Egypt: One Choice

EGYPT

One Choice

Henry Ford was famous for saying customers could have any color Model T they wanted, as long as it was black. Voters in Egypt were offered a similar choice in this week’s presidential election.

Incumbent President Abdel Fattah Sisi is headed to a landslide victory, winning some 90 percent of the vote based on unofficial tallies, the Los Angeles Times reported. But critics say the victory has come at the expense of legitimate democracy.

Sisi’s sole opponent — Moussa Mostafa Moussa – was a staunch supporter of the president. He only ran for form’s sake, and after learning he’d won only 3 percent of the vote told a local television station, “I am very happy with the experience, whatever the result.”

Earlier, three other potential rivals dropped out of the race, while a fourth was arrested and accused of running for office without permission, the BBC reported.

Despite concerns over such maneuvering, many Egyptians see Sisi as representing stability following the turmoil unleashed by the Arab Spring in 2011.

Madagascar: Visiting The Avenue Of The Baobabs

Visiting The Avenue Of The Baobabs – The Roots Of Madagascar

Posted on March 23, 2018 by Alexis Borochoff

Courtesy of vil.sandi/Flickr.com

Hidden on the western coast of the island and nestled on the edge of Kirindy Mitea National Park, the Avenue of the Baobabs remains a popular attraction despite being hours away from major cities and tourist resorts. So what specifically about the destination makes the long drive well worth it? We could tell you the view of the martian-like trees that resemble giants from a J.R.R. Tolkien book is a good enough reason, but there’s more to the 98-feet high trees than meets the eye. The baobab trees play an integral role in both the animal kingdom and the local culture that have learned to depend on them.

Courtesy of Rod Waddington/Flickr.com

Facing the threats of deforestation, tourists are advised to make the journey to see one of the unspoken natural wonders of the world before it’s gone. Conservation groups are currently making efforts to preserve the trees (some have been around for more than 800 years) by making them recognized as a natural monument and a boost to the tourism industry. Just by looking at them, most people assume trees that appear lifeless don’t offer very much to the ecosystem. Look harder and you’ll see large fruits in some of the high branches. The fruit (also called monkey bread) is so nutritious that baboons have learned to depend on them in a land where food can be scarce. The trunks with its enormous girth is compromised of almost 80% water so on days when the sun is unforgiving and there is a limited supply of water, animals turn to its bark to hydrate.

When visiting the Avenue of the Baobabs, guests are pleasantly surprised by the extraordinary scenery  that’ll make them question they didn’t stumble into a Mario Bros. video game. Other people have reported feeling like venturing into an “upside down” world because the trees look they’re growing in reverse, with the roots exposed in the air. To get there, visitors will travel down a long dirt road from Morondova. The avenue isn’t part of a national park, so there’s no admission fee (except for parking) to see the trees, but there is a small information center where you can stop to get a map and learn the routes. During the drive, the trees line the side of the road, creating a canopy.

Courtesy of Bernard DUPONT/Flickr.com

Keep in mind, the road will be bumpy and requires an experienced driver. Nearby hotels will either offer up personal tours with a skilled guide or arrange an experienced cab driver that knows his way around the land to pick you up. But if you are driving on your own, drive with caution. Traveling by bike or on foot is also an option. Once you’ve traveling through, the fun doesn’t have to end there. Visitors are also given tips by locals to travel about 7 km north to see the famous Baobab Amoreux (or Baobabs of Love), a monument of two trees intertwined like star-crossed lovers. According to local lore, the two baobab trees became connected and twisted into one after seeing two young couples in love from a nearby village. After witnessing the tryst, the trees longed to feel romantic emotions, and over centuries, have grown toward each other to embrace.

Courtesy of vil.sandi/Flickr.com

Nearby Morondava has several accommodation where you can get a comfy nightcap to avoid driving back to a major city in one day. Morondava also has beaches on its western coast that are often packed with expats lounging in the sun. Restaurants and shops are used to tourists and are very happy to assist visitors on anything they need. Popular hotels that tourists visiting the Avenue of the Baobabs often stay at include Chez Maggie Hotel & Restaurant(beach front), Hotel Le Sun-Beach, Rosewood Hotel Restuarant & Spa (great for a relaxing retreat after exploring the baobabs). For those on a budget, camping is also an option at Tanankoay which has trails that takes you directly to the beach and to its wilderness. The campground has tiny huts that can be rented out for the night.

South Africa: "Running On Empty"

SOUTH AFRICA

Running on Empty

Day Zero – the moment when water supplies in Cape Town, South Africa, are scheduled to run dry – has been postponed until 2019.

Previously, city officials thought the city’s reservoir would tap out around April 21.

City residents have been living on 13 gallons of water a day, queuing up for rations or at natural springs, using buckets to catch excess water in the shower and taking other drastic measures to cut consumption as much as possible.

Even so, the city’s poorest residents have complained that they have been living with such privations for years, said Crux.

Still, as CNN reported, the postponement doesn’t mean Cape Town is out of the woods. The Theewaterskloof dam, which supplies half the city’s water, is at 15-percent capacity amid a terrible drought. It was full five years ago.

The 13-gallon rule is still in effect.

There’s another reason Capetonians need to stick with the program. The decision to move Day Zero into next year might not have been directly related to water supplies. Money might have been the major factor. Crises, after all, are bad for business.

“It appears that the decision was political, designed to limit the negative impact on tourism and investment in the city,” wrote South African media outlet news24 in an analysis.

That’s one reason why the world has been watching Cape Town closely.

Researchers at the University of Arizona studied whether Phoenix might someday hit Day Zero. They concluded that Cape Town’s reliance on surface water was its vulnerability. No rain, no water. But Arizona has a more diversified water portfolio, they argued.

Some disagreed. Calling Phoenix the “least sustainable” city in the world, the Guardian wondered whether the American city’s days were numbered, given how the Colorado River is drying up.

“The Phoenix metro area is on the cusp of being dangerously overextended,” climate researcher Jonathan Overpeck told the British newspaper. “It’s the urban bull’s-eye for global warming in North America.”

But money might ride to the rescue.

Bloomberg estimated that world will need around $1 trillion in water infrastructure in the coming years. That’s an opportunity, but regulators will need to uncouple water consumption from revenue, the business news service noted. Companies that promote conservation need to be rewarded, after all.

The answer to the water question has yet to be found. But for a look at the results of running dry, check out the situation in Calvinia in the northern Cape and Beaufort West, where conservation is extreme, water theft keeps cops busy and people stand on the highway begging – for water.

Fighting To Save The Last White Rhinos

Noble Giant

Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhinoceros, died last week in Kenya after battling with complications of old age and a series of infections.

With only two females of the subspecies remaining, scientists are resorting to innovative techniques to save the northern white rhino from extinction.

Conservationists recently relocated Sudan, 45, to Kenya in hopes that reuniting him with the last remaining female northern white rhinos – his daughter and granddaughter – would result in a mating process that could save the subspecies from extinction. Poaching and habitat destruction in sub-Saharan Africa had reduced its numbers to a lonely three, CNN reported.

But due to the rhinos’ ailments, the mating setup didn’t take – Sudan had a low sperm count, and neither female is able to carry a calf to term.

In a last-ditch attempt to save these noble giants, conservationists will try in vitro fertilization, a process that has not yet succeeded in rhinos, the New York Times reported.

Eggs from the females will be fertilized with banked sperm from northern white males and implanted in their southern counterparts, a separate subspecies.

Though the procedure has risks, geneticists say the long process is worth it due to the backdrop of the probable extinction of this particular rhino, the Times reported.

Western Cape Hit Hard By "Day Zero" Threats

Western Cape tourism hit hard by Day Zero fears

Mar 25 2018 07:35 

Aldi Schoeman

 

-

People queue for water at Newlands Spring, Cape Town, in late January 2018. (Nazeem Davids)

RELATED ARTICLES

Over a third of SA water supply lost through poor infrastructure

'Composting toilets' and 'Day Zero' dominate Cape Town Google searches

WATCH: Pain and gain for consumers as Day Zero nears

 

Anxiety over Day Zero – the day that the taps will run dry unless residents save vast amounts of water and new sources of the resource come online – has had a telling effect on tourism in the Western Cape.

According to figures from 18 of the Western Cape’s top hotels, income in January and last month was 10% to 15% lower than it was last year, said Judy Lain, head of marketing at Wesgro, the Western Cape’s tourism, trade and investment promotion agency.

She was one of the speakers at the recent launch of Wesgro’s plan to try to jump-start the province’s economy in the year ahead.

Wesgro conducted a survey among hotels to get a sense of how the reality that Cape Town may run out of water is being received by tourists.

According to the organisation, the number of reservations at hotels for the period between April and September is 50% lower than it was last year.

• READ: Big business moves to meet Cape water crisis demands

The biggest decline in reservations was among South Africans, who have decided to visit other areas of the country instead. There have also been decreases in bookings originating from countries such as the UK, Germany and the US.

According to the survey, tourists from Germany and the US indicated that they were concerned about hygiene.

South Africa is a popular destination among older Americans who want to celebrate a milestone birthday, such as a 60th, in South Africa by taking their entire family on a trip. This group indicated that they were concerned that they would not have access to water so that they could take their medication.

Travellers from the UK also said that the strengthening rand made South Africa less attractive for them as a travel destination.

Furthermore, tourists are also frightened of contracting listeriosis, and fear there will be civil unrest caused by the decision to expropriate land without compensation.

Alan Winde, the Western Cape’s minister of economic opportunities, said the Day Zero message was “bad for business”, and added that it had to be softened.

Winde said that tourists had said that they believed it was socially irresponsible to travel to Cape Town during the drought, but he said that now was the right time to visit because money generated through tourism was needed.

• READ: There's cash in Cape Town's water crisis

The Wesgro team also highlighted various opportunities that they wanted to target this year, one of which was the halal market linked to exports and tourism.

Janine Botha, an economist from Wesgro, said the Asian region, where there is demand for halal products, was responsible for more than half of the world’s growth. She added that the halal market in sub-Saharan Africa was also expected to grow in the year ahead.

This offers the Western Cape, where there is already an established halal industry, the opportunity to export goods such as meat, beauty products and other consumer goods. It also offers opportunities for tourism to the country.

Botha said that economies in developing countries were expecting higher growth than those in developed countries this year.

“That’s what we should be enthusiastic about – an economy that’s growing,” she said.

Lain said the amount of money that people spent on tourism was also growing faster in developing countries than in developed countries.

According to the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, the 10 countries that are expected to have the fastest-growing economies this year are:

ETHIOPIA: 8.3%

UZBEKISTAN: 7.6%

NEPAL: 7.5%

INDIA: 7.2%

TANZANIA: 7.2%

DJIBOUTI: 7%

LAOS: 7%

CAMBODIA: 6.9%

MYANMAR: 6.9%

THE PHILIPPINES: 6.9%

What can be done to boost tourism in the Western Cape?

SMS us on 35697 using the keyword DROUGHT and tell us what you think. Please include your name and province. SMSes cost R1.50

* Sign up to Fin24's top news in your inbox: SUBSCRIBE TO FIN24 NEWSLETTER

Early days, but some SA firms responding to Zimbabwe’s open-for-business pledge

Early days, but some SA firms responding to Zimbabwe’s open-for-business pledge: Robert Mugabe may no longer be at the helm of Zimbabwe Inc, but the mess he created over his 37-year rule remains – the country’s infrastructure is, for the most part, in a sorry state, its economy is moribund and unemployment has reached ridiculously high levels, with figures as high as 90% often cited by commentators. While the jury is still out on whether the military-assisted change of the guard that occurred in November will set Zimbabwe on the path to recovery, the new administration is convinced that, with copious injections of foreign direct investment (FDI), the once thriving country will be able to regain its former glory.

Zimbabwe signs $4.2bn platinum deal to transform mining sector

Zimbabwe signs $4.2bn platinum deal to transform mining sector: Cyprus-based Karo Resources will invest $4.2-billion to develop a platinum mine producing 1.4-million ounces of platinum group metals annually by 2023, Zimbabwe Mines Minister Winston Chitando said on Thursday. Zimbabwe is again attracting investments into the mining sector after foreign investor confidence dipped during the rule of former president Robert Mugabe, who was forced to resign in November following a defacto army coup.

40 African Nations Sign A Trade Pact

AFRICA

Signing On

Most members of the African Union signed an important free trade pact, taking a big step toward integrating the continent’s economy.

Some 44 out of 55 members of the international political body joined the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in Kigali, Rwanda, on Wednesday in what they hailed as the largest such deal since they agreed to join the World Trade Organization more than two decades ago, Stratfor reported.

Designed to set up a rules-based trading system for the continent, the pact aims to remove tariffs on 90 percent of goods while slowly phasing out tariffs on the remaining 10 percent. It needs to be ratified by at least 22 countries before it can be implemented, after which representatives will begin work on expanding it to cover issues such as intellectual property, the think tank said, noting that the fragmentation of Africa’s combined $2 trillion economy has slowed development.

Notably, the continent’s two largest economic players, Nigeria and South Africa, declined to sign the pact.

Nigeria: Relief And Suspicion

NIGERIA

Relief and Suspicion

Nigerians reacted with a mixture of relief and suspicion after Boko Haram militants returned dozens of schoolgirls they’d kidnapped from the northern Nigerian community of Dapchi a little more than a month ago.

Relief, because the militants released at least 101 of the 110 girls who had been kidnapped, according to government officials. Suspicion, because it appears several girls may be dead, the New York Times reported.

With the government and military facing criticism over an alleged failure to act on warnings that preceded the abduction, Boko Haram may score a propaganda victory with the release, though a government statement claimed credit for negotiating their return “through back-channel efforts and with the help of some friends of the country,” the paper said.

One of the released students said that five captives who had been in a weakened state from fasting had died in captivity, according to a local government worker, while media reports said five captives were crushed to death in overcrowded trucks.

The government has in the past secured the release of many previous victims by paying ransoms.

Republic Of The Congo-Emperors And Old Clothes

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Emperors and Old Clothes

Nawa Punyo joined a rally recently with other Roman Catholics in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, to demand that President Joseph Kabila resign.

“Kabila has been playing around for long enough; it’s time for him to go,” Punyo, an unemployed laboratory technician, told the Financial Times. “We are all suffering but politicians are doing nothing for us so we are turning to our (church leaders). They are the voice of the voiceless.”

Kabila was supposed to leave office in December 2016, when his second term expired. Instead, he has twice postponed elections and stayed in office. Assuming power in 2001 after the assassination of his father, ex-President Laurent-Désiré Kabila, Joseph Kabila had been in charge for more than 17 years, a typical period among strongmen leaders throughout Africa.

But as Punyo’s comments illustrate, things might be changing.

Led by Moise Katumbi, a former provincial governor, opposition leaders have joined forces to make sure Kabila holds elections in December.

“You have chosen me to lead us to the coming elections,” Katumbi said at a gathering of supporters recently in Johannesburg, South Africa, according to Bloomberg. “I call for unity among the opposition because we have to work together, hand in hand, to go toward free and transparent elections.”

Katumbi has been in self-imposed exile in South Africa since May 2016. A month later, a Congolese court sentenced him in absentia to three years in prison for selling property illegally. The judge who sentenced him said Kabila’s agents pressured her, the BBC reported.

Kabila should fear Congolese voters.

The country is blessed with a fortune in minerals like copper and cobalt. Yet 75 percent of its people live in poverty.

Ethnic strife claimed dozens of lives recently in the country’s northeastern region, Al Jazeera said. Refugees escaped the violence in boats, traveling across Lake Albert to Uganda. They’re part of a total of 4.5 million people who are now displaced due to a variety of conflicts throughout the vast country.

The United Nations is warning that two million children might die from starvation unless they receive aid soon, wrote Voice of America.

Botswana’s Ministry of International Affairs recently assessed the situation with a remarkable statement that dispensed with diplomatic niceties.

“We continue to witness a worsening humanitarian situation in that country mainly because its leader has persistently delayed the holding of elections, and has lost control over the security of his country,” said the statement, as cited by Reuters.

The next nine months will determine whether the tragedies unfolding daily in the Congo will outweigh the president’s ego.

Nigeria-Breach Of Duty

NIGERIA

Breach of Duty

Nigeria had advance warning that Boko Haram was moving toward the town of Dapchi, yet failed to act to prevent the kidnapping of some 110 schoolgirls, Amnesty International alleged.

“The Nigerian authorities have failed in their duty to protect civilians, just as they did in Chibok four years ago,” Reuter’s quotedOsai Ojigho, Amnesty’s Nigeria director, as saying in a report issued Tuesday.

That earlier abduction, in which the Islamist militants kidnapped 276 students from the town of Chibok in 2014, awakened the world to Nigeria’s conflict with Boko Haram, now nine years old.

The latest failure could be disastrous for President Muhammadu Buhari, who won election in 2015 on a promise to make Nigerians safer than his predecessor had managed.

A military spokesman denied they received advance warning that the militants were in the area of Dapchi. But Amnesty alleged that the Nigerian army and police received at least five phone calls warning that Boko Haram was on the way to Dapchi as early as four hours before the attack.

Steinhoff Africa Retail turns back on parent company

Mar 15 2018 18:46 

Janice Kew and John Bowker, Bloomberg

RELATED ARTICLES

Investors rush to get in on Steinhoff's KAP share sale

Steinhoff’s a black box too big to ignore for vulture investors

Steinhoff submitted 'malicious' report to Hawks

Watchdog starts probe into Deloitte's Steinhoff audits

HSBC loan loss rise said to be tied to Steinhoff, Carillion

Pep parent powers on, despite Steinhoff scandals

 

Johannesburg - Few can honestly claim to have never been embarrassed by their parents.

Yet for Steinhoff Africa Retail there’s more at stake than just an awkward silence when an outdated remark falls flat. The continent’s biggest seller of clothing was left mortified in December, when majority shareholder Steinhoff International Holdings reported accounting wrongdoing that wiped 90% off the parent company’s market value.

STAR, as the South African retailer is known, was initially dragged down by the panic that ensued from the revelations, plunging more than 30% in two days. The reputation risk was compounded by Steinhoff’s announcement that STAR had agreed to gradually repay R16bn of debt to shore up its parent’s liquidity.

READ: Steinhoff raises R16bn through STAR listing

However, the stock has since clawed back more than half the deficit as investors acknowledge that its own 2017 financials have been audited and are apparently untainted by the scandal.

Now the Cape Town-based retailer is trying to distance itself further from Steinhoff International.

Chairperson Jayendra Naidoo is considering a name change and over-seeing a hunt for new non-executive directors that have no connection whatsoever with Steinhoff.

He stressed to shareholders in Cape Town on Thursday that STAR is independent and wants a board that represents all investors, even though Naidoo himself was previously on Steinhoff’s payroll.

Before the accounting scandal broke, STAR shared six directors with its parent company and “was very much an offspring”, Naidoo said.

Steinhoff, which owns chains including Mattress Firm in the US and Conforama in France, spun off the STAR operations into a newly listed entity in September.

At the time, CEO Markus Jooste - who has since quit and been referred to an anti-corruption police unit - said the move was to give investors a choice of retail operations in developed or emerging markets. STAR’s stock surged 20% from its listing until its parent’s crisis.

STAR’s first move was to announce the departure of CEO Ben La Grange, who was Steinhoff’s CFO during the years that the alleged wrongdoing took place. He was replaced by Chief Operating Officer Leon Lourens, an alumni of clothing chain Pep, which Steinhoff bought from billionaire Christo Wiese in 2015. Naidoo quit the Steinhoff board in January.

READ: Ben la Grange quits Steinhoff Africa Retail

At the Thursday annual general meeting, Lourens joined his chair in highlighting STAR’s independence. Since January, the company’s investor relations team has moved from Steinhoff’s offices in Stellenbosch to Parow, where Pep is headquartered and Wiese still works.

The email address has been changed from @steinhoff to @star-group.

“The events of the past few months have been quite eventful and interesting to say the least,” Lourens said. “One can almost not imagine that so much has happened in such a short space of time for a newly listed company. It’s been quite challenging and dominated by events that have very little, if anything, to do with retail.”

Steinhoff Africa shares rose 0.9% to R22 by the close in Johannesburg, valuing the company at R75.9bn. 

* Sign up to Fin24's top news in your inbox: SUBSCRIBE TO FIN24 NEWSLETTER