Saving Stuck "Hippos" In Botswana

Fighting Nature BOTSWANA Botswanan authorities and conservation groups are attempting to save hundreds of hippopotamuses stuck in drying pools and ponds in the country’s northwest as the El Niño-induced drought takes its toll on wildlife, the Voice of America reported. Officials said around 500 hippos are stranded as the scorching heat dries up water sources. More than 200 of the animals are stuck at the northwestern Nxaraga lagoon near the town of Maun. The country’s wildlife department and Maun-based Save Wildlife Conservation Fund have been pumping water into the lagoon and feeding the animals to prevent them from dying. Proposals to move them to areas with reliable water sources have been rejected because of “high costs and lack of budget.” Botswana is home to one of the world’s largest hippo populations. The large animals need water to protect their sensitive skin from the heat. Meanwhile, other hippos are stuck in the mud caused by the receding waters in the Chobe River, which flows from neighboring Namibia. Authorities from both countries are cooperating to drill more boreholes in hopes of refilling the drying channels. Even so, some local conservationists are telling authorities to allow nature to “take its course.” The El Niño-induced drought in southern Africa has resulted in limited water, leading to the devastation of food supplies and essential habitats for various wildlife species, wrote researcher Joshua Matanzima in the Conversation.

South Africa Freedom Day 30 Years After The First All-Race Election

Search TikTok Twitter Instagram Tuesday, 30 April Add location NEWS BUSINESS SPORT ELECTIONS 2024 INVESTIGATIONS POLITICS LIFE OPINION CLIMATE FUTURE SPECIAL PROJECTS 14h ago Share Facebook Twitter Email Adriaan Basson | Boerewors for all: Lessons from a suburban butchery on Freedom Day accreditation Adriaan Basson Comments Comments gifting Gift article add bookmark Bookmark 05:35 On 27 April 1994 all South Africans, irrespective of race and gender, were allowed to vote for the first time in democratic national and provincial elections. (Archive/Netwerk24) On 27 April 1994 all South Africans, irrespective of race and gender, were allowed to vote for the first time in democratic national and provincial elections. (Archive/Netwerk24) If reconciliation and race relations were our most important victories in the first 30 years of democracy, let's unite to defeat poverty and unemployment in the next, writes Adriaan Basson. On Saturday, 27 April, 30 years after South Africa's first democratic election, I found myself in a butchery in the northern suburbs of Cape Town, queuing for biltong and lamb chops. I woke up with an immense sense of gratitude for how far we had come as a country since 1994, only to be sobered by a headline on News24 that the Limpopo government had yet again missed a deadline to eradicate pit toilets at schools. I decided to look for a sign that we would be okay during my shopping trip behind the boerewors curtain. The butchery is not unlike any other in suburban South Africa - men and women in white butcher's jackets, lively music, specials on the wall and fridges lined with fresh cuts from the Karoo, Botswana and elsewhere. On this Saturday morning, Freedom Day, I cast my mind back 30 years ago. We lived on Johannesburg's West Rand, and there was a palpable sense of fear and anxiety in my white neighbourhood about what might happen if the ANC won the election. FRIDAY BRIEFING | 30 years of freedom: A reflection on three decades of democracy White fear was a real thing. Supermarkets ran out of toilet paper and corned beef as my community prepared for the worst. In those days, the only black people in our white, suburban butchery were the staff working behind the counter. After work, they would get into Putco busses or taxis and depart for their homes in Dobsonville or Kagiso. Thirty years later, the face of middle-class suburbia has wholly changed. On Saturday, I witnessed a diverse group of people queuing for the same boerewors and biltong. They live together, side-by-side, with the possibility of a race war buried far in the past. As much as a group of people queuing for meat should not be strange or unique without context, it is worth remembering the dark, divisive past we left behind in 1994. And celebrating how far we have come. South Africa is not a country on the brink of a civil war. And despite the attempts of some politicians and agent provocateurs to ignite racial tension for their own personal gain, the majority of South Africans are not interested in the politics of race. They have other urgent issues to worry about: load shedding, water, the cost of living, poor public education, crumbling public infrastructure and growing unemployment, to mention a few. The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation's latest reconciliation barometer found 75% of South Africans believed a more united country was desirable and possible (72%). Seventy-nine percent of people agreed apartheid was a crime against humanity, and for 85%, being South African is an important part of their identities. "While daily interactions have increased, the pace of change has been slower in terms of forming closer social relationships. Most South Africans believe that more reconciliation is still needed but identify economic inequality, racism, and corruption as the biggest barriers to further progress," the report found. It would be foolish to suggest racism is a thing of the past; we still have way too many incidents of structural and institutional racism at schools, companies and in society at large. But there can be no denying that, 30 years later, race relations have greatly improved. READ | Rapule Tabane: SA has achieved a lot in 30 years, but it’s Not Yet Uhuru! Where to from here? My colleague, Rapule Tabane, put it best when he wrote in City Press: "In a society that has achieved democracy, you do not live your entire life celebrating the history of liberation without squaring it up with the difficulties of your current realities". He then adds: "But the saddest indictment of our 30 years of democracy is that most black people are still trapped in a cycle of poverty and unemployment." If reconciliation was our most significant success in the first 30 years of democracy, let's unite to end this scourge of poverty and unemployment, rooted in a poor education system, in the next 30. - Adriaan Basson is editor-in-chief of News24 and co-author of Who Will Rule South Africa? (Flyleaf Publishers). *Want to respond to the columnist? Send your letter or article to opinions@news24.com with your name and town or province. You are welcome to also send a profile picture. We encourage a diversity of voices and views in our readers' submissions and reserve the right not to publish any and all submissions received.

One Kidnapped Nigerian School Girl Returned For 10 Years

The Lost and the Found NIGERIA Nigerian military forces recently found one of the 276 schoolgirls abducted 10 years ago from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok in the West African country’s Borno State. Troops rescued Lydia Simon, who was pregnant, and her three children while conducting an operation against her kidnappers, Boko Haram, a terror group affiliated with the Islamic State whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” reported CNN. Simon and other rescued survivors have been sharing stories about their harrowing abductions and their lives among jihadists on the 10th anniversary of the kidnappings. For instance, Saratu Dauda, who was 16 when she was kidnapped but eventually escaped, told the New York Times that her fanatical captors gave her an impossible choice: “Get married or become a slave who could be summoned for housework or sex.” Afterward, the former prisoners underwent three-month “deradicalization” programs to eliminate any hints of Boko Haram’s ideology they might have absorbed through indoctrination, Al Jazeera explained. Many face discrimination for having lived among the terrorists, added the BBC. Some in the government “rehabilitation” camps were forced to marry terrorists who had surrendered. Many, these days, struggle along. “People insult us some days – they are calling my children ‘children of Boko Haram,’” Rabiat, who managed to escape with her three children after about eight years of captivity, told Al Jazeera. “It’s so painful. My heart can’t endure it.” Meanwhile, 90 Chibok girls remain missing. Mary Abdullahi’s daughter, Bilkis, is one of them. “Since my daughter was abducted, I haven’t heard anything from her or about her,” the mother said in an interview with the Vanguard, a Nigerian news outlet. “I don’t know how she’s doing. I haven’t seen her. I feel bad whenever her name is mentioned. I want the government to do something about it. Our girls weren’t taken from home, they were taken from school. It’s the government that must intervene.” Despite the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign that went viral after the mass kidnapping in 2014, young girls and other vulnerable groups in Nigeria continue to fall victim to kidnapping as abduction for ransom has become big business in the country. Around 23,000 people are missing in Nigeria, a figure that is likely an underestimate. Many of these are children taken from schools. For example, in March, as many as 400 individuals including at least 100 students were kidnapped in two different Nigerian states. The Nigerian government has poured money into army campaigns against the militants, yet much of the spending has been ineffective, noted Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah. Boko Haram has killed more than 350,000 people since rising in the remote borderlands of northern Nigeria in the early 2000s. Then-President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration was feckless as well as silent, and Nigeria’s ill-equipped army in the north was outgunned and outmaneuvered by Boko Haram. “It was humiliating to see our soldiers running away from Boko Haram,” one former minister told the Post. The government has invested too much in combating Boko Haram and too little into improving civilian infrastructure, access to education and job opportunities, argued Joana Ama Osei-Tutu, a doctoral candidate at Monash University, for the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Desperation therefore steers Nigerians into radicalization and armed rebellion. Radicalization and rebellion, in turn, stifle opportunities. In the northeast and northwest regions where kidnappings are prevalent, parents are reluctant to send their daughters to school since Boko Haram began terrorizing the area. According to a government survey, more than half of women between the ages of 15 to 49 there are illiterate with no education, compared to less than one percent in the southeast and seven percent in the southwest. “Mothers used to be the ones who insisted… ‘our daughters should go to school,’” former Nigerian education minister Oby Ezekwesili told CNN. “But guess what the Chibok girls tragedy did? It made the mothers feel guilty…that what they did by arguing for education for their daughter was to say, ‘pay with your life in order to be educated.’”

30 Years Ago Today I Voted In The First All-Race Election in South Africa

This is a very special day indeed: 30 years ago, this morning I was in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The morning was bright and sunny. There was not a cloud in the sky. I was sharing a very humble lower middle-class apartment with two other men. I was very poor. I did not own a car. A most unusual thing happened. A three-series BMW pulled up in front of my apartment building. A captain in the South African army came to my door and knocked. He introduced himself. He told me that he had been sent by the African National Congress to take me to vote in South Africa’s first all-race election. I left and got in the captain’s car. We drove several miles to the polling place. Tanks and armored cars were everywhere. Soldiers could be seen with assault rifles. Clearly those in power were expecting the worst. When we got to the polling place, I went in with the captain. I presented my South African Identity Book for Life. The female election clerk told me that I could not vote because I was not a citizen. The army captain assumed a very authoritarian pose. He instructed the lady to let me vote. I was given a paper ballot. I was told where to write out my vote and leave it for counting. The ballot was on a large sheet of white paper. Many first-time voters could not read and write. There were pictures of each candidate. I made my selection of candidates and deposited my ballot. The army captain drove me to my workplace. We all tried to act as if it was just another day at work. Secretly we were all frightened that a civil war would erupt with incredible violence. Sadly, a couple of bombs did go off. There were a couple of isolated shootings. Overall things went quite well. The polls closed all over South Africa at 7:00 that evening. By 10:00 PM, all votes had been counted. Nelson Mandela was officially declared to be State President of South Africa. I spent 5 years of my life in South Africa. Despite all the social problems there, I can assure you that if you live there, you will have an incredible social life. There always seems to be something to do or someone to go see. A wild party erupted nationwide. People were up all night long rejoicing and giving thanks that the election had gone smoothly. The most touching moment that night came when an African woman was interviewed on television. She said these simple and profound words: “Finally they are going to start treating us like adults and stop treating us like children.” Thirty years later I treasure the memory of that day and the small part that a played in a momentous moment in history. The constitution that Nelson Mandela wrote still exists and it basically works. Elections happen regularly. There is always a peaceful transition of power. People’s rights and property are protected. Sadly, Nelson Mandela’s dream of making life better for the poor of South Africa has not been achieved. There is still massive unemployment and poverty. In some areas there is a very high crime rate. Government corruption is a way of life. Long before the election a South African writer named Alan Paton wrote a literary classic: “Cry The Beloved Land.” I will leave you to reflect on those words.

Jacob Zuma Is A Threat To South African Democracy

Adriaan Basson | Protect democracy from Zuma and his MKP's lies accreditation Adriaan Basson Comments Comments gifting Gift article add bookmark Bookmark 06:38 Fear of the nation | Former president Jacob Zuma addresses MKP supporters outside the Electoral Court in Johannesburg. Fear of the nation | Former president Jacob Zuma addresses MKP supporters outside the Electoral Court in Johannesburg. Mlungisi Louw / Gallo Images The IEC and Constitutional Court must be protected from defamatory and hateful statements made by Jacob Zuma's MKP, writes Adriaan Basson. The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), former president Jacob Zuma's new political home, uses disinformation and emotive language to discredit the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) and the Constitutional Court. They must be exposed and stopped. After the IEC announced its decision to appeal a ruling by the Electoral Court that Zuma could be a candidate for Parliament, the MKP has attempted to discredit two of the most important institutions of democracy in our constitutional dispensation. READ | Zuma's MK Party guns for the IEC, calls for Zondo's recusal in appeal The IEC and the Constitutional Court are arguably the country's two strongest state institutions. Both have a proud history of 30 years of independent, professional service to the people of South Africa. The IEC has overseen multiple national, provincial and local elections with the highest integrity and accountability. It is an institution run by professional accountants, lawyers, systems engineers and auditors. I've witnessed first-hand how the IEC's professional staff run, compute and audit elections. It is a world-class show. Attempts to discredit the IEC for taking the MKP ruling on appeal is an underhanded attempt by MKP to erode the public's confidence in the institution. It is interesting how Zuma never questioned the integrity, professionalism, and accuracy of the IEC while he was the president of the ANC and the president of the country. Yet, since he has been anointed as the "leader" of MKP, a party that will definitely not obtain a national majority on 29 May, he is happy to undermine the IEC. In 2016, after the local government elections, then-president Zuma said: "The commissioners and IEC staff worked long hours, and delivered an efficient and fair election yet again. They have once again affirmed the faith and confidence our people have in the IEC and the integrity of our elections." As they say on social media, "we see you". The IEC had every right – like Zuma has done in the past, on multiple occasions – to approach the Constitutional Court for certainty on a ruling that affect the IEC's mandate. Under the Constitution, a criminal who received a sentence of 12 months or longer, without the option of a fine, is disqualified from becoming a member of Parliament. The Electoral Court is yet to give reasons for ruling in Zuma's favour, but his legal team's strongest argument was that President Cyril Ramaphosa's decision to grant Zuma a remission of sentence in August last year effectively meant his 15-month sentence was reduced to the almost two months he served. It is a technical argument and deserves to be digested once more by an appellate division – in this case, the Constitutional Court. Zuma's sordid relationship with Chief Justice Raymond Zondo started when Zondo refused to withdraw as head of the commission into state capture because of a prior relationship with Zuma's family. Zuma's refusal to subsequently appear before Zondo led to his conviction of contempt of court by the Constitutional Court, for which he was sentenced to 15 months in prison. On Sunday, MKP spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela told City Press that Zondo was "the same person who sentenced Zuma in 2021 – illegally and unlawfully". Ndhlela further accused the IEC of approaching the Constitutional Court to "collude with corrupt judges". This is blatantly false, and Ndhlela deserves to be called out and rebuked. READ | Ramaphosa's remission of Zuma's jail sentence at the centre of legal blows in Electoral Court Zondo never participated in the contempt of court proceedings. He recused himself because the case centred on his order for Zuma to appear before the State Capture Inquiry. He was also not sentenced by Zondo. The conviction and sentence, by a full bench of Constitutional Court judges, was delivered by then-acting chief justice Sisi Khampepe. To accuse the IEC and the Constitutional Court of conspiracy and corruption is highly defamatory to both institutions. Ndhlela himself should be hauled before the Electoral Court. Ndhlela continued by saying the IEC is not independent and should "shut up and move on". This is dangerous rhetoric shortly before an election. Nobody has ever told Zuma to "shut up and move on" if he wanted to appeal one of this many court cases. Zuma should lecture his new colleagues in MKP about the importance of the Constitutional Court and the IEC. Having served as state president for nine years, he must know the dangers of undermining critical institutions of democracy. The reason for Ndhlela's outburst is apparent: the MKP needs Zuma's face on the ballot paper to stand any chance of winning a few seats in Parliament. At least he is honest about that: "Zuma's face being on it is alone at least 50% of our job done." The MKP is banking on a few thousand people voting for the party because of Zuma and nothing else. No policies, governance track record or vision. They are allowed to campaign as hard as they like, but they cannot denigrate critical institutions of democracy that, if acted upon, could lead to anarchy and violence. – Adriaan Basson is editor-in-chief of News24 and co-author of the recently published Who Will Rule South Africa? (Flyleaf Publishers). *Want to respond to the columnist? Send your letter or article to opinions@news24.com with your name and town or province. You are welcome to also send a profile picture. We encourage a diversity of voices and views in our readers' submissions and reserve the right not to publish any and all submissions received. Disclaimer: News24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24.

Protestors In Niger Demand That U.S. Troops Leave

The Emperor’s New Clothes NIGER Protest broke out in Niger’s capital of Niamey over the weekend, with demonstrators demanding the departure of US troops, after the ruling junta shifted its strategy by ending a military accord with the US and welcomed its first delegation of Russian military personnel, Reuters reported. The crowd waved Nigerien flags in a demonstration that recalled anti-French protests which spurred the withdrawal of the French military from Niger last year after Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown by the military, the newswire wrote. “We’re here to say no to the American base, we don’t want Americans on our soil,” said protester Maria Saley. Last month, the junta revoked a deal that had stationed 1,000 US soldiers in two bases, to help the former government fight Islamist insurgents in the Sahel region. Niger has long been an important strategic partner in fighting Islamist extremists. Mali and Burkina Faso – which also had military coups over the past few years and are run by military juntas – also have ended deals with their erstwhile Western allies, partnered with Russia, and quit the regional bloc, ECOWAS, which had also taken steps to oppose Niger’s junta following the coup. On Wednesday, Russian military instructors and equipment arrived in Niger, part of an initiative by Moscow to boost its influence on the continent. According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Russians are part of the Africa Corps, the new paramilitary structure replacing the Wagner Group, the military contractor whose mercenaries spread in Africa until its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed last year. Even so, the equipment that Russia is supplying isn’t likely to be used in the fight against the insurgents but more to protect the junta from ECOWAS, the BBC wrote. At the same time, a senior US official said that despite the demonstration and public calls for US troops to leave, senior ministers in Niger’s government were privately requesting the US not to abandon the deal or Niger completely, the New York Times reported. As a result, there is no timetable yet as to when the US military personnel will leave. Meanwhile, analysts told the BBC they fear that as Niger moves closer to countries outside the Western bloc including Russia, China and Iran, the alliance with Russia could encourage the junta to delay further a return to civilian rule, as has happened in neighboring Mali. Still, protesters said they don’t want Russia to replace France or the US as “occupiers.”

A Liberian War Criinal Gets A Long Sentence FOr War Crimes

Sowing Justice LIBERIA A French court recently sentenced Kunti Kamara, a former rebel leader in Liberia, to 30 years in prison for war crimes during the West African country’s first civil war between 1989 and 1997. Kamara, now 49, committed “acts of torture and inhuman barbarity” against civilians in the 1990s, the court found, including reportedly eating a teacher’s heart, failing to prevent his soldiers from raping two teenage girls, and a host of other horrors, wrote Agence France-Presse. His actions were part of the country’s two civil conflicts that claimed a total of 250,000 lives over 14 years. Kamara led part of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy, or ULIMO, which opposed ex-president Charles Taylor of the National Patriotic Front. Taylor’s forces won the first civil war and he became president, but a second domestic conflict broke out three years later, ending only in 2003 when Taylor fled the country. As Human Rights Watch explained, in 2012, Taylor became the first former head of state convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity by an international court. Many Liberians say they are happy that foreign courts have punished their leaders and rebel commanders, such as Alieu Kosiah, who was found guilty of rape, murder and cannibalism by a Swiss court in 2021. But many also want their country to deliver justice for the crimes committed during the civil wars. That’s one reason Liberian President Joseph Boakai is supporting the creation of a War and Economic Crimes Tribunal in the country, to try these war criminals at home. Liberia’s lower legislative chamber, the House of Representatives, approved the creation of the tribunal. Now, reported the Daily Observer, a Liberian newspaper, the Senate is debating the measure. Some senators feared a tribunal would inflame tensions, reopen old wounds, and undercut the amnesty law that allowed the fighting to cease and the country to move on. “Any attempt to undo that legal instrument that is the basis for our peace … is a means to enthrone instability,” said Senator Prince Johnson, a former rebel commander who fought alongside – but later against –Taylor, according to Reuters. Still, activists and members of civil society groups such as Dempster Brown, the head of Liberia’s Independent National Human Rights Commission, say they want more accountability for crimes committed during the conflicts: “We think that it is overdue.” Writing in an Al Jazeera op-ed, Liberian writers Dounard Bondo and Leshan Kroma argued that the tribunal was the only way Liberia could flourish. “If Liberia is to truly leave war behind, heal its wounds, and start building itself a prosperous future, the new president has to succeed in delivering that message of ‘peace and reconciliation,’” they wrote. “The strongest such message would be the establishment of a special tribunal for war crimes that would finally bring justice back home to Liberia.”