Pambazuka News 413: Zimbabwe on the edge of the precipice
Pambazuka News 413: Zimbabwe on the edge of the precipice
The events of the past three days compel us to evaluate the state of fundamental freedoms in Kenya, and the verdict is singularly unfavourable. On December 12, 2008, as Kenya marked its 45th Jamhuri Day, the Grand Coalition Government signaled its definitive departure not just from the ideals of independence. It also departs from agreements reached under Agenda Item One of the mediation process, which sought to restore full fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to assembly and peaceful protest.
Sadiq Sahour Abkar paid human traffickers $750 to smuggle himself, his 28-year-old wife, Hajja Abbas Haroun, and their infant daughter Samar over a remote border crossing in the Sinai Desert into Israel last year. The smugglers, however, dropped them along with four pregnant women, eight men and numerous children - all Sudanese refugees - several miles from the border. As the African migrants neared the frontier, they heard a patrol of Egyptian border guards and lay down quietly on the ground, waiting for them to pass. Suddenly a baby in the group began crying.
Following the resignation of Mr. Pierre Thizier Seya from the position of ERNWACA Regional Coordinator, the Board of Directors has appointed Prof. Djénéba Traoré as next ERNWACA Regional Coordinator for a renewable 3-year term, starting from April 1, 2009. Mireille Massouka will be the acting Regional Coordinator until the new Regional Coordinator takes over.
In response to Network member’s requests, a one stop shop for GBV Prevention information has been created! The Network’s new website features an online library with the most current GBV prevention resources and program innovations in the Horn, East and Southern Africa. Also the website connects members who will be involved in lively online discussions, be able to post their experiences, stories and events.
Following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, ending more than 20 years of conflict in South Sudan, the peace building processes in Sudan remain challenging. In addition, this is in contrast to the expectations and hopes invested in the 2005 Sudan National Interim Constitution. Individuals and organizations working and advocating for human rights across the country continue to face multiple risks to their activities and lives.
The Center for Global Development (CGD), an independent Washington-based think tank, invites applications from leading scholars in developing countries for a visiting fellows program sponsored by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The program offers one-year sabbatical support for a senior researcher from a developing country on leave from his or her host institution.
China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group Co (CNMC) said it is raising 1 billion yuan ($145 million) through bonds to finance its Chambishi copper project in Zambia and Tagaung Taung nickel project in Burma.
Sudanese government soldiers and militia have forced kidnapped men, women and children into labour and sexual slavery in the war-torn region of Darfur, a coalition of African charities has said. The Sudanese military said the allegations were not worthy of comment and a government spokesman was not reachable for further response.
Reviewing the efforts of the acclaimed US playwright Eve Ensler and the former UN special envoy for AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis to sustain international attention on the DRC crisis, Stephen Leahy highlights the centrality of women and girls’ rights in the ongoing conflict in the east of the country.
Exploring Somalia’s fate under the Bush administration’s war on terror, Matthew Blood argues that the US has simply taken an already brutalised people and brutalised them even more. With warlordism, criminality, and piracy ever increasing, the author ponders whether the marked anti-Western sentiment and greater radicalisation of Islamic authority in the country will lead to violent future backlash within locations in the West from disaffected Somalis.
With Ghana witnessing elections broadly heralded as free and fair, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem considers the country’s enduring two-party political system. Arguing that John Kufuor’s outgoing administration simply owed its electoral success to a fortuitous set of circumstances, the author delves into the country’s post-colonial history and considers the persistence of the Danquah-Busia/Nkrumahist divide in contemporary politics.
With journalists and protestors in Kenya facing brutal arrests as they challenge governmental efforts to curb media freedom, Cenya Ciyendi laments the repression of groups merely demonstrating for the right to freedom of expression. At a time when the world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the author condemns the persistence of political self-service and the use of draconian, quasi-colonial measures to quash peaceful protest.
Considering the ultimate limitations of instructing Kenya’s children in ‘civilised’ acts like eating a banana with a knife and fork at the expense of an education true to the nation’s history, Wangui Kimari wonders whether the current educational system simply upholds students’ self-effacement.
Analysing the background to Angola’s legislative elections at the beginning of September, Rafael Marques de Morais considers the wide voting irregularities and social inequalities that allowed José Eduardo dos Santos’s MPLA to tighten its grip on political power. Reviewing the final results of the elections, the author argues that the central challenge for the Angolan electorate is to carve out a path of genuine representation and a new vision of genuine democratic power, all the while maintaining a commitment to non-violent action.
He picked up his tenor saxophone and played from memory Coltrane’s Naima. The style was not the usual hard bop. It had an overly intense feel, filled with staccato punches as if Blakey in his prime was teaching an Art class, pure drums and no cymbal. Most critics would have said he played like an amateur whilst the ones who consistently feign some form of enlightenment would have said he was borrowing heavily from bebop. It reminded him of his many struggles, most of them hidden under his ever so cool demeanor and the social expectations that arose with his manhood without even the pretense of his consultation or training. He could hardly remember when he became a man, not in that sense at the very least. He was no fool. However, he somehow seemed to have missed an important lesson over the years. The indications were there: deep husky voice that took him away from soloist roles, stubby chin with inconsistently sprouting hairs, broad shoulders that made his life a nightmare in an overcrowded city and that very tuft of not-so-public hair that he still didn’t understand the purpose it was meant to serve and whether or not his newly acquired manly status called on him to groom it or not.
cc. With its power-sharing agreement manifestly failing, Zimbabwe is on the brink of collapse, writes Mary Ndlovu. The author argues that in the face of an entrenched kleptocratic elite, life grows ever more difficult for the country’s population, a situation markedly exacerbated by a broader political culture of selfishness undermining the development of any form of effective collective action. Without an internationally sponsored, technocratically based transitional authority to replace ZANU-PF as soon as possible, Zimbabwe may yet be spoken of in the same breath as Somalia and the eastern DR Congo, she concludes.
In the midst of the current credit crunch and global economic downturn, John Samuel revisits the context behind the infamous 1930s great depression. The author contends that while the context behind the current financial crisis and that of the early 1930s are not identical, the high concentration of wealth within a few hands remains essentially the same.
Kenyans for Peace, Truth and Justice (KPTJ) evaluate the state of fundamental freedoms in Kenya, and their verdict is singularly unfavourable. The full statement is a condemnation of the record of the coalition government.
Pambazuka News 412: Global crisis of capital and consequences for Africa
Pambazuka News 412: Global crisis of capital and consequences for Africa
Media owners on Thursday urged President Kibaki to withhold his signature from the controversial Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill, describing it as the “most draconian Bill on the media since Independence” that was passed “out of revenge.”
The European Union's defence ministers launched on 10 November 2008 an anti-piracy mission called "Atalanta" off the coast of Somalia. The bloc claims that the goal of the enterprise is "to escort the World Food Programme's humanitarian convoys to Somalia and to contribute to the improvement of maritime security off the Somali coast as part of the European Union's overall action to stabilise Somalia."
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), learnt with deep shock and dismay the violent abduction and secret detention of the ZPP Executive Director and ZESN Board member Ms Jestina Mukoko. ZESN joins the long list of organisations and concerned individuals who have expressed their grave concern and condemnation of the abduction of Ms Mukoko.
The case reveals the shortcoming of Section 24(1) of the Children Act, which relieved fathers from an immediate parental obligation to support their children born out of wedlock. The High Court held that such a law is discriminatory against children born out of wedlock and called for the legislature to consider amending the law. Advocates may utilize the Court’s position to challenge that Section and insist upon the amendment of the law.
Despite the obligation of the states to act with due diligence to prevent violence against women - violence against women and girls in many societies is met with governmental silence or apathy or lack of interest. The violence against women by agents of the state goes largely unreported and unscrutinized. Women continue to face violence at the hands of state agents.
A report issued by the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime offers good practices and lessons learned designed to assist States in enhancing existing legislation and developing new laws to address violence against women. Based on an expert group meeting held in Vienna, Austria, from 26 to 28 May 2008, the report - “Good practices in legislation on violence against women” - provides guidelines and a model framework for legislation on violence against women, including detailed recommendations, commentaries and examples of good practices.
Almost eleven thousand participants, hundreds of thousands of hours spent in meetings and countless tonnes of carbon released into the atmosphere travelling there. The UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, is happening this week. Want to get all the unmissable news from this hugely important event *without* contributing to the problem?
This latest report from the International Crisis Group, argues that the danger of a humanitarian catastrophe and new instability in the country and the wider region is high because both the regime and the main opposition forces see armed conflict as the ultimate way out of the long crisis.
This 10 December marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, it is more than a global birthday. The anniversary is a pertinent way to take stock of what the Declaration and the movement for human rights in general has meant for African women. At the time of the Declaration’s founding the notion of a common humanity – and with presumed, unqualified rights – was unheard of. Now, on its 60th birthday, Africa has its first female president.
We - citizens of Haiti, political militants and unionists of the grassroots movement for democracy in our country - solemnly address ourselves to you on the eve of the election that will most likely make you the next president of the United States.
The purpose of the Internship is to support the work of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders at the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR). It is a 12 month position based in Cotonou, Benin. Candidates should be able to work in English and French. Front Line will prioritise the recruitment of interns who have experience as a human rights defender in Africa.
Belgian foreign minister Karel de Gucht failed to secure the support of his EU counterparts for the deployment an EU mission to Congo until UN reinforcements can arrive. The ministerial meeting on Monday (8 December) ended with no commitments for a so-called bridging mission, despite UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling on the EU to send troops until 3,000 additional soldiers can take their place and under a UN mandate.
An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education demonstrates that African universities face a crisis in hiring and retaining new Ph.D. holders, many of whom choose to go into industry or NGOs. Fewer than half of University-based academics have doctorates in their respective disciplines. As the piece points out, "most institutions have focused on raising student numbers rather than on improving the quality of education and research." (Kegoro Macharia)
This latest report from the International Crisis Group, concludes that completion of the peace process that started in June 2006 requires the government to genuinely address the marginalisation of Northern communities which cannot be satisfied with the vague promises in the Juba protocols. If the violence is to end, Joseph Kony, the reclusive leader of the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency, and his commanders must also both be put under increased pressure and given credible incentives to disarm. Additional talks under a new format are needed, as a military solution to the conflict is not a realistic option.
Over 1,000 members of WOZA marched through the streets of central Bulawayo today to the offices of the state-owned Chronicle newspaper. The peaceful group distributed flyers calling on the so-called government to stand aside to allow the United Nations to deal with the humanitarian crisis. Other flyers distributed by the group demanded the immediate release of Jestina Mukoko, Violet Mupfuranhehwe and her two-year old baby and the other pro-democracy activists abducted in the last few weeks.
Marking the United Nations Human Rights Day, Friends of the Earth International has warned that industrialized nations' inaction on climate change at the UN climate talks flies in the face of international human rights obligations.
For 16 years, WITNESS has harnessed the power of video to advance human rights. In honor of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10th, we've put together this short video with different WITNESS staff talking about images that opened their eyes to human rights abuses around the world.
At its meeting last month, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria Board adopted a new Gender Equality Strategy, the full title of which is "The Global Fund's Strategy for Ensuring Gender Equality in the Response to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
On the 17th of December we will be commemorating the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, a day when all of the globe, sex worker rights organisations will be staging actions and vigils to raise awareness about violence that is commonly committed against sex workers. To coincide with this event, the Open Society Institute releases a report which finds that sex workers in Southern Africa experience widespread human rights abuses.
The rise of the mobile phone as a bank account substitute in Africa was reinforced as Vodafone announced the launch of a cross-border mobile money transfer service between the UK and Kenya.
The Angolan government should urgently end torture and unfair trials in state security cases, Human Rights Watch has said. Fourteen civilians who were arbitrarily detained and tortured in military custody are currently being held on security charges in the Angolan enclave of Cabinda.
You will play a leading role in defining our strategy in the Africa region, assessing where we will have an impact and how we can make a difference. You will engage with people on the ground, government officials and other relevant national and international organisations. You will have worked or lived in the area and have a broad understanding of the political and social factors affecting the region.
The Federal Government has reiterated its resolve to ensure the availability of basic infrastructure facilities for the proposed Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos. A statement from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry yesterday revealed that Subervising Minister of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Idi Hong, gave the assurances on behalf when a team from the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) visited him in Abuja.
In recent years, Nigeria has become an importer of almost everything under the sun and exporter of almost nothing (except oil and gas). This has resulted in very sharp unfavourable balance of trade with many countries.
That explains why Nigeria has become what the Ministry of Commerce and Industries described as "dumping ground" for stronger economies in the world: Automobiles, furniture, leather, canned food, drinks, and even refined petroleum products.
The US and China will provide US$ 20 billion in loans to finance trade in a coordinated effort to help ease the economic crisis. The agreement was made with developing countries in mind, and “to contain and curb the spread of the financial contagion and avoid a global recession,” according to Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan.
Japan, China and South Korea will hold their first trilateral senior working level meeting in Tokyo on Friday to discuss respective foreign policies toward Africa, such as financial assistance and economic relations, Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Kazuo Kodama said Tuesday.
Officials from the South African Revenue Service (SARS) seized 60 tonnes of clothing from a warehouse in Sasolburg last week that were illegally imported from China and shipped through Botswana. According to SARS spokesman Adrian Lackay on Friday, the goods were to be sent to three large retailers. Although they are believed to be listed companies, SARS would not disclose the value of the seized goods nor the names of the retailers.
China has promised to train 15,000 African personnel in the next three years to strengthen the cooperation in human resources development between China and Africa. This is a classroom to train for Ethiopia telecommunication engineers. The teachers and the equipment worth more than 10 million US dollars are all from a Chinese telecom company.
Not On Our Watch, founded by Don Cheadle, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Jerry Weintraub and David Pressman, has awarded the International Rescue Committee $260,000 to support critical health services at seven clinics in North Darfur. “As the conflict in Darfur continues, victims of violence remain desperately in need of basic support services,” says Matt Damon.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said Thursday a cholera epidemic has ended, even as the United Nations said more people have died and South Africa declared a disaster on its border because of the disease. "I am happy to say our doctors have been assisted by others, and WHO (the World Health Organization) and they have now arrested cholera," he said in a nationally broadcast speech.
South Africa has declared the border with Zimbabwe a disaster area due to a cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 800 people. Mogale Nchabeleng, a spokesman for the Limpopo provincial government in South Africa, said: "The whole of the Vhembe district has been declared a disaster. Extraordinary measures are needed to deal with the situation."
About 3,000 people gathered in Rumbek, South Sudan, to celebrate the official launch of an ambitious commercially integrated farming initiative (CIFI). The program will train and enable 3,000 women over a period of three years to grow and market a variety of crops on community land that was formerly unused. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony the deputy governor of Lake State, Awan Guol Riak donated a vehicle to the organization that will help the women to bring their crops to markets in town.
Nigeria's Supreme Court has rejected the final challenge to last year's election of President Umaru Yar'Adua. Opposition leaders had asked the court to annul the election, saying there had had been violence and fraud.
A breakaway group of South Africa's governing party has won the right to use the name Congress of the People. The High Court ruling comes ahead of the new party's official launch and a day after it took a third of seats in the Western Cape by-elections.
A Paris appeals court has rejected an extradition request for a man accused of a role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. A Rwandan court sentenced Isaac Kamali in his absence in 2003 to death for his alleged participation in the massacre. Mr Kamali, a mathematics professor, who also holds French nationality, was detained at a Paris airport in 2007.
Ghana's presidential election must be decided in a second-round vote, the electoral commission has announced. Governing party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo won 49.13% of the vote, against 47.92% for his rival, John Atta Mills, the commission said. But neither reached the 50% threshold needed for an outright win and a run-off will be held on 28 December.
Anti-retroviral drugs used to treat HIV/Aids are being bought and smoked by teenagers in South Africa to get high. Reports suggest that the drugs are being sold by patients and even healthcare staff for money. Schoolchildren have been spotted smoking the drugs, which are ground into powder and sometimes mixed with painkillers or marijuana.
Marie trembles as she tells me about the day when Jean-Pierre Bemba's Congolese troops came to her town. "We heard gun-shots as they went from house to house," she says in Bossangoa in the Central African Republic. She struggles to contain her emotions as she recounts how she and her husband cowered next to their children as the awful sounds outside their home drew closer.
Rwanda's booming manufacturing and farming sectors could push growth in the country to 10% this year, according to the Rwandan central bank governor. Agriculture is particularly strong and is growing at a minimum rate of 10%, said Francois Kanimba.
There are not many refugee camps where money litters the floor, but you do not have to look far at the showground in the border town of Musina. Fragments of worthless 50,000 and 100,000 Zimbabwe dollar notes are everywhere, constant reminders of the hyper-inflation which has accompanied the country's collapse.
A web-based reporting tool is allowing Africans caught up in political unrest to report incidents of killing, violence and displacement. The website is called Ushahidi, which means ''testimony'' in Swahili and was first developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout. Ushahidi is now being used in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to report on the war that has torn the country apart for the last 15 years.
Kenya must step up its efforts to track down a Rwandan genocide suspect, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) says. The ICTR chief prosecutor is expected to tell the UN Security Council he is not satisfied with the level of cooperation and assistance from Kenya.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has told parliament African Union peacekeepers in Somalia want to leave. He said Ethiopian troops, due to pull out of Somalia at the end of the month, would cover their withdrawal. The AU force, from Uganda and Burundi, had been expected to stay and even beef up its presence to make up for the planned Ethiopian pull-out.
The Kenyan government has defended a contentious media bill which critics say is intended to gag the press. The Kenya Communications Amendment Bill, which was passed by parliament, gives the state power to raid media houses and control broadcast content.
Talks aimed at ending the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are encountering serious difficulties, the UN mediator says. Olusegun Obasanjo said this was because Gen Laurent Nkunda's rebel negotiators lacked the authority to make decisions.
Cameroon has budgeted $309 million for the military in 2009 and $105 million for the president’s office and services to the presidency, compared with $106 million for agriculture, which employs 70 percent of its people… In smaller villages, such as Mvomeka’a in the South Province, most Cameroonians live in shacks made of mud bricks and sticks. Only 20 percent of Cameroon’s households have electricity.
This year is the first that school students – or learners as they are now known - are to matriculate under the new Outcomes Based Educational system. OBE was adopted as one of the first major policy innovations under the newly democratic government in South Africa, under the ideological guidance of the first minister of education, Sibusiso Bengu.
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a Green New Deal that would work for all nations, rich as well as poor, in the face of two crises: climate change and the global economy. Addressing the high-level segment of the gathering of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that kicked off Thursday, Ban pleaded for "global solidarity on climate change".
With a complex range of ethnic, religious and linguistic groups competing for access to resources, outbreaks of violence leading to significant situations of short-term internal displacement are frequent in Nigeria. Many internally displaced people (IDPs) seek refuge with family and friends while waiting for the violence to subside so they can return to their homes.
We remain extremely concerned for the safety of the displaced Congolese population in Kibati as the civilian character of these two UNHCR-run camps north of Goma is continually violated. In another incident early this morning, two young girls were shot. A 5-year-old died and a 7-year-old girl is fighting for her life in a local hospital. Our staff also reported this morning that another woman was raped by armed men in the vicinity of Kibati camp yesterday evening.
The South African government is considering "managing" the influx of Zimbabweans, said a government spokesman after its border area with Zimbabwe was declared a cholera disaster area. "We are looking into the issue," Themba Maseko responded to a question on whether the country would control the number of possibly infected Zimbabweans entering South Africa.
Leading environment groups have opposed plans to hand over financing to check climate change to the World Bank. Industrialised countries may be required to provide more than 100 billion dollars for developing countries to build low-carbon economies, according to unofficial estimates. This money should not be handled by the World Bank, 142 organisations fighting for climate justice said in a joint statement Tuesday (Dec. 9) at the UN climate talks under way in the Polish city Poznan.
Forty year-old Angelique reveals a gunshot wound in her back to women in the Keyshero Medical centre, while her six-year-old daughter reaches up to touch it. Angelique (her name has been changed) and her family were attacked in their village in November 2007 when men dressed in police uniforms broke into their house at night, looted it, and forced her family into the forest.
As the world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the UN General Assembly will hear a statement in mid-December endorsed by more than 50 countries across the globe calling for an end to rights abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Civil society calls for action to remove HIV related travel and residence regulations for people living with HIV in time for the Vienna World Aids Conference in 2010. States should do whatever possible to insure that legal discrimination of people with HIV ceases to exist. People with HIV should have the same rights than others.
Although Burundi has made commendable advances in key areas for peace consolidation, an impasse between the Government and the last major rebel holdout is deepening and the risks of renewed confrontation are intensifying, according to a United Nations report being discussed by the Security Council.
The United Nations Security Council has underscored the need for continued international support for Guinea-Bissau, while voicing their concern over security in the West African country which faced an unsuccessful coup attempt last month by elements of the military. Renegade military elements launched an armed attack on the residence of President João Bernardo Vieira in the capital, Bissau, on 23 November.
The top United Nations envoy to Somalia has welcomed the return of an opposition leader, who took part in reconciliation talks with the strife-torn Horn of Africa nation’s Government, to the capital Mogadishu. The Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, characterized the return after a nearly two-year absence of Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who heads the Alliance of the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), as “a most welcome development.”
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has bestowed this year's Ceres Medal to Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson for her work in promoting food security and agricultural development. At the 6 December ceremony in the northern Liberian town of Voinjama, Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General, the West African nation has prioritized bolstering agriculture as part of its development efforts, despite the degradation of the farming sector following two wars.
This study commissioned by APC and written by wireless expert Ian Howard explores sustainable ICT and the need for wireless internet access for development (W4D). Intended to serve as a guide to members of the W4D community involved in African initiatives, Howard draws conclusions based on his observations of two telecentres in Tanzania with very different business models.
Zimbabwe's President Mugabe has called MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai a political prostitute and said that British premier Gordon Brown must undergo mental examination. He was addressing mourners gathered at the national burial shrine, for the burial of ZANU PF political commissar Eliot Manyika.
Nigeria's president Yar'Adua has appealed for the repealing of laws that protect politicians from prosecution whiles in office. His appeal came while marking this year's international anti-corruption day. He also launched a new campaign to encourage Nigerians to report corrupt practices.
After issuing statements denying that scores of people were murdered in the Chiadzwa diamond fields in Manicaland province, the truth finally came out on Thursday when the District Administrator for Mutare appealed to the City Council for land to bury 83 people. The Deputy Mayor for Mutare, Admire Mukovera, confirmed receiving a phone call from the DA Mr Mashava, requesting land for a mass burial.
The 22 abducted political and civic activists, including Zimbabwe Peace Project director Jestina Mukoko, are still missing. We were not able to contact Alec Muchadehama, the lawyer representing the missing MDC activists, but lawyers representing Mukoko say the police are completely ignoring a court order. The courts had ordered the police to thoroughly investigate Mukoko’s abduction, report at 10am at the High Court every day with an update on their investigations, and put advertisements in both the electronic and print media. But none of this has happened.
African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe, claimed on Thursday that Robert Mugabe had ‘real fears’ of being hauled before the International Criminal Court in the Hague, if he were to relinquish power. Mantashe made the claim in the coastal city of Durban during a breakfast meeting with journalists and editors. He revealed that the higher structures of the ANC had discussed Mugabe’s reasons for wanting to stay in power and that he was afraid of being arrested and charged with war crimes like former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Maurine Kamau* lost her first child immediately after birth but did not discover why the baby had died until she fell pregnant a second time and tested positive for HIV at the Nazareth Mission Hospital, on the outskirts of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. She received counselling at the hospital's prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) unit and her second child tested negative for HIV. Now four months old, the baby is doing well and has regular checkups at the hospital.
Botswana's President Ian Khama has said that the number of HIV-positive people accessing antiretroviral therapy in the country is expected to nearly double over the next eight years, Mmegi/AllAfrica.com reports. If current HIV and Aids rates continue, the number of HIV-positive people accessing the drugs could increase to 220 600, up from an estimated 145 000 currently, according to Khama.
Despite improvements in living conditions over the past decade, the health of South Africans has worsened, according to the SA Health Review 2008 which was launched last night (Dec 10) in Pretoria. “There have been clear improvements in access to water and sanitation, services that are essential for good health,” reports researcher Debbie Bradshaw.
Kano State government has said it would make the teaching of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) mandatory at all levels of education and that it had commenced the training of teachers on its use, as well as upgrading libraries to digital ones.
Governments in southern Africa are still failing to honour their own commitments to scale up access to antiretroviral therapy despite the growing availability of international donor support to do so, according to a new report from the Southern Africa Treatment Access Movement (SATAMo). The Southern African Treatment Access Movement, a network of community-based activists in eleven countries, is calling on regional leaders to keep the promises they made towards provision of HIV treatment by committing the necessary resources.
In a bid to lure votes and increase their exposure, presidential candidates in Tunisia are taking their campaigns to the pages of popular social networking website Facebook. At least two candidates, Mohamed Bouchiha of the People's Unity Party (PUP) and Ahmed Nejib Chebbi of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), have created their own pages on the website to campaign in the October 2009 elections.
Human rights as we know them today are based on the principles of equality, liberty and solidarity which emerged during the French Revolution and were embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While all human rights must be interpreted taking into account all three of these guiding principles, due to historical reasons, each principle has in turn generated a different set of rights.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres on Wednesday opened a two-day international dialogue aimed at seeking solutions for millions of people caught up in the limbo of so-called "protracted refugee situations" in which they spend years in exile with no end in sight. Guterres told some 300 representatives of more than 50 governments and governmental and non-governmental organizations in Geneva's Palais des Nations that the world must do more to resolve the seemingly endless plight of nearly 6 million refugees who have spent years, and sometimes decades, in exile.
Two years after the historic court victory that affirmed the Kalahari Bushmen’s right to live and hunt on their land, Botswana’s President Ian Khama has told the Bushmen that their hunting way of life is an ‘archaic fantasy’. Botswana’s High Court affirmed on 13 December 2006 that the government’s eviction of the Bushmen was ‘unlawful and unconstitutional’, and that they have the right to live on their ancestral land inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR).
The Botswana government has given its approval to a controversial diamond mine on the land of the Kalahari Bushmen – on the condition that the mining company Gem Diamonds does not provide the Bushmen with water. The government has, however, reserved the right to use water boreholes drilled by Gem for wildlife.
The current political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe is dealing a blow to the provision of free treatment and care to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs). While there has been a significant decline in the country’s HIV prevalence rate from 18.1 percent in 2005 to 15.6 percent in 2007, activists believe this has been "the most difficult year" for HIV-positive persons.
One night, in a country swept up in a long and harrowing armed conflict, Liberian social worker Leymah Gbowee dreamt that she gathered women together to pray for peace. Her dream was realised in 2003 at St. Peters Lutheran Church in Monrovia, when women of all walks of life gathered there to demand peace, a peace that Liberia hadn't seen in years. In the months that followed, Gbowee's dream would gain momentum.
The debate over reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation is dominating the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Poznan, Poland, Dec. 1-12. At issue is the best way to deal with the 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation.
Since the November 2004 murder of Frank Kangundu, journalist with the Congolese daily ‘La Référence Plus’, and his wife, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has entered a sad cycle of killings of media professionals. The most recent target was Didace Namujimbo, a journalist with Radio Okapi, who was shot in the head by unidentified assailants near his home in Ndendere, in South Kivu’s Ibanda county (eastern DRC) on Nov. 22, 2008.
Cash transfers have become an increasingly popular way of providing social protection in low-income African countries. This study aims to find out more about the impact of social pensions for older people and the combination with child benefits in older people headed households, and what can be learnt from the experiences with this approach in the Kwa Wazee project in Tanzania.
There is a ‘secret-cult’ silence on the issue of abuse of the elderly in Nigeria, argues the author of this paper. The victims of abuse and others are reluctant to talk about it, and there is constant denial by victims and abusers. Acts of abuse are usually regarded as normal behaviour within society. What can ordinary Nigerians, the government, families and communities do to assist the abused and abusers in prevention and intervention strategies that will benefit the elderly in Nigeria?
South Africans are still prejudiced about homosexuals despite having some of the most progressive legislation in the world, with 80% of the population believing that sex between lesbians or gay men is wrong, according to a study commissioned by the Human Sciences Research Council. This is in line with another comparative study, which examined the attitudes of 40 countries to homosexuality, according to researchers Benjamin Roberts and Prof Vasu Reddy.