News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Drought affects Swaziland in food security

Posted: 16 Sep 2016 10:20 AM PDT

Swaziland’s National Disaster Management Agency reported that half of the population will require food aid by December to avoid nationwide famine.

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Mbabane - Half of Swaziland’s population will require food aid by December to avoid nationwide famine, government announced on Friday. The nation is in the grip of a year-long drought, which has severely reduced harvests.

Food stockpiles are dwindling. Even if the rains come now, new crops will not be planted until October for summer harvest.

Only a quarter of the funds needed to purchase food for an estimated 638 000 people who will be in need by the year’s end are available, reports the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA). When drought was declared a national emergency in February, donor organisations and private entities pledged assistance.

“We received pledges amounting to R97 740,000 but we have only received R24 800,000 which is only 25 percent of the needed amount,” NDMA CEO Russell Dlamini told a press briefing.

This year, production of maize, the Swazi staple food, was down 60 percent from 2015. To date, 67 000 cattle, which are cherished for their cultural value by Swazis, have perished as water sources evaporated and grazing land was decimated.

With the end of El Niño weather conditions that severely reduced precipitation this year, normal rainfall was expected to return to Swaziland in October, predicted the National Meteorological Department.

Based on this forecast, the NDMA has urged Swazi farmers to plough fields when the first rains arrive. However, the Ministry of Agriculture has informed parliament that only 400 government tractors exist in the entire country for rental by farmers.

Two-thirds of Swazis live on communal Swazi Nation Land without title deeds to their land, which disqualified them from obtaining bank loans. These subsistence farmers depend on government tractors to plough their fields.

In the absence of machines, farmers must resort to traditional methods of hand-ploughing with hoes or oxen. The reduction of cattle herds by the drought has lessened the availability of healthy oxen for the work.

The NDMA reports that its new policy of paying R550 cash to drought-affected households has in some cases worsened the food shortage. Some beneficiaries saw the monthly payments as gifts unrelated to food aid. Rather than purchasing food, they awaited food parcels that had been previously distributed but had been replaced with cash stipends.

African News Agency

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Namibia finds Chinese rhino horn smugglers guilty

Posted: 16 Sep 2016 08:30 AM PDT

Four Chinese men have been convicted after attempting to smuggle a leopard hide and 14 rhinos horn out of Namibia three years ago.

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Gaborone - Four Chinese men who were arrested for attempting to smuggle a leopard hide and 14 rhinos horn out of Namibia three years ago have been convicted of the charges by a magistrate in the capital Windhoek.

Wang Hui, 41, Pu Xuexin, 51, Li Zhibing, 55, and Li Xiaoliang, 32, were, however, remanded in custody to September 23 when they will appear for a final pre-sentencing trial.

According to the State, the four were arrested on March 24, 2014, while trying to smuggle the contraband out to China through the Hosea Kutako International Airport in Windhoek.

The contraband was found stashed in two suitcases and disguised as part of personal clothing. Since April 2014, the four have made a series of appearances at the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court to face charges of illegal possession or dealing, as well as attempting to smuggle controlled wildlife products out of Namibia.

Three of the men have consistently denied both charges while the intended courier had already pleaded guilty. Handing down the convictions, Magistrate Alexis Diergaardt said the State had proven beyond doubt that the four had acted in common purpose in planning and implementing the failed smuggling attempt.

Several Chinese, as well as Angolan, Zambian and Zimbabwean citizens, have been arrested in connection with rhino poaching and trafficking in ivory products over the past three years. Early this month, three Namibian, two Zambians and one Angolan citizen were arrested for the poaching of two rhinos in the Okahandja and Oshikoto districts.

African News Agency

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Zim finance minister's budget cuts fail - again

Posted: 16 Sep 2016 04:40 AM PDT

Zimbabwe’s finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa, can neither rescue the economy nor stop his boss, President Robert Mugabe, from interfering in his budget.

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Harare - Zimbabwe’s finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa, is having a very tough time. He can neither rescue the economy nor stop his boss, President Robert Mugabe, from interfering in his budget.

Last week, Chinamasa went to parliament and slashed government spending on civil service salaries, and in particular, the annual Christmas bonus in his mid term budget review.

This was what he tried to do last year as well. But when Mugabe heard the reaction to the bonus cut then, he immediately publically contradicted Chinamasa, and said it must be paid.

The finance ministry then spent the next nine months looking for cash to pay the bonus.

Finding the bonus money meant late payment of civil service salaries, including soldiers’ pay for the last three months.

And poor pensioners are nearly always queuing outside the post office or banks to get their pittance.

So with regular late public pay checks, lack of cash at the banks, and ahead of the issue of a limited amount of a new currency next month, known as Bond Notes, Chinamasa, tried again. After all, insiders in the governments say, he would have said to himself, there isn’t an alternative to cuts.

He told parliament in his review last week that the annual civil service bonus would not happen for two years. He cut allowances to some senior civil servants and said he had to slash 25 000 government jobs and reduce some salaries by more then five percent.

After all, he said, the cost of keeping the government paid eats up 97 percent of its revenue and he needed to reduce this to about 60 percent in the next few years.

For a few days the main reaction was furious reaction in the media from civil servants.

But Mugabe didn’t contradict Chinamasa. He stayed quiet and prepared to depart for Lusaka and New York.

And then, earlier this week, Chris Mushowe, the junior information minister spoke out as Mugabe left for overseas, saying that Chinamasa’s proposals were indeed tabled before the Cabinet. But that they had not been approved.

He assured civil servants, farmers and the public at large that the proposed measures were not “friendly operative.

“It is hoped that this clarification puts to the rest anxieties that may have arisen within civil service, the farming community and public at large, ” according to Mushohwe.

A well-placed source in the Zimbabwe’s official financial sector, and who asked not to be named, said the contradiction of Chinamasa’s latest efforts to ameliorate the worst effects of the economic crisis, was “political.”

The ruling Zanu-PF elite is split by different factions over who will succeed Mugabe should he die, or be forced into retirement by the economic catastrophe.

Chinamasa, who is an experienced and senior lawyer, and who has successfully re-engaged with western diplomats and international funds, such as the World Bank and IMF, is seen in some quarters as a supporter, on the sidelines, of the faction in Zanu-PF which wants vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa to succeed Mugabe.

But others are backed by first lady Grace Mugabe, who is either a contender for the post or looking for a vice president’s position or will back another contender.

Her interest many say is because she knows she is not widely-liked especially among better educated urban Zimbabweans, and believes she needs to protect herself after Mugabe goes.

She clearly does not see that protection from the Mnangagwa faction.

So, with Mugabe away at the UN General Assembly in New York, no one is sure whether Minister Mushowe’s remarks were the real thing, and will be confirmed by Mugabe when he returns home.

Or whether Chinamasa has had his way and has taken a small, but significiant step towards reducing the massive government pay roll by about US$150 million by the end of next year.

One way or another, many commentators say, Chinamasa has been humiliated.

And he is taking strain as he is still looking for a US$1,8 bn loan to pay off the World Bank in particular and the African Development Bank and the IMF so he can borrow for Zimbabwe once more and refurbish infrastructure to try to reduce imports and better balance Zimbabwe’s books.

Independent Foreign Service

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Zim electoral body is 'adulterously useless' - politician

Posted: 16 Sep 2016 01:48 AM PDT

One of Zimbabwe's most controversial politicians Temba Mliswa lost his temper at a Zimbabwe Electoral Commission meeting.

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Harare - A Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) stakeholders meeting with political parties came to an abrupt end on Thursday.

One of the country's most controversial politicians Temba Mliswa went ballistic apparently because ZEC officials had refused to address the issues he had raised concerning preparations for the Norton by-election in which he is contesting.

Mliswa, a former Zanu-PF Mashonaland West provincial chairperson, will contest the Norton seat as an Independent candidate against Tinashe Chindeza of Zanu-PF and David Choga of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) in a by-election scheduled for October 22.

The seat fell vacant following the recalling of former War Veterans Minister Christopher Mutsvangwa by the ruling Zanu-PF party following a purge that claimed several other senior party officials.

Trouble at the meeting started when a Zanu-PF official attempted to answer a question posed by Mliswa to the ZEC officials, resulting in the emotionally charged Mliswa refusing to hand over the microphone to other speakers, saying he was not going to sit down until his concerns were addressed.

Mliswa had asked what ZEC was doing about political violence in the Norton constituency and why the electoral body had not set up a committee comprising the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission to look into the issue as prescribed by the Constitution.

"This is a ZEC meeting not a Zanu-PF meeting, he cannot answer me. Is ZEC an extension of Zanu-PF? I did not disrupt this meeting all I want is for you to respond to what is happening in Norton. We cannot go to 2018 when things are like this in Norton," Mliswa fumed.

"I put facts to you to respond; you are useless, adulterously useless. You are puppets and a waste of taxpayers' money and time. You a disgrace to the nation, you must resign with immediate effect. You are getting people killed in an election where the environment is not conducive," he added.

Mliswa went on to castigate the ZEC officials for failing to investigate the cause of the violence that rocked Hurungwe West Constituency, where he lost to Zanu-PF in an election he described as not free and fair, citing intimidation and violence against his supporters.

Although the youthful Mliswa was finally persuaded by his election agent to leave the room, ZEC chairwoman, Justice Rita Makarau, had to call the meeting to an end saying it was no longer possible to continue. This was after Mliswa had turned down Makarau's offer to meet him one-on-one at her offices.

Makarau later told journalists that the skirmishes would not deter them from engaging with stakeholders, saying they would now create platforms at different levels to address the issues.

"This will not deter us and we will not stop from engaging. As ZEC we believe that only through dialogue can we see an improved voting process. We will engage the stakeholders when the tempers have cooled down and say do we want to proceed and if so; how do we want to engage in future meetings.

"We will continue with interest groups meetings that we have and we are going to meet with political parties anyway on their own, we are going to meet with civil society organisations and find exactly what they want to see us doing," she said.

Makarau said some of the political leaders were using the platforms to vent their anger instead of taking them as an opportunity to move the process of reforms forward.

"These are supposed to be debating platforms, where the answers don't come only from ZEC, they can come from anywhere. Bright ideas are not confined to ZEC. We can't have a platform in which people just come to vent out their anger but we also need platforms where we move processes forward, where people come up with constructive ideas and say we have got an issue and lets all address it; how then do we resolve that issue," she said.

African News Agency

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Zambia's ex-ministers dispute "pay back money" ruling

Posted: 16 Sep 2016 01:33 AM PDT

Former Zambian ministers say they have not accepted a Constitutional Court order to pay back money they accrued in salaries and allowances.

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Lusaka - Former Zambian ministers on Thursday revealed that they have not accepted the decision of the Constitutional Court which ordered them to pay back money they accrued in salaries and allowances during a period they continued in office when the parliament was dissolved.

On August 8 this year, the Constitutional Court ordered the ministers and their deputies who had remained in office after the dissolution of parliament in May topay back money they had accrued in salaries and allowances during the period they were illegally in office.

Stakeholders have since asked President Edgar Lungu to act and ensure that the ministers start paying back the money.

But Stephen Kampyongo, who was Minister of Local Government and Housing, said the former ministers have written to the Attorney-General to revisit the court's ruling.

He said the former ministers were finding it difficult to accept the court's ruling hence the decision to engage the Attorney-General to pursue the matter further, according to Hot FM radio.

Meanwhile Chishimba Kambwili, who was Information and Broadcasting Services Minister, said he had no problems in paying back the money but indicated that the former ministers did not agree with the court's ruling.

He said it was unfortunate that the court ruled that the former ministers were in office illegally when parliament was dissolved while they were rendering a service to the people of Zambia.

Xinhua

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Woman in court over links to Kenya police station attack

Posted: 16 Sep 2016 01:24 AM PDT

Kenyan prosecutors have arraigned the widow of the slain Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo in court, charged with links to an attack on a police station.

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Mombasa - Kenyan prosecutors on Thursday arraigned the widow of the slain Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo in court, charged with links to an attack on a police station.

Haniya Said Saggar was arrested on Wednesday as part of investigations into the attack on Sunday by three women on a police station in the port city of Mombasa. The trio was killed by police at the scene while two officers were injured.

The Director of Public Prosecution said Saggar was directly connected to the Sunday attack.

Police say they intercepted communication between Saggar and one of the slain women attackers, Ramla (Tasnim) Abdirahman Hussein, who was also the mastermind of the attack. Police say the two were in communication prior to the attack and there was financial transaction between them.

"We are investigating whether she was receiving funds to support terrorism activities in the country," an unnamed senior investigation officer told Xinhua in Mombasa.

State prosecutor Eugene Wangila said Saggar was allegedly involved in a wide terrorism network.

Mombasa Resident Magistrate Emmanuel Mutunga directed that the accused be remanded in police custody until Friday.

Saggar's husband Rogo was gunned down in the coastal region in 2012 when he was facing charges of weapons possession and being a recruiter for the Somali Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab.

Saggar's arrest brings to four the number of women detained over the weekend attack. The court on Wednesday directed three Somali women refugees suspected of harbouring the three assailants in Mombasa to undergo health and psychiatric examinations.

Defence lawyers, Ababukar Yussuf and Chacha Mwita, have however dismissed the application, terming it as baseless and infringement of their clients' fundamental rights.

No group has claimed responsibility for the Sunday attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on Al-Shabaab, which has staged several bloody attacks in Kenya in recent years.

Xinhua

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Boko Haram video is a show of weakness - Nigeria

Posted: 16 Sep 2016 01:15 AM PDT

Defence authorities in Nigeria have dismissed Boko Haram's latest video and have urged citizens to disregard it.

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Abuja - Defence authorities in Nigeria on Thursday dismissed Boko Haram's latest video as "unreal," urging citizens of the West African nation to disregard it.

In a statement made available to Xinhua, defence spokesman Rabe Abubakar described the video clip as "diversionary and a desperate attempt by the dying Boko Haram to remain relevant."

The Boko Haram video, which has has over 34 000 YouTube views since Tuesday, showed an assemblage of worshippers in the background as a man who posed as acting leader of the group dished out threats to the Nigerian government.

The defence statement saying the video as a replica of another video released by the group in 2014. It said the congregants in the video were "photoshopped" and, therefore, should be disregarded.

"The video clip is a complete show of weakness and sign that the end is near for the insurgents, hence it does not in any way pose a threat to us," the statement said.

Nigeria's northeast region has been a stronghold of the extremist group Boko Haram and has been frequently raided in the past six years. In past months, the Nigerian government has launched several military operations to eliminate the terrorist threat.

Xinhua

Note: IOL has relied on other news outlets to identify this video as the one referred to in the article.

 

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Zimbabwe’s bond notes coming soon

Posted: 16 Sep 2016 01:14 AM PDT

Central bank governor says Zimbabwe’s local bank notes will be introduced at the end of October.

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Harare - Zimbabwe will introduce local bank notes, known as “bond notes”, at the end of October, the central bank governor said on Thursday, raising fears of a return to a domestic currency abandoned in 2009 as hyperinflation soared out of control.

Zimbabwe is in the throes of its worst financial crisis since it switched its currency for the US dollar, and the new notes in small dollar denominations are meant to help address cash shortages that have fuelled protests against the government.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya said during a monetary policy statement, the equivalent of $75 million in the notes would be circulated by year-end, adding the bank was “very far” from re-introducing a local currency.

He sought to allay concerns of a return to rampant money printing and inflation rates that peaked at 500 billion percent, by saying that the notes would account for less than one percent of the $6 billion held in bank deposits.

An independent body would also monitor the printing and circulation of the $2 and $5 denominations to make sure things did not get out of control, he added.

“It's about trust and confidence and we are saying if you don't want them (bond notes), don't take them. We won't overprint the bond notes,” Mangudya said.

‘Madness’

But activist leaders said the scheme would not answer their concerns and promised more rallies against economic hardships and the man they blame - 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe.

“They (the bond notes) are not acceptable. It's a way of trying to steal our money. Our action on the ground will demonstrate our resolve to stop that madness,” said Promise Mkwananzi, the leader of the #Tajamuka protest movement.

Memories are still fresh of the hyperinflation considered by the International Monetary Fund as the worst for any country not at war.

The crisis led to the release of the 100 trillion dollar Zimbabwean dollar note - the single largest known bill to be printed by any central bank. Shoppers carried stacks of money in plastic bags as prices changed several times daily.

The introduction of the US dollar as the official currency halted the sky-high and accelerating inflation.

Mugabe did not release a statement on Thursday, but has called bond notes a “surrogate currency” that would prevent foreigners taking greenbacks out of the country and improve liquidity.

An executive at a Harare commercial bank said most people wanting to withdraw cash would eventually get bond notes.

“Most people still withdraw cash and because it is scarce, it is most likely that you will be given bond notes at your bank and it stops being an option,” said the executive.

Mangudya said Zimbabwe had imported $250 million cash between May and September. He also said the central bank had agreed with banks to cap interest rates at 15 percent.

REUTERS

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UN wants South Sudan hybrid court - and fast

Posted: 16 Sep 2016 12:59 AM PDT

A UN team formed to monitor and report on human rights situation in South Sudan wants the African Union to expedite the creation of hybrid court to try perpetrators of rights abuses in the country.

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Juba - A United Nations team formed to monitor and report on human rights situation in South Sudan on Thursday called on the African Union (AU) to expedite the process of forming a hybrid court to try perpetrators of rights abuses in the war-torn country.

The UN-backed South Sudan Commission on Human Rights concluded a seven-day mission to South Sudan with a call for speedy formation of the hybrid court, and establishment of a truth commission by the South Sudanese government.

The setting up of the hybrid court by the AU is part of the terms of the August 2015 peace agreement, which aims to end more than two years of civil war in the South Sudan.

The three-member UN team held meetings with South Sudan's officials on critical issues of accountability, and said the officials indicated their willingness to co-operate with the AU on the establishment of the hybrid court.

The team said it will produce a full report about rights violations during the civil war.

It expressed concerns for the diminishing work space for civil society members and journalists as well as restrictions placed on the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. It was deeply concerned by the ongoing impunity and lack of accountability for serious crimes, human rights abuses against civilians, and the slow progress on the implementation of the provisions of the August 2015 peace pact.

"The reason they continue to happen is because of impunity and there is a real need to establish a mechanism to ensure accountability," said Yasmin Sooka, head of the team.

South Sudan descended into civil war in December 2013. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and at least two million displaced. The peace agreement signed in August 2015 failed to end renewed clashes between rival army factions that erupted in July.

Xinhua

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Congo to form interim government

Posted: 16 Sep 2016 12:52 AM PDT

The DRC will form an interim government that includes opposition members as part of a deal to break a political impasse, Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba says.

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Kinshasa - The Democratic Republic of Congo will form an interim government that includes opposition members as part of a deal to set up new elections and break a political impasse, Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba said.

The announcement came after backers of President Joseph Kabila and some opposition members agreed on Wednesday on the timing of those elections, a question that has caused more than a year of debate and led to violent protests and arrests.

However, most major opposition parties are boycotting the talks. They see them as part of Kabila's plan to justify staying in power beyond the end of his mandate in December, when he is due to step down under the constitution.

"The government will be redone. We will put in place a government that we will co-manage between the presidential majority, the opposition and civil society," said Mwamba, who is representing Kabila's political supporters in the talks.

It was unclear which opposition members would become part of the new government.

Opposition leaders this week walked out of talks on the timing of the presidential election. The vote had been set for November, but the authorities now say it cannot be held before next July.

The opposition had insisted the presidential election should be held next. The government said local elections should come first, which would probably delay the presidential vote further.

The government and a group of opposition parties agreed on Wednesday that the presidential vote would be combined with legislative and provincial elections, although no specific dates were set. Local elections will come later.

"This opens the way to a calendar that will mention the exact date of the handover of power between the old president of the republic... and the newly elected president," said Vital Kamerhe, one of the leading negotiators for the opposition.

Despite the apparent advance in the negotiations, efforts to broker a peaceful exit from power for Kabila, who has led Africa's leading copper producer since the assassination of his father in 2001, remain fragile.

Congo has never experienced a non-violent transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

Diplomats and observers fear the crisis could trigger a repeat of civil wars that killed millions of people between 1996 and 2003.

Reuters

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