News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Mugabe: SA businesses in Zimbabwe are safe

Posted: 03 Nov 2016 11:05 PM PDT

Robert Mugabe moves to reassure SA investors that their interests in Zimbabwe are safe as he discusses bilateral ties with Jacob Zuma.

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Harare - South African businesses in Zimbabwe were safe and there was need for the two Southern African neighbours to improve the flow of investments in both directions, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said on Thursday.

In his opening remarks at the official opening of the inaugural session of the Zimbabwe-South Africa Bi-national Commission in Harare, Mugabe said beneficiation and value addition of products offered the two countries vast opportunities for joint ventures and investment partnerships.

“I wish to assure South African businesspeople that their investments are safe here in Zimbabwe. We wish to see more South African investments here, as much as we wish to also see more Zimbabwean investments in South Africa,” he said.

He said businesspeople in the two nations, whose bilateral relations date back to the colonial era, should look beyond the exchange of goods and services, adding they should be empowered to compete in the national and regional markets.

Mugabe, however, expressed concern that a number of the 38 agreements and Memoranda of Understanding inked since the signing of the Joint Commission for Co-operation in 1995, had not been implemented.

Among these was the agreement in 2009 to establish a One-Stop Border Post at Beitbridge, which Mugabe said was gathering dust despite its importance to trade between the two countries.

“A major priority among these is to ensure the optimal operation of the Beitbridge border through the establishment of a One-Stop Border Post at this key bilateral and regional transit point,” he said.

South African President Jacob Zuma said the two countries should utilise the bi-national commission to provide a strategic impetus to drive their co-operation to higher levels.

“We must work together to explore a variety of issues to further deepen our co-operation,” Zuma said.

He said there was a need to pay particular attention to economic co-operation, adding that business stood ready to play their part if governments played their part in improving the ease of doing business.

Zuma said there was a need for the free flow of goods and to get rid of policy uncertainty that discouraged investors.

The two countries signed the Bilateral Air Services Agreement, with Dipuo Peters, SA’s Minister of Transport, and her Zimbabwean counterpart, Joram Gumbo, signing on behalf of their governments.

AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY

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Kenya says its general scapegoated by UN

Posted: 03 Nov 2016 10:34 PM PDT

Kenya accused the UN secretary-general of instigating an investigation of deadly attacks in South Sudan with a "preordained" outcome.

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United Nations - Kenya accused the UN secretary-general on Thursday of instigating an investigation of deadly attacks in South Sudan with the "preordained" outcome of blaming the Kenyan commander of the UN peacekeeping force who was fired after just three weeks on the job.

Kenya's UN Ambassador Macharia Kamau told a news conference that Lieutenant-General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki was sacked by UN chief Ban Ki-moon as "a scapegoat" for the systemic failures of the UN peacekeeping system.

He said the investigation was demanded "by certain current and future members" of the Security Council who wanted to protect their interests during the July attacks in South Sudan's capital, Juba. He refused to identify them.

The investigation sharply criticised the UN peacekeeping force's response to attacks on a UN compound in Juba housing 27,000 displaced people. Over three days in July, at least 73 people were killed, including two Chinese peacekeepers and more than 20 internally displaced people who had sought UN protection. The investigators also criticised UN peacekeepers for failing to respond to an attack on a private compound just over a kilometre away where UN staff, aid workers and local staff were robbed, beaten, raped and killed by armed government soldiers.

Kenya's Foreign Ministry, expressing "dismay" at Ondieki's firing and the way the investigation was conducted, announced Wednesday that it was withdrawing its 1,000 troops from the UN peacekeeping operation in South Sudan and will not contribute to beefing up the force by 4,000 troops.

"Kenya had warned that any unfair or prejudicial action taken on the basis of this investigation would compel Kenya to re-evaluate completely its engagement in South Sudan," Kamau said. "The secretary-general, in his lame-duck season, seems to have found the courage that has eluded him throughout his tenure by choosing to ignore Kenya's plea."

Ban's 10 years as UN chief ends on December 31 and Antonio Guterres will take over as secretary-general on January 1.

South Sudan, the world's youngest country, has been riven by ethnic violence since shortly after gaining its independence from Sudan in 2011. Civil war broke out in 2013 when government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, battled rebels led by his former vice president Riek Machar, who is a Nuer. Tens of thousands have been killed, more than 2 million displaced, and despite an August 2015 peace agreement, fighting has continued.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric rejected Kamau's accusations, saying there was "no preordained conclusion" to the investigation led by retired Dutch Major-General Patrick Cammaert.

He said the investigators looked at "leadership, command decisions taken on that day," and the secretary-general fired Ondieki on the basis of their findings, which "deeply distressed" him.

"The decision to ask for his removal is an initial decision," Dujarric said. "Other decisions might be taken, but obviously the secretary-general stands by the report that Mr. Cammaert did and the way it was done."

UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said "there is, of course, the system-wide accountability. We all have a degree of responsibility."

As for the firing of Ondieki, he said, "I don't want to add salt to the wound. I think that conclusions were irrefutable."

Ladsous spoke to reporters after briefing the Security Council at a closed meeting.

A council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because the session was private, said the United States proposed a press statement welcoming the report and the UN's transparency, but there was no agreement because China was not willing to accept any reference to the report.

In the attacks on the UN compound, the report said confusing senior leadership and the lack of leadership on the ground, where the Chinese battalion commander had been appointed as the incident commander, "contributed to incidents of poor performance among the military and police contingents at UN House."

This included "at least two instances in which the Chinese battalion abandoned some of its defensive positions" and an "inadequate" performance by Nepalese police to stop looting by some displaced people and control the crowd, it said.

Kamau said "the sources used to inform the investigation, according to our information, were people who were ... in the direct line of command and related colleagues to the force commander.

"These individuals, who had been in position years and months before the force commander arrived, have reason to miscue information in a manner that protects them and apportions blame elsewhere," he said.

Kamau said "the investigation could not and should not have been just about the force commander."

Instead, the investigation should have centred on response to events, the failure of the peacekeeping system, and the need for collective responsibility and accountability from the UN peacekeeping department in New York to the joint operations command at the UN mission in Juba, Kamau said.

AP

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Kenyan police fire tear gas on protesters

Posted: 03 Nov 2016 03:56 AM PDT

A Kenyan official says police fired tear gas on anti-corruption protesters demanding that the president to act or resign.

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Nairobi - A Kenyan official says police fired tear gas on anti-corruption protesters demanding that the president to act or resign.

Central Nairobi's police chief Paul Wanjama said police dispersed the group to avoid a possible clash with a separate group that supports the president.

Wanjama could not explain why other group was not tear gassed.

There were no arrests, Wanjama said.

The protests were sparked off by allegations that around $50 million has been diverted from the health ministry.

Such scandals are putting public pressure on President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is seeking re-election next year with the pledge to eradicate corruption.

Kenya is among the most corrupt countries in the world and was ranked 139 out of 168 countries in a 2015 index by Transparency International.

AP

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Kenyan policeman jailed for raping 13-year-old girl

Posted: 03 Nov 2016 02:25 AM PDT

A Kenyan police officer has been jailed for 20 years for raping a 13-year-old girl, despite saying they are now married.

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Nairobi - A Kenyan police officer has been jailed for 20 years for raping a 13-year-old girl, despite saying they are now married, in a case campaigners heralded as a breakthrough in justice in a country where such convictions are rare.

It is one of 11 child rape cases that Kenya's high court ordered be re-opened in 2013 after a rescue centre sued the police for failing to investigate hundreds of cases brought to them - instead demanding bribes from and even locking up girls attempting to make reports.

"This is a major breakthrough," Josephine Mongare, chairwoman of the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA) told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"There is hope that nobody is above the law."

Policeman Joseph Mutua was convicted of raping the minor in 2010, despite saying they had since married in a traditional ceremony, and that he had paid dowry for his bride and they were living together in Mombasa, on Kenya's coast, with their son, according to the judgment released on Wednesday.

Sex with a girl under the age of 18 is an offence in Kenya, although child marriage is common among traditional communities.

"The accused had lured the complainant (the girl) into the sentry box at the gate to the District Commissioner's office and thereafter defiled her," the judgment said in its summary of the prosecution's case.

"She felt a lot of pain and asked him to leave her alone."

The girl's family applied to the Office of the Director for Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for the case to be withdrawn saying the couple had since married, the judgment said.

The girl and her mother testified in support of Mutua but gave contradictory evidence as to which part of the country the couple were living in.

"It is clear that (the) accused, the complainant and the complainant's mother aren't reading from the same script," magistrate Oscar Wanyaga said in his judgment.

"They can't agree on simple things like where they reside as a married couple... This is just a story created to win (the) accused his freedom."

In Kenya, it is common for victims' families to settle cases out of court, accepting money or goats as compensation - leaving the perpetrator free to reoffend.

"It all has to do with poverty and valuing money more than the life of their own daughter," said Mercy Chidi, who runs Ripples International rescue centre in Meru, 240km northeast of the capital Nairobi, and who helped the girl to file the case six years ago.

One in three Kenyan girls experience sexual violence before the age of 18, a 2012 government survey found, but they rarely report it due to stigma and lack of faith in the police.

"This is one of the cases that we had that was really tough, a police officer investigating their own," Chidi said, referring to the 11 cases that she succeeded in getting re-opened.

This is the third that has since resulted in a conviction.

Conviction rates have improved since 2011 when the ODPP became an independent office with the power to look at files before trials begin and ask for additional evidence, said Mongare of FIDA.

While Kenya's estimated 80 000 police officers often lack resources, like transport, to investigate cases, it is shifts in attitudes that are key, experts say.

"We cannot condone impunity or indiscipline amongst ourselves," said police spokesman George Kinoti.

"When this officer was convicted, it's an example to the rest that by virtue of being a police officer, you are not immune to judicial process."

Thomson Reuters Foundation

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17 accused after July rampage - South Sudan

Posted: 03 Nov 2016 01:45 AM PDT

Rape, looting and injuring a victim have been listed as accusations to be handled by a special court after an attack on a South Sudan hotel.

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Juba, South Sudan - Eight people have been accused of rape, eight others accused of looting and one accused of injuring a victim during a July rampage at a South Sudan hotel popular with foreigners, the government announced on Wednesday.

Most of the accused are from the military, it said.

It was the first word of accountability in the attack on the Terrain hotel compound. The Associated Press was the first to reveal details of the attack in which people were gang-raped, beaten, subjected to mock executions and forced to watch a local journalist being shot dead. Victims said dozens of armed men in uniform forced their way into the compound, breaking open the gate with gunshots and tyre irons and outmanning security guards.

The report of South Sudan's investigation into the attack, obtained by the AP, dismisses accounts that soldiers made anti-American remarks during the rampage, saying that "utterances made by these criminals were probably calculated to make their victims believe that they were being mistreated at the orders of the government".

The South Sudan report, which has not been publicly released, also says the only way to stop a growing trend of indiscipline within the country's military "is for the international community and friends of South Sudan, including the US administration, to stop the current war and support the new nation in the transformation of the (army)."

The report also blames the management of the Terrain hotel for "failing to take appropriate steps in order to ensure the security and safety" of people there.

Spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday the US State Department has seen the executive summary of the report and looked forward to a more detailed briefing from the UN to the Security Council on Thursday. He said the South Sudanese government bears primary responsibility for the protection of its population and other civilians from "genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and other physical violence."

Kirby encouraged the government to continue its query and "hold all perpetrators accountable through a fair and credible process".

South Sudan's announcement came a day after the United Nations made public its own investigation that found UN peacekeepers nearby did not respond to calls for help during the Terrain attack, which occurred shortly after fighting erupted in the capital, Juba, between rival groups in the security forces.

The separate South Sudan investigation came after pressure from the United States.

South Sudan's deputy justice minister, Martison Oturomoi, told reporters that soldiers "exploited the war to do their own criminal acts" and cited soldiers raping women and killing the journalist, John Gatluak, based on his ethnicity.

Four of the six members of the investigative committee are from South Sudan's military or security forces, raising concerns about impartiality.

Oturomoi emphasised that the report by itself would not be enough to convict anyone. For example, he said one woman was raped by 15 men during the attack but that it was "difficult for any person other than the victim to identify the offender."

The investigation recommended that the accusations be handled by a special court with military judges. Experts say South Sudanese law indicates that soldiers who commit crimes against civilians must be tried in a civilian court.

The July 11 attack on the compound came days after gunfire erupted outside the presidential compound between armed supporters of the two sides in the conflict in the country, at the time pushed together under an uneasy peace deal. The violence quickly spread, the Guardian reports.

AP

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Cameroon man jailed for SMS joke

Posted: 03 Nov 2016 12:54 AM PDT

Amnesty International has strongly condemned a 10-year sentence slapped on a Cameroonian man who joked about Boko Haram.

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Johannesburg - Amnesty International has strongly condemned the 10-year sentence slapped on a 27-year-old Cameroonian man who joked about Boko Haram.

Fomusoh Ivo and two of his friends - Afuh Nivelle Nfor and Azah Levis Gob - were convicted by a Cameroon Military court in Yaounde and sentenced to 10 years in prison for "non-denunciation of terrorist acts" linked to a sarcastic SMS about the terror group.

"Fomusoh Ivo and his two friends should never have been arrested in the first place, as they were simply exercising their right to freedom of expression," Samira Daoud, Amnesty International Deputy Regional Director for West and Central Africa said in a statement late on Wednesday.

"Instead of being in school like their friends, these three young men will now spend years of their lives in prison for a simple joke.

"This ruling is clear evidence that Cameroonian military courts should not have jurisdiction to try civilians. The Cameroonian authorities must quash their conviction and sentence and immediately and unconditionally release all three of them."

The rights body said Ivo, whom it considers a prisoner of conscience, was arrested on 13 December 2014 after forwarding his friends a sarcastic SMS referring to Boko Haram. According to Amnesty's Write for Rights website, the message joked that even Boko Haram wouldn’t hire you unless you passed five high school subjects.

He was held in police custody in Douala before being transferred to Yaounde Prison in January 2015.

African News Agency

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