South Africa: New Page, Same Script

SOUTH AFRICA

New Page, Same Script

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is walking a tightrope as he seeks to distance his ruling African National Congress party from his ousted predecessor, Jacob Zuma.

In a cabinet reshuffle this week, Ramaphosa reinstated Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister, undoing a controversial Zuma decision that roiled financial markets in late 2015, Bloomberg reported. And he put Pravin Gordhan, another finance minister fired by the former ANC leader, in charge of six of the biggest state companies – all of which face dire financial straits and graft allegations.

But he retained a number of Zuma loyalists, highlighting the difficult task of reforming the party that has dominated South African politics since the end of apartheid. And on Tuesday ANC members of parliament backed a motion from the radical left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party to change the constitution to allow the government to transfer land owned by white South Africans to black citizens without paying the former owners any compensation, Reuters said.

Critics say the scheme ignores a key problem: many farms already transferred to black farmers are now fallow and unproductive.

A Happy Birthday To An Incredible Zimbabwe Lady!

Mandy the night I was born, all the baby doctors in the hospital told my mom and dad that I would not live until the sunrise. (I was born 1.5 months premature.) One young intern just out of medical school, Dr. Harold Ross, did not agree with his senior doctors. He worked on me all night long and saved my life. I know all about beating impossible odds. It has been my honor to have you as a friend for 19 years. I have watched in amazement and deep admiration as you beat impossible odds. Have a joyous and a happy birthday.!A big hug for you from me, Elena, Pedro, Anna, Luah, Alfred and Alice.

He got rich on Congo mines until bribe probe put future on hold

He got rich on Congo mines until bribe probe put future on hold: A 20-year friendship that helped turn Dan Gertler into a billionaire has left the Israeli businessman with a lot fewer places to go. The US government accused Gertler of corrupt mining and oil deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo and said he acted as a middle-man to enrich his longtime buddy, President Joseph Kabila. The two have been close since Gertler arrived as a young diamond merchant during a civil war in 1997, and Congo – one of Africa’s poorest countries – is the main source of his wealth.

Kenya: Chain Reaction

KENYA

Chain Reaction

It’s been a tough few weeks for Miguna Miguna – and for Kenya.

The 55-year-old Kenyan lawyer has always been a staunch critic of President Uhuru Kenyatta. Even so, his visibility was heightened after last summer’s presidential elections were declared illegitimate by the nation’s Supreme Court, throwing East Africa’s most prosperous nation into political turmoil.

Violence ensued, and the Supreme Court promptly ordered a rerun.However, opposition leader Raila Odinga rejected that attempted solution and boycotted the second election in the fall, leaving Kenyatta to win unopposed with 98 percent of the vote.

On January 30, with Miguna assisting, Odinga declared himself president in front of tens of thousands of onlookers at a mock swearing-in ceremony.

The ceremony held no legitimacy, NPR reported, and was clearly a ploy to challenge the authority of Kenyatta, whose executive powers have been constrained by the slew of revisions made to Kenya’s constitution in 2010.

The chain reaction that ensued was swift.

The government pulled the plug on the nation’s largest broadcasters for covering the event, starting a media blackout that lasted a week and “turned a non-event with no legal or political significance into an international issue,” one diplomat told the Financial Times.

Several TV stations remained dark for days, despite a court demanding they be reopened. Larry Madowo, an anchor with NTV Kenya, wrote for CNN that he and others were forced to spend the night in their station’s newsroom as security forces blocked the building’s exits.

Miguna faced a more permanent fate.

He was promptly charged with treason for participating in Odinga’s symbolic swearing-in. Then he was kicked out of the country.

Miguna held dual Canadian and Kenyan citizenship, but the government declared the latter invalid, despite rules in the new constitution that bar those born in Kenya from being denied citizenship, Deutsche Welle reported.

He’s already been deported back to Canada.

Now, many fear that the events of recent weeks are warning signs of something much more sinister at play in a nation once revered for its democratic strides.

“In the space of just one week, a Kenyan government that proclaims itself a rule-of-law government has repeatedly defied nearly a dozen court orders in an alarming descent toward authoritarianism,” Madowo opined in a separate piece for the Washington Post.

Many are concerned that such a troubling chain reaction in a regional leader like Kenya might spark a similar one elsewhere in East Africa, the New Yorker reported.

“Kenya is one of the beacons for media freedom on our continent and the world and should be a leader in terms of democratic governance and respect for fundamental human rights,” said Angela Quintal, the Africa coordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Its leadership role in the region is now being compromised.”

A French Outpost For Migrants In Niger

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Hugh Slater Writes About Being A Fighter Pilot In Africa

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Somalia: The Most Corrupt Country In The WOrld

SOMALIA

Worst Bad, Meet Least Bad

The global fight against corruption is arguably at its apex – thanks to the worldwide battle against the financing of terrorism, revelations about offshore accounts from watchdogs and whistleblowers, and populist movements across the globe.

But in a report that revealed Somalia as the most corrupt country in the world, Transparency International found that some 6 billion people still live under graft-plagued governments, and nearly 70 percent of countries scored less than 50 percent on its 2017 corruption index, the Economist reported.

Somalia scored a measly 9 out of 100 – 100 being “very clean” – while TI reckons the least corrupt country in the world to be New Zealand, with a score of 89.

Perhaps more surprising, the watchdog group found a clear inverse relationship between corruption and free speech, the Economist noted. Nine out of every ten journalists killed since 2012 were in countries that scored less than 45, while Bahrain, which suffered the biggest drop on the index over last year, shut down the country’s only independent newspaper in June.

Nigeria: Unsafe At Any School

NIGERIA

Unsafe at Any School

The Nigerian military rescued 76 schoolgirls and recovered the bodies of two others after a Boko Haram attack that was a grim reminder of the terror group’s abduction of more than 270 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in 2014.

“Everybody is celebrating their coming with songs and praises to God almighty,” Reuters quoted a parent of one of the rescued girls as saying. However, at least 13 students (more than 50, according to the New York Times) may still be missing, and the agency wasn’t able to confirm how two of the girls died.

Police and state officials said on Wednesday that there was no evidence that the girls had been abducted. Nigerian authorities often deny or downplay Boko Haram attacks.

The 2014 Chibok abduction drew global attention to Nigeria’s nine-year war against the terror group, whose name roughly translates to “Western education is forbidden.” More than 20,000 people have been killed and two million forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict.

Cape Town’s Day Zero delayed until July

Cape Town’s Day Zero delayed until July: Day Zero has again been pushed back by another month as daily water use in the drought-stricken province drops by three-million litres, with the average consumption averaging 523-million litres a day. While still short of the 450-million-litre a day target, Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane on Tuesday said this contributed to extending Day Zero from June 4 to July 9.

Nigeria: Shipping Container To The Table

Shipping Container to Table

Near the Nigerian capital of Abuja, one young entrepreneur is revolutionizing urban farming.

Without any soil, Angel Adelaja of Fresh Direct has managed to convert abandoned shipping containers into sustainable urban farms for salad greens not native to Nigeria.

“We started with an empty plot and a lot of stress, but we just said we’d try, and it worked,” she told the BBC. “We are the first containerized farming in Africa.”

Adelaja’s team uses hydroponics to grow leafy greens utilizing only nutrient-infused water and LED lights. The process can yield crops year round, despite the Nigerian heat, and the greens are sold at prices lower than most imported produce.

There’s a social aspect to the initiative as well. Fresh Direct employs a team of young women and encourages young Nigerians to get their hands dirty in the agricultural sector.

“We need to get young people interested in agriculture,” Adelaja said. “We need to make agriculture cool and fun.”

Her team has experienced setbacks – like electricity blackouts and low water supplies – but remains steadfast in its mission to revolutionize urban farming.

“The aim really for us is to be able to show that on small pieces of land, you can still do sustainable urban farming,” Adelaja said.

Click here to check out Adelaja’s shipping-container farm

The US War In West Africa

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Ethiopia: The Road Less Traveled

ETHIOPIA

The Road Less Traveled

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn resigned out of the blue last week in an attempt to ease the nation into political reforms demanded by parts of the electorate after years of unrest.

The move is unprecedented in Ethiopia. Political transitions in the continent’s second-most-populous nation and East Africa’s fastest-growing economy have been marred by coup, Marxist rebellion and dictatorial takeover.

That means Hailemariam’s voluntary resignation could put Ethiopia on a political road less traveled, but only if a successor comes to power who represents the interests of the nation’s two most numerous ethnic groups, Bloomberg reported.

Ethnic Oromo and Amhara peoples make up some 61 percent of Ethiopia’s population, but say they have been politically, economically and socially marginalized for decades, Al Jazeera reported.

The political parties of the two groups are in a catch-all coalition government that comprises the entirety of the Ethiopian parliament, but they’ve been denied prized cabinet posts by the Tigray minority, which makes up 6 percent of the electorate. Though small, the Tigray have dominated Ethiopian politics since spearheading the uprising against Ethiopia’s communist regime in 1991, Stratfor reported.

For years, the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization was thought to be controlled by the Tigray camp, but it’s molded itself into a type of opposition movement with the rise of a series of charismatic politicians seeking to wrest back control, the Economist wrote.

The Oromo and Amhara began rebelling in 2015. Despite crackdowns in which hundreds were killed and thousands arrested – resulting in a state of emergency that lasted for the better part of a year – the government ultimately caved into pressure, agreeing last month to release thousands of political prisoners.

“The pressure from the popular movements and also the reformist members of the ruling coalition forced the resignation to come early,” Befekadu Hailu, an Ethiopian writer and activist, told Al Jazeera.

Now at a crossroads, the government must make a choice between an elite successor, or one who could respond to the needs of protesters without silencing them through violent means, Reuters reported.

“Whoever replaces him (Hailemariam) has to have in mind a transition,” said former opposition lawmaker Girma Seifu. “Otherwise it will only be a false start.”

But with a government still divided, it might be the case that Hailemariam’s successor can’t address protesters’ grievances quickly enough, Stratfor wrote, only exacerbating instability.

Regardless, the very fact that a transition in power came without bloodshed or forced resignation – as was the case last week in South Africa – is a start.

Ethiopia: The Center Cannot Hold

ETHIOPIA

The Center Cannot Hold

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn resigned Thursday, following violent protests that forced his government to release several high-profile political prisoners.

The resignation was “just a matter of time” following the release this week of two prominent journalists who spent seven years in prison and Bekele Gerba, one of the country’s most important opposition figures, who was jailed in 2015, the New York Times quoted a local political analyst as saying.

A regional powerhouse and US ally in the war on terror, Ethiopia has faced violent unrest for more than two years, as protesters demand economic and political reforms.  Hailemariam had attempted to ease some of the pressure by releasing hundreds of political prisoners in January, but his government had continued to hold some of the most high-profile leaders in detention.

Earlier this week, as many as 20 people were killed during protests in the province of Oromia intended to speed further releases, while a broader crackdown on protesters has killed at least 669 people over the past two years, according to the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission.

Egypt: Using nEw Archeological Discoveries To Attract Tourists

Land of Plenty With tourism in sharp decline since the Arab Spring, Egypt is trying to boost visitors’ interest by showcasing recent archaeological discoveries – of which there are plenty. Archaeologists recently discovered, for example, the 4,400-year-old tomb of a priestess in Giza, home to the pyramids, NPR reported. It belonged to Hetpet, a priestess to the fertility goddess Hathor. Hetpet lived during Egypt’s prosperous Fifth Dynasty, which lasted from about 2465 BC to 2323 BC – the era in which pyramids were built. Female priests were uncommon, but a number of them were in service to Hathor. Hetpet’s tomb was excavated in an area known for having large cemeteries that archaeologists have been uncovering for nearly two centuries, according to Live Science. Inside, archaeologists found engravings of Hetpet’s titles, as well as a mix of biographical and whimsical paintings about ancient Egyptian life and beliefs. “There are colored depictions of traditional scenes: animals grazing, fishing, bird-catching, offerings, sacrifice, soldiers and fruit-gathering,” Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Agence France-Presse. The tomb is just one of many finds made in the area since the beginning of 2017, NPR reported. “This is a very promising area,” Waziri added. “We expect to find more.”

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China's Massive Investments In Africa

CHINA

No Return Policy

It’s no secret that China has sought to expand its influence in recent decades over the African continent by way of large-scale infrastructural and business investments.

Recent figures by cross-border investment monitor fDi Markets place Chinese foreign direct investment in Africa at over $25 billion in 2017 alone – a number that dwarfs US investment in Africa many times over for that same year.

But the shiny new buildings, railways and government buildings in Africa that have come to symbolize the strength of the Sino-African alliance come with risks not mentioned on the original price tag.

The French daily Le Monde recently reported that the African Union’s new Chinese-funded headquarters in Addis Ababa had one feature not laid out in the original blueprint: a backdoor into the African Union’s computer network that allowed China to spy on the institution for five years.

The BBC reported that the Chinese ambassador to the AU quickly rebuffed the claim. But that didn’t stop the African Union from debugging the institution and rebuilding cybersecurity programs from the ground up.

Such a violation of trust would have surely put a kink in most bilateral relationships – think of the scandal that ensued after it was suggested that the NSA had wiretapped phone calls involving German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But just days after the Le Monde report was published, Ethiopia and China announced plans to strengthen their partnership, according to Chinese state news.

Ethiopia, one of the world’s poorest countries, has greatly benefited from Chinese largesse – Beijing has built entire neighborhoods in Addis Ababa, a $475-million light-rail system and the $200-million AU complex, the Los Angeles Times reported.

That’s not to mention other projects across Sudan, Nigeria and Kenya – where China recently finished another $4-billion railway.

Such investments are a strategic move for China, which once sought to win the hearts and minds of Africans through the construction of passion projects like stadiums, but now is seeking to cement a strategic geopolitical and economic position on a continent largely ignored by the West, the Financial Times reported.

It’s working: By 2014, trade between China and Africa had risen 20-fold to $220 billion compared to where it stood in 2000, and a 2016 Afrobarometer survey of 36 African nations found that 63 percent of Africans thought China’s influence was “somewhat” or “very positive.”

Influence isn’t just a one-way street, either, writes Quartz. More and more Chinese are setting up shop permanently on the African continent, while one can find African entrepreneurs running factories and other companies in China.

China sees Africa as a testing ground for its strategy of exporting authoritarian development models by way of large-scale investments – the exact opposite of Western efforts to spread liberal democratic capitalism, the Economist reported.

But Beijing still runs the risk of everything being for naught if its billions invested don’t produce economic gains, the Economist posits – and such expensive buys often don’t come with a return policy.

South Africa: Drying Up

SOUTH AFRICA

Drying Up

Due to the worst drought in over a century, rapid climate change and a swelling population, Cape Town is expected to run out of water in less than three months, USA Today reported.

At the same time, people across South Africa are speculating about the future of their country as President Jacob Zuma’s well of political influence dries up, too.

On Tuesday morning, after a marathon overnight meeting, the ANC decided the president should quit, the Associated Press reported. So far, he has refused. If he continues to resist, the party could tell its lawmakers to use their majority in parliament to vote him out of office.

Zuma gave in to judicial pressure last month and announced that an investigation would be opened into his role in the powerful Gupta brothers’ alleged influence peddling, Reuters reported.

The wealthy Guptas are accused of having doled out government posts to those who could bend state decisions in favor of their business practices, and the judicial inquiry will evaluate whether the Guptas may have received special treatment over a coal business linked to one of Zuma’s sons, wrote Bloomberg.

Zuma is already accused of hundreds of counts of corruption. He and the Guptas have denied any wrongdoing.

Even so, Zuma’s giving in to external pressures is enough to signal he’s on the outs.

That was only confirmed by his party’s recent election of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa as leader of the ANC. Ramaphosa vowed to spearhead the fight against corruption during his inaugural speech in December, AFP reported.

Leaders’ actions “should always be a source of pride and not a cause for embarrassment,” he said – a statement that was quickly interpreted as a snub to Zuma.

With two spheres of power within the ANC, analysts say Ramaphosa quickly needs to deal with Zuma if his party wants to keep its absolute majority in parliament come election time next year.

Pressure is on for Zuma to resign, and it’s likely he will before he’s termed out in 2019, Bloomberg reported. The trick is to do so without uprooting Zuma’s vast network of supporters, which could crumble South Africa’s fragile political system and economy.

“If you have to remove him, you have to dismantle a very complex system (and) that cannot be done overnight,” said Ralph Mathekga, an independent political analyst based in Johannesburg. “Ramaphosa is being diplomatic and rightfully so. He cannot come out in public and say that there are plans to remove Zuma.”

But such speculation has actually boosted Ramaphosa’s – and the economy’s – standing, CNBC reported: Markets reacted positively after Ramaphosa’s election to party chair, and the politically sensitive rand grows nominally stronger every time there’s a rumor of Zuma’s ouster.

Even so, cantankerous external factors rocking stability in South Africa – aside from water issues, electricity can be scarce and unemployment is high – could be exacerbated if Zuma leaves in a messy manner.

“South Africa is approaching rough waters, and a Jacob Zuma facing an inglorious and humiliating end to his presidency will be a Jacob Zuma at his most dangerous,” Roger Southall wrote for the Conversation.

Meanwhile, what happens in South Africa matters, says the Financial Times.

“In the post-apartheid era, South Africa became the informal spokesman for a continent,” it wrote. “The drama of South Africa’s recent history and the sophistication of its economy means that it inevitably has become a standard-bearer for Africa.”

South Africa: After The Deluge

SOUTH AFRICA

After the Deluge

Drought-hit Cape Town rejoiced Friday after a brief rain alleviated fears that the city will soon run dry.

Cape Town, which has been plagued by drought for three years, faces strict water rationing due to fears the city could run out of water by April. So residents took advantage of Friday’s 8 millimeters (0.3 inches) of rain to fill barrels and buckets. But the rain only pushed back “Day Zero” to May 11, the BBC reported.

Meanwhile, South Africa as a whole is anticipating another kind of D-Day – as African National Congress leader Cyril Ramaphosa all-but pledged to oust President Jacob Zuma at a meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee on Monday, Bloomberg said.

So far, Zuma has defied pressure to resign, partly due to corruption allegations. But in an address to some 3,000 supporters on Sunday, Ramaphosa promised “closure on this matter,” saying, “our pe

A South African Buys The Los Angeles Times

L.A. Times reportedly sold to California billionaire

The Los Angeles Times, the largest newspaper in California, is being sold by the news company Tronc to the pharmaceutical billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, The Washington Post reported.

The Times itself reported a deal to sell the paper to Soon-Shiong was "close."

The move would give the paper local ownership for the first time since the Chandler family sold its parent company to Tribune Co. in 2000. Soon-Shiong, who is 63, would also acquire The San Diego Union-Tribune in the deal, according to the Post.

Neither a spokesperson for Soon-Shiong’s company nor Tronc responded to requests for comment.

Soon-Shiong, who was born in South Africa to parents of Chinese descent, is best known for his high-profile crusade to fight cancer by matching genetic drugs to particular tumors through a high-powered database. But he has recently expanded his assets to include management over seven hospitals, two public companies, and a stake of the Los Angeles Lakers, among other holdings.

Soon-Shiong has also been moving in political circles, having worked on a blue-ribbon panel for former Vice President Joe Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot.” After the election of President Donald Trump, Soon-Shiong was reportedly considered for multiple administration roles, including the head of the National Institutes of Health. He did not receive a job in the administration, but House Speaker Paul Ryan recently appointed him to an advisory panel on health-information technology.

The Los Angeles Times, one of the nation’s most storied newspapers, recently won acclaim for a wide-ranging investigation of OxyContin and alleged deceptive marketing of the safety of the painkiller that touched off the opioid crisis.

But the Times newsroom has been in turmoil recently, as the paper grapples with declining revenue. In August of last year, Tronc removed Editor Davan Maharaj and some of his top newsroom leaders in a purge designed to make the paper more receptive to innovation. But Maharaj’s successor, Lewis D’Vorkin, feuded with newly unionized staff in a turbulent tenure that ended Jan. 29. Meanwhile, the paper’s publisher, Ross Levinsohn, was placed on leave amid sexual harassment allegations.

Soon-Shiong has been a minority owner of Tronc and, according to some, has used the post to angle to purchase the Times. He has feuded with Tronc’s controlling shareholder Michael Ferro, leading one of the company’s lawyers to accuse Soon-Shiong in a letter last April of mounting a “strategy to coerce the company into selling the Los Angeles Times.” Soon-Shiong himself accused management of “poor corporate governance.”

While Soon-Shiong owes his fortune to a successful cancer drug, Abraxane, and a pair of pharmaceutical companies, he has scientific and economic interests in many areas. After his upbringing in South Africa, he moved to British Columbia and then Los Angeles to pursue a career as a surgeon. In Los Angeles, he developed an interest in curing Type 1 diabetes with transplanted pancreases. After a transplant with one diabetic patient raised hopes of a cure, laudatory media attention followed — which some, including the president of the American Diabetes Association at the time, felt overstepped the facts.

While a company built around diabetes research failed — and brought with it lawsuits from investors and family — Soon-Shiong was able to create a pair of successful drug companies. From there, he developed an interest in using genomics and information technology to combat cancer.

More recently, Soon-Shiong has faced accusations of conflicts of interest. Reporting by POLITICO and STAT News questioned whether Soon-Shiong used his not-for-profit foundations’ resources to benefit his for-profit businesses. In one case, Soon-Shiong’s not-for-profits donated money to the University of Utah, which in turn purchased his company’s products. The deal led to Utah’s legislative auditor general concluding that the school violated state procurement laws. 

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Scenic Road Trips In The Western Cape

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Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai critically ill in South Africa -party source

 Reuters Tue, Feb 6 6:01 AM PST 

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Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) arrives ahead of the swearing in of Zimbabwe's new president Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare, Zimbabwe, November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File photo

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is critically ill in a South African hospital and his supporters should "brace for the worst", a party source with knowledge of his condition said on Tuesday.

Without its founder at the helm, Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is likely to face immediate instability and could even split, handing a gift to new President Emmerson Mnangagwa in an election expected in the next six months.

Mnangagwa came to power in November after a de facto military coup against 93-year-old Robert Mugabe, the former guerrilla leader who had run Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.

Tsvangirai, 65, has been in and out of hospital since disclosing in June 2016 that he had colon cancer. He returned to Johannesburg in neighbouring South Africa for his latest round of treatment in early January.

"From the medical report that I received yesterday the situation is not looking good. He is critically ill and we should brace for the worst," the source in Tsvangirai's MDC said.

Tsvangirai's Twitter feed contested the report, saying the former union leader who emerged two decades ago as Mugabe's principal political challenger was "shocked" to read of his deteriorating condition.

"Of course I have cancer and not feeling too well but I am stable and the process is under control. I have been frequently on Twitter of late, I am recovering," the feed said.

Tsvangirai spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said the MDC leader was "stable but the nation should keep on praying".

Tsvangirai's illness has exposed deep rifts in the MDC, with his subordinates jockeying publicly to succeed him. Last month, Tsvangirai said it was time for the older generation to step back and make way for "new hands".

(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Ed Cropley and Catherine Evans)