Congo Fever

Congo Fever

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Doug Casey’s Note: I’ve often said that, knowing what I do today, if I were 30 years old and wanted to seek my fortune, I’d definitely go to Africa.

Why? If you’re a white man from North America or Europe, you’re still a fairly rare and exotic commodity in most of Africa. People will want to meet you, not only because you’re unusual, but because you come from a richer and more sophisticated society.

Being in Africa puts you on an "unlevel" playing field. Just by virtue of your background, you have more knowledge, money, connections, and experience than 98% of the locals. That gives you an advantage you don’t have at home, where there are tens of millions just like you. That’s a huge opportunity.

In this article, my friend Francois recounts part of a recent adventure in the Congo. Which is still, as Joseph Conrad described it 100 years ago, the Heart of Darkness. Congo is the deep end of the pool... not recommended for travelers who haven’t already been around the block a few times.

Here’s a taste of what you may encounter when you get out into the bush.

By Francois Houdain

"I’m screwed – I’m totally screwed," says Eugenio.

He’s standing right next to me and has good reason to panic. It’s 3 a.m. and we have just landed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We are making our way inside the Kinshasa airport, and he just realized he forgot his yellow fever vaccination certificate back in Italy. They probably won’t let him into the country. Actually, I don’t think they will even let him get to the customs section of the airport. Upon arrival in any Sub-Saharan country, you have to prove having been vaccinated against yellow fever – or you will probably get deported.

"Get behind me – and try to stay right behind me as I walk forward," I quickly suggest to him.

It might work. There are about two hundred drowsy people advancing in three semi-lines. Mostly Africans but some white people as well. Most look like NGO types, a few tourists maybe, and some big guys. Military trainers, I think to myself. There’s a lot of confusion everywhere, and since Eugenio is short and smaller than I, they might not notice him. If, but only if, I am allowed to keep walking while I wave my yellow fever document.

Eugenio couldn’t catch sleep on the Nairobi-Kinshasa flight and neither could I, so we spent the night chatting about anything that could kill time. He says he’s Italian, but I heard him speak Arabic on the cell prior to take-off. He looks more like a Lebanese than an Italian to me. He has a girlfriend in the Congo, he says. Italy all the way to the Congo for a woman? I asked myself. Everybody who goes to Africa has a front, but this one is hard to believe. Unless, I guess, she’s Miss Congo.

I’m stopped in my tracks by a Congolese official wearing a white medical robe. He’s carrying himself with the authority of a nurse, but maybe he’s just an airport employee. He flips through the pages of my document, scans each page, checks the vaccination date, nods to me "ok," and I start walking away. Alas, there is not enough confusion for Eugenio to blend into. The official blocks him with his arm. I keep walking but turn to look at him. He mumbles something in French, petrified. Good luck, Eugenio, and I head to customs.

Last night the plane was full and it was a long haul from Nairobi. The cabin was dark and when I looked out the window, Africa below was even darker. No lights, nothing shimmering anywhere, for hours. Like going from Barcelona to Moscow over a jungle.

The road I am on now, from the airport to the hotel, is nearly as dark. The man who has come to pick me up was recommended by a guy I know at an embassy in Rome. I don’t feel safe regardless.

Solar radiation in Africa is so strong that it can literally disable you. Overheating can happen before you know it. Sunlight flashes through the hotel room from behind the curtains and wakes me up. My bed is a pool of sweat. I sit up and hold my head. The hand on my forehead tells me I have a temperature.

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I stumble to my feet and open the curtains. The sun is already high in the sky, but down below I see the hotel workers toiling in the garden. None are wearing hats. I guess these people have been used to the sun for millennia. I look up and stare beyond the garden and the hotel walls and observe the low-rises of the Kinshasa skyline in the distance.

Why am I here? I ask myself again.

My hazy mind drifts back to Rome for a beat. One of the two African colonels sitting in front me looks like a dangerous dude. I try not to look at him too much, because I’m suspicious and I’m not that good at hiding my thoughts. Not for very long at least. The other colonel is a bit more affable, in the sense that he smiles more, but all I keep seeing are two ruthless men in African military uniforms, even if they are wearing civilian clothes. Good cop, bad cop. I’m glad a large, round coffee table is between me and these guys. Some distance always helps in observing people.

The third African near me, the one who organized the meeting in this four-star hotel on a road leading to the Vatican, is the Person. The Person is too high-profile to be identified as either a woman or a man. The Person is talking to me about the Project. To substantiate the validity of the Project and credentials, the Person flicks through a gallery of pics on the cellphone and shows me each one. The Person is seriously connected, obviously, standing and smiling next to several French presidents, various African presidents, prime ministers, and even a pope or two.

On paper, the estimated numbers for this Bandundu region diamond mine are impressive: 200 tons of gravel with an average minimum of 15 carats of diamonds per cubic meter. At a minimum production of 200,000 times 15 carats that equals 3,000,000 carats of diamonds. That’s a lot of carats.

On behalf of a prudent investor I’m going to see if this place really exists. He is smart and isn’t paying a penny in advance to the Project people. First we need to see if it’s a working mine, if there is any extraction, or if it’s just a dugout. I have a high level go-to name and a cell number once I am in the area, a very senior official, let’s say.

It’s a thorny part of the jungle, apparently, but nothing much was happening in Nairobi so I decided after all to take the Rome job – and the risk. I will take some pictures and get out very quickly. Plus, being in the Congo might give me a chance to meet other people for other projects.

"I didn’t pay you in advance for this heap of rust on four tires – I paid you in advance to get me a real jeep with real A/C!!!"

My voice raised, I’m leaning forward from the back seat of the car.

My embassy contact sitting in the front is getting an earful. He took the money and instead of hiring a driver with a jeep, he hired a driver and a rusty Toyota with no A/C. Sixty euro a day – for a car worth ten euro – and he pocketed the rest. I don’t feel like wasting an afternoon or a day to find a better car and driver, so I just tell him to get me to this mine, as fast as possible.

"Monsieur, the area you want to go is dangerous. I couldn’t find anybody but this driver," he tells me.

I feel feverish, the day didn’t start well, and we are behind schedule.

"OK," I tell him, "but tell your guy to drive faster."

I sit back and try to chill. Maybe a beat-up car that doesn’t get much attention might be better, after all.

Looking at Congo means looking into the abyss of Africa. On and off, the country has been at war for decades. Millions killed, millions displaced, about a million guns fired millions of times. War beats down a path for chaos. And human life aside, the second great casualty of war – while rule by law goes out the window – is a free market economy with healthy competition. Someone is benefiting from this chaos, and it must be the thugs – white, yellow, or black – who hoard its resources.

When asked for more money by his soldiers, the former dictator Mobutu apparently said: "Why do you want more salary? You have guns."

Well, in the Congo, guns probably keep prices down. When you have AK-47 machine guns all around you, you better quote the lowest price for that natural resource or the next metal your workers will have to extract will be the lead shot into your body. The untapped potential in mineral resources of the Congo is estimated at 24 trillion dollars. If Fort Knox has about 300 billion dollars’ worth of gold, then the Congo is a giant jungle vault worth 80 times that.

We left Kinshasa an hour and a half ago. I’m sweating profusely. I usually enjoy my field trips, but not today. Today I just want to get this done and over with. I want to be there at 3 p.m., stay one hour, be back in Kinshasa by 8 p.m. I’m not a geologist anyway, just reconnaissance for hire.

As we drive north-northeast, I look out the window and gaze at nature. In random sequence, it’s one gorgeous palm tree after another, one majestic tree and one lush bush after another. Congo’s scenery is monumental. I go into a quiet trance for a few minutes, pacified by this splendid, evergreen motion picture.

Soldiers halt us at a checkpoint. From the back seat, I can spot at least twenty of them. My driver turns off the engine. What now? I think. A tall African in his mid-thirties, wearing on his upper body an AK-47 and lots of ammunition, walks over to our car. He immediately notices me, and he moves over to the side window.

"Vous allez où?"

The soldier looks at me quizzically, first, then gives a onceover at the old Toyota. As his torso turns, so does his rifle, previously practically pointing at me.

I lean my head out the window.

"I’m going to see a mine; it’s only two hours away."

Then I drop the name of the senior official and wait for his reaction. But there isn’t one.

"You will not see any mine, because there is no mine in this region," he tells me in a stern tone not only shaking his head, but completely ignoring the name I just floated. "Monsieur, turn this car around, and go back," his AK-47 pointing back in my direction.

Sweat pours down from my forehead. I want to think for a moment on what to do.

Should I call the Person? Should I admonish this soldier armed to his teeth, by telling him he is making a big mistake, that the senior official is important, that it will get him into trouble to disrespect him like this? Should I pull out some cash and bargain my way forward?

I give one quick glance at the jungle all around me, which suddenly seems thicker and darker. I wipe the sweat off my face and make the split-second decision. I tap the embassy guy on the shoulder.

"C’mon, let’s go back."

Our car now heading back to Kinshasa, I am free to think. I think that the soldier was lying, of course, because the Bandundu region is full of mines. I think that power must change hands fast in the Congo, because my local contact is no longer the flavor of the month, no longer pulling weight, and probably, the Person didn’t know that. I especially think that beyond those soldiers, the official lines would have blurred: no more uniforms, no more state. Just more firearms, precious resources, and God knows what else.

I remember what an Israeli I know had told me over the phone before leaving:

"That region is an unstable area to get in and out of – we don’t think any product can be moved out of there consistently. Not without security problems. But it may have changed."

They probably know more than anyone else does but not entirely either. Russian politics are a riddle wrapped in a mystery, Churchill once said. Congo politics makes me think of a bushfire in a mine field.

When I travel, I never know whom I’m going to meet, so I fly wearing a blue suit and pack my one tie and the "essential other" in a carry-on. The essential other for Africa is emergency anti-malaria fever pills, the yellow fever certificate, disinfectant for cuts, and eye drops against the dust.

I step out of the taxi and walk into the airport fast, hoping to go through airport security quickly. I want to throw the carry-on aboard the plane and leave Congo.

The plane finally starts moving. As usual, I close my eyes when the plane takes off, soothed by the sensation of body and head tilting back. Not that I don’t pay attention to the sound of the jet engines under stress from exerting all that power necessary to get airborne.

The plane levels out and I open my eyes. Getting from the Congo to Kigali, Rwanda, shouldn’t take more than three hours. I look out the window. Against a bright blue sky, dozens of white, mushroom-shaped clouds float like huge air balloons – high above the jungle.

I check my forehead. I’m not sweating anymore. I sip and swallow some water, stretch my legs, and I feel relaxed – and safe. From all that jungle fever.

Editor’s Note: The rivalry between the US and China has even found its way to Africa.

Ex-Eskom senior managers, executives arrested for R745 million fraud

Ex-Eskom senior managers, executives arrested for R745 million fraud: Two former Eskom senior managers, two business directors and seven companies are expected to appear in the Johannesburg Regional Court on Thursday on charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering. The suspects can only be named once they have appeared in court.

Burkina Faso: The New Fissure Of Terror

BURKINA FASO

The New Fissure of Terror

The families of American diplomats were ordered out of Burkina Faso recently.

“There is no specific threat that prompted this decision, rather this reconfiguration of the US Embassy staffing profile will enable refocused operations to assist Burkina Faso in its struggle against violent extremist organizations,” the US Embassy in Ouagadougou said in a statement.

The US State Department also recently issued a “do not travel” advisory for the West African country, citing terrorism, crime and kidnapping.

As CNN explained, “terrorist networks operate with impunity” in Burkina Faso, “targeting public places of gathering, including hotels, restaurants.” Around 500,000 people have fled the country because of violence. The International Red Cross can’t send aid workers to certain regions because they are too dangerous. Thousands of schools have closed.

“Burkina Faso has replaced Mali at the epicenter of the Sahel’s security crisis,” said a headline in Quartz.

Indeed, much of the chaos that international forces have sought to end in Mali has become commonplace in neighboring Burkina Faso.

On Sunday, more than a dozen people were killed after gunmen opened fire at a church service in Hantoukoura, in the east, the BBC reported. Last month, gunmen killed 39 people in a convoy of Canadian mining company workers. It was not the first instance of the company encountering armed predators, the New York Times reported, noting that militants had killed at least 26 military personnel and injured 25 others between August and September. Those militants could be Islamic State members or criminals acting out local grudges.

Whatever their ideologies, the attackers often have few scruples. More than a dozen worshippers died in mid-October after armed men stormed a mosque in the northern city of Salmossi near the Malian border, Al Jazeera reported.

France has invested heavily in stability in the Sahel, the core of much of its erstwhile West African empire. The European country has 4,500 troops in Chad, Mali and Niger.

The endeavor has come at a cost. In late November, 13 French soldiers died when their helicopters collided as they hunted Islamist militants in Mali, Reuters reported. In May, two French soldiers died in a successful mission to free American and South Korean hostages in Burkina Faso. Last year, militants attacked the French embassy and the Burkina Faso military’s headquarters in Ouagadougou, killing eight and injuring 80.

Recently French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he would deploy forces to Burkina Faso at the request of local officials, according to Al Jazeera. Burkina Faso gained independence from France in 1960. Now, the former colonial power is working closely with local forces to prevent jihadists from taking over, the Defense Post reported.

This Euronews story provides context as to why leaders in Paris are determined to spend resources in the region, including fears of a new safe haven for terrorists and of jihadism spreading north. Reuters also detailed a harrowing connection between the Islamic State and gold mining in this region of Africa.

In late 2019, a new front in the war on terror has opened.

W

Ethiopia: The Price Of Freedom

ETHIOPIA

Price of Freedom

Ethiopia’s ethnic Sidama minority overwhelmingly voted to form their own self-governing region in a referendum that could inspire other ethnic groups to demand more autonomy, Ethiopia’s electoral board said Saturday, according to Reuters.

Results to date showed that 98.5 percent of voters supported autonomy in Wednesday’s vote with turnout reaching 99.7 percent.

“For me it’s the day of resurrection,” said Unani Fikro, a member of a Sidama activist group.

The vote will now allow the Sidama, which comprise four percent of Ethiopia’s 109 million people, to form their self-governing region, and administer their own local taxation, education system, and security among other things.

Ethiopia’s constitution gives the right to seek autonomy, but the recent referendum became possible from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s recent reforms.

Since he came to power last year, Abiy has allowed greater freedoms in the once repressive country.

His changes, however, have emboldened regional strongmen and encouraged other ethnic groups to demand more autonomy.

Calls for self-governance could threaten Abiy’s plans to unify the country ahead of the 2020 elections.

C

Guinea-Bissau: Who Is In Charge?

GUINEA-BISSAU

Who’s In Charge?

Guinea-Bissau is arguably a “narco state,” a country where drug money has corrupted every nook and cranny of the government, the economy and society.

Police recently seized 1.8 tons of cocaine from smugglers, for example. It was the second time in six months they had broken their record for the biggest drug haul in the West African country’s history, InSight Crime reported.

Not coincidentally, nobody is really in charge of Guinea-Bissau.

Voters went to the polls on Nov. 24 to elect a new president, and preliminary results are expected in a few days. But, given widespread graft and the multiple coups the nation has suffered since independence from Portugal in 1974, many wonder whether the country will successfully pull off a democratic transition.

Jose Mario Vaz, the country’s first democratically elected president to complete a five-year term since the introduction of multi-party elections in 1994, is running for re-election. “Corruption was installed at the highest level,” a Vaz spokesman told Voice of America. “Drug trafficking, with collaboration of a lot of people, was installed at the highest level, we needed to fight that. We needed to make reforms, but reforms are not easy.”

Voters have reason to be suspicious of Vaz’s lofty aims, however.

As University of Central Florida scholars Clayton Besaw and Jonathan Powell explained in the Conversation, the president’s term technically ended in June, but Vaz remained in office. At the time, he was in conflict with his political allies for refusing to support their nominee for prime minister, Domingos Simoes Pereira. Vaz then struck a deal with lawmakers to remain in office – though with limited powers – until the presidential election this month in exchange for approving another premier, Aristide Gomes.

In October, however, after violent protests and warnings from Gomes about a possible coup, Vaz sacked Gomes and appointed a new prime minister, Faustino Fudut Imbali, reported the South Africa-based Independent Online. The coup warnings especially stirred up fears, given how the military has repeatedly entered politics. But Gomes refused to accept the sacking, Al Jazeera wrote. Imbali, meanwhile, resigned after 11 days.

The changes led the African Union to issue a statement expressing “deep concern over the continued deterioration of the political and security situation” in the country.

Guinea-Bissau’s military has denied any interest in a coup. However, the generals have also rejected the Economic Community of West African States’ proposal to increase its military contingent in the country as a stabilization measure, wrote Political Analysis South Africa.

The organization helped The Gambia a few years ago when another leader refused to leave after losing an election.

Regardless, the electoral process must go on if Guinea-Bissau is to move forward. But politicians will need to respect the process – and each other – for the results to hold. And the military must stay out of the way.

And then, maybe, everyone will know who is actually in charge.

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Rwanda: Darling Tyrant

RWANDA

Darling Tyrant

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, in office for almost 20 years, delivered a blunt statement to his enemies during a recent swearing-in ceremony for cabinet members and military brass.

“I want to warn some people among us who hide behind different things. They hide behind politics, democracy, freedom that we actually want,” Kagame said, according to Xinhua. “The people behind this nonsense and even backed and praised by people from outside…are going to face it rough.”

The president stressed he would not tolerate anyone who propagated a “politics of division and hate, and genocide ideology,” wrote the New Times, a local newspaper.

But Kagame was presumably addressing critics who describe him as authoritarian and accuse his security forces and agents of illegal detentions, torture, false charges and other ways of harassing political dissidents, PBS NewsHour reported.

Indeed, opposition members often go missing in Rwanda. The latest was 29-year-old Eugene Ndereyimana, a vocal critic of Kagame who was hoping to run against the president’s Rwandan Patriotic Front.

“Where is he now? Is he alive, or was he killed by police?” asked a town elder in Kibungo, Rwanda, in the Washington Times. “What kind of country is this where one cannot speak freely? He is not the first one to go missing. We are losing our people in mysterious ways.”

A story in CNN listed other dissidents who are now missing.

What is remarkable about all this is that Rwanda is held up as a model of peace and prosperity on the continent. Indeed, Kagame’s version of stability has been pretty good for a country forever scarred by the genocide of 1994. The capital of Kigali is becoming a tourist attraction, reported Bloomberg in a video that featured clean streets, low crime and a growing economy.

Some of Rwanda’s prosperity might be ill-gotten. Citing United Nations reports, the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper noted how the country is likely benefiting from the illegal gold trade, often via routes dating back to its participation in wars in the Congo.

Still, Al Jazeera recently concluded that “Kagame’s Rwanda is still Africa’s most inspiring success story.” It was Kagame who, as commander of a force of uneducated guerrilla fighters, managed to put an end to the genocide. He has been president since 2000 and is credited with bringing stability to the country and leaving old grievances in the past as much as possible.

Kagame’s mix of appeal and repulsion led Politico to dub him the “darling tyrant.”

As in many countries in Africa and around the world, analysts say it’s likely the Rwandans will get tired of their leader, hit the streets and eventually remove him. If that happens, one can hope it’s not at the expense of the peace and prosperity they won so dearly.

The Land Grab Madness Continues In South Africa

14th November 2019  

As government ministers tinker with the details of land expropriation without compensation and some analysts ponder the philosophical benefits of redistributing property in this manner, I’m with Anthea Jeffery when she warns that there is no room for complacency. This is because I have close experience with what land grabs look like in reality. My sister and her family were wrenched from the farm in Zimbabwe where her husband at the time worked as a farm manager; they fled with nothing after menacing groups of so-called war veterans threatened rape and sodomy and beat up her husband and some of the workers. My sister and family were lucky; dozens were killed. Years later, most of the commercial farms that were once highly productive are no longer businesses, with their new occupants unable to work the land because they lack the skills and capital. There were no real winners from the land grabs, except for the politically connected. Today, hyperinflation, a shattered economy, widespread poverty and a country that looks a lot like it must have before electricity was invented is what is left while a small elite enjoys a high life that includes spending much time elsewhere to benefit from creature comforts. Worryingly, important constitutional changes around land expropriation are set to be pushed through when most of South Africa is on its annual summer holiday, and, as Dr Jeffery points out, that these legislative amendments look a lot like a case of bringing Zimbabwe to South Africa. This article is published here on BizNews, with the kind permission of the Daily Friend. – Jackie Cameron

‘Bringing Zimbabwe to South Africa’

By Anthea Jeffery*

There is no room for complacency.

Dr Anthea Jeffery of the IRR.

A parliamentary ad hoc committee is pushing ahead with the drafting of a bill to amend Section 25 (the property clause) and allow expropriation without compensation (EWC). The committee has developed two possible options for the wording of this amendment bill, and is considering a third proposal for which the EFF is pushing strongly.

These points emerged from a meeting convened by the committee in Parliament last week. At this ‘constitutional dialogue on land ownership’, the committee – formally the Ad Hoc Committee to Initiate and Introduce Legislation Amending Section 25 of the Constitution – made it clear that the decision to amend Section 25 has already been taken and cannot be revisited. Hence, its sole task is to draw up an amendment bill that can be tabled in the National Assembly by the end of March 2020.

Under the committee’s Option 1, sub-sections 25(2) and (3) would be amended so as to limit the obligation to pay compensation on expropriation. This would be done by adding a proviso stating that ‘a court may determine that no compensation is payable in the event of expropriation of land for purposes of land reform’. However, ‘where compensation is payable’, its amount would have to be ‘just and equitable’, as Section 25 currently provides.

The committee’s Option 2 is more sweeping and would involve the insertion of a new sub-section 25(4A),saying:

‘Notwithstanding the requirement for compensation in section 25(2)(3) and (4), land may be expropriated without the payment of any compensation as a legitimate option for land reform in order to redress the results of past racial discrimination.’

The critical difference between the two is that Option 2 takes the decision on zero compensation away from the courts and transfers it to the ANC’s deployed cadres. Once the Expropriation Bill has been enacted, this will allow hundreds of municipalities, SOEs, government departments, and other ‘expropriating authorities’ to decide that no compensation should be paid for land expropriated for ‘land reform’ purposes. Since these decisions on zero compensation will have been authorised by the new sub-section 25(4A), the courts will find it difficult to intervene.

The EFF wants yet more sweeping changes. Sub-section 25(1), which currently bars the ‘arbitrary deprivation’ of property, should be replaced, it says, by a clause obliging the state to ‘redress the imbalances of the past through the enactment of laws that will…equitably redistribute resources’. Sub-section 25(2), which requires the payment of compensation on expropriation, should be replaced by a clause saying that ‘property may be expropriated without compensation’, provided this is done via ‘a law of general application’ and ‘in the public interest’. Sub-section 25(3), giving the courts the power to decide on ‘just and equitable’ compensation, should be replaced by a provision making ‘the state the custodian of all South Africa’s natural resources, inclusive of land’.

Read also Land expropriation debate is deterring investment – IRR’s Terence Corrigan

The committee is unlikely to include the EFF’s proposals in its constitutional amendment bill. Its mandate is to make ‘explicit’ the zero compensation options that are supposedly already ‘implicit’ in Section 25 – and the EFF’s changes go beyond this.

However, this is no reason for complacency. Once Section 25 has been amended by the addition of a new Section 25(4A), ordinary legislation could easily be adopted that would achieve the EFF (and ANC) objective of vesting all land in the custodianship of the state.

Assume Section 25 has been amended to include the committee’s Option 2 and to say (in a new sub-section 4A):

Notwithstanding the requirement for compensation in section 25(2)(3) and (4), land may be expropriated without the payment of any compensation as a legitimate option for land reform in order to redress the results of past racial discrimination.’

Parliament could then (by a 51% majority) enact a statute vesting the custodianship of all land in the state – and saying that this expropriation without compensation is ‘a legitimate option for land reform in order to redress the results of past racial discrimination’.

The constitutional validity of this statute would be difficult to challenge, while its consequences would be devastating. With all land vested in the state as custodian, existing title deeds would be meaningless, people could no longer use home ownership to build up household wealth, and everyone (including businesses) would need land-use contracts with the state which would be open to termination whenever cadres regarded this as ‘in the public interest’. Think also banks security for loans

Land would become a key patronage tool in the hands of the ruling party – and would be used by it to cement dependency on the state and keep itself in power. Investment, growth and employment would all diminish, and further ratings downgrades would be sure to follow.

Despite the enormous ramifications of the pending constitutional amendment, the committee proposes to give the public a mere three weeks or so to make written comments on its draft. In addition, the period for written submissions will start in December – when many people are on holiday and the country effectively shuts down.

This proposal makes a mockery of the constitutional requirement to ‘facilitate public involvement’ in the legislative process. It also disregards a number of Constitutional Court rulings on what proper public participation requires.

Read also ‘Smash and grab’ of land won’t happen in South Africa, says Ramaphosa

According to the court, citizens must be given ‘a reasonable opportunity to know about’ pending legislation and to ‘have an adequate say’. Enough time must thus be allowed for the consultation process, and ‘a truncated timeline’ may itself be ‘inherently unreasonable’.

The court has also stressed that legislative timetables cannot be allowed to trump constitutional rights. On the contrary, it says: ‘The timetable must be subordinated to the rights guaranteed in the Constitution, and not the rights to the timetable.’

The High Level Panel of Parliament (chaired by former President Kgalema Motlanthe) reported in November 2017 that there was no need to amend the Constitution to shift land reform from failure to success. Failure resulted not from Section 25 but rather from a host of other factors – including minuscule budgets, bureaucratic inefficiency, elite capture, corruption, insufficient support, and a determination not to allow new black farmers the benefits of individual ownership.

These crucial challenges have yet to be overcome. The country is nevertheless being relentlessly pushed into an unnecessary and highly damaging constitutional amendment that is sure to ‘bring Zimbabwe to South Africa’ (as a DA local councillor once put it).

Dr Anthea Jeffery holds law degrees from Wits, Cambridge, and London universities. Since 1990, she has worked for the South African Institute of Race Relations, where she is Head of Special Research. She is the author of ten books, including Business and Affirmative Action; The Truth about the Truth Commission; Peoples War: New Light on the Struggle for South Africa; and Chasing the Rainbow: South Africas Move from Mandela to Zuma.

If you like what you have just read, become a Friend of the IRR if you aren’t already one by SMSing your name to 32823 or clicking here. Each SMS costs R1.’ Terms & Conditions Apply.

Warm regards

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Zimbabwe: Money..Money Money

ZIMBABWE

Money, Money, Money

Zimbabweans formed lines outside banks on Tuesday in hopes of getting their hands on the country’s first Zimbabwe dollar notes issued since 2009.

The country’s central bank hopes the new notes will ease the severe cash shortages while playing down fears that the new dollars will worsen the inflation rate, the BBC reported.

The currency was previously scrapped a decade ago due to hyperinflation, forcing Zimbabweans to rely on US dollars, South African rands, as well as other foreign currencies.

The government had previously attempted to counter the cash shortage by issuing bond notes and coins. In February, it created a new electronic currency called the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) dollar, but inflation continued to soar.

In June, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe banned US dollars and other foreign currencies but they flourished on the black market, while many — especially businesses — shunned the Zimbabwe dollars.

Meanwhile, the central bank has said the two- and five-Zimbabwe dollar notes will not increase the overall money supply even as many remain convinced that the cash injection will stoke inflation.

Zimbabwe’s current inflation rate stands at around 300 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund.

NASA's Mars 2020 Heads Into the Test Chamber

NASA's Mars 2020 Heads Into the Test Chamber: In this time-lapse video taken at JPL, engineers move the Mars 2020 rover into a large vacuum chamber for testing in Mars-like environmental conditions.

South Africa: Finding Eden

Finding Eden

It’s generally accepted that Homo sapiens originated in Africa more than 200,000 years ago, but scientists haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact origin of our ancestors on the vast continent.

A recent study, however, argues that modern humans originated in the Makgadikgadi salt flats in southern Africa, an area that was once a fertile land where early humans thrived and expanded, Live Science reported.

A team of researchers studied genetic data from more than 1,200 indigenous Africans living in the southern part of the continent today to construct a history of one of the oldest DNA lineages on Earth: a line of mitochondrial DNA called L0.

Mitochondrial DNA, which everyone has but is passed down only by mothers, can remain unchanged for tens of thousands of years, and this allowed the researchers to argue they had pinpointed the origin of the hypothetical “mitochondrial Eve.”

The study posits that mitochondrial Eve and her offspring lived in the once-lush Makgadikgadi from 200,000 to 170,000 years ago, until climate changes encouraged them to branch out.

But the researchers added that while the study might reveal one location for the “Garden of Eden,” they acknowledged that modern humans may have had multiple “homelands” where they originated.

Some critics of the study have made the same point. They note that fossils of modern-looking humans that date back more than 200,000 years have been found in other parts of Africa, including Morocco.

The search for the garden continues.

Ethiopia: No Good Deed!

ETHIOPIA

No Good Deed…

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize recently for his efforts to end a 20-year-long war with neighboring Eritrea.

But less than two weeks after the announcement, protesters were burning the 43-year-old politician’s book in demonstrations in support of opposition media activist Jawar Mohammed: He claimed that Abiy cut a security detail that had been protecting him from potential threats, the BBC reported.

More than 80 people died in the unrest. Police detained more than 400 people in connection with the turmoil.

Jawar runs the Oromia Media Network, which reported on anti-government protests in recent years and helped bring down Abiy’s predecessor last year, paving the way for the new prime minister to introduce reforms to the country’s centralized economy and loosening obstacles to political dissent.

The Oromia region is the homeland of the Oromo people, who are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group but feel marginalized in the country, creating a tense climate that has sometimes led to internecine violence. While Abiy is Oromo, Jawar has been critical of some of his reforms, explained Al Jazeera.

Police denied that they had endangered Jawar. But Abiy has been critical of the activist, who was born in Ethiopia but is an American citizen who lived in the US until he returned to his native land after Abiy became prime minister.

“Those media owners who don’t have Ethiopian passports are playing both ways,” said the prime minister in parliament recently, according to Reuters. “When there is peace you are playing here, and when we are in trouble you are not here.”

Jawar, meanwhile, is considering running against Abiy in next year’s general election.

The controversy is a remarkable sign of how years of oppressive government have made Ethiopians skeptical of their leaders, even when they receive one of the world’s highest honors.

Another illustration of the dynamic comes from Abiy’s decision to renovate the former emperor’s palace and open its grounds and a museum to tourists. Some welcomed the move. But others complained that the revamped palace’s exhibitions ignored the torture and massacres perpetrated by Ethiopia’s monarchs.

Political analyst Seyoum Teshome told the Washington Post that the prime minister has faced massive challenges and is doing his best. “Abiy is trying to create unity, and maybe that can only happen by ignoring certain parts of our history,” said Teshome. “But you must magnify the positive things – the common history and common future. If we don’t do that, we will return to the brink of collapse.”

Transitions don’t always end well. But there’s no chance of anything changing unless they occur. Abiy is a prime example of that.