Pambazuka News 600: The unresolved national question in African states
Pambazuka News 600: The unresolved national question in African states
Rwanda’s military intelligence department known as J2 has illegally held scores of civilians in military detention without charge or trial amid credible claims of torture, Amnesty International states in a new report. 'Rwanda: Shrouded in Secrecy: Illegal Detention and Torture by Military Intelligence' reveals unlawful detention, enforced disappearances, as well as allegations of torture by J2. The report details credible accounts of individuals being subjected to serious beatings, electric shocks and sensory deprivation to force confessions during interrogations.
There is a battle royal looming in Swaziland after the country's much-maligned and justifiably-derided parliament took an incredible, historic step - by passing a no confidence motion in the Cabinet. Forty-two MPs voted to kick out the Cabinet - leaving the King with a very tough decision. Does he follow the constitution that compels him to dissolve the Cabinet if more than 3/5ths of MPs support a no confidence motion? Or does he stick with his allies - including the widely despised Prime Minister, Sibusiso Dlamini - and simply ignore the constitution?
Dozens were injured in the Tunisian island of Djerba when protesters clashed with police after authorities reopened a garbage dump. Tunisian authorities claimed they were the victims of a mob armed with firebombs which left 49 policemen injured, but protesters say police instigated the violence. Activists on Twitter say police used live ammunition as well as tear gas to disperse protesters. One demonstrator, Mohammed Ali Borji, was reportedly hit by a bullet, according to activists on the social networking site.
The faculty of Human and Social Sciences at the University of Tunis closed on Thursday last week and suspended classes for three days after violent confrontations broke out between Islamist and leftist students, causing considerable damage to classrooms and facilities – and promising a difficult academic year to come. The incident at the institution’s oldest faculty revived memories of a long history of clashes at the University of Tunis between leftists and Islamists.
Oil and gas discovers in East Africa have re-ignited long-standing territorial disputes in areas believed to possess significant petroleum deposits. This week, Malawi announced it would take Tanzania to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, over the disputed ownership of Lake Malawi, known in Tanzania as Lake Nyasa. Tanzania claims that colonial era treaties between Great Britain and Germany demarcated the border down the middle of the lake but since independence Malawi has claimed sovereignty over the whole of its northern reaches.
A moment of silence turned to violence during a gay parade in celebration of Joburg Pride Day. Joburg Pride board members arrived to the sight of One in Nine Campaign members holding a banner saying: 'Dying for Justice'. The latter evidently disrupted the parade to demand a moment of silence for LGBTI community members murdered due to their sexual preference.
'According to the UN World Food Programme, there is enough food in the world for 12 billion people. If today people are still starving, then this is organized crime, mass murder. Every five seconds, one child under the age of ten dies, one billion people are permanently and heavily undernourished.' This is a quote from Jean Ziegler, who was until recently (2000-2008) the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, in an interview about a new book that he is published. Blog Africa is a Country has translated parts of the interview in their discussion about Ziegler and the book.
A Cameroon court has suspended sale of a new book which alleges that the country's growth has been held by bogus sects run by people close to the authorities. The move came after country's Science and Research minister, Madeleine Tchuinte, took to court the author of the book titled 'Cameroon Under the Dictatorship of Lodges, Sects, Magico-Anal and Mafia Networks'.
The Forum for Democratic (FDC) party crusader, Dr Kizza Besigye, has said that President Museveni must at all costs be removed from power ‘forcefully’ if the country is to be saved from further decadence. In a press briefing at his home in Kasangati; which is heavily under guard by plain-clothed security operatives, Col. Besigye noted that through continued civil disobedience across the country, the departure of President Museveni is 'inevitable'.
Teachers, the Ministry of Education and aid agencies are scrambling to provide catch-up classes to thousands of displaced children who fled northern Mali for southern towns to help them graduate this year, while those teachers and families who stayed in the north are doing the same - determined to keep their children learning despite the closure of dozens of public schools and severe changes to the curricula.
An outbreak of cholera along the Kenya-Somalia border has left dozens dead and many more sick, according to local residents, aid workers and government officials. 'We have recorded nine deaths of cholera patients at our health facilities in the past three weeks, and 89 cases have been diagnosed at different settlement locations close to the border areas,' Mohamed Sheikh, director of public health in Kenya's North Eastern Province, told IRIN.
Doris Appiah, 57, has bipolar disorder. In her early twenties, she was sent to an overcrowded psychiatric hospital followed by a 'prayer camp' to be treated. She stayed there for five years, at times tied to a wall or forced to fast. Her story is mirrored by thousands of mentally ill people across Ghana, according to a 2 October Human Rights Watch (HRW) report entitled Like a Death Sentence. The government is trying to update the country’s mental health care laws, starting with the passing of the 2012 Mental Health Act. The act is supposed to improve access to mental health services and prevent abuse. But HRW says the law does not go far enough as it only addresses the formal health sector rather than community-based mental healthcare needs.
The government of Uganda is planning to establish a US$1 billion-dollar HIV trust fund to finance local HIV programmes. According to a working paper released in September, Justification for Increased and Sustainable Financing for HIV in Uganda, the fund will generate cash through levies on bank transactions and interest, air tickets, beer, soft drinks and cigarettes, as well taxes on goods and services traded within Uganda. Small fees will also be levied on civil servants' salaries; corporate and withholding tax will be increased slightly; and a small tax will be added to telephone calls and to each kilowatt of electricity consumed.
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has opened an investigation into publicly funded construction at the private residence of President Jacob Zuma, City Press reported. Reports have estimated the cost of the work to be between R203 million and R238 million.
International land investors and biofuel producers have taken over land around the world that could feed nearly 1 billion people. Analysis by Oxfam of several thousand land deals completed in the last decade shows that an area eight times the size of the UK has been left idle by speculators or is being used largely to grow biofuels for US or European vehicles.
The United States (US) presidential election will be held on November 6, 2012, and as the campaign enters the home stretch, it's clear that the outcome of the race is likely to have big and lasting implications for the future orientation of the country's foreign policy. The stakes are also substantial for the United States' diplomatic interlocutors, including those on the African continent with some critical actions to undertake on the current Mali crisis and many other issues. Global Voices looks at what bloggers are saying about the elections.
The media watchdog, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has accused Chad of intimidating journalists and called on the government to halt those actions with immediate effect. It said in a statement that Chadian authorities were abusing the judicial and law enforcement systems to silence news coverage critical of the government's performance, censoring publications and targeting one editor with an unjust criminal conviction.
Several shells have landed in the capital of Sudan's South Kordofan state, near the country's southern border, witnesses say. A UN worker said five shells landed in and around the town of Kadugli, leading aid workers to seek shelter with peacekeepers. Rebels have been fighting in South Kordofan since last year but the state capital has been largely peaceful.
Since Bosco Ntaganda’s mutiny in April 2012 and the creation of the 23 March rebel movement (M23), violence has returned to the Kivus. This crisis shows that today’s problems are the same as yesterday’s because the 2008 framework for resolution of the conflict has yet to be put in place, says this briefing from the International Crisis Group. Instead of implementing the 23 March 2009 agreement between the government and the CNDP (National Council for the Defence of the People), the Congolese authorities pretended to integrate the CNDP into political institutions, while the rebel group pretended to integrate into the Congolese army.
As a large contingent of armed forces and armed militias surround Bani Walid in preparation for a possible assault, Amnesty International has called on the Libyan authorities to avoid unnecessary and excessive use of force in the city and to ensure that medical and other essential supplies are allowed into the city. On 25 September, Libya’s parliament, the General National Congress authorized the Ministries of Interior and Defence to use force if necessary to arrest suspects including those responsible for the alleged torture and killing of Omran Shaaban, credited with capturing Colonel Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi on 20 October 2011.
Relations between the European Union (EU) and SA have soured since the government indicated last month that it was cancelling bilateral investment treaties with the bloc's member states. The government argues that the treaties restrict its ability to transform SA's economy. But its largest trade and investment partner says cancelling them will raise the cost of investment in SA. The EU fears it is a victim of political bias, and feels shunned by SA's growing relationship with China and other Brics nations.
In May 2012, Olam International announced a REDD project for 'sustainable forest management' in the Republic of Congo. The project is a public-private partnership between Olam International’s subsidiary CIB (Congolaise Industrielle des Bois) and the Government of the Republic of Congo. The little information that is available about this proposed REDD project sets off just about all the REDD alarm bells, says this post from Olam International is notorious for its involvement in illegal logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2007, the World Bank’s private sector arm the International Finance Corporation sold its shares in Olam International. Greenpeace described Olam International as a 'Congo-trashing company'.
The majority of Kenyans have confidence in pro gay Chief Justice Dr Willy Mutunga and his team of judges in the judiciary according to a poll. The survey conducted by Infotrak Research and Consulting found out that 70 per cent of those polled have confidence in Mutunga. Mutunga’s pro-gay activism began with his writings under the pen name Cabral Pinto and has recently said that he believes the Supreme Court would decide on the issue of gay rights and same sex marriage in Kenya.
Malawi has reacted angrily to sightings of a Tanzanian motor boat on lake Malawi and the release of a new map of Tanzania that claims part of the lake. Malawi president Joyce Banda announced that Malawi will pull out of the talks with Tanzania as Tanzania has failed to respect the route of dialogue that Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete had assured her at a meeting in Mozambique earlier this year.
The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance between October 2012 and March 2013 in Malawi has jumped from 1.63 million to 1.76 million, but response plans remain inadequate and maybe exhausted be by November to December 2012. The new figure is contained in a report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet), which provides an update on the food security conditions in Malawi from August 2012 through March 2013.
Cameroon has received heavy rain and flooding during the past year. Some experts attribute the unusual weather to climate change, while others point to poor management of dams, reports Global Press Institute.
Residents of Zimbabwe’s cities say that outdated, overflowing sewer systems dirty the streets, contaminate the water supply and threaten their health. City council officials say the government is aware of the problem but can’t afford to overhaul the infrastructure, reports Global Press Institute.
Tanzania is by next year set to reach the goal of allocating 10 per cent of its annual budget for agricultural sector in line with the AU Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security on the continent. Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Eng Christopher Chiza announced the government commitment when addressing journalists during the ongoing African Green Revolution Forum 2012.
A High Court judge has endorsed Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s plan to delay by-elections until March next year when he plans to call a general election after arguing that his government was broke. The Supreme Court had in July ruled that the veteran ruler must call by-elections in three parliamentary constituencies that fell vacant in 2009 by September 30. But last week President Mugabe approached the High Court seeking an extension to the last week of March 2013 where he indicated the country would go for harmonised elections.
Lawyers in Zambia have formed the Coalition for the Defence of Democratic Rights (CDDR) to defend civil rights in the country. In its inaugural statement issued Wednesday, the lawyers said the formation of the coalition became necessary because of the growing illegality and violence initiated by individuals, the the abuse of state power by the Executive to advance their private and political interests. The CDDR said it intends to make the international community aware of the current abuse of rights and threats of violence being deployed by President Michael Sata’s government, paving the way for future prosecution and accountability for the unlawful conduct currently being committed by the ruling Patriotic Front (PF).
The head of the UN refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, has warned hat the UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies are under increasing strain from a combination of simultaneous major new conflicts and unresolved old ones. In a speech at the annual meeting of UNHCR's Executive Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, Guterres said his organization was facing a level of refugee crises unmatched in its recent history.
Chinese government state-controlled media, China Central Television (CCTV), launched its African regional bureau in Nairobi, Kenya on January 11, 2012. While its presence has diversified the media landscape in Africa, media watchdogs and foreign media outlets - such as CNN and the New York Times - have been rather skeptical of its journalistic independence given the media organization's close ties with the government.
US President Barack Obama's administration is facing new questions over the attack on the US consulate in Libya, amid reports of military preparations to target those behind it. A Congressional committee asked whether repeated requests for more security at the Benghazi consulate were rejected. The US ambassador was among four Americans killed on 11 September. The US is gathering intelligence ahead of a possible military operation against those implicated, US media say.
Amid the tributes to Ethiopia’s recently departed prime minister was much twittering (and tweeting) about ‘stability’ and the ‘transition’, especially from Ethiopia’s foreign donors. There is considerable concern that without Meles Zenawi, the charismatic former rebel leader who ruled Ethiopia for 21 years until his death, the country may implode, infighting might engulf the ruling party or Ethiopia’s fragile economic growth might reverse. While these fears about the country’s stability are warranted, there has been little recognition of the role that human rights play in underpinning stability, says this Human Rights Watch post.
As a major international deadline on foreign assistance transparency draws closer, a new index shows that while donors are becoming more open with their data, still less than half of foreign aid information is openly available. 'Progress is being met, things are getting better, but that progress is modest,' David Hall-Matthews, the managing director of Publish What You Fund, a global initiative advocating for aid transparency, said in unveiling the organisation’s Aid Transparency Index 2012. Nearly two-thirds of the organisations that Publish What You Fund surveyed both last year and this year showed improvement, with the average score across all donors going up from 34 per cent to 41 per cent transparency.
'Communicate to mobilise to communicate'. The WSF has been referred to as an emergent global public sphere; however, little systematic attention has been paid to how media and communication are implicated in making it ‘global’ and ‘public’.
UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Erika Feller has appealed for strengthened political will to help the world’s more than 42 million refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced and stateless people, amid a recent rise in new humanitarian emergencies in Africa and the Middle East. In a speech to the annual meeting of UNHCR’s governing Executive Committee (ExCom), Feller listed drawn-out displacement situations, insecure settings, difficulties in helping acutely vulnerable people, and funding shortages as the major current obstacles to quality protection. However, she also took aim at countries seeking to outsource their asylum responsibilities elsewhere.
As mining projects in South Africa and Peru face violent opposition, critics are questioning the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) stakes in the companies at the centre of the controversies. IFC funds for mines in Mongolia and Guinea have also caused alarm, prompting renewed interest in the recommendations of the Extractive Industries Review.
In October 2012, ARTICLE 19 analysed the Draft the Broadcasting Corporation Bill, 2012 of South Sudan. 'In particular, we are concerned that the biggest changes introduced relate to the process for appointing and dismissing members of the Board of Directors of SSBC, and that their effect is to place the broadcaster under the control of the President and Minister of Information and Broadcasting, rather than the National Legislative Assembly.'
World food prices rose in September and are seen remaining close to levels reached during the 2008 food crisis, the United Nations' food agency said, while cutting its forecast for global cereal output. The worst drought in more than 50 years in the United States sent corn and soybean prices to record highs over the summer, and, coupled with drought in Russia and other Black Sea exporting countries, raised fears of a renewed crisis.
Global development group Oxfam has called on the World Bank to suspend financing for large-scale land acquisitions to ensure that its practices do not encourage foreign land grabs in developing countries. Oxfam urged Jim Yong Kim, the lender's new president, to announce a six-month moratorium on land investments by the bank at meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Tokyo next week.
A trans-woman is viciously assaulted in a hate crime, the police won’t readily help, and there’s little hope for justice. This is just one story of just one day of paying the price of being LGBTI in Uganda, reports this article on the website of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.
Africa is a major target for tobacco industry sales and marketing, warned the American Cancer Society (ACS) and World Lung Foundation at the launch of French version of latest Tobacco Atlas. in Dakar Senegal recently. Tobacco industry activity is booming across the African continent, according to ACS. Between 1990 and 2009, cigarette consumption in the Middle East and Africa increased by 57 per cent. According to the The Tobacco Atlas – Fourth Edition, four African countries – Mozambique, Zambia, Mali and Ghana – are among the top five countries with the greatest increase in tobacco production in the last decade.
Governments around the world are leaving hundreds of millions of cancer patients to suffer needlessly because of their failure to ensure adequate access to pain-relieving drugs, a new international survey reveals. The new data, released during the recent European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2012 in Vienna, paints a shocking picture of unnecessary pain on a global scale, said Prof Nathan Cherny, lead author of the report from Shaare Zedek Medical Centre in Israel, and chair of the ESMO Palliative Care Working Group.
The convergence of African urbanization and technological change, including the rise of digital media, is driving major change on the continent. Perhaps most dramatic, cellphones and other mobile devices, already widespread, are becoming a nearly universal platform, not only for telephony but also for audio and video information and entertainment. This offers a fundamentally different 'media' experience and has already led to an entirely new and largely unrecognized class of independent media–some newly created channels for international broadcasters–serving the African continent. This report traces the dramatic spread of mobile telephony in Africa and examines how this is affecting the news media landscape on the continent.
Malawi's first female president, Joyce Banda, is pushing for family planning efforts in her African nation. Her new Initiative on Maternal Health and Safe Motherhood will provide better access to reproductive health services for women in Malawi, in the hopes that girls will stay in school longer instead of becoming pregnant.
We are looking for experienced trainers from East Africa region to join our trainers’ database to be consulted to lead our social justice capacity building initiatives in several key areas. Click for details.
The new novel follows the lives of two women, a German executive and a Kenyan victim of sexual abuse living in poverty on the streets of Nairobi who decides to escape to Europe as an illegal immigrant.
A carbon tax could be one policy instrument to tackle climate change, poverty and unemployment if it is designed and used correctly.
As another day of Nigeria’s independence anniversary draws near, it is obvious that all is not well with the country’s educational sector. The portrait of independent Nigeria, after 52 years of its existence, is disquieting.
On 26 September 2002, the Senegalese government-owned ferry Le Joola capsized off the coast of The Gambia, resulting in an estimated 2,000 deaths. Thought to be the second worst civilian maritime disaster, families of the victims are still seeking justice.
The Islamist ‘terrorist’ groups that have taken over control of northern Mali are not only the creations of Algeria’s secret police, the Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (DRS), but they are being supplied, supported and orchestrated by the DRS.
Experts from five emerging world economic powers have told how a two-day think tanks forum this week reached consensus on creating a BRICS development bank designed to complement existing global financial institutions such as the World Bank. Liu Youfa, deputy director of the China Institute of International Studies, said, 'At the previous forum before the BRICS summit meeting in March, we were still discussing whether to create this bank, but now we are talking about how to create this bank.'
The US Supreme Court began its new session recently by re-examining an explosive international case alleging that oil giant Shell was complicit in acts of torture by the Nigerian government. Fresh from their pivotal decision in June to uphold President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, the nine Supreme Court justices took up a case with enormously important ramifications for international human rights. The legal argument pivots on whether foreign plaintiffs have a right to file suit in American courts against US corporations accused of human rights violations, under an arcane 200-year-old statute.
This paper provides a status of trade integration in SADC, highlighting achievements, challenges and constraints. Understanding constraints facing this process can provide insights as to whether the region should forge ahead with its approach to economic integration or retreat and evaluate the process with a view to define what could be its immediate priorities.
Paul Kagame has presided over the plunder of DR Congo's mineral wealth to consolidate Tutsi hegemony in Kigali. Now with the support of his powerful western allies, Kagame is eyeing Congolese territory.
The Board of Fahamu Trust Ltd, publisher of Pambazuka News, is delighted to announce two new appointments:
1. Zo Randriamaro, former Board member and Malagasy feminist sociologist, researcher and activist, has been appointed interim Executive Director of Fahamu Trust Ltd. Zo can be reached at [email][email protected]
2. Rebecca Williams has returned to the Trust as Acting Finance Director.
We look forward to working with them to ensure Fahamu's full transition to being a pan-African organization.
Gunmen massacred at least 26 people in a student housing area of northeast Nigeria on Tuesday 1 October, calling victims out by name before shooting them or slitting their throats, officials said. The motive for the attack at the mixed Christian and Muslim school was not immediately clear. It occurred in the early hours in the town of Mubi, where the military last week carried out a high-profile raid against Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, which has been waging a deadly insurgency.
Donors have acted hastily in suspending aid to Rwanda over allegations that it is supporting a rebel insurgency in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a leading expert on 'fragile states'. Professor James Putzel, co-author of Meeting the Challenges of Crisis States, a report from the London School of Economics, questioned the decision of the EU, the US and Germany in partially freezing aid to Rwanda amid accusations that its military is supporting the violent rebel group M23. President Paul Kagame has vehemently rejected the allegations.
South Sudan's security forces have committed 'shocking' acts of violence against civilians, including killings and rapes, Amnesty International says. In a report, the UK-based human rights group says the abuse has been taking place during a disarmament campaign in the eastern Jonglei state. Amnesty urges South Sudan to take 'immediate action' to end the violence.
Nigeria’s 52nd independence anniversary is drowned by hot air over a possible break-up even as questions are being raised about its feasibility.
The Namibian elite, working in cahoots with their foreign capitalist allies, has since independence concentrated on state building. The people need a new consciousness to engage in a struggle for nation building.
This book exposes the reality that the legal system is not intended to produce justice, except by accident, and then largely to the benefit of the agents of the system and to rich and powerful users of that system.
The Sudanese security services were accused of beating and arresting several Darfuri students from the Bakht Alrida university in Aldoam, White Nile, on Monday 1 October, Radio Dabanga was informed. The exact number of arrested and injured students is still unknown. Witnesses said these students were holding a strike against the payment of tuition fees.
The Sudanese opposition is urging people to revolt, saying that public resentment is reaching a boiling point. Commentators, however, say there is no immediate sign of a repeat performance of the summer’s protests. Harsh austerity measures, violent clashes with South Sudan and corruption cases have all added to Sudanese citizens’ simmering anger. And it is this resentment which opposition groups hope will eventually reach a boiling point, tipping people out onto the streets once again, reports theniles.org
As of 28 September there is a rising strike wave – mainly of unprotected strikes — around our country, as workers seek to achieve the same victory of the Lonmin/Marikana workers on the wage front.
Days after the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan signed a partial agreement in Addis Ababa, several voices have come out in opposition to some of the agreement’s clauses, particularly in Juba. A number of South Sudanese military commanders and politicians held a press conference declaring their opposition to the deal, particularly the resulting security arrangements.
In the wake of the attack on the US embassy, Libya’s new government has proposed a worrying State of Emergency law that if put into action would rob citizens of the freedoms they fought so hard for. The draft would grant the authorities powers that clearly infringe on individual freedoms – such as the right to intercept communications of any kind and impose controls on the media.
The production of a manual, 'A Community Based Guide for Monitoring Impacts of Oil and Gas Activities on the Environment', discusses the history and likely impacts of oil and gas exploration in Uganda, including the impacts of construction of access roads and infrastructure, waste disposal and decommissioning. Community leaders have used this tool to initiate environmental monitoring groups, many of which double up as savings and income generation clubs.
Flooding across Nigeria has killed at least 148 people and displaced more than 64 000, the Red Cross said Tuesday 2 October. The organisation is also warning of an increased risk that water-borne diseases like cholera could spread.
Nathan Pajibo, like thousands of his fellow Liberians, has been living in Buduburam refugee camp near the Ghanaian capital Accra for over two decades after fleeing the civil war in 1990. In June 2012 he lost his refugee status alongside 11,000 Liberians across the region and the camp will soon be handed over to the district assembly, but lingering fear prevents Pajibo from returning. One of at least 6,000 Liberians still living at Buduburam, he is waiting for the Ghana Refugee Board to process his application. Some 4,000 ex-refugees have applied for local integration, around 1,000 will return to Liberia, and about 1,000 are applying for exemption to remain as refugees, according to the Ghana Refugee Board (GRB).
Family planning advocates in Uganda have scored some major financial and policy wins this year, but experts remain concerned that inadequate political commitment and poor health services will continue to impede women’s and girls’ access to contraceptives. At a global family planning summit in July, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni announced that his government would increase its annual expenditure on family planning supplies from US$3.3million to $5million for the next five years. He also pledged to mobilize an additional $5 million from the country's donors.
The euphoria that greeted the government’s imposition of minimum wage increases has quickly soured, with prices of food and other essential commodities escalating as higher wage costs are passed onto consumers. In July 2012, President Michael Sata’s government upped the minimum monthly salary in line with the 2011 election promise of “more money in the pocket” for poorly paid workers. Wages for domestic workers increased from US$30 to about $105, while general workers such as office orderlies, shop assistants, sweepers and farmworkers saw their monthly earnings more than quadruple from $50 to $220. In the past month, the cost of 25kg bag of the staple ground maize meal has increased by $1 to $8.50, while other farm produce prices have also risen.
Recent allegations of the misuse of a grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria could jeopardize Uganda’s malaria funding and hurt efforts to fight the disease, which is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity. Evidence of the mismanagement of a US$51 million malaria grant to Uganda from the Global Fund resulted in the July arrest of three Ministry of Health employees and prompted a police investigation into the matter. In September, the organization called for the refund of any ineligible expenses under the grant and the strengthening of safeguards to prevent future misappropriation of funds.
Pambazuka News 599: Exposing the diabolical tactics of Western imperialism
Pambazuka News 599: Exposing the diabolical tactics of Western imperialism
Anglo American will face a hearing next year to determine if it's liable for miners who contracted silicosis while working in its gold shafts. Anglo American no longer has gold assets in South Africa, but the proceedings, initiated by 18 plaintiffs, have been launched on the grounds that miners contracted the debilitating lung disease when the company still ran bullion mines.
The commission's in loco inspection, set up to investigate the August shooting at Marikana, has revealed that the bodies of miners were not limited to a specific area as video footage led many to believe, but were in fact spread out over a vast area. On Monday, crime scene experts led the commission and those involved in the inquiry on an inspection of the area near Marikana where 44 people lost their lives. They were accompanied by a host of national and international media.
The United States would support a 'well planned' and 'well resourced' African-led force to help oust Islamic rebels in northern Mali, provided its neighbours back the idea, a US official said Monday. 'Yes, I say there will have to be at some point military action to push' the rebels linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb out of northern Mali, the top US diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, said.
An outbreak of Ebola fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo may have killed up to 36 people, out of 81 suspected cases, according to a new death toll released by the health ministry. The ministry said that 20 confirmed cases have been recorded, as well as 32 likely and 29 suspected as of 29 September.
A Zimbabwean independent monitoring group says it will be impossible to hold free and fair elections in March when President Robert Mugabe wants the polls. The Zimbabwe Election Support Network said the call by Mugabe for full elections in the last week of March doesn't allow enough time to establish conditions for a free vote.
A Dutch 'abortion boat' has set sail for Morocco, its first trip to a Muslim country, to provide abortions to women who are exposed to grave health risks if treated domestically, its organiser said on Monday. The group says that, according to figures published by the Moroccan government, between 600 and 800 abortions take place every day in the north African kingdom, where the procedure is illegal and taboo.
The Soul Beat Africa Democracy and Governance website is an online space to support knowledge sharing and networking among people and organisations working on democracy and governance issues in Africa, with a particular focus on media and communication. The content consists of programme experiences, resource materials, research reports, events and trainings and covers the following areas: Media and Democracy and Governance; Freedom of Information; Civic Engagement; Anti-corruption; Conflict and Peace; Elections; Gender Empowerment; Rights and Justice; and Parliaments.
To view this resource, go to
To subscribe to the Soul Beat and D & G e-newsletters, go to
While some parts of Africa are reporting floods this year, others are suffering for lack of water. Lake Chilwa in Malawi supports 70,000 families who depend on it for fish and water. But over the last two years the lake has been shrinking. Read this Farm Radio Weekly article about what effect this is having on fishers and farmers like Oscar Wemba and Yohane Chikosa and their families.
The Independent Media Commission (IMC), the statutory media regulatory body on September 26, 2012 suspended for a month, three privately-owned newspapers for allegedly producing offensive publications. The newspapers namely Independent Observer, the Senator and Awareness Times will thus, not appear on newsstands from September 26 – October 26, 2012.
Lawlessness is reigning in the Somali port city of Kismayu, where gunmen have killed at least three people since the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab abandoned their last bastion there, residents said Sunday. After Kenyan and Somali troops' advances towards the strategic port forced the Islamists to abandon it Saturday, the Kenyan army said helicopter gunships were attacking Shabaab bases outside the city to clear the way for a final ground assault to occupy the city.
It has already been labelled as an "epidemic" by rights groups, but it seems in post-revolution Egypt sexual harassment has become worse rather than better. The harassment of women continues on the streets, at times escalating to mob levels, and it has now reached the point where taking steps to eradicate this social malaise has become an absolute necessity. A 2008 study by the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) revealed shocking figures that 83 per cent of Egyptian and 98 per cent of foreign women in the country have been subjected to some form of sexual harassment.
Former residents of the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban are pursuing damages claims against the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, three years after the police failed to protect them from an armed gang that invaded the settlement in September 2009. This is an important case because it holds the police responsible to prevent violence perpetuated by others when it is in a position to do so, says this press release from the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa.
The Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) has joined with other civil society organizations to urge all UN Member States to accede to the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. 'Imagine living your life as a stateless person. You are not recognized as a citizen of any country. You have none of the basic government protections the rest of us take for granted. No passport, no drivers license, no way to marry legally, work legally or even register the births of your children and enroll them in school. As estimated 12 million people live in this very precarious situation,' says the WRC.
Ethiopia has announced plans to lease 100,000 hectares of land both to local and foreign investors, despite recent reports that foreign investors were grabbing large chunks of land. The Ethiopian Ministry of Agricultures said details on the leases will be provided in this year's budget. The ministry indicated that it had prepared large fertile tracts of land in Gambella, Benshangul-Gumuz, Oromia and Amhara states to be offered to investors.
International peasant's movement La Via Campesina and its member organization in Switzerland the peasant union Uniterre have announced that the United Nations have decided to better protect the rights of farmers and peasants around the world. On Thursday, 27 September, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution 'Promoting the human rights of peasants and others people living in rural areas.' Through this resolution, the Council recognizes the absolute need for a new international legal instrument that takes the form of a United Nations declaration. It aims to bring together in a single text the specific rights of peasant farmers, women and men, and to integrate new rights such as rights to land, seeds, means of production or information in rural areas.
After assuming the presidency following the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika, Joyce Banda said she had hoped Malawi's Parliament would support the repeal of the nation's indecency and unnatural acts laws. But she has told The Associated Press that national debate had shown a lack of public support so far for the change, reports Identity Kenya.
Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) in partnership with the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) and Chiadzwa Community Development Trust (CCDT) immaculately hosted a three day 'People's Indaba' at the Harare Crowne Plaza Hotel, from the 11th - 13th September this year. The event, known officially as the 'Zimbabwe Alternative Mining Indaba' (ZAMI), saw over 120 individuals including; Chiefs, Legislators, church leaders, mining communities, community based organizations, regional participants, youth and women activists and media taking part in the indaba.
Maxwell Dlamini, president of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), has been denied his university scholarship by the government because of his political activity, he said. Dlamini was called to the scholarship selection board today (27 September 2012), where he hoped to be allowed to continue his law studies at the University of Swaziland, but he said he was denied for being a ‘progressive’. Writing on Facebook, Dlamini, said he was questioned about his activities in SNUS and ‘why I cause all the noise in the tertiary institutions [and] why I want to overthrow the government.’
South Africa’s judicial inquiry into the police’s killing of 34 striking mineworkers at Lonmin Plc’s Marikana mine begins on Monday with a visit to the site of the most deadly police action since the end of apartheid. Retired Supreme Court Judge Ian Farlam, assisted by two lawyers, is mandated to investigate events between August 9 and 16, Kevin Malunga, spokesman for the commission of inquiry, said in an interview on SAFM radio on Monday. Public hearings are being held in the northwest town of Rustenburg.
Sudan has told the United Nations General Assembly that its debts must be cancelled and its economy supported as it struggles to recover from losing three-quarters of its critical oil revenue to South Sudan when it seceded a year ago. 'Sudan requires assistance to go through this very sensitive stage towards better horizons. For that we believe that debts must be cancelled and its economy supported,' Ali Ahmed Karti, the Sudanese foreign minister, said on Saturday. The International Monetary Fund this week urged Sudan to meet donors to discuss debt relief and some IMF board members called for exceptional efforts from the IMF and the global community to help Sudan reduce its debt of about $40bn.
The European Union is hoping to wrap up free-trade agreements across most of sub-Saharan Africa next year but has yet to assuage African fears that their budding industries will not be able to cope with the new competition. The European Union launched talks with more than 70 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries 10 years ago on Thursday - on September 27, 2002 - aiming to help them trade their way out of poverty and to give EU businesses access to nascent markets.
Malawi’s President Joyce Banda has called on the United Nations General Assembly to ensure that an ambitious programme adopted last year to spur development and economic growth in the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) be fully and speedily implemented. 'In particular, duty-free quota-free market access and supply side capacity must be ensured to the least developed countries,' President Banda told the Assembly on the second day of its annual General Debate, adding that implementation must be 'in its entirety and in an effective and timely manner'.
Rwanda has defiantly denied claims at the United Nations that it was aiding rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo and rejected UN chief Ban Ki-moon's summary of a meeting on the crisis, diplomats said. According to Ban, most states attending a high-level meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Joseph Kabila 'condemned all forms of external support' to the rebels.
Tunisian civil society is rallying in support of a young woman who was raped by police officers in what they say is part of a broader assault on women's rights by religious conservatives. There is widespread outrage after 27-year-old victim was summoned by the investigating judge on Wednesday to face chargers of 'indecency' from the two men accused of raping her, in what many argue is an attempt by the authorities to intimidate her.
The situation of journalists in Somalia is becoming increasingly precarious as the country struggles to put behind it years of lawlessness following the recent successful election of a new president. 'So far, 13 journalists have been killed and 19 others wounded this year, and the killings may continue if something is not done promptly,' Abdirashid Del, a senior member of the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), told IRIN, noting that political transitions often heighten security risks for journalists in Somalia.
A civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Goodluck Jonathan’s government to mark the country’s 52nd independence anniversary by 'urgently committing itself to socio-economic rights reform and end systemic poverty that has remained the bane of millions of Nigerians for decades'. The organization in a public statement dated 30 September 2012 and signed by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni stated that, 'The struggle for political freedom and independence from colonization was widely applauded by our people but over five decades after Nigeria gained independence the country’s enormous natural resources and wealth have not been utilized for the prosperity of the country and its peoples. Rather, socio-economic conditions in post-independent Nigeria have remained precarious, and consequently millions of our citizens embarrassingly remain in poverty and misery. For such people, the promises of independence remain unfulfilled.'