News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Zambian ConCourt orders Lungu to dissolve cabinet immediately

Posted: 09 Aug 2016 06:38 AM PDT

The Constitutional Court of Zambia has ordered President Edgar Lungu to instruct all ministers and their deputies to vacate their posts immediately.

|||

Gaborone – The Constitutional Court of Zambia has ordered President Edgar Lungu to instruct all ministers and their deputies to vacate their posts immediately and repay all salaries and allowances they have earned since June 2016 when their legal office mandates expired.

According to the Zambian Constitution, the official tenures of members of parliament, cabinet ministers and their appointed deputies legally end three months before the election set for August 11, 2016 of a successor parliament, from which the members of a new cabinet are then selected.

Although Lungu dissolved parliament in June, he refused to dissolve his cabinet, prompting the Law Society of Zambia (LSZ) to apply to the Constitutional Court to seek an order to compel the President to uphold the constitution.

The lawyers also asked the court to compel the ministers to repay the salaries and allowances they earned during their illegally extended three-month tenure in office.

On Monday, the Constitutional Court ruled that Lungu had violated the law by maintaining the ministers in

office after the dissolution of parliament in June.

In a statement, the main opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) said it was gratifying to note that the court had ended what amounted to a daylight robbery of the people by the Patriotic Front (PF) government.

The UPND called on Lungu to ensure that the ministers paid back the money they had earned unlawfully as early as possible.

African News Agency (ANA)

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Ex-Botswana leader in Mozambique for peace talks

Posted: 09 Aug 2016 05:43 AM PDT

Sir Ketumile Masire is expected to facilitate negotiations to end three years of a low-level war between the armed opposition RENAMO and the government.

|||

Gaborone – Former Botswana President Sir Ketumile Masire has arrived in the Mozambican capital Maputo where he is expected to facilitate negotiations to end three years of a low-level war between the armed opposition Mozambique National Resistance Movement (RENAMO) and the government of President Felipe Nyusi.

Sir Masire was nominated by the London-based Global Leadership Foundation (GLF), which is chaired by former SA president F W de Klerk. The board includes Chester Crocker and Baroness Lynda Chalker, a former UK aid minister given honorary Mozambican citizenship by President Armando Guebuza in 2014.

The GLF was set up by De Klerk as a platform through, which former leaders help the world achieve peace through the negotiation to resolve disputes.

In October 2014, RENAMO leader Alfonso Dhlakama withdrew from the government in Maputo and returned to his war-time base in Gorongossa.

Dhlakama is protesting the alleged failure by the government to integrate members of his former rebel movement into the police and army, as provided for in the 1992 Rome peace accord. The accord ended years of fighting between RENAMO an the government that erupted in 1975.

RENAMO forces have waged a low-level insurgency targeting the police, the army, government outposts and transport routes in the central, north and north-east of the country.

Following several failed internal peace efforts, the government recently agreed to RENAMO’s demand that the negotiations should be led by impartial international mediators.

However, the peace talks took off to a rocky start late July in Maputo as the fighting continued across the country.

According to the South African-based International Institute of Security Studies (IISS), the renewed fighting is unlikely to lead to a relapse into full-scale civil war, but would mean a continuation of hard times for ordinary Mozambicans.

African News Agency (ANA)

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Malian soldiers missing after attack claimed by militants

Posted: 09 Aug 2016 05:19 AM PDT

Defence ministry spokesperson Diarran Kone said five soldiers had disappeared, one other was injured, and vehicles were lost in the clashes.

|||

)Bamako - Five soldiers are missing after clashes with militants in central Mali at the weekend, military officials said on Tuesday, in the latest in a string of attacks on army and UN forces claimed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine.

Fighting broke out near the village of Tenenkou in the Mopti region on Sunday afternoon and continued into Monday, army spokesman Souleymane Maiga said.

Defence ministry spokesperson Diarran Kone said five soldiers had disappeared, one other was injured, and vehicles were lost in the clashes.

In a statement posted online, Ansar Dine said it had ambushed the Malian army, killing and wounding soldiers and looting weapons and vehicles, according to SITE Intelligence Group.

Ansar Dine claimed an attack in July on an army base that left 17 soldiers dead and six missing. It later released a video of five Malian soldiers it said it had taken prisoner in the raid, according to SITE.

The group also claimed responsibility for several attacks on vehicles that killed a UN peacekeeper and injured five others on Friday and Sunday.

Islamist militant groups took advantage of an ethnic Tuareg uprising in 2012 to seize northern Mali before a French-led intervention drove them back a year later.

The United Nations has deployed an 11 000-strong peacekeeping force, but the militants have reorganised and launched frequent attacks across Mali and its neighbours.

Reuters

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

World’s best president story a hoax, says Botswana

Posted: 09 Aug 2016 02:56 AM PDT

Botswana has dismissed widely circulated online reports suggesting that President Seretse Khama Ian Khama has been named the 'World's Best President'.

|||

Gaborone – The Botswana Office of the President has on Tuesday, dismissed widely circulated online reports suggesting that President Seretse Khama Ian Khama has been named the ‘World’s Best President’ as a hoax story.

The report, which has been circulating online since last week, was published by ‘Smith Rise’, a self-proclaimed satirical blog widely believed to be Malawian due to the nature of its content.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Office of the President said suggestions that Khama was tipped to become the next Secretary-General of the United Nations were equally malicious and unfounded.

“The Office of the President has become aware and wishes to dissociate itself from a hoax news report being widely circulated online with the headlines – ‘President Silese Khama Ian Khama Named The World’s Best President (the Malawi Punch, August 7)’ and ‘Botswana’s Ian Khama announced as World’s best president, tipped as the next UN Secretary General’ (Smith Rise, August 6).

“To the best of our knowledge, the source of the said reports is ‘Smith Rise’, a self-proclaimed ‘online satirical blog’ alongside the apparently associated ‘Malawi Punch’ websites and other social media,” his office said.

Further, the office said its argument that the story is a hoax was supported by disclaimers published in the ‘Smith Rise’ blog home page which said its stories were ‘fictional and fake’, and any resemblance to the truth would be purely coincidental.

According to the article published on Smith Rise, which had scored 23 900 shares by mid-morning on Tuesday, Khama was named in the ‘United Nations Economic and Social Council’ review of 2016.

Without giving evidence, ‘Smith Rise’ said Khama’s nomination was ‘criticised’ by ‘many’ because ‘Botswana had been drawn into many controversies’ since he took office.

African News Agency (ANA)

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now