South African coal producers have made a final wage offer to
employees, with proposed increases ranging between 7 percent and 11 percent, a
document seen by Reuters showed on Friday. Trade union Solidarity said the workers had until Monday to
either accept, reject or propose changes to the offer.
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Angolan police arrest seven at youth protest against president
Angolan police said on Thursday
they have detained seven people at a protest in Luanda by a youth movement
calling for President Jose Eduardo dos Santos to quit after 34 years in power,
but said they would not be charged.
Police spokesman Aristofanes dos
Santos said the detentions followed "minor disturbances" and the
youths' identities would be registered but they would be released, possibly on
Thursday.
Mugabe heads to UN General Assembly
President Robert Mugabe this week
joins 130 other heads of state and government in New York for the 68th annual United
Nations General Assembly. Mugabe, accompanied by the First Lady, arrived at JF Kennedy
International Airport on Saturday and will address the General Assembly on
Thursday.
The ongoing Syrian crisis and the
toxic haze of recent chemical weapons use, clouds the diplomatic horizon at the
global gathering as delegates confront issues of war, peace and widening
humanitarian disasters.
The 68th session, held
under the theme "Millennium Development Goals and Other Internationally
Agreed Development Goals for Persons With Disabilities" will go through
174 assembly agenda items from hot button political issues, to vital
peacekeeping operations, and budgetary items to a gaggle of the usual
perfunctory anti-Israel resolutions, and slap on the wrist items ranging from
the question of the Falkland Islands to the continuing American economic embargo
on Cuba.
Mugabe will have a slight spring
in his step after his emphatic election win on July 31, but will rail at old
foes Britain and the United States for claiming his victory was
"flawed" even as the African Union and SADC passed the elections as
free and credible. The United States maintains a travel ban on Mugabe, but he
can still attend United Nations events.
Original article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309220276.html
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
South Africa sets up Rhino Fund to combat poaching
The South African Department of
Environmental Affairs, in consultation with the National Treasury, is to
establish a National Rhino Fund to coordinate the financing of anti-poaching
initiatives in South Africa.
Government, business, international funders, local NGOs and
individuals will be able to contribute to the fund, which will then ensure
"that funding is distributed successfully to state and privately owned
rhino anti-poaching initiatives, including conservation, safety and security,
skills development and research," the department said on Monday.
At the same time, the fund's autonomy would enable
legitimate funding needs to be identified and met quickly, rather than be
caught up in red tape.
Original article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309170308.html
Anti-corruption official in Malawi shot
A senior Malawi government
official has been shot and severely wounded in an attack the presidency says
was aimed at silencing his efforts to combat corruption. Malawi’s Nyasa Times reported on Monday that police
had "important leads" they were pursuing after the budget director in
the Ministry of Finance, Paul Mphwiyo, was shot on Friday.
The Maravi Post quoted police as
saying he had been shot in the face, shoulder and chest. The newspaper added
that Mphwiyo, who had been trained in the United States and was appointed by
President Joyce Banda, had overhauled government financial systems and had made
himself unpopular by cancelling "dubious contracts".
The Times quoted Banda's office
as saying the attack "was not just any other robbery but a planned and
targeted attack aimed at silencing him and the government in the fight against
high levels of corruption and fraud".
Original article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309160785.html
Climate change threatens Southern African agriculture
A new study suggests that the
Southern African region could be among the hardest hit areas by any potential
climate change in the next 50 years. The study, published by the International
Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and with contributions from scientists
in countries across the southern Africa region, uses available data and a
variety of models to examine likely agricultural developments, particularly
related to crops, in the period to 2050.
The study says climate change,
with rising temperatures and increasingly erratic rainfall patterns across much
of the region, will likely cause a decline in average maize and sorghum yields.
However, some areas, such as southern Mozambique, will see a growth in
harvests. Wheat harvests could be particularly vulnerable to rising
temperatures.
Extreme weather events – such as
droughts, floods and changes in the frequency and intensity of dry spells –
already negatively affect agriculture in most parts of Africa, says the study.
Agriculture is the primary source
of employment and income for most of the rural population in southern Africa.
In Malawi about 40% of gross domestic product (GDP) comes from
agriculture. In Zimbabwe, about 80% of
the population depends directly on agriculture.
More than 50% of agricultural
land in the area is devoted to cereal crops, with maize accounting for more
than 40% of the total harvested area. Millet and sorghum are also important
crops, especially in drier areas. Some countries in the region, such as
Botswana and Lesotho, already struggle to meet demand for maize and sorghum and
have to import large amounts, mainly from South Africa.
Original article: http://www.eco-business.com/news/climate-threat-southern-africas-crops/
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
Mugabe not giving any hints over new cabinet
President Robert Mugabe is
playing his cards close to the chest as he assembles his long-awaited cabinet. Mugabe,
who has a huge range of candidates to choose from after Zanu PF secured a two
thirds majority in Parliament, had by last week not appointed a cabinet, almost
40 days after winning the July 31 elections.
Sources said Mugabe had indicated
that he was not in a hurry to announce his new cabinet as he was keen to do a
balancing act in order to please the different factions which helped him win
resoundingly against opposition MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
A senior government official said
apart from vice President Joice Mujuru, only his closest aides among them chief
secretary to the Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda were in the picture of how the new
cabinet was shaping up.
Original article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309080279.html
Bomb explodes in Madagascar election row
A makeshift bomb exploded at the
entrance of a hotel in Madagascar's capital last week causing no casualties. A
previously unknown group claimed responsibility telling foreigners to keep out
of the nation's elections. The blast, though small, will raise tensions on the
Indian Ocean island before a fraught presidential vote that has been pushed
back for a third time till 25 October over a row about who can run, extending
the country's political crisis.
The former French colony has been
in turmoil since President Andry Rajoelina seized power with military support
in 2009, ousting former President Marc Ravalomanana and scaring off investors
and tourists.
South African strikes could end this week
Workers in South Africa's motor
and gold industries will return to work this week after strikes that have
crippled operations at some of the country's biggest producers were resolved on
the weekend. Prolonged labour disputes in the two key exporting industries had
threatened to compound the woes of Africa's largest economy, still reeling from
last year's violent strikes in mining and continuing problems in the platinum
sector.
"We are calling off the
strike so workers can return on Monday," the National Union of
Metalworkers of South Africa's (NUMSA) deputy general secretary Karl Cloete
said on Sunday. The dispute over pay affected more than 30,000 assembly line
workers at major carmakers in South Africa, including Toyota , Ford, General
Motors and Nissan. Cloete said the union recommended workers accept an increase
of 11.5 percent for this year and 10 percent in each of the next two years.
Thursday, 5 September 2013
Victory for women's rights in Botswana
The fight for women's rights in Botswana took
a major step forward this week when the Court of Appeal upheld the right of four
sisters to inherit their family homestead, rejecting the argument that under
Ngwaketse customary law only sons were allowed to inherit it. This was the
court battle between Ramantele v Mmusi and Others.
In a unanimous decision written by Justice
Lesetedi, the Court of Appeal held that customary law is inherently flexible
and in this case the four sisters, who used their own money to renovate the
homestead were entitled to inherit it. Justice Lesetedi noted that societal
realities have changed over the last thirty years, stating that the "Constitutional values of equality before the
law, and the increased leveling of the power structures with more and more
women heading households and participating with men as equals in the public
sphere and increasingly in the private sphere, demonstrate that there is no
rational and justifiable basis for sticking to the narrow norms of days gone by
when such norms go against current value systems."
Original article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309040359.html
Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF welcomes SADC report
The Zanu-PF party of Zimbabwe has welcomed the
final SADC report that reaffirmed its endorsement of the “harmonised
elections”, which described them as “free,
peaceful, generally credible and a reflection of the will of Zimbabweans”.
The report did not go down well with the opposition, MDC-T, who were
incredulous at the SADC’s citing of the west’s illegal economic sanctions and
pirate radio stations as impediments to the electoral process.
Zanu-PF spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo said the
report was balanced. "We are in
total agreement with the Sadc report on the harmonised elections," he
said. "Its well-balanced and the
endorsement of the polls also vindicates that the elections were conducted in a
peaceful, free, fair and credible manner.”
Original article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309040526.html?viewall=1
South African anti-corruption hotline “making its mark”
The South African government has reportedly recovered
more than R330 million following tip-offs received via the National
Anti-Corruption Hotline since it was established in September 2004, according
to President Zuma. Over the same period, 17,110 cases of alleged corruption
have been generated and a total of 2,638 officials found guilty of misconduct
relating to corruption.
A total of 491 officials have been suspended
and 1,600 dismissed from the Public Service, while roughly 256 officials have
been fined three months' salary, 31 officials have been demoted, 541 officials
have been given final written warnings, and 210 officials have been prosecuted.
The hotline, which is run by the Public Service Commission, enables South
Africans to report anonymously on corrupt activities by public officials by
calling 0800 701 701 toll-free.
The president also noted that public servants
now have to go through a vetting process before being appointed. He said the government has also
established a multi-agency working group to investigate supply chain management
practices, as well as an anti-corruption task team within the Justice, Crime
Prevention and Security cluster in order to fast-track high-priority and
high-profile corruption cases.
Original article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309040644.html
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