News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Who will succeed Dlamini-Zuma?

Posted: 21 Jun 2016 07:16 PM PDT

African countries are battling to find a worthy successor to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as African Union Commission chairperson.

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Pretoria - African countries are battling to find a worthy successor to South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as African Union Commission chairperson at next month’s AU summit in Kigali, Rwanda.

Officials say the three candidates who have so far put their names forward are “below par” and moves are afoot to find someone better.

Former Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete and current Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra are being considered.

The officials said the last minute search for a better person to occupy the top AU job could delay the election from next month until the next AU summit in January next year in Addis Ababa.

If so, either Dlamini-Zuma herself or her deputy, Kenya’s Erastus Mwencha, would probably stay on as caretaker chairperson.

Dlamini-Zuma is due to end her term next month, having declined to run for a second term which she is entitled to do.

"It’s a big mess, we can agree on that," the official said.

The three candidates who have put their names forward are Botswana’s foreign affairs minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi (aged 65) who is the candidate of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), former Ugandan deputy president Specioza Naigaga Wandira Kazibwe (aged 60), for the east African region, and Equatorial Guinea’s foreign affairs minister Agapito Mba Mokuy (aged 51), for the central African region.

The SADC is arguing that it should get the chair because Dlamini-Zuma will not be serving a second term. But South African official sources are saying they fear Venson-Moitoi will not win because the rest of Africa does not like Botswana’s foreign policy. This includes its firm support for the International Criminal Court which the AU has rejected as biased towards Africa.

The sources said President Jacob Zuma had already consulted last year with other SADC heads of state, especially Namibia and Mozambique, to find a stronger candidate. But no one was willing to put up a candidate.

It has been suggested that Mokuy cannot win either because of the poor human rights record of his president Teodoro Obiang Nguema. But one African official said: “I think human rights would be the last consideration in deciding who would be the next AUC chair."

"Nonetheless Equatorial Guinea is not a serious candidate. Algeria will never support it because they see Obiang as a strong Morocco backer."

Uganda’s Kazibwe was also not considered a strong enough candidate, the sources said. So the search was on for someone else – with the focus on Kikwete and Lamamra.

Lamamra was considered the most likely successor to Dlamini-Zuma until recently. However, no country may have more than one commissioner at one time and it was believed that the Algerians preferred to retain the position of Peace and Security Commissioner which is held by Algerian Smail Chergui. His name has been put forward for the elections in Kigali to retain the position. Officials said that was true for now, but if the AU leaders decided at the Kigali summit to delay the election of the AU Commission chair until next January, the Algerians would re-evaluate their position.

ANA

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No plan for ceasefire in Nigeria’s Delta

Posted: 21 Jun 2016 01:09 PM PDT

The Niger Delta Avengers said it never agreed a ceasefire with the Nigerian government.

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Yenagoa - The Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has claimed responsibility for attacks on oil and gas facilities in Nigeria's southern energy hub, said on Tuesday it never agreed a ceasefire with the government.

Government officials told Reuters a one-month ceasefire had been agreed last week after talks between the oil minister, community groups and state governors in the Niger Delta, the source of most of Nigeria's crude oil.

Militants say they want a greater share of Nigeria's oil wealth to go to the impoverished Delta region. Crude sales make up about 70 percent of national income and the vast majority of that oil comes from the southern swampland.

A petroleum ministry official said the Avengers, who have claimed responsibility for most attacks in the last few weeks that have pushed Nigeria's crude output to 30-year lows, were among those who agreed to a truce.

“It was very difficult getting the Niger Delta Avengers to the negotiating table, but we eventually did through a proxy channel and achieved the truce,” said the official, who asked not to be identified. A second government official also said a ceasefire was agreed.

But hours later the Avengers issued a statement on Twitter denying that it had an agreement with the government.

“The NDA High Command never remember having any agreement on ceasefire with the Nigeria government,” said the group.

It would be difficult to achieve a ceasefire in the hard to access swamps where militants are divided into small groups that tap widespread anger over poverty and oil spills. Leaders have little sway over unemployed youths willing to work for anyone who pays them.

A Nigeria-based security expert, who did not want to be named, said he did not believe the government had been holding talks with the right people.

Earlier this month, the government said the military campaign in the Delta would be scaled down as part of an attempt to pursue talks with militants, who laid down arms in 2009 in exchange for cash benefits under a government amnesty scheme.

Nigeria, an OPEC member, was Africa's top oil producer until the recent spate of attacks pushed it behind Angola. Oil production has fallen from 2.2 million barrels at the start of the year to around 1.6 million barrels. The impact has helped push up global oil prices.

Speaking after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari and Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, the oil minister, incoming OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said on Tuesday he had been told Nigeria's oil production was “beginning to rise again”. He did not provide details.

Barkindo said the government was trying to resolve militancy in the Niger Delta through talks, but did not elaborate.

“Government is negotiating and we are seeing positive results. I remain confident that through this resolution a stable and permanent solution will be found,” he said.

Neither the presidency nor the petroleum ministry have issued official statements on a truce. Buhari has said the government wanted to hold talks with Niger Delta leaders to address poverty and oil pollution.

But his administration angered former militants when it cut by two-thirds the budget allocated for the amnesty programme set up in 2009. Ex-militants were paid stipends and given employment training from that programme.

A number of new militant groups have sprung up in the last few weeks, each with their own set of demands, which has made the insurgency increasingly fractured. It is not yet clear how many groups took part in the talks.

In a sign of apparent discord among groups in the Delta, former militants who were known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) have criticised the Avengers and urged them to negotiate with the government.

In a statement on the Avengers' website, dated June 18, the group said of the ex-militants: “If you and your criminals want to resurrect the defunct MEND and negotiate with the government that is your business”.

“We, once again, restate that we are not going to be part of any dialogue.”

Reuters

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Zimbabwe teachers threaten strike over delayed pay

Posted: 21 Jun 2016 11:31 AM PDT

The Zimbabwe Teachers Association has threatened industrial action if the cash strapped government goes ahead with plans to delay paying their members’ salaries.

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Harare - The Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) has threatened industrial action on Wednesday if the cash strapped government goes ahead with plans to delay paying their members’ salaries.

Zimbabwe’s largest teacher union told members on Tuesday the decision by the government to delay June salaries to July 7 “was rather strange and an insult to teachers”.

Teachers were expecting to be paid on Wednesday 22 June 2016.

“Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) hereby notifies its members of a pending strike. It has come to the attention of the association that the employer is not intending to pay teachers their June 2016 salaries,” the union said in a statement.

“As such the association has resolved that all its members should down their tools as from 22 June if the employer does not change the pay date to a date in June.”

The union said it had lost patience with the government.

“Comrades let us all stop delivering service as from Wednesday 22 June 2016. Enough is enough. Please forward this message to every teacher you care about,” said ZIMTA.

The hard-pressed Zimbabwe government announced last week that it was moving June pay dates for about half a million civil servants to July. Teachers were now set to get paid on July 7.

A meeting called by Ministers of Finance, Health and Public Service, Labour and Social Services as well as the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to discuss the salary delays was snubbed by government worker representative bodies.

Representatives for nurses have also condemned the pay delays, saying this compromised the country’s health system.

ANA

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Khama calls on SADC leaders to tackle water, energy crisis

Posted: 21 Jun 2016 11:21 AM PDT

SADC chairman and Botswana President Lieutenant-General Seretse Khama Ian Khama has called on member states to show political will to resolve the power and water problems affecting Gaborone.

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Gaborone - Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) chairman and Botswana President Lieutenant-General Seretse Khama Ian Khama has called on member states to show political will to resolve the power and water problems affecting the region.

Addressing the two-day SADC Ministerial Workshop held in Gaborone to discuss the energy and water crises, Khama said only 60 percent of the regional population had access to clean drinking water, while only 40 percent had access to safe and adequate sanitation facilities.

Khama noted that due to lack of implementation of regional development goals on improving access to electricity, overall access to electricity in the rural areas of most member states remained below 10 percent, while overall electricity access for the region stood at 40 percent. He said this was low when compared to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc, where overall public access to electricity was estimated at 44 per cent.

“This less enviable record is a serious indictment on the region’s efforts to roll out water and sanitation infrastructure services. The Regional Infrastructure Master Plan estimates were that in order to support regional development by 2027, there is need to increase the current 14% of the regional stored water resource capacity to at least 25%.

“These figures indicate that the region has to muster greater political will in order to ensure delivery in accordance with priorities of Sustainable Development Goals 6, 7, and 9 on increasing access to safe water and sanitation, access to affordable clean energy and infrastructural development for industrialisation. Clearly, we need better approaches to solve the problems of delivery and implementation of the water and energy infrastructure projects across the region,” Khama said.

Further, he said the meetings should also be used to take stock of progress and challenges encountered in the implementation of the priorities set out in the Energy and Water Sector Projects of the 2012 SADC Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan (RIDMP), which covers 34 regional energy and water development projects that have been approved but not implemented.

“We should, therefore, endeavour to act on these plans, which are so well set out and articulated in regional strategic development framework documents. The phased approach to the implementation of the SADC Regional Strategic Action Plans provides an excellent opportunity for member states to address the regional water crisis.

“In addition, the Regional Climate Change Adaptation for water, if fully implemented, could assist the region’s preparedness to deal with floods, drought and other climate change-induced phenomena. It is also important that we broaden our discussions to the existing energy, water and food nexus. The inter-linkages in the energy, water and food sectors cannot be over-emphasised and require efficient management of demand and supply to ensure proper correlation,” Khama added.

The chairman also called on member states to consider reducing the cost of water, electricity and other forms of energy to spur investments and the growth of national economies. In conclusion, he warned that the implementation of the SADC Infrastructure Development Master Plan (IDMP) for the water, energy, transport, tourism, meteorology and telecommunication sectors would remain a pipedream if there was no improvement in the regional energy and water supply situation.

ANA

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Zim government seizes SA imports from vendors

Posted: 21 Jun 2016 11:20 AM PDT

The cash-strapped Zimbabwean government is confiscating South African goods from informal traders, in line with a new law.

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Harare - The Confederation of Traders Associations (COTA) – a Zimbabwe grouping of informal traders’ organisations – on Tuesday condemned the cash strapped government’s move to confiscate SA imported goods from vendors.

COTA said taking away vendor’s wares was in contravention of the country’s constitution.

Addressing a press conference at the Roadport cross border bus terminus in Harare, COTA Secretary General, Stan Manyenga, said the Statutory Instrument 64 0f 2016 that was being used by the government should have been discussed with stakeholders before it was passed into law.

“It is quite inhumane, cruel and inconsiderate that a lot of our members lost their wares at various entry points at the country’s borders. We estimate that goods worth $571 000 (R8 410 287) were lost through this ad-hoc exercise as of last night,” Manyenga said.

Zimbabwe has a very high rate of unemployment and many citizens earn a living by importing goods from South Africa for resale.

Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate has been estimated between 60% and as high as 95%. In its 2013 election manifesto, President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party put unemployment at 60%. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai estimates unemployment is above 85%

Manyenga called for the immediate repeal of the law allowing for confiscation of imported goods from vendors.

“The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority must immediately stop the confiscation of people’s goods at the borders and at roadblocks,” said Manyenga.

He added that the “Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 should be repealed as a matter of urgency as it is unconstitutional and a total violation of people’s fundamental rights”.

Manyenga said government “must compensate” all the traders whose goods were taken from them by state officials or lost during the fiasco at the Beitbridge border post and other points of entry.

Manyenga said all traders organisations under the COTA banner would meet next Monday to discuss the way forward.

National Vendors Union of Zimbabwe (NAVUZ) Board Chairperson Stan Zvorwadza warned members would get confrontational and defy the government if it continued to seize their wares.

“Section 57 of the Constitution prohibits the confiscation of private citizens’ goods and what is happening now only shows that our government is defiant of the fact that it should respect the tenets of the Constitution of the country,” said Zvorwadza.

The NAVUZ board chairperson said Zimbabwe’s economy was “comatose” and instead of the government assisting those who were enterprising it was taking away their livelihood.

“On the backdrop of this failing economy, the government must be the last institution or organisation to harass citizens who are fighting against poverty and many other challenges,” said Zvorwadza, whose name in the shona language means “it is painful”.

Zvorwadza added: “We are clear at this point that if the government does not stop its behaviour of confiscation of people’s goods at borders, we are going to declare that people must resist.

“If government takes harassment as a norm, we will take resistance as a norm, so at this point I am sure there should be clarity. This is a very sensitive issue and we must not compromise for less, we must not allow people to continue abusing Zimbabweans under these circumstances.”

According to Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016, which was gazetted last week, anyone importing listed basic commodities into Zimbabwe must have a permit to do so.

When immigration officials tried to effect the new law at the weekend, there was chaos as traders resisted the move.

Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha said the import ban on some basic commodities was a temporary measure aimed at protecting local manufacturers who were facing stiff competition from imported goods, especially those from South Africa.

He noted that the ban would be effective next month, adding that current imports should not be affected by the regulations. Banned imports include hair extensions and peanut butter.

“The regulation comes into effect next month, when the importation of some commodities in the statutory instrument will now require the granting of permits. We expect the local industry to capitalise on this and increase production. It is high time that the industry should focus on increasing availability of goods,” said Bimha.

ANA

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