Monday, October 30, 2017

Why It's So Hard To Remove Zuma From Power In South Africa


ohomen171
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Why it's so hard to remove Zuma from power

30 October 2017, 09:14



I spent 5 years in South Africa and love your country dearly. I wish that I was living in Cape Town now!
I had a "Eureka moment" this morning about why it is so hard to kick the corrupt politicians out of power in South Africa.
In the US we have horrible gun violence with powerful automatic weapons used to kill over 50 people at a time. Almost anyone in the US can buy these weapons. When efforts are made to make it harder to buy these very deadly military weapons, the gun lobby spends billions of dollars to stop any restrictions. You know that old saying:
"Give them an inch and they will take a mile."
The gun lobby is afraid that, if any concessions are made, it will be the start of a process that ends with all guns in private hands in the USA are confiscated (over 300,000,000 by the way)
Likewise when  the voting public is confronted with the prospect of removing Zuma and his corrupt associates from power, the same mind set kicks in.
People start to remember Nelson Mandela and the awful struggle to end apartheid. They fear that removing Zuma and the corrupt associates would be the first step leading to the reversal of all the gains that were made fighting apartheid.
It's an idea worth some thought and consideration.

Battery boom relies on one African nation avoiding chaos of past

Battery boom relies on one African nation avoiding chaos of past: The cars of the future will depend increasingly upon supplies of an obscure metal from a country in the African tropics where there has never been a peaceful transition of power and child labor is still used in parts of the mining industry. Most major automakers are pledging to build millions of electric vehicles as the world’s governments crack down on climate-damaging emissions from traditional-fuel engines. As a result, demand is surging for lithium-ion batteries and the materials needed to make them – including cobalt, a relatively rare substance found mostly in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Angola's new president takes surprise steps to rein in dos Santos

Angola's new president takes surprise steps to rein in dos Santos: Angola’s new President João Lourenço is making swift moves to wrest power from his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos, pushing out some of his key allies and vowing to combat monopolies controlled by a family that has run Angola for four decades. Dos Santos, 75, handpicked Lourenço, 63, to succeed him when he stepped down last month after 38 years in power, prompting critics to suggest the little-known newcomer would be a puppet of the dominant dos Santos family.

Friday, October 27, 2017

Nigeria: Snake Charmers Needed

Who You Gonna Call?

Umaru Musa Yar’Adua University in northwest Nigeria is facing a snake infestation that would scare the bejesus out of any student that walks through its doors.
The slippery infestation turned fatal when Zainab Umar, a student of economics, was bitten on campus.
As a result, the university brought out its secret weapon against the reptilian invaders: snake charmers.
“We have employed the services of snake charmers to assist us in ridding the campus of snakes,” Suleiman Kankara, the university’s dean of student affairs, told Nigeria’s Daily Post.
“Although the snake charmers just began to work, plans had been in the pipeline to hire them,” he said, adding that they regularly employ the charmers for smaller infestations.
In Nigeria, snake charmers mostly operate as street entertainers, pacifying the venomous reptiles enough to be held with the bare hand.
But these daredevils also claim to possess “special powers, charms or medicines,” the BBC reported.
In a country with nearly 10,000 snake bites per year, one can imagine it’s a lucrative job.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Kenya: A No Win Do Over

KENYA

A No-win Do-over

Kenya is going ahead with its presidential election Thursday.
That’s the case even though an election official fled the country in fear for her safety – and despite the fact that the incumbent’s main challenger has dropped out in protest, and all the losers in the last vote are in the race only to make sure the president has someone to run against.
The Supreme Court could have stepped in and delayed the vote.
But the judges didn’t show up to court on Wednesday, underscoring everything that’s wrong with this vote in East Africa’s powerhouse, say analysts. Voters know it all too well.
“I won’t vote again,” said George Nyongesa, who vowed not to participate in the do-over. “No reforms, no elections.”
The Supreme Court ordered a do-over after the tumultuous election Aug. 8 that handed victory to incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta, which was fraught with irregularities and deemed unfair.
Now the country is making a “historic mistake” holding the vote at all, Bloomberg reported. Taking place without any credible reforms, the election undermines the “landmark” court ruling that in a first in Africa, reversed an incumbent’s hold on power and affirmed the importance of transparent, free and fair elections.
Many fear that Thursday’s vote will kindle the kind of ethnic violence – Kenyans usually vote along tribal lines – that occurred over the 2007 elections in which as many as 1,500 people died. But Kenya also missed an opportunity, say analysts.
The main economic power of East Africa, Kenya might have served as an example for other countries in the region. The court rulingcaused heads to turn across the continent and served as a warning bell for all those aging leaders who will do anything to stay in power (think Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, to name just one).
But instead of implementing reforms and restoring faith in the electoral system, Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party created legislation to make it harder in the future for the Supreme Court to step in.
And intimidation and fear continued: The Supreme Court judges were threatened to ensure the elections proceed and the deputy chief justice was shot at Tuesday to drive that point home. Meanwhile, Roselyn Akombe, in charge of election operations, fledthe country, and the head of Kenya’s electoral commission said he doubted it was possible to hold “free, fair and credible elections.”
So it was no surprise that Raila Odinga, the challenger to Kenyatta, stepped down.
All this chaos is a big distraction for a country struggling with security issues and a drought that has caused food prices to skyrocket and put off a resurgence in its dynamic economic growth, Bloomberg reported.
It’s also put off hopes that the country can move beyond tribalism for the sake of growth and prosperity.
There is one sentiment that unites Kenyans. Monica Wanjiru, a shop owner in Nairobi and a Kenyatta supporter, echoes voters from the other side when she says, “We are tired of politics and we need to move on as a country.”

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Kenya Inches Toward Violence


          Highlights
          • More signs are emerging that Kenya will struggle to ensure a free and fair election on Oct. 26.
          • The perception of a flawed election will ratchet up violence in opposition strongholds in the country's western provinces, the Mathare slum of Nairobi and elsewhere.
          • Long-term instability and ethnic violence in Kenya would be felt across East Africa.
          More violence seems to be on the horizon for the East African powerhouse of Kenya. Authorities have called for the arrest of the sister of Raila Odinga, the country's main opposition leader, after some of his supporters reportedly attacked election staff and destroyed polling material in western Kenya. As the presidential election do-over set for Oct. 26 approaches, one election board official has fled to the United States, citing threats on her life, while the chief of the board has gone on leave. Odinga, for his part, has called for the "mother of all protests" on the day of the vote.
           
          Kenya has been mired in political uncertainty since Sept. 1, when the country's Supreme Court declared the existence of voting irregularities and annulled the Aug. 8 election. The possibility of prolonged rioting in Kenya, which is an economic, political, security and diplomatic hub, threatens the long-term stability of the region. But delaying the election may not be a good solution either, because a postponement raises thorny constitutional and scheduling questions.

          Troubles Mount

          On Oct. 10, Odinga — the only candidate who could realistically challenge incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta for his position — announced his withdrawal from the race, claiming the election was rigged against him. The following day, a high court ruled that a minor candidate (who garnered less than 1 percent of the vote in the Aug. 8 election) could run, paving the way for several other minor candidates to join the field. But perhaps most troubling, Roselyn Akombe, a senior official of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), announced on Oct. 18 that she had quit the board overseeing the upcoming election and fled the country.
           
          In her announcement, Akombe, who is now in New York, cited threats from all sides and said the menacing statements have severely undermined the commission's ability to carry out a free and credible election. This development will encourage the Odinga camp, the National Super Alliance, to push harder for the postponement of the vote. The perennial candidate Odinga has agitated for a delay since he withdrew (though reports indicate that he hasn't filed the paperwork to officially quit the race). Nevertheless, the ruling Jubilee Party, led by Kenyatta, has doubled down on its effort to carry out the election as planned.
           
          The hyperpartisan fight is infecting the IEBC, and the threats are not to be taken lightly. Indeed, Chris Msando, a senior IEBC official in charge of information technology, was found dead just days before the Aug. 8 election, throwing a spotlight on the commission. He had been tortured, and authorities have not identified the culprits. 

          A Kenyatta Victory

          With less than two days to go, the window for delaying the election for a second time is closing fast. The ballots, printed in Dubai, have begun arriving. With Odinga out of the race (though his name may still appear on the ballots), Kenyatta is all but guaranteed a victory, given his coalition's lock on the ethnic groups needed to win.
           
          Violence in opposition strongholds is sure to follow any result that favors Kenyatta. Though he has not explicitly advocated attacks, Odinga has called for a massive protest on Oct. 26. The rioting would likely be concentrated in the far west of the country, especially in and around Kisumu in the southwestern Nyanza province, and in and around the Mathare slum in the capital of Nairobi. Some instability is possible in Mombasa and other areas along the coast as well as protesters vent their frustration with a seemingly stolen election.
          For decades Kenya has struggled to manage its ethnic diversity, and ethnic clashes reminiscent of the sustained violence of 2008-09 are possible. During those troubles, over 1,000 people died, hundreds of thousands were displaced and the Kenyan economy — and by extension, that of landlocked Uganda — was severely damaged for close to four months.
           
          The Odinga camp could also try to mount some kind of resistance against the ruling party and president in the belief that they rigged the election. Though such resistance would likely be purely political, the opposition has become increasingly hardened with each recent blow — real or imaged — to the political system's credibility. Consequently, sustained resistance remains a low-probability, but high-risk, scenario that could extend national uncertainty and instability for weeks or months.
           
          The election, moreover, could easily taint the president's next term. A sullied second term — perhaps the result of mounting evidence of irregularities during the election or a subsequent crackdown on protests by security forces — would hamper the president's ability to carry out his agenda and could complicate Kenya's relations with Western donor countries.

          A Complicated Delay

          On the off chance of a postponement, the country's political system would have to confront difficult questions about Kenyatta and the presidency. Would Kenyatta remain as acting president until his term officially ends on Nov. 1, or would he be forced to vacate the office to make way for a temporary caretaker? The country's constitution does not detail the procedures required in light of an election cancellation and a failure to hold the vote within the mandated 60-day time frame. This situation would likely require a Supreme Court ruling, which would take an undetermined amount of time for it to confer and render its decision while a new election calendar is set.
           
          Even then, a new election calendar would not settle many outstanding issues for Odinga and his numerous supporters. The Kenyatta camp has been loath to accede to Odinga's demands. A new date might increase the odds of Odinga joining the political fray, but it would not guarantee it if the candidate believes that the factors underpinning the stalled political process have not changed.
           
          So, Kenya's situation remains volatile. A gulf continues to separate the opposition and ruling parties on the matter of the election. Further violence and instability appear likely, and they may not be settled on Oct. 26. Moreover, extended volatility at home could have security implications abroad, pulling Nairobi's attention from its investment in the African Union mission to stabilize Somalia. Given Kenya's regional standing and connections, the election and its outcome could end up sending shivers through East Africa.

          An Economic Apartheid Bedevils South Africa

          https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/business/south-africa-economy-apartheid.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

          Niger: Phone Call And Open Secrets

          NIGER

          Phone Calls and Open Secrets

          The Pentagon is investigating how US troops were caught in a deadly ambush in Niger this month as President Donald Trump wrestles with criticism over his condolence call to a woman widowed by the incident.
          Offering the fullest explanation so far from the Trump administration about the ambush, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the ambushed soldiers may have waited more than an hour before they called for help, the New York Times reported. He was reluctant to speculate about the reasons for the delay, but said, “My judgment would be that unit thought they could handle the situation.”
          Four Americans and four Nigeriens were killed when they were attacked by around 50 militants, while two Americans and six Nigeriens were wounded.
          The incident raised questions, as US troops in Niger are barred from going on missions that could involve contact with an enemy. Though it’s no secret they’ve been in country since 2013, several US senators claimed they didn’t know the US had any troops in Niger, Newsweek reported.

          Uganda: Just A Little Bit Longer

          UGANDA

          Just a Little Bit Longer

          Pay attention to what is happening in Uganda as President Yoweri Museveni tries to change his country’s constitution so that he can run for reelection in 2021 – when he will be 78 years old.
          Authorities have already jailed the country’s most prominent opposition figure, Kizza Besigye, on charges of attempted murder, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
          The arrest follows violent clashes between police and protesters who want to keep the constitutional prohibition against anyone older than 75 from running for the presidency.
          In office since 1986 – he just keeps on winning elections while international observers raise questions about Uganda’s voting process  – Museveni is already one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, Bloomberg noted.
          That’s not new on the continent.
          Other long timers who keep clinging on are Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, Paul Biya of Cameroon and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, USA Today reported. Those men are 75, 84 and 93 years old, respectively. In other cases, aging strongmen have stepped aside, paving the way for their children to take over. That’s how Togo President Faure Gnassingbé assumed power.
          The clashes in Uganda occurred last week when Besigye and others insisted on holding an anti-government rally in a stadium despite a police order not to assemble.
          The Independent of Uganda shared the wording of the police order.
          “Consultations must not include illegal demonstrations, illegal processions, inciting violence, use of hate campaigns, use of abusive language, acts of hooliganism of any sort, intimidation of any persons perceived to be supporting the removal of the age limit,” said the police statement.
          Violence erupted when police tried to block a crowd from entering the stadium. Police claim one person was killed and several were injured. But the demonstrators insisted the police killed two people in the melee.
          Opposition figures said Museveni’s response to criticism of his plan to change the constitution, his crackdown on the rally and the jailing of Besigye have all laid bare his “greed for leadership,” as the Daily Monitor reported.
          “His true colors have come out,” said Gen. Mugisha Muntu, president of the Forum for Democratic Change coalition that opposes Museveni. “The Bible says we shall see them by the fruits. He has undressed himself vividly. He is now completely naked.”
          Clothed or not, Museveni is probably willing to increase the pressure on those who might oppose him. But he’s tamping down a pressure cooker that could also blow up in his and everyone else’s faces.

          Monday, October 23, 2017

          Zimbabwe: Serving A Spin

          ZIMBABWE

          Serving Spin

          The World Health Organization revoked Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s appointment as “goodwill ambassador” for fighting diseases such as cancer and diabetes in Africa following a global outcry.
          WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus, known as Tedros, said in a statement Sunday morning that he had “listened carefully to all who have expressed their concerns” before making his decision, the Washington Post reported.
          Tedros had announced Mugabe’s appointment earlier this week at a Uruguay conference on noncommunicable diseases, prompting an immediate global response from activists and politicians critical of his long record of human rights abuses, including violent crackdowns on political dissent.
          Tedros had lauded Zimbabwe for placing “universal health coverage and health promotion at the center of its policies” and said Mugabe could influence other leaders around the region. The Noncommunicable Diseases Alliance, which represented many other people at the conference, immediately condemned the move.
          Serving spin on the controversy, Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs Minister Walter Mzembi told state media the WHO gaffe brought unprecedented world attention to noncommunicable diseases.

          Sunday, October 22, 2017

          As South Sudan Implodes, America Reconsiders Its Support For The Regime

          Jaded in JubaAs South Sudan implodes, America reconsiders its support for the regime

          American officials are fed up with being lied to by a violent, crooked government
          IT IS not as bad in South Sudan as people think, insists Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, the petroleum minister. The UN may claim that a third of the population have fled their homes, but that is an exaggeration, says the sharp-suited former diplomat.
          Why, then, does he think the refugee camps are so full? Some people go there for the services, such as free food, he explains. Others have been scared by fake news, peddled by insurgents. “People are saying: ‘The Dinka [the largest ethnic group in South Sudan] are coming to kill you. You must leave!’” Seated in his plush office in Juba, the capital, Mr Gatkuoth scoffs that, when he was a rebel during South Sudan’s long war to break away from Sudan, his comrades used similar propaganda, telling people that the Arabs were coming to burn their villages and rape their children. “It was very effective,” he recalls.

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          At camps for displaced people near Wau, one of South Sudan’s largest cities, no one agrees with Mr Gatkuoth’s account of current events. All describe, not rumours of massacres heard on social media, but actual massacres that they saw with their own eyes. The perpetrators, they say, were Dinka marauders wearing blue and Dinka soldiers in uniform.
          “I saw my son shot in front of me. He fell and I was holding him. I survived, maybe because the killers thought we were both dead,” says Pascalina, a fugitive. “They took my sister and raped her,” says Anyor, a mother who hid in the bush with her nine children as the attackers killed the men in her village, looted everything of value (“goats, chickens, sorghum”) and kidnapped young women.
          The spoils of oil
          South Sudan, the world’s newest country, is like a jigsaw puzzle that has been broken apart, soaked in petrol and set alight. It will not be easy to put back together. It seceded from Sudan in 2011, after half a century of on-off rebellion and a peace deal in 2005. In a referendum, 99% of South Sudanese (who are mostly black and non-Muslim) voted to separate from the Arab, Muslim north. Sadly, clashes between different ethnic groups within South Sudan began almost immediately after independence.
          Full-blown civil war erupted in 2013, after President Salva Kiir (a Dinka) sacked Vice-President Riek Machar (a Nuer). A truce in 2016 lasted less than four months. It ended with gun battles in Juba and Mr Machar fleeing to South Africa, where he remains under house arrest.
          The mayhem is now many-sided. The other tribes (of which the country has about 60) accuse Mr Kiir of funnelling government jobs and cash to Dinkas, and of using the national army to assert Dinka supremacy. Terrified non-Dinkas have formed armed groups to defend their homes, land and cows—and sometimes to raid the neighbouring villages. The government sees these groups as rebels to be exterminated, and tacitly encourages the ethnic cleansing of areas thought to support them. All sides slaughter civilians.
          In Wau, Dinkas walk in the streets without fear (except at night, when robbers prowl). Meanwhile, tens of thousands of non-Dinkas huddle in tented camps nearby, guarded by UN peacekeepers. The non-Dinkas say they are too scared to return home. Many report being raped if they venture out to collect firewood. “Now it is death for anyone who is not a Dinka. If you can’t talk like a Dinka, if you don’t have the right [ritual] scars, they shoot you, no questions asked,” says Abdullah, a farmer. “They want to clear the other groups and take control of everything. They kill you and take your land to graze their cattle on.”
          Out of South Sudan’s pre-war population of 12m, the UN estimates that 2m have been displaced internally and another 2m have fled abroad. So bad is the violence that some flee into the war-ravaged Central African Republic, or into Sudan’s troubled region of Darfur. Though South Sudan is fertile, more than half of its people face hunger. A famine earlier this year was averted by food aid. Diarrhoea, cholera and malaria have spread rapidly, along with kala-azar (a deadly parasitic disease carried by sandflies).
          The economy is a disaster. The state depends on oil, which is 95% of exports. Not only has the oil price fallen by more than half since 2011, but output has collapsed in the fighting. The IMF guesses that real income has been cut in half since 2013. Inflation is over 300% a year. The government is short of cash. Unpaid soldiers rob civilians with impunity.
          Much of the budget is stolen. Absurdly, half of the government’s net oil revenues are spent on petrol subsidies—the government insists that fuel should be sold for far less than it costs. As a result, petrol stations have run dry. Outside each one, black-market traders sell fuel in water bottles for more than ten times the official price. The finance minister says fuel subsidies should be scrapped, but faces resistance from those who pocket them.
          The government says it welcomes the foreign aid groups who provide most of South Sudan’s public services. In practice officials often obstruct them. Aid workers are regularly barred from delivering food and medicine to rebel-held areas. Dozens have been murdered. Many roads are impassable because gunmen patrol them, stealing aid supplies and killing drivers. Bureaucrats constantly demand new fees and permits. (Your correspondent was barred from an internal flight over a missing piece of paper which, once he had obtained it, no official asked to see again.)
          Mr Kiir’s government came to office on a wave of international goodwill. Both the Bush and Obama administrations included close personal friends of the plucky rebels who liberated South Sudan from the Islamist tyranny of Khartoum. But Donald Trump’s White House has no such sentimental ties, and America is rapidly losing patience with Mr Kiir. Three South Sudanese officials have been sanctioned by America’s Treasury for alleged corruption. More may follow.
          Last month Mark Green, the head of USAID, America’s government aid agency, visited South Sudan. Mr Kiir is said to have told him that there was no systemic insecurity in the country, that what violence did occur was the opposition’s fault, and that aid workers could do their jobs unhindered. Mr Green was shocked to be lied to so brazenly. He promised a “complete review” of American policy towards South Sudan. This month America’s ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, will visit Juba, hoping to revive peace talks. President Trump, however, may be inclined to cut South Sudan loose. That is risky. “If we disengage, people will starve to death,” laments an American official.
          This article appeared in the Middle East and Africa section of the print edition under the headline "Guns, germs and stealing"