News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Zimbabwe’s doctors and teachers on strike

Posted: 05 Jul 2016 09:56 PM PDT

Teachers, doctors and nurses in cash-strapped Zimbabwe are still waiting to receive their June salaries.

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Harare - Teachers, doctors and nurses in Zimbabwe began a strike over unpaid salaries on Tuesday, a day after police used force against protesting taxi drivers in the capital Harare amid a deteriorating economic situation.

Read also: PICS: Police battle rioters in Harare

Zimbabwe is battling its worst drought in a quarter of a century, while the economy is beset by cash shortages, prompting small, spontaneous protests over the past month. Monday's protests were the first to turn violent since 2005.

President Robert Mugabe has used the police to keep a lid on the protests, but Amnesty International said their response on Monday amounted to a violation of Zimbabweans' human rights.

Police deployed again on Tuesday in two of the townships that saw violence on Monday but the situation was calmer.

At Zimbabwe's two largest state hospitals, Parirenyatwa and Harare Central, non-critical patients were told to come back next week because junior doctors and nurses were on strike, leaving only senior staff to work, Reuters witnesses said.

“The issue is that doctors cannot come to work because they have not been paid. It looks like this (strike) will go on until July 14,” the head of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors' Association, Fortune Nyamande, said.

The government has said it will pay doctors and nurses their June salaries on July 14 and the teachers on July 7. It has also delayed paying the June salaries of the army and security services by two weeks.

At most state schools around Harare, students could be seen playing at sports fields in the morning because teachers did not come to work. School heads, who are not allowed to strike under Zimbabwe's labour laws, reported for duty.

Acting Labour Minister Supa Mandiwanzira said workers had not notified the government about the strike action but added the state was ready to talk to them about their grievances.

Without balance of payment support from the International Monetary Fund or foreign credit from traditional Western donors, Harare runs a hand-to-mouth budget, spending 82 percent of its revenue on wages, which it is struggling to pay.

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in London on Monday he hoped multilateral lenders would sign a deal for Zimbabwe to clear its arrears by December, opening the door to possible new funding, the first since 1999.

A social movement called #ThisFlag, launched in April by a young pastor in Harare, has called for a national stay-away day on Wednesday “to shut down the country” in protest against alleged government failures.

REUTERS

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Madonna moved to tears by case of child rape

Posted: 05 Jul 2016 11:53 AM PDT

Madonna was reduced to tears during a trip to Kenya as she listened to a man describe how his five-year-old daughter had been raped.

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Nairobi - Madonna was reduced to tears during a trip to Kenya as she listened to a man describe how his five-year-old daughter had been recently raped by a neighbour in Nairobi's Kibera slum.

The singer met the man during a visit to Kibera, one of Africa's biggest slums, on Saturday and Sunday. She had gone there to see how she could improve the lives of its residents, a spokesman said.

“This was an incredibly powerful and disturbing conversation about the realities of violence in these people's lives,” said Trevor Neilson, who manages Madonna's Raising Malawi and Ray of Light foundations, and accompanied her on the trip.

“These stories brought Madonna to tears,” Neilson told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The “Material Girl” singer, who took her four children to the east African country, posted a video on Instagram showing them cleaning streets, clearing gutters and painting murals.

Madonna also met Kenya's First Lady Margaret Kenyatta on Monday to discuss working with her charity to scale up maternal and child health programmes and initiatives against gender violence.

Kenyatta's charity Beyond Zero, which provides mobile clinics offering basic health services to Kenyans in remote areas, recently introduced safe spaces for victims to report gender based violence.

“Her (Madonna's) basic belief is that no child, no woman should be attacked anywhere. Period,” Neilson said.

“There needs to be a bright light shone on this problem, which creates an environment that enables the victims to come forward ... and forces law enforcement to pursue these things.”

Constance Gakonyo, the First Lady's chief of staff, said the two women discussed ways of working together but they did not go into detail.

Madonna's welcome in Kenya was in contrast to the criticism she faced after visiting Malawi in 2013, when she was accused by Malawi of expecting its government to be forever chained in an “obligation of gratitude” towards her for adopting two Malawian children and contributing to the construction of classrooms there.

Reuters

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Zim shutdown: Mujuru calls for new election

Posted: 05 Jul 2016 11:47 AM PDT

Former Vice-President Joice Mujuru has called fresh elections in Zimbabwe in the face of widespread protests over the collapsed economy.

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Harare - Former Zimbabwe Vice-President Joice Mujuru has called on President Robert Mugabe to call for fresh elections in the face of a collapsed economy, saying her newly-formed party, Zimbabwe People First, was “the future” and had the “solution”.

Speaking at a state of the nation address at her Chisipite home in Harare on Tuesday, Mujuru called on protesters to “respect life, protect property and respect other people’s views”.

“Instead of repressing and suppressing the popular sentiments among the people manifesting in the demonstrations, government has to address the causes of the myriad problems facing the country,” she said.

“In view of these myriad problems, we challenge Robert Mugabe to call for fresh elections now to get a new mandate if he thinks people have forgotten his promise of two million jobs.”

Mujuru said government’s decision to ban imports of basics without local industry to competitively meet that demand was “unfortunate and ill-timed”.

“The importation of basic commodities was providing a livelihood while meeting the gap caused by lack of local industrial production. This is even more telling when such a decision was taken when there is rampant unemployment at over 80%,” she said.

The former VP - kicked out of government and Zanu PF for allegedly plotting to topple Mugabe - also took a dig at her former boss and top government officials who sought medical attention in foreign lands, saying: “If indeed we are genuine in protecting local industry, why are we not extending the ban to all sectors of the economy, including access to foreign medical facilities and services? The local health system has collapsed; it needs the same kind of support.”

Mujuru made the remarks as activists have called for a nation-wide shutdown Wednesday, saying they want government to address a host of challenges the country is going through.

Mass protests have been taking place around the country in the past few days, the latest being in Harare and suburbs surrounding the capital city.

On the issue of the mass protests, war veterans on Tuesday called for peaceful demonstrations.

Addressing a press conference Tuesday, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association spokesperson Douglas Mahiya urged the government to listen to solutions from the citizens.

“Government should give appropriate solutions to problems that are of social, economic and political nature. Government should hear from the people or sections of society that are registering dissatisfaction with the services of government,” he said.

“People do not want tailor-made solutions to social and political problems. They are often resisted because they will not be as suitable as solutions that come up from the people,” he added, echoing Mujuru’s sentiments who had earlier said the bans were meant to benefit Zanu PF cadres.

On the other hand, the National Election Reform Agenda (NERA), a grouping or progressive political parties fighting for electoral reform in Zimbabwe, said they fully supported the spontaneous mass action by Zimbabweans over the past few days.

In a statement Tuesday, NERA said the mass action had been triggered by “the economic decline that has confined our people to poverty and misery”.

“For NERA, the root cause of these problems is the crisis of legitimacy itself created by unfree and unfair elections. Therefore, the only answer is a change of government through free and fair elections. We will continue to support this mass action until people’s demands are met,” the grouping said.

Civic society organisations condemned behaviour which it is said was “criminal for the government to abuse its resources and power to crush ordinary citizens as being observed in the Beitbridge, Epworth, Mabvuku and other areas where protests are underway”.

African News Agency

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Children born of Boko Haram rape persecuted

Posted: 05 Jul 2016 11:45 AM PDT

Women who are former Boko Haram captives, and their children born out of rape, face mistrust and persecution when they return home.

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Abuja - Having been kidnapped by Boko Haram, held for almost a year, and raped by several militants, 28-year-old Aisha Umar could have been forgiven for believing her ordeal was over when she escaped and returned to her hometown in northeast Nigeria last year.

But the mother-of-four was forced to flee her home in the town of Gwoza a fortnight ago when a man threatened to murder her two-year-old boy Mohammed, the son of a Boko Haram fighter.

“He told me that if I didn't take the child away, he would buy petrol and set the boy on fire until he burned to ashes,” Umar told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Madagali, 22 km away, where she now lives with her brother.

The man, who saw Boko Haram kill three of his children, was one of many people in Gwoza who made it clear to Umar that her son was not welcome in the community since their return home.

“People didn't want to play with the child ... they called him Boko Haram child,” Umar said, adding that she received the most abuse from those who had lost relatives to Boko Haram.

Women who are former Boko Haram captives, and their children born out of rape, face mistrust and persecution when they return home, according to a report by peacebuilding group International Alert and the U.N. children's agency UNICEF.

Many people fear those held by the Islamist militant group have been radicalised and may recruit others when they return home, said the report, which was published earlier this year.

More than 2 000 women and girls have been abducted by Boko Haram since 2012, many of whom have been raped, trained to fight, or used as suicide bombers, according to the report.

Joint operations between Nigeria and neighbouring countries succeeded in driving Boko Haram from many of its strongholds last year but the Islamists have stepped up cross-border attacks and suicide bombings, many of them carried out by young girls.

“There is a belief that the blood of the father will always run in a child's veins and therefore that these children will eventually turn on their families and communities,” said Rachel Harvey, chief of child protection for UNICEF in Nigeria.

Umar was kidnapped in August 2014 by Boko Haram militants who shot her husband in the head before taking her into Sambisa Forest, a vast colonial-era game reserve where the militants hide in secluded camps to avoid the Nigerian military.

Umar believes the militant to whom she was married is the father of her two-year-old son. He was named Mohammed Yusuf after Boko Haram's founder, who died in police custody in 2009.

When she returned home to Gwoza last year and learned that her three children from her murdered husband had been taken in by a neighbour, the family were overjoyed to be reunited.

“But people started telling them that their brother was a Boko Haram child,” she said, adding that the three children became increasingly reluctant to play with Mohammed.

“My oldest daughter told me: 'Mummy, please, take this child to his father and come back to us'.”

Despite moving to Madagali in Adamawa state, Umar is facing fresh stigma as people become aware of her son's heritage.

Her relatives do not want to touch Mohammed while people point at her in public and keep their distance, Umar said.

Recalling how she secretly plotted her escape from Sambisa with dozens of other women, Umar talks of how she carefully strapped her toddler to her back as she fled to keep him safe.

Yet the abuse she has suffered since escaping Boko Haram has pushed her to breaking point.

“If I had someone to take this child away from me, I would welcome the idea.”

Reuters

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Uganda’s Museveni in Palestine gaffe

Posted: 05 Jul 2016 10:30 AM PDT

Israeli Prime Minister's historic visit to Uganda was marred when Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni repeatedly referred to Israel as Palestine during a speech.

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Johannesburg - Israeli Prime Minister's historic visit to Uganda, as part of a comprehensive visit to East Africa, was marred on Monday when Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni repeatedly referred to Israel as Palestine during a speech.

“The president was talking about Operation Entebbe, in which Israeli commandos rescued hostages from Uganda's Entebbe International Airport in July 1976 after an Air France flight was hijacked by Palestinian militants,” reported the Voice of America (VOA).

“The sad event, 40 years ago, turned into another bond linking Palestine to Africa,” said Museveni.

“I said this is yet another bond between Africa and Palestine because there were earlier bonding events.” Museveni's mistake was not a deliberate political dig but rather a reflection of his less than stellar knowledge of the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The relationship between Israel and Uganda has been good following the Entebbe raid with Israel advising Uganda on security, as economic and business ties continue to grow, culminating in Netanyahu's visit to Africa, the first by an Israeli premier in decades.

However, many politically-savvy Ugandans are critical of the Israeli occupation, and Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, and Twitter was afire with sarcasm and humour with some referring to Museveni's mix-up as “gaffestastic” reported VOA. Others debated whether Museveni's speech writers had referred to Israel as Palestine deliberately and wondered whether heads would be rolling after the Israeli premier departed from Uganda on the other legs of his African journey, incorporating Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Israelis, however, lashed out on Twitter labelling Museveni's speech as rambling and incohesive.

It was further reported that Israel's public radio broadcaster cut Museveni's speech off before it even ended.

Meanwhile, as Netanyahu eulogised the death of his brother Jonathan, an Israeli commando who died during the Entebbe raid as they freed Israeli hostages, a son of the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin who was president at the time of the raid, challenged Israel's version of events.

“Netanyahu described his country's clinical mission to rescue the 103 nationals who had been held hostage at Entebbe airport in 1976 as a 'watershed moment' that taught his people a lesson of fighting back and protecting themselves,” reported Uganda's Daily Monitor.

But in a 3 900-word missive circulated to the media, Hussein Lumumba Amin, who is also the secretary for the “Amin Family Committee” says President Amin's role was limited to “connecting the two sides (Palestine and Israel) to negotiate and providing for the hostages' immediate needs,” reported the Monitor.

“Had Amin taken sides, the hostages would have probably been taken to Uganda's Luzira Maximum Security Prison or possibly to the much dreaded State Research Bureau where chances for an escape would be almost zero,” said Lumamba.

Furthermore, in an interview with the Daily Monitor last week, Uganda's First Deputy Premier, Gen Moses Ali, who was a finance minister at the time of the raid questioned the logic of Ugandans participating in the commemorations.

African News Agency

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Netanyahu eyes trade opportunities in Africa

Posted: 05 Jul 2016 12:58 AM PDT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is touring four African countries to pursue business deals.

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Tel Aviv - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took his four-country Africa trip to Kenya, where he will be pursuing business deals and seeking support against international condemnation of his country’s policies toward the Palestinians.

Read also: What should Africa expect after Brexit?

The Israeli leader will meet with his host, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, and together they’ll hold a forum for Israeli and Kenyan business executives on Monday. He’ll also sit down with evangelical Christian supporters.

On the flight from his first stop, Uganda, Netanyahu laid out the diplomatic agenda that sent an Israeli prime minister on a first trip to sub-Saharan Africa in 29 years: a quest for open political support from countries that have largely sided with Arab nations on resolutions critical of Israel in the United Nations and African Union.

“It might take a decade, but we will change the automatic majority against Israel,” he said. “I believe that this meeting will be seen as a turning point in Israel’s ability to reach a broad number of African countries, which is our goal.”

He said Tanzania’s foreign minister told him the country plans to open an embassy in Israel.

Ties unravelled

Israel has a long history of ties with Africa built on exports of arms and agricultural products, and imports of oil, diamonds and other natural resources.

Alliances unravelled after many African states severed ties to avoid entanglement in the Arab oil embargo following the 1973 Middle East war. Ties have begun to deepen again over the threat of radical Islam and Israel’s outreach beyond its traditional Western allies.

As he builds diplomatic bonds, Netanyahu is more immediately trying to drum up business for Israeli companies during a visit that also takes him to Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda. With a delegation of 70 business executives, the African excursion is part of Netanyahu’s effort to cultivate new growth markets while economies languish in the country’s biggest trade partners, the US and European Union.

In Uganda, he joined leaders from the four countries on his itinerary, plus Zambia, South Sudan and Tanzania, to discuss how Israel could help African countries with technical expertise in areas such as anti-terrorism, water management and high-yield farming.

Companies sending executives with Netanyahu include Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest publicly traded defence contractor; Netafim, which makes irrigation systems; Magal Security Systems, a specialist in perimeter security at airports; Israel Chemicals, a fertiliser producer; and dronemaker Aeronautics.

Netanyahu opened the trip with an emotional stop at Entebbe airport in Uganda, where his older brother died 40 years ago leading a daring Israeli hostage-rescue mission.

Netanyahu called for a united international front against terrorism at a ceremony marking the operation, in which dozens of Israeli commandos flew 4 000km under cover of night to free more than 100 Jewish and Israeli hostages from an Air France flight seized by Palestinian and German hijackers.

“The campaign against terrorism continues to this day,” he said. “We must stand against it as one spirit, in a united front, in the spirit of Entebbe.”

BLOOMBERG

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