News Africa Extended |
- Migrant boat carrying 600 capsizes off Egypt
- Zimbabwe’s government warns against abuse of flag
- Time for Mugabe to go - Botswana president
- A new leaf for Zim agriculture
- HIV-positive boy raped girls aged 4 to 7
- Elite Nigerian police unit 'tortures suspects'
- Over 50 people to apply for bail in Zim
- Congo unrest death toll hits 44 - rights group
- ‘$50bn in illicit outflows hurt Africa’
Migrant boat carrying 600 capsizes off Egypt Posted: 21 Sep 2016 09:17 AM PDT A boat carrying around 600 people capsized off Egypt's coast, killing at least 29, in the latest disaster to befall African migrants. |||Cairo - A boat carrying around 600 people capsized off Egypt's coast, killing at least 29, officials said on Wednesday, in the latest disaster to befall migrants attempting to make the crossing to Europe. The boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea off Burg Rashid, a village in the northern Beheira province. Of the 29 bodies found so far, 18 were men, 10 were women and one was a child, local officials said. “Initial information indicates that the boat sank because it was carrying more people than its limit. The boat tilted and the migrants fell into the water,” a senior security official in Beheira told Reuters. Rescue workers have so far saved 150 people, officials said. The boat was carrying Egyptian, Syrian, and African migrants, they added. It was not immediately clear where the boat was headed, though officials said they believed it was going to Italy. More and more people have been trying to cross to Italy from the African coastline over the summer months, particularly from Libya, where people-traffickers operate with relative impunity, but also from Egypt. Some 320 migrants and refugees drowned off the Greek island of Crete in June. Migrants who survived told authorities their boat set sail from Egypt Some 206 400 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration. More than 2 800 deaths were recorded between January and June, versus 1 838 during the same period last year. World leaders, including Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, gathered in New York this week at the United Nations General Assembly to discuss the migrant crisis. Reuters This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Zimbabwe’s government warns against abuse of flag Posted: 21 Sep 2016 08:19 AM PDT The Zimbabwean government has warned its citizens against engaging in the manufacture, sale and use of the national flag in an illegal manner. |||Harare - The Zimbabwean government has warned its citizens against engaging in the manufacture, sale and use of the national flag against the law, saying they were liable to prosecution and imprisonment if found guilty. The justice, legal and parliamentary affairs ministry, in a statement signed by permanent secretary Virginia Mabiza on Tuesday, said it was concerned with rising incidences of the public using the national flag in a manner prohibited by the Constitution and the relevant Act of Parliament. “The manufacture, sale and use of the national flag is governed by the Flag of Zimbabwe Act (Chapter 10:10) and the regulations made in terms of the Act, namely, the Flag of Zimbabwe (Use and Application of Flag) Regulations of 1987, Statutory Instrument 194 of 1987,” she said. “The Act makes it criminal offence to burn, mutilate or otherwise insult the national flag or any reproduction thereof, in circumstances which are calculated or likely to show disrespect for the national flag, or bring the national flag into disrepute.” Mabiza warned that the offence carried a maximum fine of US$200 or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both simultaneously. She said it was also an offence to sell the flag or anything to which the flag had been applied or on which the flag had been used. Sales and use of the Zimbabwean national flag have increased in the past few months, spiked by the #ThisFlag movement, which was led by self-exiled cleric, Pastor Evan Mawarire. Mawarire used the Zimbabwean flag to register his defiance and unhappiness with the government, accusing the President Robert Mugabe-led administration of running down the economy and failing to fulfil its 2013 election promises. Even legislators have joined in the use of the flag. In July, Parliament acting speaker Mabel Chinomona ordered two opposition MDC-T legislators to get rid of the Zimbabwean flags they had brought into the august House. Chinomona ordered Mutasa Central MP Trevor Saruwaka and his Chitungwiza North accomplice Godfrey Sithole to leave Parliament after a ruling had been made earlier barring lawmakers from donning the national flag in Parliament. However, the two refused and even attempts by the Sergeant at Arms to eject them failed. MDC-T chief whip, Innocent Gonese, defended the lawmakers, saying putting on the national flag was a display of patriotism. The flags were eventually taken out of the House of Assembly after Chinomona threatened to suspend the lawmakers. African News Agency This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Time for Mugabe to go - Botswana president Posted: 21 Sep 2016 04:57 AM PDT Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, 92, should step aside without delay and allow new leadership, Botswana President Ian Khama says. |||Gaborone - Zimbabwe's 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe should step aside without delay and allow new leadership of a country whose political and economic implosion since 2000 is dragging down the whole of southern Africa, Botswana President Ian Khama said. Despite his reputation as one of Africa's most outspoken figures, Khama's remarks are certain to raise hackles in Harare, where factions of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party are locked in a bitter struggle to succeed the only leader Zimbabwe has known. Asked by Reuters if Mugabe, who came to power after independence from Britain in 1980, should accept the reality of his advancing years and retire, 63-year-old Khama responded: "Without doubt. He should have done it years ago." "They have got plenty of people there who have got good leadership qualities who could take over," Khama, the UK-born son of Botswana's first president, Seretse Khama, and his British wife, Ruth, continued. "It is obvious that at his age and the state Zimbabwe is in, he's not really able to provide the leadership that could get it out of its predicament," Khama said, in comments that breach an African diplomatic taboo banning criticism of fellow leaders. Botswana, the world's largest producer of diamonds, shares 800 km of border with Zimbabwe and has felt the full effects of its neighbour's economic collapse under the weight of political violence and hyperinflation since 2000. Although the economy stabilised in 2009 with the scrapping of the worthless Zimbabwe dollar, a slump in commodity prices over the last two years has triggered a cash crunch that has fed through into unprecedented public anger at Mugabe. No clear potential successor has emerged from the destabilising factional fight to take over after Mugabe. Khama said the instability was damaging Botswana's efforts to wean itself off mining - which accounts for 20 percent of GDP and nearly 60 percent of exports - by promoting itself as a regional logistics and services hub. The unrest was also forcing more and more Zimbabweans to leave the country, he added. Botswana is home only to an estimated 100 000 Zimbabweans - a fraction of the 3 million believed to be in South Africa - although this is still enough to strain public services in a nation of 2.3 million people. Botswana's jails held "significant numbers" of Zimbabweans, Khama said. "It is a big concern," the British-trained former general said. "It is a problem for all of us in the region - and it is a burden. There's no doubt about that." In the latest controversy over his health, Mugabe left a summit of southern African leaders at the end of August without warning and went to Dubai, fuelling rumours he had been taken gravely ill or may even have died. Khama did not discuss any specifics of Mugabe's condition at the meeting but said his counterpart looked tired. "We're talking about a 92-year-old man and there's just so much you can do at that age to try and keep up." Mugabe frequently refers to himself as "fit as a fiddle" and hints at a desire to stay in power until he is 100. After his Dubai trip, which he attributed to a family matter, Mugabe joked about online reports of his imminent demise. "Yes, I was dead. It's true I was dead. I resurrected as I always do. Once I get back to my country I am real," he told reporters at Harare airport. Khama reiterated his government's concerns about the credibility of the elections Mugabe has won in recent years, but said irrespective of the results no leader should cling on to power for that long. "My opinion has always been that 10 years leading any kind of organisation - not just a country or a government, any organisation - is pretty much the maximum," he said. During its 50 years since independence, Botswana has emerged as a politically and economically stable nation that has used its mineral wealth prudently - a rarity on a continent where such treasures have been routinely squandered, stolen or the cause of civil war. Khama's second five-year term in office ends in 2018 when he will hand over to vice-president Mokgweetsi Masisi in a carefully scripted political succession that makes instability almost impossible. After 2018, Khama, a keen nature-lover whose wood-panelled office is adorned with pictures of the African savannah, said he wanted to dedicate his time to tourism and conservation. Thanks to a focus on safari tourism and a zero-tolerance approach to poaching, Botswana boasts more than 150,000 elephants, a third of Africa's entire population of the animals. But Khama said there was no room for complacency in the fight against the illegal ivory trade given the rampant poaching in other countries on the continent. "One day if their animals become extinct and we still have viable populations, all the guns will be focused on us," he said. Reuters This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
A new leaf for Zim agriculture Posted: 21 Sep 2016 03:52 AM PDT Land seized from white farmers in Zimbabwe is set to return to productivity as Chinese farmers grow tobacco, writes Peta Thornycroft. |||Harare - The jacarandas are flowering early this year behind a farmhouse in central Zimbabwe which is home to a group of Chinese workers who are growing tobacco for the first time. The Chinese went into many sections of the economy under Zimbabwe's Look East policy, but avoided white-owned farms which were "liberated" by President Robert Mugabe's supporters in his ruling Zanu-PF. The white farmer who planted the jacarandas among the granite hills of the area is not remembered well, as his widow abandoned the farm shortly after he died of a "sore leg", according to Robert Makosa, 42, who worked there 20 years ago. Makosa was later employed close to that farm by a Chinese chrome mining company, San He, which is now spending heavily, getting its first massive tobacco crop into the ground. "We do mining and farming now," he said. Not far from the bright green tobacco seedbeds on the farm, known as Tengenenge, is the famous village of the same name established for rural artists who wanted to avoid the Rhodesian war 50 years ago. They produce stone sculptures from verdite, opal and serpentine. The village became a haven again, more recently, when Mugabe's supporters forced most white farmers from their homes and some of the workers fled there. Many artists as well as some farmworker families live in small houses in the village, alongside thousands of extraordinary stone sculptures which survive under the dappled shade of groves of Msasa trees. Since land invasions began, Zimbabwe has not been able to feed itself and the economy, so dependent on agriculture, crashed so badly Mugabe had to abandon the national currency when inflation hit 500 million percent. "The Chinese are spending money," said one farmworker walking on the main road from nearby town, Mvurwi, about 85km north of Harare. Munching on his small lunch of pap (no vegetables or meat) he said there were now plenty of jobs in the district after years of difficulties following the departure of the white landowners. He and others said they are paid the minimum wage for new workers of about R58 a day, as well as accommodation, water and some power for cooking. Some will also get essential food supplies, mealie meal, sugar and cooking oil. One woman working in the huge tobacco seedling patch complained that she did not earn enough to afford vegetables for her children. But another worker said it was "okay" to work for the Chinese and they were better then the "political" (Zanu-PF) people who forced white farmers to leave. Most of those farming for the first time were unable to maintain production on the land they took. An insider in the tobacco industry said the Chinese company would be paying a hefty rental for the land it is now using for tobacco, to the Zanu-PF political men who forced the white farmers off. "The Chinese will pay a percentage of the income from tobacco as rent. Some of that rental should be shared with white farmers who left their homes with nothing and received no compensation from the government. They probably don't know their old farms are now about to start making money again," he said. Another of the five farms in which the Chinese are investing - and there may be more - is Welmode, near Mvurwi, about 90km north of Harare. David Birrell was born on that 2000-hectare farm and grew tobacco until he fled to Harare in 2003 with his young family after two of his workers were killed. A year later he went to Australia. Speaking from his home in Queensland, Birrell was pleased that there was investment in his old farm and that his former workers were having a better time. "Some were thrown out of their houses after we left. I still think about the farm and Zimbabwe. It was hard to leave and be without family and friends and the life we were used to." Boniface Kamuntu, 44, who worked for Birrell sent "best wishes" to him. "I hope his life is good." He was pleased the "Chinas," as he called them, had come to invest in the farm as it was largely derelict in recent years. He and other workers are careful what they say. Gho Feng, 40, who arrived from China a month ago to work on one of the company's farms, indicated he had never grown tobacco before, but would work side by side with Zimbabweans in the fields. Chen Li Jin, 36, now lives in Birrell's home which has been repainted, but indicated he was worried about talking without permission and sped off on a motor bike saying he couldn't speak English. He, like most of the other Chinese workers on tobacco farms now being revived, was also employed by the San He mining company, which has been accused by Zimbabwe's Environment Management Authority of massive degradation of the environment around its chrome extraction plant. Experts who have seen some of the investment into these five farms say the new infrastructure including equipment manufactured by US company, Valley Irrigation, must have cost at least R130 million. Estimates are that the new Chinese tobacco farmers may grow about 1 200ha this year, which is an enormous crop. Tobacco production has recovered since land invasions began as new growers who were given white-owned land were taught and mentored by international companies who lend them money to produce the crop. There are also thousands of new, small-scale growers, who produce lower grades of tobacco and use family labour. Then there is a hardcore of about 120 white farmers growing smaller tobacco crops than they did before, yet get top prices for their leaf. But tobacco is only a fraction of Zimbabwe's more recent farming story. Within half an hour north of Harare are signs of how the economy fractured with the invasions which saw about 3 000 white farmers evicted from nearly 7 million ha of land. There are broken fences, fields scorched by fires, scarce livestock apart from goats, and few surviving indigenous trees as so many were felled by new farmers who could not afford to buy coal to cure their tobacco. The land taken from white farmers was nationalised in 2005 and Mugabe and the constitution say the UK, which took the land in the first place in the 1890s, should pay the evicted white farmers for their seized land. The government says it will pay compensation for "improvements" to the farms, but has no money to do so. So far very few evicted white farmers have received more then token payouts. All the seized farms, which were mostly private companies, and their balance sheets, are thoroughly valued by commercial and professional valuators and held on file for the day when the money is found. Lisa Lee, (which is how her name was spelled by Zimbabwean workers, but the surname may be spelled Lia) the Chinese manager of the new tobacco project said this was the company's first farming season. Lee said she consulted with, and had been visited by several tobacco experts, including a "British man" before and during the start of this venture. "We don't have an office in Harare. Our office is the farm." She cut the conversation short and did not answer the phone again nor questions sent to her. But while Chinese citizens may farm on these rich properties, the people who developed them, white farmers, may not return to their homes. Peter Steyl, president of the Commercial Farmers' Union, which has shrunk dramatically in the past few years said he had not known that a Chinese company was investing and farming tobacco in this top growing area. "This is interesting. I hope they will attend to the dams on some of these farms as many of them are silted up now and need urgent attention. We are very worried about many of the dams on the farms in Zimbabwe," he said and confirmed that the Chinese company appeared to be paying the correct minimum wage for new workers provided they had free accommodation and water. Independent Foreign Service This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
HIV-positive boy raped girls aged 4 to 7 Posted: 21 Sep 2016 03:22 AM PDT A 14-year-old HIV-positive Zimbabwean schoolboy has been sentenced to three years probation for five counts of rape. |||Harare - A 14-year-old HIV-positive schoolboy from Makonde District has been sentenced to three years probation at a training institute in Kadoma, 130 km west of Harare. He was found guilty on five counts of sexually abusing girls aged between four and seven years. The abuses took place while the children were on their way to and from school. He would abuse the girls and then order younger boys to follow suit, threatening to beat them up if they refused. At least seven girls were abused. The state-run Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday that the boy who, cannot be named because of his age, had never been to school when he was adopted by a local non-governmental organisation and enrolled at a local primary school with his two siblings this year. He was enrolled into Grade 2 together with children who were way younger than him, so that he could start at an elementary stage. Generally, Grade 2 children are aged between six and seven. The abuses were discovered during a routine family club meeting organised by an HIV and Aids prevention project where parenting, family health, culture and traditions are discussed. "During the discussions, minute details of the abuse started coming out from some parents in the community before full investigations and tests on the girls were conducted," a social worker who declined to be named for professional reasons told the newspaper. School children are encouraged to walk in groups on their way to and from school owing to the overgrown grass in the area, and the boy would take the girls into a bushy area where he abused them. Some of the girls are now undergoing counselling to cope with the abuses, amid fears that they may have contracted HIV. It is understood that the boy's father and stepmother are mentally challenged and that he had previously been staying with a relative as a cattle herd. Chinhoyi regional magistrate Felix Mawadze found him guilty on five counts of rape and sentenced him to three years probation at Kadoma Training Institute, charging that he was a danger to the community. The magistrate refused to listen to the father's plea for the child to be released into his custody saying that the father did not look after his children properly. All the father's three children do not have birth certificates, yet the law stipulates that parents should obtain birth certificates for their children soon after birth. Xinhua This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Elite Nigerian police unit 'tortures suspects' Posted: 21 Sep 2016 02:24 AM PDT A specialist police unit that was set up to tackle Nigeria's violent crime has instead become a hotbed for corruption, according to a report. |||London - A specialist police unit that was set up to tackle Nigeria's alarming rise in violent crime has instead become a hotbed for corruption, where suspects are detained in horrific conditions and tortured until they or their relatives can pay for their freedom, according to a damning new report. Amnesty International said it had investigated facilities run by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), and found multiple cases where “confessions” were obtained through torture, where people who had not been charged with any crime were beaten and starved, and where suspects were detained for months longer than the maximum 48 hours defined in Nigeria's constitution. SARS was set up with a specific remit to investigate serious violent crime, predominantly armed robberies and kidnappings. Yet according to Amnesty International's report, the unit has become seen as a comfortable posting in the police force where officers know they can “earn a substantial amount of money in a short time” - in part through extortion and in part through the theft of valuables from suspects. In one case featured in the report, a 29-year-old man was detained along with four friends by SARS officers - not for armed robbery or kidnapping, but after getting into a fight with a neighbour. The man's wife and neighbours told the human rights organisation they saw him being badly beaten by police officers during the arrest. When the man's brother went to the station to see those arrested, he was allegedly told to pay 1,000 Naira (about £3) each for every person he wanted to visit. The family was reluctant to pay, until on a third visit six relatives had put together enough and went to the station. They paid, went in, and were then told that the man they wanted to see had died in custody. “They said they were not responsible for the death,” the brother said. “We were not allowed to ask any questions or seek clarification.” In another case, a 24-year-old university student named Ekene was arrested by SARS officers in Awka, Anambra state. According to his lawyer, the officer in charge of his case told the man's mother she had to pay N100,000 (about £240) to secure his release. “The investigating police officer (IPO) told me that he will not guarantee the life of Ekene if we fail to pay the money before the end of that day,” the lawyer told Amnesty International. “I advised my client to pay. My client practically paid for the life of her son. We did not take any further action because my client is afraid of SARS.” Amnesty International said that over the course of 44 interviews with former detainees at SARS facilities across Nigeria, victims described horrific torture methods, including hanging, starvation, beatings, shootings and mock executions. One detainee, a petrol station attendant, said he was accused by his employer of a burglary at the premises, and arrested by SARS officers. He told Amnesty International: “The policemen took me to a hall. They brought a plain sheet and asked me to sign. When I signed it, they said to me ‘you have signed your death warrant’. “They took me to the back of the building and tied my hands to the back. They also connected the rope to my legs, leaving me hanging on a suspended iron rod. They put the iron rod in the middle between my hands and the leg with my head facing the ground. “I went limp. The IPO came at intervals and told me to tell him the truth. I lost consciousness. When I was about to die they took me down and poured water on me to revive me. People carried me back to the cell. I was detained for two weeks.” The man was released without charge after lawyers filed a rights case against the facility. No one has yet been held to account for the man's alleged torture, or for any of the other cases raised by Amnesty International, its report said. The Independent has contacted the Nigerian High Commission for a governmental response to the report. Amnesty International said that in two meetings where it raised concerns with the Inspector General of Police, the authorities “generally denied allegations of torture or any intentional ill-treatment of detainees at SARS stations”. And senior officers told the charity that because of its elite status, officers in SARS receive training on human rights. One Commissioner of Police said: “In some instances, there is special training for SARS personnel. Not every police officer can work in SARS. They need to be tough to deal with the rough demands of their job. And human rights are part of the police training. The human rights manual is simply a tool for affecting the training.” The Independent This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Over 50 people to apply for bail in Zim Posted: 21 Sep 2016 01:59 AM PDT More than 50 people appeared in the Harare High Court on Wednesday seeking bail after nearly a month in a maximum security prison. |||Harare - More than 50 people appeared in the High Court here on Wednesday seeking bail after nearly a month in Zimbabwe’s harsh Chikurubi maximum security prison. They were arrested on August 26, during a legal demonstration protesting for electoral reform. They were denied bail at the Harare Magistrate’s Court three weeks ago. Jeremiah Bamu, from Zimbabwe Lawyers’ for Human Rights who represents many of those applying for bail said that conditions in Chikurubi are tough. “Several have complained that they are so squashed in the cells, that conditions are inhuman.” One of those applying for bail to the High Court is human rights activist, Linda Masarira, who was brought to her first bail application at the Harare Magistrate’s Court in leg irons. But lawyers argued that the heavy irons were degrading and the court then ordered they be removed. Now she is being held in the male section of Chikurubi. “The police say they are still investigating this case, but from our interviews none of those applying for bail was caught looting or caught with any looted goods or services. and they deny they participated in any violence,” Bamu said. “Most of them say they did not know that the demonstration was taking place.” Independent Foreign Service This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Congo unrest death toll hits 44 - rights group Posted: 21 Sep 2016 01:18 AM PDT At least 44 people have been killed in protests over Congolese President Joseph Kabila's perceived bid to extend his rule, Human Rights Watch says. |||Kinshasa - At least 44 people - including 37 demonstrators and six police officers - have been killed in protests over Congolese President Joseph Kabila's perceived bid to extend his rule, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday. The unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo started on Monday after its election commission decided to try to postpone the next presidential vote, due in November. Kabila's opponents say the proposed delay is a manoeuvre to keep him in power although ruling party politicians deny this. Kabila is barred constitutionally from running for a third term and his allies say he will respect the constitution. With the disturbances forcing schools to close and halting public transport in the sprawling riverside capital Kinshasa, the United Nations expressed fears the situation could worsen. The United States said Kabila's government should have taken steps to defuse the violence and that it was prepared to impose sanctions targeting individuals involved in abuses. French President Francoise Hollande blamed Congo authorities and urged them to respect the constitution and hold elections this year. Adding to the mix of disapproval, Congo's influential Roman Catholic Church suspended its participation in talks over the timetable for the next elections and stressed that Kabila should not be a candidate when they are held. Several people were killed overnight when security forces burned down the headquarters of the main opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), and attacked buildings of other opposition parties, according to Ida Sawyer, an Africa researcher for New York-based HRW. Twenty people were killed in clashes on Monday and another 17 on Tuesday - "most (of them) when security forces fired on crowds of protesters", Sawyer said. "We've also received credible reports that protesters have killed at least six police officers and a (ruling party) PPRD supporter and they have also burned and looted several shops and police stations." Interior ministry spokesman Claude Pero Luwara said the death toll stood at 17 and that Human Rights Watch's statement was a "typical" exaggeration by the group. The ministry had earlier said three of those killed were policemen. The early hours fire was a criminal act, said opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi, a UDPS official and son of veteran opposition figure Etienne Tshisekedi, who lost to Kabila in a 2011 presidential run-off. "We have on our hands seven dead and two people who were amputated: one at the arm and another at the leg, in the fire at our headquarters in Limete. There are also multiple people wounded at the hospital," Felix Tshisekedi told Reuters. "We won't live with this barbarity. The people are angry." Government spokesman Lambert Mende condemned the attack on the UDPS premises but denied that security forces were involved. Witnesses said calm returned to central Kinshasa by Tuesday afternoon, though there were reports of clashes in the suburbs. Nearly 200 people were believed to have been arrested by Congo authorities on Monday and the United Nations received reports of excessive use of force by security forces, U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva. Kabila took power in 2001 when his father was assassinated, but must by law step down in December. His opponents fear he may follow the example of leaders in other African countries such as Burundi, Congo Republic and Rwanda and change the constitution to extend his rule. Congo has not experienced a peaceful transition of political power since its independence from Belgium in 1960. Tom Perriello, U.S. Special Envoy for Africa's Great Lakes region, said Washington would hold all sides accountable for their actions during the latest violence, which prompted Washington to suspend all travel by its officials to Congo. "Unfortunately, the pattern over the last year has been to dramatically reduce that open political space ... We have seen a crackdown on the rights and freedoms of Congolese people," he told a news conference in New York. Reuters This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
‘$50bn in illicit outflows hurt Africa’ Posted: 21 Sep 2016 01:00 AM PDT President Jacob Zuma warns illicit financial flows out of Africa of about $50 billion a year deprive the continent of much needed resources. |||Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma has warned that illicit financial flows out of Africa of about $50 billion a year are depriving the continent of much needed resources for development. In a statement on Wednesday, the Presidency quoted Zuma as saying: “Illicit financial flows deprive developing countries of the much-needed economic resources to uplift their economies in order to provide infrastructure and basic services such as education and health care.” Zuma made his remarks during his address at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in the United States on Tuesday. “The successful implementation of Africa's development plans depends on the availability of resources. We are therefore seriously concerned about the loss of resources of the continent through illicit financial flows.” The Joint African Union and UN Economic Commission for Africa's High-level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa estimates that illicit flows from Africa could be about $50 billion dollars a year. This is money that leaks across borders unofficially and does not contribute to aspects such as tax. Zuma said: “We committed ourselves to an ambitious and transformative global development programme that seeks to address the triple challenge of this century, which is poverty, unemployment and inequality.” He said to a great extent, the Millennium Development Goals played a critical role in galvanising governments and communities all over the world to put in place programmes and policies aimed at poverty eradication and in addressing socio-economic development, particularly in Africa. Goals not met “It is a well-known reality that our continent, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, did not achieve the targets that were set in the MDGs. It was for this reason that we insisted that the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] should continue the unfinished business of the MDGs,” said Zuma. “We have an interest, therefore, in ensuring the full implementation of the SDGs, as we take forward the agenda of promoting Africa's sustainable development. “We have made significant strides in the past couple of decades in reversing the impact of underdevelopment and the legacies of colonialism and apartheid in Africa.” Zuma said, if Africa was to develop faster, “we need to address certain constraints”. He said these constraints included inadequate infrastructure, high dependency on primary products, high exposure to commodity price volatility, limited investment in research and development, science, innovation and technology, low private sector investment and skills inadequacy. “To respond to some of these constraints, the continent has embarked on a number of initiatives. These include the New Partnership for Africa's Development, the Presidential Infrastructure Championing Initiative, the African Mining Vision, and the Programme for the Infrastructural Development of Africa,” said Zuma. He said South Africa had put in place a National Development Plan which was aligned to AU Agenda 2063, as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals. “At the core of our development plan is the focus on poverty eradication and the upliftment of the standard of living of our people,” said Zuma, who was one of the speakers on the opening day of the assembly. Industrialisation “Our National Development Plan is also in line with the drive for industrialisation of Africa. This will contribute to the eradication of poverty, reduce inequality and unemployment, and will also contribute positively to global growth and prosperity. “It is therefore imperative that Africa and the least developed countries, which were left behind in previous industrialisation processes, must not be excluded from the 4th or new industrial revolution.” Zuma said the African continent remained committed through the African Union and its Peace and Security Architecture to resolve the remaining conflict areas. “We have committed ourselves to silence the guns by 2020.” Zuma also appealed to the UN Security Council “in particular” to support African peace operations so that we can achieve this noble goal. The situation in Libya, South Sudan and the Central African Republic remains a continental priority. “We strongly urge the UN Security Council to better align and coordinate with the African Union in efforts to bring about peace in these sister countries and the continent at large. “Beyond the continent, we remain concerned about threats of terrorism. Fifteen years after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, international terrorism remains a challenge that no single country or region can successfully deal with. We have witnessed the rise of ISIS and are horrified by its brutal and senseless killings.” Zuma said the conflicts in both Libya and Syria had provided a fertile ground for the terrorists to carry out their unjustified terrorist activities. He said the conflict in Syria had led to chaos in that country in under five years, with devastating effect on the stability of the region. The president said the deadlock in the Security Council on the Syrian question exposed the “inherent structural dysfunction” of the 1945, post Second World War consensus. “We must therefore, ask ourselves if the UN, and in particular the UN Security Council as currently configured, can fulfil its mandate in addressing the challenges of the twenty first century. “The UN Security Council is supposed to act in our collective interest without being bogged down by domestic narrow interests of few states.” Reform Zuma said it was imperative and urgent that the United Nations, and in particular the Security Council, should be reformed. “South Africa has been calling for, and we will continue to call for, the fundamental reform of the United Nation's Security Council in order to ensure the representation of Africa,” said Zuma. “One billion people cannot continue to be denied a voice in this manner.” On the troubles in Israel, Zuma said the lack of progress in finding a durable solution to the Palestinian question and the Saharawi Arab Republic's struggle for self-determination remain a major concern. “It is important that the United Nations should carry out its historic mission in ensuring that the two longest outstanding decolonisation and occupation issues are resolved once and for all, in fulfilment of the UN Charter objectives.” Zuma said the signing of the Paris Agreement last year marked a historic moment in humanity's resolve to minimise the impact of climate change and address the human contribution to it. “I would like to take this opportunity to commend our Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki Moon, for the extra-ordinary leadership that he provided since COP 15 in Copenhagen.” Zuma said he remained unwavering in his commitment to see a legally binding agreement finally agreed to by all. “The adoption of the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action during COP17 was a historic milestone and marked a turning point in the negotiation of a legally binding instrument. It provided a clear road map with targets and deadlines.” Zuma said, on behalf of the people and government of South Africa, he “would like to take this opportunity to salute the outgoing Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki Moon, for the sterling and outstanding manner with which he steered the affairs of the organisation in the past decade. “We wish his Excellency Mr Ban Ki-moon well with his future endeavours. “We are pleased that the UN General Assembly (UNGA) has, for the first time in the history of the UN, been at the centre of the process of finding a new Secretary General. “We believe in a balanced and equal role between the two principal organs on the question of the selection of the Secretary General.” Zuma suggested that the General Assembly as the most representative organ, representing all the aspirations of the peoples of the world, should be central in determining the right man or woman to lead the UN to the future. He said the general assembly cannot be expected “to just rubber stamp” decisions of the Security Council. Zuma said: “South Africa is particularly supportive of the proposal to limit the term of office of the Secretary General to a seven-year non-renewable term in order to allow him or her to work without being concerned about reappointment. “South Africa looks forward to working with you and other member states throughout this session.” AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
You are subscribed to email updates from News Africa Extended. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States |