confidence in President Ian Khama and his government. Because the motion is not likely to pass, Saleshando intends to use it to highlight the shortcomings of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government under Khama, whom he considers unfit for office. Speaking in an interview, Saleshando blamed the recent public service strike on Khama, saying as unions bargained with the employer, the president had seen fit to tour the country vowing that there would be no salary increase.
Supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party on Sunday 24 July assaulted an MP and four journalists as they disrupted a parliamentary committee receiving submissions on a proposed human rights law. Journalists who were caught in the mayhem said a crowd of more than 200 Zanu PF supporters stormed the parliament building singing revolutionary songs. A legislator was dragged out of the building and was repeatedly assaulted. Journalists from privately owned newspapers were also locked inside the building and heavily assaulted.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has said it is worried by the rate at which state security agencies are arresting citizens on charges of insulting President Robert Mugabe, whose cases the organisation is receiving every day. 'One of the most fascinating things at ZLHR is that everyday we are getting a case of a person being charged with the law of insulting President. If you say anything critical especially mentioning governance and in particular current President you are likely to spend a night in jail, and that to me is a symptomatic of a country which is not ready to accept democracy. Democracy in its own allows citizens to freely express themselves without fearing for what will happen after.'
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Pretoria has welcomed the sentencing of human trafficker Adina dos Santos (28) to life imprisonment. Dos Santos was also given a one-year sentence in the Pretoria Regional Court for living off the money the young women had made. She was found guilty in May of trafficking three girls from Mozambique to Pretoria in February 2008.
Nigerian security forces killed at least 23 people in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri in retaliation for a bomb attack blamed on a radical Islamist sect, Amnesty International said on Monday (25 July). Boko Haram, a radical group which wants sharia law more widely applied across Africa's most populous nation, has been behind almost daily shootings and attacks with homemade bombs in and around Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
The Protection of Information Bill is back in the spotlight in parliament, with the focus on a new panel that will have the power to decide if information has been wrongly classified. The proposed law - dubbed 'the secrecy bill' - has been widely criticised for giving the state wide powers to classify information, and for punishing people who publish that classified information, even if it is in the public interest. Opposition parties and civil society groups say a key problem in the bill remains: it provides for information to be classified in the interests of 'national security' but it is not clear what exactly national security is.
Some 40,000 famine-hit people have fled to the Somali capital Mogadishu over the past month in search of food and water, the UN refugees agency said. 'Over the past month, UNHCR figures show that nearly 40,000 Somalis displaced by drought and famine have converged on Mogadishu in search of food, water, shelter and other assistance,' said Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. 'A further 30,000 have arrived at settlements around Mogadishu.'
Ethiopia and Uganda have signed bilateral agreements to cooperate in regional security operations. The deal also seeks to strengthen economic ties while allowing for the free movement of people between the two countries. Ethiopia's Foreign Affairs ministry said the agreement would enable the two countries to take a common position on regional security affairs. Among the issues to be prioritised are Somalia, South Sudan and Eritrea.
A gallery of images from Hossam el-Hamalawy and published on the London Guardian website illustrates how a protest march towards army headquarters in Cairo ended in violence.
Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik is reported to have copied several ideas from a right-wing South African website when he compiled his 1,518-page 'manifesto'. Breivik borrowed liberally from several sources in writing his rambling ideas to defend Western civilisation. One of his themes is the struggle against multi-culturalism, and he used several articles on the topic from the blog iluvsa.blogspot.org, which has a banner proclaiming: 'I luv South Africa...but I hate my government'.
Pirates have hijacked an Italian diesel tanker off Benin in western Africa in an attack of the kind more usually associated with Somalia. Assailants boarded the RBD Anema e Core in the Gulf of Guinea, officials in Benin and Italy confirmed. The Gulf of Guinea has become increasingly important for its potential energy reserves which have attracted international interests, BBC West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy reports from Dakar.
Gambia feted the 17th anniversary of a coup by President Yayha Jammeh on 22 July as his regime faced allegations from rights bodies of muzzling journalists, killings and torture. Jammeh seized power in Gambia on 22 July 1994 in a bloodless coup from predecessor Dawda Jawara, and the anniversary is typically feted with more pomp than independence day celebrations. Rights bodies have accused the 46-year-old leader of creating a climate of fear which has terrified journalists and rights defenders into toeing the line and quashes any dissent against his regime.
At least nine people have died in clashes between unidentified 'armed gangsters' and security forces in northwest Burundi, sources said. The incident, the most deadly since the end of the 1993-2006 civil war, came amid increasing reports in recent weeks of attacks by 'armed gangs'.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) on 22 July 2011 joined Amnesty International-Ghana, Human Rights Advocacy Centre, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiatives (CHRI) and Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) to mark Gambia’s descent into tyranny. Over the years Amnesty International and its global partners including MFWA have been marking this so-called 'Freedom Day' annually with various campaign events to continue highlighting the grave human rights violations to the world for action.
South Sudan has barred people of Somali origin from entering its territory by road, creating a potential diplomatic and trade crisis with its neighbours. A senior Kenya Revenue Authority official, who sought anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the press, said that the rules were introduced two weeks ago due to what is believed to be security reasons. Kenyan traders, including those of Somali origin, have flocked to South Sudan in search of new business opportunities.
Pambazuka News 541: Forced migration: Rethinking 'governance' and justice
Pambazuka News 541: Forced migration: Rethinking 'governance' and justice
Berna Ataitom makes the case for the local integration of refugees in their host countries, describing it as the forgotten yet ultimate solution.
Acronyms used to conceptualise transitional justice and forced displacement can have negative political consequences when deployed to understand situations and inform interventions, observes Adam Branch, as ‘people start to take that acronym for uncontested reality, forgetting the words that make it up’.
Existing ‘normative social, political and legal structures do not support’ internally displaced persons and ‘their quest to own and have access to properties or land’, writes Denis Barnabas Otim, in an exploration of the relationship between IDPs and property rights in Africa.
Uganda ‘is seeking to come up with a law that will make it impossible for sexual minorities, or even those who know about them, to live within the country. Consequently this is going to lead to an increase in the number of people seeking asylum based on their sexual orientation,’ writes Angella Nabwowe.
Eveliina Lytinen reports back on a roundtable discussion about the exclusion of internally displaced persons from protection and assistance, during the recent International Association for the Study of Forced Migration conference in Uganda.
The recent International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) conference discussed a range of issues around LGBTI people and forced migration, writes Jeff Ogwaro, such as the fears asylum seekers may have around declaring their sexuality.
Faced with the slow response to the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons, the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) convened a debate over 3–6 July in Kampala on gaps between ratification and implementation, engaging member states and involving civil society.
Uganda has had a turbulent history of nation-building, with identity often rooted in ethnicity rather than notions of citizenship, notes Annelieke van de Wiel. This year’s International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) conference gave rise to numerous discussions on the need for the country to face up to its past and develop an inclusive Ugandan identity, van de Wiel writes.
Stephen Oola writes about how a recent International Association for the Study of Forced Migration conference explored the links between transitional justice and forced migration.
A panel discussion at the recently held International Association for the Study of Forced Migration conference tackled the often precarious position of refugee human rights defenders. Katie McQuaid reports on the issues at stake.
Pambazuka News 540: Legalised looting: Exploitation and dissent
Pambazuka News 540: Legalised looting: Exploitation and dissent
The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned sweeping arrests and attacks on journalists, as well as censorship by the administration of Malawi President Bingu Wa Muthiraka against media outlets reporting on nationwide antigovernment protests that erupted on Wednesday 20 July. Police arrested a contributor to Nyasa Times, a UK-based online news site critical of the government, journalist Collins Mtika. Vitima Ndovi, a freelance journalist in the capital, Lilongwe, was also arrested.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Sunday called for an investigation into the financial affairs of African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema. 'We call for an investigation by the ANC's committee on ethics and members' interests, the SA Revenue Service (Sars) and the Special Investigations Unit into the allegations,' spokesperson Patrick Craven said in a statement. This came after AfriForum laid a corruption case against Malema on Sunday, after it was reported that he had a trust fund for deposits from business people.
'The death of newsprint represents the end of an era. And news gathering will not be replaced by the Internet,' argues this article about the US news industry, but which has relevance for the industry globally. 'Journalism, at least on the large scale of old newsrooms, is no longer commercially viable. Reporting is time-consuming and labor-intensive. It requires going out and talking to people. It means doing this every day. It means looking constantly for sources, tips, leads, documents, informants, whistle-blowers, new facts and information, untold stories and news. The steady decline of the news business means we are plunging larger and larger parts of our society into dark holes and opening up greater opportunities for unchecked corruption, disinformation and the abuse of power.'
The Africa Yearbook covers major domestic political developments, the foreign policy and socio-economic trends in sub-Sahara Africa – all related to developments in one calendar year. Six editions of the Africa Yearbook are now freely available online until 1 August 2011.
A new report from Action Against Hunger and the Oakland Institute, 'Achieving Regional Integration: The Key to Success for the Fight Against Hunger in West Africa' assesses the relevance and potential of regional institutions and mechanisms in reducing hunger and undernutrition in West Africa - where chronic hunger remains pervasive - decades after the devastating droughts of the 1970s. The report analyzes the role regional institutions have in the fight against hunger and argues that, despite weaknesses, the existence and commitment of regional institutions is key. 'Many issues, such as price volatility, are regional by essence and cannot be tackled effectively by individual countries. Without integration, most West African states will remain subject to the agenda and goodwill of international donors, institutions, and richer countries. Resource-poor African governments need to implement regional policies for sustainable food production, smoother regional trade, and regulated agricultural markets.'
The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in US prisons serving two life sentences and 96 years, collectively, after being wrongly convicted in the US federal district court in Miami on 8 June 200l. The open letter - available at the link provided - authored by long time activists, Joan P. Gibbs, Esq. and Rosemari Mealy, JD, Ph.D., has been endorsed by over a 100 activists from throughout the United States and around the world.
A United Nations report has said that disconnecting people from the internet is a human rights violation and against international law. The report railed against France and the United Kingdom, which have passed laws to remove accused copyright scofflaws from the internet. It also protested blocking internet access to quell political unrest
Because there has been so little research into the rape of men during war, it's not possible to say with any certainty why it happens or even how common it is – although a rare 2010 survey, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 22 per cent of men and 30 per cent of women in Eastern Congo reported conflict-related sexual violence. Research shows that male sexual violence is a component of wars all over the world and also suggests that international aid organisations are failing male victims, reports The Observer newspaper.
The conditions agreed to by Walmart and Massmart as part of the Competition Tribunal’s conditional approval of their merger could be abandoned if the case has to be reheard by the tribunal. This is just one of the possible outcomes of what is increasingly being seen as a high-risk attempt by three government departments to extract additional concessions from Walmart and Massmart. Not only might the country lose the commitments that have been made by the merging parties but it is possible that Walmart could approach the US government and in turn the World Trade Organisation (WTO) if it is put under unacceptable levels of pressure to agree to additional commitments.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi recently dismissed a question from an MP representing his ruling EPRDF about comments made by Ken Ohashi, former country director of the World Bank to Ethiopia. Ohashi believes Ethiopia’s economy has deeply structural flaws in competitiveness and is trapped in a low productivity quagmire. He concluded his four-year tenure in Ethiopia last month. He was known for his scepticism on the viability of the administration’s signature plan outlined in the Growth and Transformation Plan.
More than three years ago, peace accords signed in the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma, were supposed to signal the end of violence and displacement in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, as the country heads for general elections in November, armed factions continue to destabilize the country. In this analysis, IRIN explores the sticking points in the protracted conflict, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Côte d'Ivoire is studying national health insurance and other schemes for financing public health services so more people have access to quality care. For now the temporary policy of free care - which the government said was aimed to help people after the post-election crisis - is causing grief for doctors and patients alike. Many women in the city who have recently taken their children to hospital, where medicines are scarce, told IRIN they would prefer a return to the country's long-time system of health user fees. 'At least we knew where we stood, and we could get some services,' said Mariam* in Adjamé District.
At least 38 soldiers have been arrested over an assassination attempt on president Alpha Conde of Guinea, who was nearly killed last Tuesday when his home was bombarded with rockets. An official of the Guinean government told the AP news agency on Thursday that many of the men arrested have ties to Guinea's previous military rulers. Conde, 73, escaped unhurt from the incident, but a member of his presidential guard was killed and two others injured as they fought off the attack for over two hours.
Mali's majority party, the Malian Alliance for Democracy (ADEMA), picked Parliament Speaker Dioncounda Traore as its presidential candidate for April 2012 polls, a party official said Saturday. ADEMA holds 54 of 147 seats in parliament and has dominated the chamber since former president Alpha Oumar Konare was elected in 1992.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has met with northern elders on the menace of Islamist sect Boko Haram, blamed for a spate of deadly bomb and gun attacks especially in the city of Maiduguri. The meeting explored different options to bring about peace and security in the beleaguered state and other affected areas in northern Nigeria, said a minister who briefed journalists after the meeting.
Bineta Diop is well known for her campaigning in defence of women's rights in Africa. As director of the non-governmental organisation Femmes Africa Solidarité, she is at the forefront of the fight for better protection of women in conflict zones and their integration in peace processes. In April 2011, the US magazine Time listed Diop among the 100 most influential people in the world, recognising her engagement with several initiatives for peace in Africa. In this interview, Diop, who comes from Senegal, told IPS that women must challenge men in order to share political and economic power.
Police have started questioning the Ocampo Six suspects in connection with the 2008 post-election violence. Three suspects - former police boss Hussein Ali, Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey and radio presenter Joshua Sang - have already recorded statements. The move to question the suspects, fingered by prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo as bearing the greatest responsibility for the mayhem, is said to be aimed at convincing the International Criminal Court that Kenya can try them at home.
Seven Malawians killed in anti-government riots this week were buried in a mass grave on Friday 22 July as President Bingu wa Mutharika threatened to stamp out any further protests against his rule. At least 18 people have been killed and 200 arrested in unprecedented protests against Mutharika, with soldiers firing live ammunition and tear gas to disperse crowds calling for an end to what they say is autocratic rule.
Residents of a Philippi informal settlement and police have clashed again as protests over electricity supply entered their third day. Three police Nyalas cordoned off the corner of New Eisleben and Sheffield roads on 21 July when protests flared up again in Siyahlala. Residents set containers on fire and used them to block off sections of Sheffield Road, while teenagers and children lined the road, armed with rocks, watching for police.
Senegal banned political rallies in the centre of the capital Dakar on Thursday 21 July, two days before a planned protest against President Abdoulaye Wade seeking a new term in 2012 elections. The move forced organisers of the march to reschedule it to a location outside the centre of town, where they had been planning to demonstrate close to Wade's presidential palace. A pro-Wade rally is due to take place in a separate suburb of the sprawling coastal capital. The Interior Ministry said the ban was needed on grounds of security.
Despite its decision to grant diplomatic recognition to Libya’s rebels, the Obama administration is struggling to find ways to provide them with the $34 billion in frozen Libyan assets held in US-controlled bank accounts, officials say. Administration officials held at least two meetings this past week to explore ways to release the money, which the opposition Transitional National Council says it urgently needs to pay salaries and buy critical supplies. But the funds are ensnared in a thicket of legal regulations.
A comprehensive 30-year dataset of African rainfall could soon help test climate change predictions and improve climate models, according to a UK researcher. The new data come from a European Meteosat satellite that has been collecting data over Europe and Africa. The data will supplement the poor ground data on rainfall to help improve climate predictions, which are often contradictory.
Israel has violated the right to free expression by approving a law that penalises individuals and organisations that call for boycotting Israel, say IFEX members the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) and Human Rights Watch. The law, approved in a 47-to-38 vote by Parliament on 11 July, makes it a punishable offence to publicly call for a boycott - economic, cultural or academic - against Israel, its institutions or any area under its control.
The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) has called on the prosecutor general to launch investigations into the forced disappearance of many individuals, including the journalist Reda Helal. On 21 July 2011, 'Al Wafd' Newspaper published a report on an interview with police officer Mahmoud Abdel Nabi, a member of the Honest Police Officers' Coalition in which he said that 'the police killed him [Helal], I know the officer who committed the murder.'
The July elections of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Ghana were billed as the event to elect a presidential candidate - and the wife of former president Jerry Rawlings was set to triumph. But the Rawlings camp ended up being trounced. Kwasi Adu explains what happened.
Of the 158 MPs in Zambia, just 22 are women. With women representing just 14 per cent of parliament, Zambia is one of the poorest performers on affirmative action for female politicians in the South African Development Community, SADC, a regional interparliamentary body made up of 15 member countries. Zambia will hold its presidential and legislative elections in October. The Regional Women's Parliamentary Caucus, a policy organ of the SADC, has set a goal for women to make up half of Zambia's parliament after these elections.
The western region minister Paul Evans Aidoo has ordered the immediate arrest of all homosexuals in the region. He has tasked the Bureau of National Investigations and all security agencies to smoke out persons suspected to be engaging in same sex. He also enlisted the services of landlords and tenants to provide reliable information which will lead to the arrest of homosexuals.
In what is being described by many Egyptians as the country's 'second revolution', tens of thousands are currently staging protests and sit-ins in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other cities in the biggest wave of protests since the fall of Hosni Mubarak on 11 February. The 18-day uprising toppled the former dictator, however, many demonstrators maintain that his legacy is alive and well in the current administration. Anger now is directed toward the ruling military council and caretaker prime minister Essam Sharaf's transitional government. This Al Jazeera page carries a series of photographs depicting events in Egypt.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has released the report, 'The Price of Hope: Human Rights Abuses During the Egyptian Revolution'. This report follows a fact-finding mission that was conducted in Egypt in March 2011 and documented the grave human rights violations perpetrated by the security forces against the protesters during the popular uprising. The investigation covered the period between 25 January and 11 February 2011, the day President Mubarak stepped down, with a special focus on Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, the cities that witnessed the most violence.
South Africa’s LGBT community now has a financial service provider, Gaysure, catering exclusively for its needs. 'The gay community is a much lower risk when it comes to insurance needs and thus it is long overdue for not just another company targeting the LBGT market, but a company catering specifically for their needs with a niche product,' say Gaysure on their website. Products and services provided by Gaysure include, car and household insurance, business insurance, life insurance, retirement planning and stock broking.
Uganda’s Constitutional Court on Monday 18 July began hearing a petition against the law that bars homosexuals from being employed and accessing equal opportunities. An LGBTI activist Mr Adrian Juuko, the Executive Director of Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), petitioned the court to nullify section 15(6) d of the Equal Opportunities Commission Act 2007.
Children in Somalia are being systematically recruited to fight on frontlines, killed in indiscriminate attacks and denied an education, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. Other abuses include being flogged, and being forced to attend public stonings and amputations by Islamist groups, including al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab, the rights watchdog said in a report. 'As a child in Somalia, you risk death all the time: you can be killed, recruited and sent to the frontline, punished by al Shabaab because you are caught listening to music or "wearing the wrong clothes", be forced to fend for yourself because you have lost your parents or even die because you don't have access to adequate medical care,' Michelle Kagari, Amnesty's deputy director for Africa, said in a statement.
Reporters Without Borders has condemned a violent attack by members of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) on a Muvi TV crew that included two women that went to Nakachenje, a town to the west of Lusaka, on 18 July to investigate claims that MMD members were illegally seizing and sharing out land. The police, who are investigating the assault, said they arrested two suspects on charges of 'assault, criminal trespass and obtaining money by false pretences'.