News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Senegalese MP shot during robbery in SA

Posted: 31 Jul 2016 07:24 PM PDT

MPs from the Pan African Parliament came under attack while travelling from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo Airport to their hotel.

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Johannesburg - Members of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) are demanding greater security from the South African government after a woman MP from Senegal was shot during a hold-up after arriving at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Sources close to the PAP, which is based at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, said on Sunday that these attacks on MPs happened at every session of the parliament. A new session starts on Monday.

The Senegalese MP was ambushed on the way from the airport to her hotel. She and other MPs travelling with her were robbed of their valuables, including passports. She was recovering in hospital from her bullet wound. The other MPs were not injured.

“This is the third attack on MPs in the last three sessions of the parliament,” a source said. The MPs were ambushed en route to their hotels or at the gates of the hotel. “Each time the South African authorities have promised to increase security but it has not happened. We are hoping that now it will happen.”

He added that the PAP had been assured that police were investigating the attack. This source said the attacks were harming South Africa’s image on the continent.

Earlier, the South African Parliament condemned the attack on members of the PAP, and said details surrounding the incident were still under investigation by the police.

“We can say with confidence that of the four members only (one) was seriously injured and is recovering in hospital,” Parliament said in a statement.

The Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) had been in continuous support to the members and had sent its representative to give counsel to those affected.

“Dirco will ensure that the members receive the necessary support with their travel documents that were taken during this robbery. Furthermore, a case has been opened with the Bramley police station, and the police are investigating the case with the hope to arrest the perpetrators,” the statement said.

ANA

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Bizos worried about civil war in Zimbabwe

Posted: 31 Jul 2016 08:40 AM PDT

After his first visit to the country in 12 years, veteran human rights lawyer George Bizos is worried about the possibility of civil war in Zimbabwe.

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Harare – South Africa’s veteran human rights lawyer George Bizos is worried about the possibility of civil war in Zimbabwe. He has just visited the country for the first time in 12 years.

Bizos said in an interview on Sunday that he was in Harare at the invitation of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, along with other legal practitioners from the region. They went to the magistrate’s court on Saturday when Douglas Mahiya, a veteran of Zimbabwe’s liberation war, was charged with insulting President Robert Mugabe.

Mahiya was not given the opportunity to apply for bail and will return to court for this on Monday. While Zimbabwe lawyers said they were “shocked” that he was not released on bail, Bizos said: “I don’t want to criticise the magistrate. He has a discretion, and it is not unusual for that sort of thing to happen.”

Mahiya was arrested last week in connection with an unsigned statement issued by the National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (NLWVA) criticising Mugabe’s leadership and calling on him to quit office.

Last week, Mugabe, in a furious reaction, told a meeting at the Zanu PF headquarters that the war veterans who wrote the statement would be found. Mahiya was arrested and detained in cells in a notorious police station previously declared unfit for human habitation.

“The things we heard from our colleagues in Zimbabwe are of great concern,” Bizos said. “There is no unity of purpose. They say the government isn’t really functioning. Some say they fear civil war may take place.” Bizos said he hoped there would be no civil war.

He said many legal practitioners he met said they were worried about their professional futures and their country. “They were quite pessimistic. There were rumours that police would prevent people entering the court, but that didn’t happen. There were policemen there and they behaved well.

“But the roads are full of holes. And the courtroom, it is not in good shape, tiles have been removed. It doesn’t look good. The poverty now is plain to see. The removal of rubbish is hardly taking place, and this is sad, for the people of Zimbabwe,” Bizos said.

Zimbabwe’s war veterans, for a long time Mugabe’s most loyal supporters, are now turning against him. They say they are under threat. They are seen as allies of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the succession battle inside Zanu PF.

But Mnangagwa issued a statement late on Saturday saying he remained loyal to Mugabe and any disputes within Zanu PF should be dealt with by the party.

War veterans played a key role in evicting white farmers, sometimes violently, from their land from 2000 onwards. Some of them also say they played a role in the violence against Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition party after it seriously challenged Zanu PF at the polls.

Hundreds of MDC supporters and others were killed and many more arrested and chased from their homes, particularly ahead of elections since 2000.

Bizos was last in Zimbabwe 12 years ago when he successfully defended Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube, and the late Renson Gasela, on treason charges.

The three were charged weeks before Tsvangirai was nominated, for the first time, to stand for election against Mugabe, becoming the first serious opposition challenger to Mugabe since 1980 independence.

“I was recognised by many of the lawyers I met in Harare, because I spent 10 months there and I got to know them then,” he said on Sunday.

African News Agency

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Thousands demand that Kabila steps down

Posted: 31 Jul 2016 07:31 AM PDT

Tens of thousands of Congolese demonstrators chant anti-government slogans and wave opposition flags in Kinshasa

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Kinshasa - Tens of thousands of Congolese demonstrators chanting anti-government slogans and waving opposition flags rallied in the capital on Sunday to demand President Joseph Kabila step down when his mandate ends in November.

Kabila, 45, who has been in power since his father was assassinated in 2001, is under pressure at home and from increasingly exasperated world powers to step aside and call elections to choose a successor.

Kabila’s government has said logistical problems are likely to delay the poll and his supporters have suggested a referendum scrapping term limits so he can run again, as several other African leaders have done. He retains a solid level of support.

His opponents, however, suspect Kabila is simply trying to cling on to power.

“We’re sick of Kabila,” Philippe Lukusa, 35, who like many urban Congolese is unemployed, said as demonstrators sounded motorcycle horns and sang anti-Kabila songs during Sunday’s rally close to the parliament building in the capital’s Kasavubu neighbourhood.

Opposition backers like Lukusa are pinning their hopes on octogenarian coalition leader Etienne Tshisekedi.

Tshisekedi’s supporters filled the streets for miles along the main airport road on Thursday when he returned to Congo after spending almost two years receiving unspecified medical treatment in Belgium.

Tshisekedi, 83, has been visibly frail in public appearances.

Reflecting Kabila’s persistent popularity among many of Congo's nearly 68 million people, tens of thousands of government loyalists held a counter-demonstration a day after Tshisekedi’s return, calling for the president to stay on.

Protests against a potential poll delay have in the past turned violent and authorities arrested dozens of critics of Kabila in April, although last week’s rallies were peaceful.

Foreign donors fear political tensions could easily lead to armed conflict - Congo's mix of ethnic strife and foreign interference driven by competition over its fabulous mineral wealth has bloodied it for two decades.

A regional war between 1996 and 2003 in east Congo - a treasure trove of rare metals used in phones and other gadgets - killed millions of people, spawned countless militias and sucked in soldiers from half-a-dozen African countries.

Sunday’s protest was still peaceful, watched by armoured police trucks. Some of those gathered said they would try to force Kabila out if necessary.

“We want Kabila’s immediate resignation. If he uses force, we will respond with force,” said David Slim, 24, a trader.

Elsewhere in the crowd, someone waved a white cross with the words: “Adieu Kabila, RIP.”

Reuters

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But for Bob, Harare could be any SA city

Posted: 31 Jul 2016 04:36 AM PDT

Despite the excesses of Mad Ol’ Bob and his “amazing” Grace, a normal Zimbabwe does exist, says Don Makatile.

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Despite the excesses of Mad Ol’ Bob and his “amazing” Grace, a normal Zimbabwe does exist, says Don Makatile.

Harare - The biblical Thomas had a point with his penchant for incredulity. Seeing is believing.

I went in and out of Harare on Wednesday and I’m beginning to think there’s a side of Zimbabwe the news media is hell-bent on keeping away from the consumers.

This is the normal Zimbabwe. The first thing I did when we touched down was to buy the day’s newspapers. This is what normal people do - and there are a lot of regular people in Harare.

The Herald, which I know from memory is state-owned, had “President meets war vets today” splashed across its front page, with a picture of Robert Gabriel Mugabe that could easily have served as a billboard.

The editorial was so favourable to Bob you’d have thought they were referring to the angel Gabriel. And then it happened: all traffic had to pull to the side of the road.

Why, you ask. Well, because the president was driving past. It is a circus of such tinpot despotism last read about in the era of Idi Amin.

Our hosts, who included a pastor and the mayor of Gwanda, a semi-rural mining town about 600km from Harare, explained it this way: “The road is narrow. We must give right of way to the president.” I did not laugh.

The time it takes for an entourage of roughly 10 motorbikes - sirens blaring - and about 14 cars, including two ambulances, to pass can be very long if all you’re expected to do is twiddle your thumbs at the side of the road.

We’re used to it, the priest and the mayor said in unison.

The closest description for this obsequiousness is Louis Farrakhan’s notion of “suffering peacefully”.

They are so inured to their suffering they were astounded when asked how they could be so blasé about this absurdity.

“If you don’t stop they will shoot you dead.”

Well, on our way we went after the Big Man had passed.

That the world has to come to a grinding halt simply because President Mugabe, the patron saint, is going to meet war veterans is comical to say the least.

Other than this Third World show of force, the Harare that unfolded before my eyes was as cosmopolitan as the next big city. I did not fail to notice that a book fair had been under way since Monday, with the theme “Reigniting Interest in Reading for Sustainable Development”.

We went to a complex in Borrowdale for a bite. If you woke up here after a coma, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in Sandton.

The white housewives still do what their species does best - shop. There’s a guy driving in with the milkiest white Porsche Cayenne in town, a Jeep Grand Cherokee or three and a Mercedes-Benz E Class so brand spanking new it had not yet been allocated number plates.

People work on their laptops and grab a meal à la Rosebank and Hyde Park. It is such a commonplace world, but you’d be hard-pressed to find footage of it in the news media.

Every conceivable South African supermarket and fast-food franchise is represented in Harare, and Borrowdale seems to be home to the best of them.

Later in the day we’d be introduced to a genial old man of about 70. He was the respectable headmaster type. When he took leave of us, he got into his stately Mercedes E Class sedan, driving himself.

This was Samuel Undenge, the minister of energy and power development. No blue lights; no extravagant security detail. The powerful vehicles parked side by side with the wheels of the ordinary folk outside the John Boyne Building at the corner of Inez Terrace and Speke Avenue belong to cabinet ministers.

No chauffeurs. No blue lights. Exposed to the elements!

I couldn’t see any of President Jacob Zuma’s so-called communist ministers, masters of conspicuous consumption, surviving a day in this pedestrian setting.

By the afternoon peak hour, the roads are chock-a-block with traffic. There’s life on the side of the roads as people get by as best they can. The fruit and vegetable vendors are doing a roaring trade. The congestion at the main taxi rank could be anywhere in Joburg or Durban.

This is the capital I saw. Standard, average, routine.

Despite the excesses of Mad Ol’ Bob and his “amazing” Grace, this normal Zimbabwe does exist.

The Sunday Independent

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