[PRESIDENT Mugabe met African Union Commission chairman, Dr Jean Ping, here on Wednesday, with the continental body insisting it will only accord Libya’s National Transitional Council a seat after it sets up an inclusive government. ]

BURUNDI :

Burundi : des médias bravent l’interdiction de parler du massacre de Gatumba

(AFP) /23092011

BUJUMBURA — Cinq radios et une télévision indépendantes du Burundi ont décidé de braver jeudi l’interdiction, décrétée par le gouvernement, de parler de l’attaque qui a fait 39 morts dimanche à Gatumba, localité proche de la capitale Bujumbura, a constaté un journaliste de l’AFP.

Ces radios et télévision “ont décidé d’organiser, durant toute la journée de jeudi, une synergie des médias en vue d’appeler les Burundais à se mobiliser pour la paix et la sécurité, après le massacre perpétré dimanche à Gatumba”, a expliqué Vincent Nkeshimana, vice-président de l’Association burundaise des radiodiffuseurs (ABR).

Mercredi, Bujumbura a interdit aux médias burundais de “publier, commenter ou analyser” des informations liées au massacre et suspendu toutes les “émissions en direct à caractère politique” durant le mois que vont durer les enquêtes sur la tuerie. Le gouvernement a également interdit à la presse de faire état désormais de dossiers en instruction à la police et au parquet.

Mais jeudi, les cinq radios ont organisé des tables rondes, des débats politiques concernant le massacre de Gatumba et la résurgence de la violence dans le pays depuis un an. Elles ont regroupé leurs rédactions et leurs programmes pour l’occasion.

“L’interdiction d’évoquer le massacre de Gatumba ne doit durer qu’on mois, c’est une décision du gouvernement qui doit être respectée”, a insisté la ministre burundaise de l’Information, Concilie Nibigira. “Nous allons analyser ce qui s’est passé et prendre une décision”, a-t-elle déclaré à l’AFP.

Au moins 39 personnes ont été tuées dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi dans l’attaque d’un bar de Gatumba, marquant une nouvelle escalade dans le regain de violence observé dans le pays ces derniers mois.

Les violences ont repris depuis le long processus électoral de l’été 2010, boycotté par l’opposition qui l’avait jugé biaisé, et qui a vu une très large victoire du parti au pouvoir tant à la présidentielle qu’aux législatives et aux élections locales.

Une série d’affrontements entre police et bandes armées et d’exécutions sommaires font craindre une reprise d’hostilités à plus grande échelle au Burundi, où une guerre civile a fait près de 300.000 morts entre 1993 et 2006.

Nord du Burundi : des femmes gagnent indépendance économique et respect

23-09-2011/ Syfia Grands Lacs

(Syfia Grands Lacs/Burundi) Au nord du Burundi, des femmes entreprenantes et dynamiques complètent les revenus de leurs familles en faisant fructifier des petits crédits accordés par des associations. Une indépendance nouvelle bénéfique à toute la famille.

“Il y a trois ans à peine, je me sentais diminuée. J’étais à chaque instant obligée de tendre la main à mon mari, même pour avoir la plus petite chose qui soit. Il était notre seule source de revenus”, se souvient G. Ngirukwishaka, 40 ans, originaire de la commune Gashikanwa, en province de Ngozi, au nord du Burundi. Son mari, simple agriculteur éleveur, avait alors du mal à faire vivre sa famille. “Sa petite propriété, ses quatre chèvres et ses trois lapins ne satisfaisaient pas nos besoins”, ajoute son épouse.

Entourée de ses quatre enfants, cette femme n’a aujourd’hui plus autant de difficultés financières. Depuis deux ans environ, elle complète les revenus du foyer en rentabilisant des micros crédits qu’elle a contractés auprès de différentes ONG. “Je suis financièrement indépendante. Mon mari n’intervient qu’en cas de sérieuses difficultés, comme la maladie”, se félicite-t-elle. “Grâce aux enseignements de l’association Nawenuze (Viens toi aussi) et à mes efforts personnels, mes activités avancent bien”, précise G. Ngirukwishaka, membre de cette ONG qui intervient dans plusieurs domaines, dont la santé reproductrice.

Mari et enfants contents

Quand elle regarde le chemin parcouru, cette mère de famille ne cache pas sa satisfaction. “Sans l’association Twungurane ubwenge (Enrichissons-nous intellectuellement) à laquelle j’ai adhéré en 2009, je serai morte de faim. Elle m’a accordé un crédit de 10 000 Fbu (près de 10 $) que j’ai rentabilisé en cultivant des pommes de terre.” Après la récolte, G. Ngirukwishaka dit avoir gagné dix fois le crédit demandé… Avec ces 100 000 Fbu, en commun accord avec son mari, elle a acheté une plantation de caféiers, ce qui, une fois le café vendu, lui a permis d’engranger en juillet dernier 210 000 Fbu (210 $ environ) lors de l’année 2011. Une nouvelle opportunité pour cette femme résolument dynamique. “Avec cette somme, j’ai acheté une vache allaitante. Je vends une partie de son lait, mes enfants boivent le reste.”

Sur les collines environnantes (Maruri, Gatukuza, Rwizingwe, etc.), nombreuses sont les femmes à envier cette maman et à tenter de multiplier comme elle leurs sources de revenus. Avant, peu d’entre elles comprenaient le bien-fondé des associations qui leur permettent actuellement de gagner leur indépendance et l’estime de leurs familles. “Je me sens valorisée quand je donne un cadeau, aussi petit soit-il, à mon mari. Il en devient content, ce qui renforce notre amour. Il en est de même pour mes enfants. Quand je leur achète des habits, je gagne leur sympathie”, annonce une femme de la colline Gatukuza.

ENCADRE

De petits crédits qui changent la vie

(Syfia Grands Lacs/Burundi) Ces dernières années, grâce au projet Umwizero (Espoir) de Care international, environ 700 associations de 30 membres chacune au maximum, oeuvrent dans 20 communes des provinces Kayanza, Ngozi et Kirundo, au nord du Burundi. Objectif : rendre indépendantes économiquement des femmes grâce des micros crédits.

Remboursables après un ou deux mois, ces derniers, une fois rentabilisés, profitent à toute la famille. “Grâce à la bravoure des femmes associées, la situation de cultivateurs traditionnels qui avaient du mal ne serait-ce qu’à acheter du savon, du sel ou de l’huile, change progressivement”, observe Emmanuel Lalas Ndayisimiye, journaliste producteur de l’émission Umwizero, qui passe à la Radio publique africaine antenne Ngozi, tous les mardis et jeudis.

“Nous cotisons 50 Fbu (0,05 $) par semaine et par individu. Après deux mois, nous évaluons et c’est l’occasion, pour ceux qui le veulent, de contracter un petit crédit”, fait savoir une membre de l’association Dufashanye (Aidons-nous) originaire de la commune Gashikanwa, en province de Ngozi. Ces micros crédits aident à faire de petits commerces ou de petits élevages et sont rentables à long terme. Ce qui enchante ces femmes, fières de leur nouvelle indépendance. “Je me procure actuellement ce que je veux, ce que je ne pouvais pas faire il y a trois ans”, se réjouit l’une d’entre elles.

ENCADRE

Les poules en or d’Eugène

(SGL/Rwanda) Eugène Uwamusindi de Musanze au nord du Rwanda est aujourd’hui propriétaire d’un poulailler de 1500 poules : 1000 poules qui lui donnent 900 œufs par jour et 500 coqs. Il en vend pour plus de 100 $ par jour à des détaillants de Kigali qui viennent s’approvisionner chez lui. Cette affaire qui marche, il la doit à sa persévérance et son opiniâtreté.

Il avait son projet d’élevage en tête depuis 1997. Pendant cinq ans, il a économisé chaque année 10 000 Frw (16 $) sur la vente d’une partie des 150 kg de pommes de terre qu’il récoltait. En 2002 il a ainsi pu acheter 30 poules à 50 000 Frw (83 $), qui lui ont donné des œufs et d’autres poules. Il a ainsi multiplié son capital par six (300 000 Frw – 500 $). Depuis il n’a cessé de vendre et acheter jusqu’à constituer son élevage actuel. Il vise maintenant les 10 000 poules d’ici deux ans. Il a construit un enclos sur trois niveaux de murs en tôles, accessibles par des dalles et des escaliers en bois. C’est là que picorent jour et nuit ses volatiles sous un toit bien éclairé et à une température qui leur convient. “J’ai mis ce brasier pour chauffer ces oiseaux qui sont affectés par l’humidité et le courant d’air. La lampe allonge la lumière du jour, ce qui les stimule à pondre davantage d’œufs”, indique-t-il. Il a aussi placé des haut-parleurs à l’intérieur. “C’est pour les divertir et les habituer au bruit, de façon que, même s’il arrivait qu’un chien aboie, ils ne se sauvent pas au risque de mourir !”, dit-il.

Aujourd’hui, il est fier de sa réussite. “Si quelqu’un me proposait 40 millions de Frw pour lui céder mes activités, je lui dirais que c’est impossible”. Ses objectifs sont de faire étudier ses deux enfants jusqu’à l’université et de construire une maison à étages en ville de Musanze.

Jean de la Croix Tabaro

Afrique en marche

Xinhua/– Vendredi 23 septembre 2011

BEIJING (Xinhua)

Burundi : une nouvelle règlementation pour sécuriser la téléphonie mobile

BUJUMBURA — Le gouvernement du Burundi a réuni jeudi les opérateurs de télécommunications pour mettre au point des mesures de sécurité dans le cadre de la lutte contre des forfaits qui se commettent par les téléphones mobiles, difficilement identifiables. “On s’est convenu que désormais, il y aura une procédure d’identification des abonnés”, a déclaré à cette occasion la conseillère principale chargée de la communication à la première vice-présidence, Mme Catherine Mabobori. “Pour qu’un nouvel abonné puisse acquérir une carte SIM, il doit y avoir un préalable d’identification.

Togo : un programme d’investissement agricole sera lancé en octobre

LOME — Le Programme national de l’investissement agricole et de la sécurité alimentaire (PNIASA) du Togo, estimé à près de 617 milliards de francs Cfa (environ 1,3 milliard USD) pourra être lancé en octobre prochain, a-t-on appris de sources du ministère togolais de l’Agriculture de l’Elevage et de la Pêche. Ce programme est inscrit dans la stratégie de relance du secteur agricole et bénéficie de l’appui des partenaires techniques et financiers du Togo au moyen des fonds bilatéraux et multilatéraux. Une table-ronde des bailleurs a été organisé afin de mobiliser des financements pour sa mise en œuvre qui permettra au Togo de booster à la fois les cultures de rente et les cultures vivrières.

L’île Maurice et l’Afrique du Sud vont construire un réseau de télescopes permettant de remonter aux origines de l’univers

PORT-LOUIS — L’île Maurice et l’Afrique du Sud vont construire conjointement un réseau de télescopes de basse fréquence en préparation pour l’appel d’offres du Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a-t-on appris auprès du ministère mauricien de l’Education supérieure et de la Recherche. Le ministre de tutelle Rajesh Jeetah a discuté de ce projet avec son homologue sud-africain, Naledi Pandor, qui était en visite à Maurice en début de semaine. Le SKA permettra de relier des milliers de radiotélescopes dans la province du Northern Cape et permettra aux astronomes de remonter des milliards d’années en arrière jusqu’aux origines de l’univers.

Mali : Pose de la première pierre du nouveau siège de la Radiotélévision nationale

BAMAKO — La cérémonie de la pose de la première pierre de la Tour de la Radiotélévision du Mali (ORTM), qui coûtera 4 milliards de francs CFA financés sur fonds propre de l’ORTM, a été présidée mercredi par le président du Mali Amadou Toumani Touré. Le nouvel immeuble de l’ORTM, son nouveau siège sortira de terre dans quelques années, sera implanté sur une parcelle de 9ha 37 ca à Kati Sananfara à 10 kilomètres de Bamako à la jonction de Kati et de Bamako. Le ministre de la Communication Sidiki Nfa Konaté a salué et de loué “l’excellente coopération entre le Mali et la Chine dans le domaine de la Radiodiffusion.

Ouverture du 1er salon du textile à Ouagadougou

OUAGADOUGOU — L’Organisation de la coopération islamique (OCI) organise à Ouagadougou, depuis mercredi, un salon du coton et du textile en vue de contribuer davantage au rayonnement du Burkina dans la communauté islamique et de permettre aux entreprises et associations professionnelles du secteur du coton de nouer des relations d’affaires avec le reste du monde. Ce salon, qui va durer jusqu’au 25 septembre et regroupe une dizaine de pays en plus du Burkina Faso, vise par ailleurs à permettre d’attirer les investisseurs étrangers dans le secteur du coton et du textile au Burkina. 3e produit d’exportation du Burkina Faso après l’or et l’élevage, le coton nourrit plus de 500.000 personnes au Burkina.

Madagascar : 15 milliards d’Ariary de subvention de l’Etat pour les pétroliers

ANTANANARIVO — L’Etat malgache, par le biais du ministère des Mines et des hydrocarbures, subventionnera à hauteur de 15 milliards d’Ariary (undollar équivaut à 2 000 Ariary), les pétroliers afin de maintenir à leur niveau actuel, les prix à la pompe, a affirmé le ministre de tutelle, Mamy Ratovomalala, mercredi soir. Cette subvention sera répartie entre les distributeurs et les logisticiens pétroliers pour éviter la hausse des prix à la pompe malgré l’augmentation des prix du baril de pétrole sur le marché international. En plus de cette subvention, les pétroliers vont bénéficier d’une baisse de taxe de 50 Ariary par litre vendu dont 40 Ariary pour les distributeurs et 10 Ariary pour les logisticiens, a conclu le ministre.

RWANDA :

Rwanda: Do Not Despair, Kagame Tells Haiti

23 September 2011/The New Times

Haiti can overcome the problems it is facing if its people and leadership do not despair and focus on ways of tackling the challenges they face.

The observation was made by President Paul Kagame, while featuring on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” show, Wednesday, to speak about the prospects of the Caribbean island, recovering from last year’s devastating earthquake.

Also appearing on the show was the President of Haiti, Michel Martelly, Dr. Paul Farmer, US Special envoy to Haiti and renowned fashion designer, Donna Karan.

President Kagame emphasised that Haiti needs to possess the kind of resilience Rwanda had in order to overcome the devastating effects of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

“The first advice I would give the people and the leadership of Haiti is not to despair and feel that they cannot overcome the kinds of problems they are facing, however, insurmountable they may seem,” Kagame said.

“If the leadership and the people pool together to mobilise resources, then Haiti can pull through like Rwanda has done in the last 17 years. Globally, the political will to help is there, if they can get organised and target the kind of assistance in specific areas and priorities”.

The Head of State added that the direct assistance Haiti received from the United Nations and several countries was very helpful at the beginning – during the emergency situation – but the most important thing the country needs today is to have national ownership of the recovery process.

Kagame added that without coordination, the help Haiti is receiving will not be of great use and would not result in any tangible outcomes.

Haitian President Martelly, said that despite the massive support received after the disaster struck, there is little to show for it.

“After the earthquake, the world moved in and a lot of money spent, but unfortunately, when you look back, you can barely see what has been done with the money,” Martelly said.

The Haitian leader added that a lot of funds meant for relief had been lost through corruption and some people used the earthquake as an opportunity to make money.

President Martelly said that Haiti is closely following the Rwandan model to rebuild and will use some of the approaches Rwanda used such as marketing its coffee to propel its way back on the development path.

Dr. Paul Farmer who authored the newly launched book “Haiti After the Earthquake,” said that the country is now at a stage where it needs fully fledged support to reconstruct.

“What the people of Haiti need is not just relief but reconstruction, and the imperatives are getting kids back in school, building infrastructure and coordinating the goodwill that is turning to Haiti,” he said.

Dr. Farmer backed the two Presidents’ idea to have a coordinated way to distribute aid and ensure effectiveness or else the implications will be much worse.

Farmer further called on aid to be channelled through the government and public service instead of NGO’s, where efficiency cannot be guaranteed.

Karan, the founder of Urban Zen and clothing company, Donna Karan International, said that the only way out for developing countries is to rely on their “souls and spirits”, who are the citizens

Karan, who has an initiative to provide shelter to displaced Haitians through her Hope, Help and Rebuild Haiti (HHRH) foundation, said that countries like Haiti can develop using the energy and resources available to its people.

She noted that through small initiatives like weaving beads and recycling paper to several products, many lives have been turned around, noting that it is this kind of creativity which does not require a lot of resources that people need, to move forward.

Rwanda: Kagame Shares Experience On Women Empowerment

23 September 2011/The New Times

President Paul Kagame yesterday spoke at the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting, calling on countries to scale up efforts to empower women.

The President, who was part of a panel discussing the theme; “Girls and Women: Scaling up what works”, said that it is up to leaders from all sectors to embrace women empowerment to ensure that a balance in gender exists.

“The onus is on those who have been privileged in the past; men and boys, to make sure that we address this problem of imbalance,” Kagame said.

“It is not that boys and men are doing a favour to women, it’s just making sure that they work together to play their part in their own development and development of the country”.

The Head of State addressed the session titled “Engaging Boys and Men as Allies for Long Term Change” whose other panellists included, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Muhammad Yunis, the International Director of Instituto Promundo, and Gary Barker, the Chief Executive Officer of Roshan Karim Khoja.

The panel was moderated by the Former President of the Republic of Chile, Michele Bachelet.

The panel opened with remarks from Melanne Verveer, the US Ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues, who reminded the audience that empowering women benefits everyone.

“When women and girls make progress, we all benefit we know what works to improve the lives of women and girls and we need to start pulling in the same direction,” Verveer said.

Referring to Rwanda as an example of women empowerment, Bachelet called on President Kagame to share his advice with world leaders.

Kagame explained that the success of gender equality has been based on the institutionalisation of women empowerment policies.

The panellists echoed the need for men and boys to be partners in ensuring that gender equality is a right rather than a privilege.

Recounting his efforts with microfinance, Yunus pointed out that through tools such as social media, that do not discriminate on any basis, today’s youth offered additional hope to see gender equality become a reality.

“We challenge you to make the impossible possible,” he added.

The session ended with a call to action for all CGI members and beyond to do their part to empower women and girls in partnership with boys and men.

In his concluding remarks, President Kagame told the audience that empowering women is common sense and leaders from all sectors ought to embrace it.

Is world response to Somalia famine Rwanda genocide redux?

Tristan McConnell/www.globalpost.com/ September 23, 2011

A leading scholar on Somalia compares the failure to respond to famine in Somalia to failings over the Rwanda genocide.

Ken Menkhaus is a world-leading expert on Somalia who teaches political science at Davidson College in North Carolina.

There are plenty of people out there claiming expertise on a country that some of them have never even visited, but Menkhaus gives a consistently spot-on analysis of the shifting situation in the war-torn and now famine-struck country.

This week he issued a call-to-action, upbraiding the international community in general and Obama in particular for failing to respond adequately to the famine that now threatens 750,000 lives, according to the UN.

In a report written for the Enough Project, an advocacy organisation better known for its use of celebrities to draw attention to strife in Sudan and Congo, Menkhaus describes the famine as “a calamity that could join the ranks of the Rwanda genocide and the Darfur crisis in terms of scale and human suffering.”

According to UN figures nearly $2.5 billion is needed to fund aid for more than 12-million people suffering from the effects of a regional drought in the Horn of Africa, a drought that has triggered famine levels of malnutrition in Somalia.

Tens of thousands of Somalis, mostly children, have already died yet only $1.6 billion has so far been pledged by donors.

“Unless the international response changes, the 2011 Somali famine will be to the Obama administration what the 1994 Rwandan genocide was to the Clinton administration – a terrible stain, an unforgiveable instance of lack of political will to push policy beyond incrementalism,” Menkhaus said. “We can and must do better.”

Menkhaus says the time has come for world powers to invoke their “responsibility to protect” which would allow military intervention to save lives, although Menkhaus concedes that has not worked in the past.

Instead he calls for a “diplomatic surge” to pressure the weak and corrupt Transitional Federal Government and the Islamist al-Shabaab militia to enable aid to get into the country.

He argues that it is time to leverage the kind of full-scale diplomatic pressure that helped bring an end to the post-election violence that tore through Kenya in early 2008 with the US taking the lead in pushing the TFG and Islamic nations playing a similar role in pressuring Shabaab.

South Africa ‘foils murder plot’ on Rwanda’s Nyamwasa

By Martin Plaut/BBC News/22 September 2011

South Africa’s authorities have foiled another assassination attempt on Rwanda’s ex-army chief, Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, the BBC has learnt.

The general fled to Johannesburg last year after falling out with his former ally, Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

A few months later he was shot in Johannesburg. Rwanda denied it was behind the attack, which he survived.

Sources close to Gen Nyamwasa confirmed the new plot. But South Africa’s police said it had no record of such plans.

The sources told the BBC that Gen Nyamwasa was taken from his home in Johannesburg at short notice last month after South African intelligence uncovered the new plot.

It was believed to involve money brought into the country from Rwanda for an attack using machine guns, to wipe out everyone in the general’s home.

According to Denmark-based Kinyarwanda online paper Umuvugizi, the South African authorities seized photographs, emails, guns and other materials relating to the operation.

But South African police spokesman McIntosh Polela said the force had no record of another attempt on the general’s life, adding “even if we did we wouldn’t tell you”.

Gen Nyamwasa was shot in the stomach as he was being driven back to his home in Johannesburg in June 2010 and taken to hospital, where a second attempt on his life was foiled by South African intelligence.

Two trials of 10 men allegedly involved in the previous plots are under way in South Africa.

Rwanda has denied accusations it was involved.

Didier Rutembesa, the first counsellor of the Rwandan High Commission in South Africa, told the BBC his country has no policy of assassinating its opponents.

He called for the current allegations to be investigated by the police and the courts, rather than being taken to the media.

Earlier this year, a Rwandan military court sentenced Gen Nyamwasa to 24 years in jail for threatening state security.

RDC CONGO:

RDC: cinq candidature à la présidentielle rejetées par la Cour suprême

Belga/ 22 Septembre 2011

La Cour suprême de Justice (CSJ) a rejeté les requêtes introduites par cinq candidats aux élections présidentielles du 28 novembre prochain en République démocratique du Congo (RDC), qui ne pourront donc présenter leur candidature, a rapporté jeudi la presse kinoise.

La CSJ a statué mercredi en audience publique sur cinq requêtes formulées contre des décisions de rejet de candidatures émanant de la Commission électorale nationale indépendante (Céni). Les candidatures de cinq présidentiables – quatre hommes, Ismaël Kitenge, Jean-Paul Moka, Jean-Pierre Lokongo Limbala, Vanga Kaniki et une seule femme, Mme Léonard Lomami – ont toutes été rejetées pour des raisons diverses, a précisé le journal ‘L’Avenir Quotidien’. Trois d’entre eux n’avaient ainsi pas versé la caution de 50.000 dollars exigée de la part des candidats. Mais le révérend Moka, récemment rentré d’exil en Belgique, a dénoncé mercredi soir les entraves mises au dépôt formel de sa candidature. Selon lui, la Céni a refusé de prendre sa candidature en compte, invoquant le fait que son dossier était incomplet faute du paiement des 50.000 dollars exigés comme caution. Or, M. Moka a assuré qu’il avait bien apporté la preuve de son paiement, fait par le biais de l’Union des Banques congolaises (UBC), conformément aux instructions communiquées par la Céni. Mais, a-t-il accusé, la Céni s’est servie de la même feuille que pour les élections de 2006 sans se rendre compte que la banque UBC avait été liquidée en ….2006 et reprise par la Banque congolaise (BC). La Céni a publié le 15 septembre la liste “provisoire” des onze candidats à la présidentielle du 28 novembre. Aucune femme n’y figure. (ROJ)

Katanga: Moïse Katumbi offre un avion au TP Mazembe!

Publié par La Rédaction, /direct.cd/ le 21 septembre 2011

Qu’une équipe de football se tape un avion pour ses déplacements, ce serait un fait divers qui ne soulèverait pas de foules. Mais que le geste soit posé en République démocratique du Congo, un pays aux immenses ressources et talents sportifs, mais qui occupe une place peu honorable dans le palmarès de meilleures équipes de football dans le monde, selon le classement FIFA, et qu’en plus qu’il s’agisse d’une première en Afrique, le geste change tout. Il interpelle toutes les consciences sereines.

Le TP Mazembe, équipe de football de la ligue d’honneur de la République démocratique du Congo, vice-champion du monde, vient d’acquérir un aéronef. Grâce aux efforts de son staff dirigeant, et plus particulièrement de son président, Moïse Katumbi Chapwe, ce fait insolite a été réalisé. Des efforts qui ont été accompagnés par les responsables de la Banque commerciale et de développement du Congo, BCDC, qui ont soutenu financièrement cette initiative très encourageante.

Une première en République démocratique du Congo et en Afrique. Un fait sans précédent quand on sait que le football en Afrique, même s’il commence à nourrir son homme, navigue toujours à vue. Le football africain accuse encore un retard considérable par rapport au football européen et sud-américain. Et pourtant, dans les stades européens, ce sont les footballeurs africains qui font la pluie et le beau temps. De véritables talents à revendre au point que les recruteurs ne résistent plus à leurs charmes. Même les pays arabes avec leurs pétro-dollars n’hésitent plus à traverser mers et océans pour débarquer en Afrique et s’approprier ces « pépites d’or », ces orfèvres qui soulèvent des foules dans des stades.

Le football africain est de plus en plus exportable. Mais qu’est-ce que l’Afrique gagne en retour ? Certes, en finale des Coupes du monde de football, son quota est revu à la hausse. Bien plus, l’Afrique du Sud, un pays africain, a réussi à organiser avec brio en 2010 une finale de la Coupe du monde de football, donnant ainsi un autre visage de l’Afrique. Ce n’est pas assez.

UN SECTEUR PRODUCTEUR

Un avion pour Mazembe demeure une première qui dépasse les frontières sportives. Une première qui pose la problématique de ce concept : organisation. Un concept mal utilisé et un mal dont souffre le football congolais et africain, au-delà, tous les secteurs de la vie nationale.

Réduit à la dimension de «loisir», le football, mieux, le sport reste incontestablement un secteur vital de la vie nationale en plus de ce fait qu’il est multisectoriel : un fait social, économique, diplomatique, culturel… Il s’agit donc d’un secteur producteur à même de générer des ressources indispensables à tout pays pour son développement.

Pour demeurer plus près de nous, l’Afrique du Sud est aujourd’hui mieux connu dans le monde à cause de son football ainsi que de l’organisation qui a entouré cette manifestation sportive. Après la finale de 2010, des investisseurs se bousculent au portillon. Ils explorent d’autres domaines où l’Afrique du Sud offre plusieurs opportunités d’investissements. Le tourisme a pris ainsi de l’ampleur tant l’Afrique du Sud dispose des lieux historiques, des plages attrayantes et attirantes, une faune et une flore exubérantes dont raffolent les puristes de la nature. En retour, le pays y gagne par des rentrées de devises qui renforcent et sécurisent les réserves nationales. Par conséquent, le pays peut se permettre de donner un nouveau souffle à la production interne. Il dispose désormais des « fonds souverains » qui font que par ces temps qui courent, l’Afrique du Sud fait partie des pays émergents. Le football en particulier, le sport en général, demeure donc un secteur producteur à ne point négliger.

DES REFORMES COURAGEUSES

Mais pour donner une impulsion génératrice de progrès et de recettes, le chemin passe par la mise en place d’une « organisation véritable » et qui s’appuie sur le management. En des termes plus précis, les réformes doivent être courageuses, mieux réfléchies et qui touchent toutes les couches productrices.

S’il faut demeurer dans ce secteur du football et du sport, la restructuration des fédérations devient une urgence, une nécessité. Une restructuration qui mettrait un accent particulier sur le « Statut du football » congolais. Une façon d’évaluer des voies et moyens susceptibles d’embrasser le professionnalisme. Que les équipes de football, en tant que sport-roi, soient dirigées à l’image des entreprises, s’engageant ainsi sur la voie du progrès.

Une restructuration qui permettrait aux footballeurs déjà professionnels d’être redevables vis-à-vis du Trésor public en rapatriant une partie de leurs revenus sous forme d’impôts. Une façon de neutraliser ces différents réseaux négatifs de transferts des joueurs vers d’autres cieux et qui n’enrichissent que leurs auteurs.

Des réformes qui auront pour conséquence positive l’élaboration d’une « politique sportive » avec ses corollaires. Notamment la construction et l’amélioration des infrastructures sportives, l’introduction de la pratique obligatoire du sport dans l’armée, la police, les écoles, les instituts supérieurs et universités avec au bout du tunnel l’organisation des championnats intersectoriels visant l’éclosion des valeurs sportives encore inconnues.

VISION ECONOMIQUE, VISION POLITIQUE

Il ne s’agit point d’inventer la roue. Il suffit tout simplement de se doter d’une vision globale de la gestion d’un pays. Pas une vision étriquée pour s’embrouiller par la suite et se contenter des résultats immédiats qui ne sont qu’illusion. L’organisation correcte que l’on appelle de tous les vœux est tributaire d’une bonne vision économique pour mieux sous-tendre toute vision politique qui mettrait en œuvre des réformes courageuses.

Voilà pourquoi le fait que Mazembe se dote d’un avion interpelle les consciences sereines. Une meilleure interprétation de cette première en RDC et en Afrique ouvrirait la porte à d’autres opportunités porteuses d’espoir.

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RD Congo – Les élections se tiendront aussi à l’Est où opèrent des groupes armés (ONU)

Jeudi, 22 Septembre 2011 /www.afreekelection.com

L’élection présidentielle et les législatives prévues le 28 novembre en République démocratique du Congo (RDC) se tiendront “en principe” sur tout le territoire, même à l’est où des groupes armés sont toujours actifs, a estimé jeudi le chef de la Mission de l’ONU en RDC.

“Je ne vois pas de zone en principe qui bloque la tenue des élections” sur le plan sécuritaire, a jugé l’Américain Roger Meece, chef de la Mission de l’ONU pour la stabilisation en RDC (Monusco) lors d’un entretien avec la presse.

“Bien sûr il y a les activités, surtout dans l’est du pays, de groupes armés qui menacent toujours la stabilité et la population locale, donc on peut avoir des situations (…) qui posent des problèmes. Dans ce cas, il faut voir les circonstances et comment réagir”, a ajouté le représentant spécial en RDC du secrétaire général de l’ONU.

Mais “nous travaillons toujours sur la base, comme c’était le cas en 2006 (lors des précédentes élections), qu’on va avoir la tenue de ces élections à travers tout le territoire” le 28 novembre, a assuré l’ancien ambassadeur des Etats-Unis à Kinshasa de 2004 à 2007.

La Monusco est l’une des plus importantes forces de maintien de la paix de l’ONU avec près de 18.000 soldats, principalement basés dans l’est, et environ 1.250 policiers.

Concernant le dispositif de cette force pour les élections, “nous faisons à n’importe quel moment des ajustements (…) en fonction de la situation sur le terrain. C’est le cas avec les élections”, a expliqué M. Meece, sans préciser les mesures prévues en cas de troubles à Kinshasa notamment, où des violences ont eu lieu début septembre.

Quant à l’appui logistique, surtout aérien, fourni par la Monusco à la Commission électorale (Céni) pour le déploiement du matériel, qui a débuté ces derniers jours, M. Meece a reconnu qu’il s’agissait d’un “exercice très compliqué”, dans un pays grand comme près de 4 fois la France.

“Evidemment, c’est un calendrier électoral très serré et ambitieux”, a-t-il déclaré, précisant travailler “en étroite collaboration avec la Céni” afin de livrer tout le matériel dans les temps prévus par la Céni.

RDC : étonnante liste électorale

23/09/2011 / Par Jeune Afrique

L’inscription des électeurs pour la présidentielle du 28 novembre prochain en RDC réserve quelques surprises.

En cinq ans, le nombre d’inscrits sur les listes électorales en RDC est passé de 25,7 millions à 32 millions, soit une hausse de 25 % supérieure à la croissance démographique.

Plus surprenant, ce sont essentiellement les provinces réputées favorables au président sortant, Joseph Kabila, qui connaissent les plus fortes augmentations : Nord-Kivu (+ 22 %), Sud-Kivu (+ 21,5 %), Maniema (+ 39 %), Katanga (+ 31,5 %), Province-Orientale (+ 19,5 %). La province de Kinshasa, considérée comme hostile, est en progression de 11 % seulement.

UGANDA :

Uganda: Ex-Rebel Kwoyelo Walks to Freedom

Anthony Wesaka/The Monitor/23 September 2011

Former top Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel Thomas Kwoyelo yesterday walked to freedom following a landmark Constitutional Court ruling stating that he is entitled to receive amnesty just like others who renounced rebel activities and should not be tried in any court.

Five judges led by Amos Twinomujuni in a ruling read for them by the Assistant Registrar Court of Appeal, Mr Alex Ajiji, also ordered that Mr Kwoyelo’s file be taken to the International Crimes Court in Gulu to immediately cease his trial that had commenced about a month ago.

“The applicant (Kwoyelo) acquired a legal right to be granted amnesty or pardon under the Amnesty Act just like everyone who renounced rebellion,” ruled the judges.

Adding: “Indeed, in terms of Section 3(2) of the Act, Kwoyelo as a reporter shall also be deemed to be granted amnesty just like others… once he declared to the prison officers that he had denounced rebellion and had intentions of applying for amnesty.”

Mr Kwoyelo was facing over 53 charges of murder, willful killing, kidnap with intent to kill, aggravated robbery and destruction of property, allegedly committed during the two-decade LRA insurgency in the northern part of the country, led by Joseph Kony.

Through his lawyers led by Caleb Alaka, he, however, contended that the Amnesty Commission and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions were being discriminative in granting amnesty under a law enacted to encourage rebels to abandon the bush, and as such were contravening the Constitution.

He said he had applied to be granted amnesty but nothing had materialised and yet other former rebels who were of even of a higher rank than him had been granted amnesty upon renouncing rebellion.

“The DPP did not give any objection and reasonable explanation why he did not sanction the application of Kwoyelo like others,” the ruling said.

Shortly after the ruling, Mr Kwoyelo smiled in the dock before hugging one of his lawyers, Francis Onyango.

The judges in their ruling noted that the independence of the DPP on how to prosecute were not being interfered with as claimed during the hearing of the application recently.

“We do not think that the Act was enacted to whittle down the prosecutorial powers or to interfere with his independence,” they ruled.

The court ruled that “the DPP can still prosecute persons who are declared ineligible for amnesty by the minister of internal affairs or those who refuse to renounce rebellion. The amnesty [under the Amnesty Act] unlike the South African Truth and Reconciliation Act did not immunise all wrongdoers”

The line minister in his amendment to the Act only excluded the top five LRA commanders, including Kony, from benefiting from amnesty following their indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) under the auspices of the Rome Statute.

According to Kwoyelo’s lawyers, this amendment did not affect their client hence his eligibility to be granted amnesty.

Shortly after the ruling Mr Kwoyelo was handcuffed and his leg shackled before being driven back to Luzira Maximum Security Prison under tight security. It’s from there that he will be taken back to the International Crimes Division of the High Court sitting in Gulu to formalise his release as ordered by the Constitutional Court.

Amnesty Commission’s principal legal officer, Nathan Twinomugisha, who attended the ruling welcomed it, saying Kwoyelo was eligible for amnesty as he had applied to them early last year.

There were mixed reactions to the ruling in Acholi, Kwoyelo’s homeland, where he allegedly committed the atrocities.

Whereas others welcomed it, others, especially those who lost relatives and property during the insurgency, said the Act shields criminals.

awesaka@ug.nationmedia.com

UK company evicts 20,000 in Uganda

Friday, 23rd September, 2011 /By Raymond Baguma and Miriam Ochakolong/www.newvision.co.ug

Over 20,000 people were forced from their homes the central districts of Mubende and Kiboga to pave way for a tree planting project by a British company, Oxfam said in a report and called for investigation into alleged abuses.

The Oxfam report titled, “Land and Power: The growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investments in land,” was released on Wednesday.

London-based New Forests Company (NFC) signed a deal with National Forestry Authority (NFA) in 2005 to develop 20,000 hectares of timber plantations in Namwasa and Luwunga forest reserves under the carbon trading programme.

“The people evicted from the land are desperate, having been driven into poverty and landlessness,” the report read, noting evictions stopped in July 2010. “In some instances they say they were subjected to violence and their property, crops, and livestock destroyed,” it added.

But Kate Sharum the New Forest Company Group head of corporate responsibility expressed what she called “deep disappointment,” with the Oxfam report in a telephone call to New Vision yesterday (Thursday).

“The New Forests Company takes Oxfam’s allegations extremely seriously and will conduct an immediate and thorough investigation of them. Our understanding of these resettlements is that they were legal, voluntary and peaceful and our first hand observations of them confirmed this.

She added, “NFC also regrets Oxfam’s decision to publish this highly prejudicial report without having given NFC the opportunity to investigate its claims.”

‘In attacking the NFC Oxfam have chosen a company with an impeccable track record in community investment and development who in their short life have not only created over 2,000 jobs in remote rural Ugandan communities but been responsible for increasing access to health, education, clean water and fuel. Africa needs responsible inward investment.’’

The report said that the villagers had not been consulted or compensated and the eviction has affected the community’s food security situation and led to child malnutrition.

“I have lost what I owned. Where I am now, my kids cry every day. I cannot sustain them and they do not go to school. Even eating has become a problem,” a former resident told Oxfam.

The Uganda Land Alliance (ULA) a consortium of NGOs advocating for fair land laws in Uganda, asked the Government to review the case and investigate it to ensure that justice is provided to the communities.

Esther Obaikol, the ULA executive director said: “If done well, foreign investment by companies like NFC can be positive for Uganda’s development and provide jobs, revenue, and goods and services.

However, NFC is also responsible for protecting the rights of people affected by their projects – thousands of whom in this case say they have been left with nothing – and can no longer shift all the responsibility solely onto the government.”

The Oxfam Uganda country director Ayman Omer said: “Oxfam recognises the value of ethical investments in national development. NFC itself has major financial backers which insist that their investments are done ethically and responsibly.

These should have ensured that poor people did not lose out as a result of NFC’s projects. Nevertheless that’s what appears to have happened.”

New Forests Company said the evictions were non-violent and were carried out by NFA.

But New Forest Company said that as a licensee they had limited rights and no rights to evict and that compensation was solely the government’s responsibility.

The National Forestry Authority (NFA) spokesperson Moses Watasa told AFP, “These people were encroachers and were given notice … most of them moved out voluntarily.”

Watasa said police only intervened to evict about 200 people who had refused to leave. “I would not describe it as a violent eviction … by the deadline everyone had moved out,” Watasa added.

Heritage Loses Bid To Suspend Uganda Tax Dispute Proceedings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011/online.wsj.com

KAMPALA Uganda (Dow Jones)–The Ugandan high court has ruled against an appeal by London-listed Heritage Oil PLC (HOIL.LN) to suspend proceedings in Kampala over a tax dispute emanating from its sale of interests in the country last year, Uganda’s attorney general said Thursday.

Peter Nyombi told reporters in Kampala that following the ruling which was delivered last week, the government would now continue with the proceedings over the dispute in Kampala as it seeks to recover at least $404 million in taxes levied on Heritage’s $1.45 billion sale of stakes in two blocks in the Lake Albertin Rift basin to Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.LN) last year.

“Government is taking and will continue to take all prudent steps necessary to defend itself,” he said. “Both the Tax Appeals Tribunal and the High Court ruled that the tax dispute should be resolved within Uganda.”

Uganda’s Tax Appeals Tribunal had suspended the proceedings in August pending the high court ruling. International arbitration over the same dispute is also underway in London.

All the proceedings in Uganda are held in camera due to confidentiality clauses, according to Nyombi.

The Ugandan government is under pressure from law makers to reveal details of the dispute as well as oil production sharing agreements with private oil companies’ head of the oil production.

Ugandan law makers have asked the speaker to recall parliament from recess for an emergency session to discuss the dispute.

The Ugandan government has hired U.S.-based law firm Curtis to defend it in the tax dispute.

In March, the Ugandan government signed a memorandum of understanding with Tullow, separating the tax dispute from Tullow’s $2.93 billion deals with France’s Total SA (TOT), and China’s CNOOC Ltd. (CEO).

However, Tullow was forced to pay $313 million as security for the unpaid tax bill.

In April, Heritage received a claim from the London High Court in which Tullow is seeking to recover the funds.

A month later, Heritage also began action in London against the Ugandan government, saying the sale of its assets in Uganda doesn’t attract a capital gains tax based upon “comprehensive advice” from leading tax experts in Uganda, the U.K., and the U.S.

A Heritage spokesman could not comment immediately.

-By Nicholas Bariyo, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires;256-75-2624615 bariyonic@yahoo.co.uk

Uganda Shilling Falls to 18-Year Low as Fed Signal Spurs Dollar

By Fred Ojambo – /www.bloomberg.com/ Sep 22, 2011

Uganda’s shilling, the world’s worst-performing currency in 2011 against the dollar, fell to an 18-year low after a pledge by the U.S. Federal Reserve to buy $400 billion of long-term debt drove the dollar higher.

The currency of East Africa’s third-biggest economy depreciated 3.7 percent to 2,890 per dollar at 4:26 p.m. in the capital, Kampala, the weakest level since at least June 1993, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The dollar rose to a seven-month high against a six- currency basket as investors sought haven investments after the U.S. central bank said there are “significant downside risks to the economic outlook, including strains in global financial markets.”

“The market has been driven by the general sentiment about the dollar strength after the Federal Reserve announced its position,” Ahmed Kalule, the head of currency trading at Bank of Africa Uganda Ltd. said by phone from Kampala. “People are now finding it safe to invest in the dollar as the pound sterling and the euro have weakened.” Speculative buying may also be blamed for the volatility in the Ugandan exchange market today, he said.

Uganda’s shilling has depreciated 20 percent this year against the dollar, making it the world’s worst-performing currency during the period.

A surge in food and fuel prices pushed inflation to a more than 18-year high of 21.4 percent in August from 18.8 percent in July, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics said on Aug. 31.

SOUTH AFRICA:

South Africa’s Marcus Says ‘No End in Sight’ to Global Crisis

September 23, 2011/www.businessweek.com/By Andres R. Martinez

Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) — South African Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus said there’s “no end in sight” for the global financial crisis after stocks and currencies plunged around the world yesterday.

“We are meeting on a day that is probably going to go down in history as one of the worst in global markets,” Marcus said in a speech in Midrand, near Johannesburg, yesterday. “Around the world there has been what they call blood on the floor.”

South Africa’s central bank left its benchmark lending rate unchanged at a 30-year low of 5.5 percent yesterday to help support economic growth while curbing price pressures that may result from a weakening rand. Investors dumped riskier, emerging market assets as the global recovery faltered, pushing the rand down as much as 5.4 percent to 8.3401 against the dollar yesterday.

The rand depreciated for a third day against the dollar, losing as much as 4.5 percent to 8.6185 per dollar, the weakest intraday level since May 2009, and traded 0.3 percent down at 8.2726 at 8:54 a.m. in Johannesburg.

“It is as close to what you would be able to compare with the Great Depression,” Marcus said. “The challenges going forward are enormous. And there is no end in sight.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell as much as 4.2 percent yesterday, pushing the index below the lowest close of the year. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds dropped to a record low as investors sold riskier assets for higher-rated securities.

‘Act Appropriately’

Weak global demand threatens growth in Africa’s biggest economy, which expanded at an annualized 1.3 percent in the second quarter, the slowest pace in almost two years, according to the statistics office. Central banks in Turkey, Brazil and Switzerland have cut interest rates to support their economies.

The Monetary Policy Committee had a “substantial” discussion about cutting interest rates today and the bank will “act appropriately” if it needs to shield the economy from the global crisis, Marcus said after announcing the rate decision. The MPC cut its forecast for economic growth this year to 3.2 percent from 3.7 percent.

At the same time price pressures are rising. Inflation was unchanged at a 15-month high of 5.3 percent in August, the statistics office said in a report on Sept. 21. The inflation rate will probably breach the 6 percent upper end of the target band in the fourth quarter and peak at about 6.2 percent in the second quarter of 2012, Marcus said.

“This combination of declining growth and rising inflation poses a challenge to monetary policy going forward, and is a feature being experienced in a number of emerging markets,” Marcus said in the MPC statement yesterday.

–Editors: Nasreen Seria, John Simpson

UPDATE 3-BRICS offer help to fight economic crisis

By Walter Brandimarte/ Reuters/ Sept 22

WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Major emerging nations on Thursday said they may lend money to the International Monetary Fund or other global financial bodies to increase their firepower for fighting financial crises.

The commitment by the so-called BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — fell short of expectations for more direct support to debt-crippled European countries.

Finance ministers of the group, meeting on the sidelines of an IMF gathering in Washington, called on the G20 nations to act swiftly and decisively to ease the euro-zone debt crisis, the same way they fought the global financial crisis in 2008.

The G20 group, which includes both emerging and developed economies, is the right forum for those discussions and should be strengthened, the ministers said.

Their call underscores a growing concern of major emerging economies about the escalating economic crisis in the developed world.

It also highlights a dramatic change of fortune between the two groups of nations, with developing countries offering financial help that could be used to ease the economic crisis of traditional powers.

Failure to act now could turn the euro zone’s debt problems into another global financial crisis that would engulf emerging economies, Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega warned.

“There is a risk that the sovereign debt crisis of some countries becomes another financial crisis,” Mantega told reporters in a joint news conference with other BRICS finance ministers and central bank chiefs.

“We eased the 2008 crisis by fast and coordinated actions within the G20. We need to do the same now.”

SHORT OF EXPECTATIONS

It is not clear how the BRICS could provide funds to multilateral institutions nor how much money they plan to lend. Earlier this month, sources in the Brazilian government said Mantega would propose the group make billions of dollars available to the IMF.

In a statement issued after the meeting, the ministers said financial support would depend on individual country circumstances.

“There is (an) enormous amount of demand for resources at home for poverty reduction, so there is going to be a big, big tension between giving money to a multilateral institution for the purpose of restoring global stability and meeting our own aspirations at home,” said India’s central bank governor Duvvuri Subbarao.

Direct financial support to troubled European countries, another idea floated by Brazilian officials in the past few days, was not discussed in the meeting, South Africa’s Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan told Reuters in an interview. For details, see [ID:nS1E78L1LV].

That type of support, according to the Brazilian sources, could come through the purchase of bonds jointly issued by euro-zone members, the so-called eurobonds.

But Russia shot down the idea.

“It’s impossible, I am absolutely convinced about that,” Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak told reporters.

“Our state procedures do not allow for that. We don’t have a mechanism (for that), not in Russia, not in China, not in India. We all have different ways of making decisions, we cannot syndicate our money.”

WANTED: A STRONGER VOICE

Any financial contribution to the IMF would probably come with conditions. The BRICS would most likely take the opportunity to increase their voting power in the institution.

The next review of member countries’ quotas is scheduled for January, 2014.

“We are concerned with the slow pace of quota and governance reforms in the IMF,” the countries said in the same statement where they offered to help the fund. “This is needed to increase the legitimacy and effectiveness of the fund.”

The group also called on developed countries to adopt “responsible” policies that avoid creating excessive global liquidity — a growing complaint from countries such as Brazil, which has suffered from excessive dollar inflows since the United States started its aggressive monetary easing.

In exchange, the BRICS promised to do what is necessary to secure economic growth, maintain financial stability and contain inflation.

However, they did not mention any steps in foreign-exchange markets — a delicate issue for China, which has resisted calls from the United States to let its currency appreciate faster. (Additional reporting by Pedro da Costa, Jason Lange, Lesley Wroughton, Randall Palmer, Lidia Kelly, Editing by Andrea Ricci and Jan Paschal)

We’re open-minded on NHI, says Motsoaledi

September 23 2011/SIPOKAZI FOKAZI /Health Writer/ www.iol.co.za

HEALTH Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says proposals for the National Health Insurance (NHI) are not carved in stone and may change depending what works and what does not.

Motsoaledi addressed the Hospital Association of SA’s annual conference yesterday, telling delegates that since the recent release of the NHI Green Paper, debate had raged.

Detractors had slammed the paper for being silent on a number of issues, including oncology and psychiatry.

The reality, he told delegates, was that the government would really only know the cost of health reform once NHI began.

He said the figures in the green paper were merely estimates of what actuaries thought the NHI would cost based on a number of issues, including inflation.

According to the green paper, R125 billion will be required for NHI next year, increasing to an estimated R255bn in 2025.

Motsoaledi has made it clear that the reform will go ahead no matter the cost, and told Hasa delegates that some in the private health industry still regarded NHI as a system that would “destroy something they believe in”.

It was time, he said, for the public and private health-care sectors to stop looking at what divided them and concentrate on what they had in common.

“The whole health sector must take cognisance of the quadruple burden of diseases,” he said.

“South Africa is going through four clear epidemics. South Africa has 0.7 percent of the world’s population, but the country is carrying 17 percent of the world’s HIV burden, and 25 percent of ARVs are bought here. The non-communicable diseases which had always been there before HIV are growing. Surely this needs very serious and extraordinary measures.”

Motsoaledi said the public sector could not reform the system without the private sector.

“I want the private sector to understand… there are two issues that we need (it) to help us with, and that is HIV and human resources,” he said.

“We want the private sector to co-operate with us in the implementation of NHI. It’s not about private or public any more. It is about the quality of health care.

“Before 1994 we had a two-tiered system for blacks and whites, but now we have a two-tier system for rich and poor. We have a situation where poor people have to travel long distances to hospital even though they have a GP in their neighbourhood. The current system doesn’t allow them to go to that GP if they don’t have money. We cannot continue with the way things are… things have got to change.”

Hasa chairman Nkaki Matlala said the private sector was fully behind NHI, but it was important that the country tailored “a home-grown NHI” that would be suitable for its needs.

sipokazi.fokazi@inl.co.za

South Africa Will Probably Cut Corn-Crop Estimate, Survey Shows

By Jana Marais -/www.bloomberg.com/ Sep 23, 2011

South Africa, the biggest corn producer on the continent, will probably cut its forecast for this season’s harvest, a survey showed.

The country may say farmers will reap 10.5 million metric tons of corn compared with the 10.68 million tons estimated in August, according to the median estimate of nine traders Bloomberg surveyed. Forecasts ranged from 10.1 million to 10.62 million tons.

The Crop Estimates Committee will issue an eighth assessment of the crop on Sept. 27 at 3:30 p.m. in Johannesburg.

White corn for December delivery, the most active contract on the South African Futures Exchange, declined 0.04 percent to 2,248 rand ($270) a ton by 9:23 a.m. in Johannesburg trading. Yellow corn for December delivery fell 0.5 percent to 2,217 rand a ton.

Africa: The World Must Fight Racism – Reflections On Durban and After

22 September 2011/PAMBAZUKA NEWS

analysis

A decade after the historic World Conference against Racism, the issues raised remain relevant and urgent despite western opposition, writes Pierre Sane. The whole world must confront racism, which continues to reinvent its justification and modes of expression.

The United Nations was set to hold a review session at its General Assembly this September to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the World Conference against Racism (WCAR) on 22 September 2011. The conference took place in Durban (South Africa) at the end of August and beginning of September 2001, a few days before the terrorist attacks of 9/11 which brought down the Twin Towers in Manhattan, New York, and caused nearly three thousands deaths.

Ten years on, the controversy still rages about that conference and the United States government had already announced that it would not join in this year’s review session, still railing at what it considered a conference of ‘hatred’. Canada and Israel also announced that they would boycott the summit. Indeed no other UN gathering has generated so much negative reactions in the western world. The conference ten years ago in Durban ended with the spectacular withdrawal of US and Israeli delegations outraged, it seemed, at the ‘singling out of Israel’ and at the equation of Zionism with racism. The European countries also threatened to pull out but ended up negotiating a final Declaration and Plan of Action they could live with.

I led a delegation from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to that world conference after having participated in its preparation as Secretary General of Amnesty International. In that latter capacity, I had conducted AI delegations to other human rights conferences including Vienna in 1993, Beijing on women in 1995 and Rome on the International Criminal Court in 1998. All these conferences ended up with declarations and plans of action adopted by consensus after heated debates. So did Durban. Then why all the fuss?

In my view, it was due to the fact that for the first time the western countries were put on the defensive. While in the other human rights conferences they saw themselves as holding the moral high ground and pushing the global human rights agenda in a progressive direction, in Durban they were called to account for the past atrocities they had visited on the peoples of the global South. The genocides of indigenous populations in the Americas, the transatlantic slave trade, the wars of colonial occupation and expropriations were all exposed as having been fuelled by racist ideology and in turn having structured the unequal world we inhabit presently. The persistence of racism today was deemed in Durban to be the legacy of centuries of European expansion and brutality. Europe and North America were thus called upon to apologize and pay reparations to the descendants of their past victims, which they objected to.

The other major contentious issue was linked to the proceedings and outcome of the civil society forum and to the rejection of its declaration by the High Commissioner for Human Rights due to the use of ‘inappropriate language’. The non-governmental organisations (NGO) forum was primarily derailed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict where the debates led to accusations of ‘anti Semitism’ and to the withdrawal of some international and Jewish NGOs. This, coupled with the withdrawal of the USA and Israel, was magnified by the western press which hastened to extend the qualification of ‘failure’ to the entire Durban process without even awaiting the outcome of the governmental conference. In the process, the work of the 6,000 or so groups who participated in the preparation and holding of the conference was not submitted to and examined by the intergovernmental forum which failed in the end to address the discriminations suffered by Palestinians or occasioned by belonging to a ‘caste’ in countries like India and Japan or in West Africa. It also failed to refer to the fate of black people living in Arab countries.

But still, many ‘invisible’ victims did show their faces to the world at the conference. Seemingly trivial but really very telling was a delegation of ‘pygmies’ who came to publicize for the first time at a world conference the threats to their society from war in central Africa. Afro-Latinos also spoke of their suffering. The presence of delegations of Roms, Gypsies, Sindis and other ‘travelling people’ – all victims of a racism ignored by the international community – were able, through their links with NGOs, to have their say in the conference’s final declaration and action plan. Many other victims were clearly identified. Now it is up to governments and NGOs to do something about them. For these victims, this was a significant achievement brought by Durban.

Durban was the third world conference against racism. It followed on two previous gatherings focused on the struggle against apartheid. Durban, in South Africa, was thus meant to be a celebration of the dismantling of institutional racism but at the same time a recognition of the rise in most regions of the world of diverse forms of social and urban apartheid based on structural discrimination that is racial in character; whether explicitly or implicitly while no longer having to draw on racial representation. Racism, in other words, reinvents its justification and mode of expression as it is defeated by science, education and reason. Mobilisation is, therefore, crucial because at the end of the day racism is the expression of a doubt concerning the principle that every human life is of equal worth and that we are all equally accountable for each life. Racism is the very negation of human rights and its most dangerous expression since it can lead to the most abominable of all crimes, the crime of genocide. This is why in a 21st century opening up to all kinds of confrontations and dangers, such a conference was so crucial.

Irrespective of the assessment one makes of Durban, it had the merit of mobilizing internationally around racism at the beginning of the 21st century, establishing a framework to combat contemporary forms of racism and enshrining on the global agenda two interrelated moral and political issues which will shape debates and struggles around racism in the years to come: These are ‘taking responsibility for the past’ and ‘the racial nature of the western state’.

In response to the claims for reparations contained in the preparatory documents for Durban, the reaction of many European governments can be summed up as follows: ‘present generations should not be expected to take responsibility for crimes committed in the past’. This is understandable given the fact that the crimes committed by Europe are a long list of unrequited injustices dating back to the assault on the rest of the world following the ‘discovery’ of the ‘new world’, leading to the phenomenal transfer of wealth and subsequent enrichment of western nations to the detriment of the global South and to the persistent inequalities that today result from this past. However, for many of the descendants and successors of those who were wronged, historical grievances have become the focus of demands for reparations and the need for restitution has become a major part of national political debates and international diplomacy.

Janna Thompson in her seminal work [1] argues that historical obligations for reparation are grounded in the concept of a society or a nation as an ‘intergenerational community’ with transgenerational obligations to honour the commitments of their forebears and repair their past deeds and past ‘acts of disrespect’ vis a vis other nations. It is this moral relationship between generations that allows a political society to act justly in a world of nations. In the same way as we accept nowadays that we have duties to future generations, notably through the objective of sustainability in managing environmental concerns, we ought to take responsibility for the commitments and deeds of our predecessors.

As for the descendants of the victims they have rights of inheritance to possessions taken unjustly from their forebears (for example land) because of ‘lifetime-transcending interests’ of individuals and because of harms that result from wrongs done to their family lines. And further equity demands that those who benefit from the results of past unjust interactions share with those who suffer loss. This is a moral requirement that is more and more gaining acceptance.

This is the problematic, which found an airing for the first time in a world arena at Durban. It will from now on linger on all debates on human rights and affect adversely western nations’ moral authority unless the issue is addressed in ways that advance justice and reconciliation. In this respect Durban can be considered as the formal beginning of a process since the final declaration recognised that the slave trade and slavery constituted a crime against humanity and that there was a ‘moral obligation’ to pay financial compensation for wrongs committed.

This has inspired many actions since then. The Hereros in Namibia have initiated lawsuits against the German government for genocide and for what is now considered a rehearsal for the Nazi concentration camps in Germany during the Second World War. The Mau Mau families in Kenya have taken the British government to court for colonial crimes committed in the 1950s and 1960s. Black Americans are demanding apologies and reparations for slavery, a crime qualified in Durban as a crime against humanity and therefore imprescriptible. The government of Algeria has made it a condition for improved relationships with France that its government recognises the crimes committed during the colonial period and apologises for that. Indigenous peoples in Australia and New Zealand have been reenergised in their struggles to recover lost land. Durban closed the era opened by Christopher Columbus and has called for a new reading of that period of our common history. It starts with the opening of all archives as demanded by UNESCO at the world conference.

The second challenge is brought by the migratory trends from South to North and the management of diversity. Going beyond the extremes of Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa, Goldberg in his book entitled ‘The Racial State'[2] has defined the role of the modern (western) state as the production and reproduction of political, social and cultural homogeneity and of sameness; of ensuring the reproduction of a community cut from the same ‘cloth’ in the face of increasing heterogeneity globally. To achieve this, the state uses its power to exclude (for example fortress Europe) and by extension its power to include albeit in racially ordered terms aided by the capacity provided by the law and policy making; and by the bureaucratic apparatuses, invented histories and traditions, ceremonies and cultural imaginings. This becomes ever more needed when growing individualism combined with a globalising culture ‘threaten national identity’ and leads to a state (France) organising a public debate on ‘national identity’.

Recent debates in Europe around multiculturalism (Germany and Great Britain), around the place of Islam (Holland), the veil (France) and the integration of ‘second generation migrants’ point to the continuous practice of considering the ‘other’ as a threat to the social cohesion grounded on the alleged previous sameness. In the process class contradiction is transcended to protect the ever-growing imbalance in the distribution of national wealth in favour of the rich by creating, through a constructed and reconstructed ‘sameness’, an ‘us’ against ‘them’. As for the ‘other’, they are summoned to ‘integrate’, to renounce attributes of their identity, to repudiate their ‘community’ and religion and to become invisible; confined in ghettos, populating the prisons and forming a new underclass. This is accompanied, of course, by a magnifying glass shed on the achievements of a few individuals emerging from ‘la diversite’ in politics and other fields of the public sphere (media, fashion, sport, etc). These are after all liberal democracies and the illusion of equal rights must be maintained.

The issue of regulation and integration of migrants has remained a central focus for the post-Durban process as exemplified by the recent report of the working group preparing the commemoration of Durban+10.The recommendations formulated in the document (from the ratification of the convention of migrants’ rights, to the human rights approach to management of migrations; from the information campaigns to eliminate stereotypes to more just conditions of employment) continue to pose serious challenges to the fixed and static concept of citizenship and hence to the racial state. Goldberg states that these are challenges to the grounds of the constitutive conditions of the state itself, and he goes on to ask: ‘can a state be predicated on assumptions of heterogeneities? Can a state constitutively be open to the flows not simply of capital but of human beings recognized equally and with equal sensitivity, on and in equal terms, as belonging in their flows to the body politic?’ This, he asserts, will not happen without the development of vigorous social movements defending the general interest. Durban with its impressive mobilisation of civil society organisations debating passionately and building transnational networks was a clear manifestation of the coming to being of such movements.

As can be seen from this brief discussion, Durban has merged the past, the present and the future in addressing the issue of racism and discrimination. Even though in these reflections I have mostly concerned myself with Europe, which is where I presently live, participants in the Durban process and especially civil society representatives made it abundantly clear that various forms of discrimination continue to disfigure social relations in all parts of the world. The struggle therefore is not just a global one, that is in those countries who shape and dominate global relations, but also one which must take place at the local level.

The review conference of 2009 has produced a weak outcome document and it is likely that the September outcome document this year will not fare any better. But at the end of the day what matters is continuous mobilisation of civil society organisations and, more importantly, mobilisation of the victims of racism to defend their human rights and reject dehumanisation.

Let me leave you with a quote from Nadine Gordimer, the celebrated writer of South Africa, extracted from her novel, ‘The House Gun’, about Harold and Claudia Lindgard:

‘The Lindgards were not racist, if racist meant having revulsion against skin of a different colour, believing or wanting to believe that anyone who is not your own colour or religion or nationality is intellectually or morally inferior. Yet neither had joined movements, protested, marched in open display, spoken out in defense of these convictions. They thought of themselves as simply not that kind of persons; as if it were a matter of immutable determination, such as one’s blood group, and not failed courage.’

Martin Luther King was similarly outraged by the silence of ‘good people’ in the face of untold injustice. It will take outrage and action from us all to defeat racism and protect human rights based on dignity and equality.

This is what being human means.

Pierre Sane is a distinguished visiting professor at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan.

NOTES

[1] Janna Thompson: Taking responsibility for the past. Polity Press 2002

[2] David Goldberg: The Racial State. Blackwell 2002

New hominin fossil finds in South Africa may fill a gap in the record of human evolution

By Philip Guelpa /www.wsws.org/23 September 2011

A newly reported fossil discovery from the Malapa, South Africa may provide greater insight into the evolution of the genus Homo from our australopithecine ancestors. The fossils consist of remains of two individuals, an adult female and juvenile male, possibly a mother and son. They appear to have fallen into a cave between 1.95 and 1.78 million years ago, perhaps while searching for water, and after death were rapidly covered by sediment. This resulted in a degree of preservation so extraordinary that researchers believe they may have fossilized soft tissues, including skin. Evidence of at least two other well-preserved individuals has also been found.

A series of articles in a recent issue of the journal Science describes the first two specimens in detail. The discoverer, paleoanthropologist Lee Berger of University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, proposes at least provisionally that this new species, which has been named Australopithecus sediba, represents the direct ancestor of the genus Homo, including our own species, Homo sapiens. This controversial proposal would have Au. sediba replace the east African Homo habilis as the direct ancestor of H. erectus, though H. habilis appears in the fossil record approximately 2.4 million years ago, and H. erectus as early as 1.9 million years ago. Whether or not this specific interpretation is correct (a great deal more data would likely be needed to make a convincing case), the sediba individuals possess a variety of traits that illustrate some of the adaptations that became key to later human evolution.

The genus Australopithecus, various species of which existed in Africa from nearly 4.5 to roughly 1.5 million years ago, represents a major event in the evolution of African apes: a shift in one lineage from a primarily forested habitat and ecology to life in a drier and mixed environment of grasslands interspersed with wooded patches. This involved among other things the change from quadrupedal to bipedal (i.e. two-legged, upright) locomotion. It is now widely accepted that the genus Homo evolved from some branch of Australopithecus. However, much of the detail of these evolutionary processes remains to be uncovered through scientific inquiry.

The earliest presently known fossil specimen attributed to the genus Homo (H. habilis) was recovered at Hadar, Ethiopia and dates to roughly 2.4 million years ago. The famous Lucy fossil, assigned to the species Australopithecus afarensis, also from Hadar, dates to 3.2 million years ago. It is during the period between the two that key parts of the transition between Australopithecus and Homo appear to have begun. There are a number of fossil specimens which may represent an intermediate between A. afarensis and H. habilis, most notably Australopithecus garhi, a 2.6 million year old hominin found in Gona, Ethiopia in association with the earliest known stone tools. Nevertheless the direct ancestor of Homo in east or South Africa remains unknown.

The two sediba individuals, portions of which are still being excavated, date to approximately two million years ago and therefore could be argued to be ancestors of H. erectus. They certainly provide insights into what happened during the preceding period, even if they are found too late in the fossil record to be ancestral to Homo. While many researchers once thought that a single lineage likely connected australopithecines to our ancestors in the genus Homo, the discovery of many australopithecine-like specimens in Africa have led scientists to view hominin evolution as characterized by many branching lineages, each possibly specific to a given place and time.

Numerous species of Australopithecus have been identified in eastern and southern Africa, variously named Australopithecus africanus (a possible ancestor of sediba), A. garhi, and the somewhat older A. bahrelgazali and Kenyanthropus platyops. There were also many species of the genus Paranthropus living in sub-Saharan Africa during this period, all characterized by small brains, powerful jaw muscles and huge teeth, a condition known as “megadontia.” Some of these persisted for up to a million years after the appearance of the first members of Homo. The earliest known stone tools, classified as the Oldowan Industry, are generally attributed to Homo habilis, in East Africa, though A. garhi has been found near stone tools dated to 2.6 million years ago. It is likely that australopithecines did use tools to some degree. The development of the ability to make and use stone tools on a substantial scale appears to have been closely associated with the appearance of the genus that eventually gave rise to modern humans.

The two Au. sediba specimens so far examined exhibit a mixture of traits: a “mosaic” of relatively advanced and primitive features in the skull, the hand, the pelvis, and the foot. In a sense, these individuals may be considered examples of “evolution in action.” They appear to reveal a species in the process of adapting to a new environmental setting (i.e., open savannah), probably in part by cultural means, but retaining the ability to function to some degree in the old environment (i.e., a more forested setting). Of particular interest are developments in the brain and the hand.

The interior of the young male’s skull has been precisely recorded using a sophisticated form of CAT scanner widely used in the fields of medicine and engineering. X-ray computed tomography assembles large series of x-rays in order to reconstruct three-dimensional, “virtual” copies of tissues or objects with complex internal morphology. The sediba skull was scanned at a special facility operated by French scientist Paul Tafforeau in Grenoble. Tafforeau has made highly precise and powerful “synchrotron” x-ray beams widely available to paleontologists from around the world, greatly enhancing the ability of scientists to look not only at, but also into fossils.

This technology has yielded the most detailed image yet created of an early hominin brain (such an image is called an “endocast”). Although the boy’s brain was barely larger than that of a chimpanzee, the researchers propose that there are distinct changes in architecture resembling developments in later humans. Of special importance are enlargements in frontal areas of the brain known to be associated with social behavior, language, and probably tool-making. Preliminary studies appear to indicate that these changes distinguish this brain from those of other known australopithecine specimens and indicate that while the brain is smaller than that of H. habilis, in sediba it has been reorganized.

This finding if confirmed could suggest that sediba’s brain was small, but more humanlike than that of habilis. Alternately, it could also suggest that both habilis and sediba possessed re-organized brains, either having evolved independently or having been acquired from a common ancestor. The idea that the ancestral human brain was first reorganized before growing in size was largely popularized by scientist Ralph Holloway of Columbia and New York’s American Museum of Natural History. Endocasts were recently used by scientist Dean Falk to argue that the “hobbit” from Flores, with its unusually small brain, was probably not afflicted by a disorder called microcephaly.

A nearly complete specimen of the right hand and wrist from the adult female includes a relatively lengthened thumb while the other fingers are shorter, a trend begun in earlier australopithecines such as Lucy, along with other, more advanced characteristics, according to the analysis presented by the discoverer. This reduced difference in length between the digits would have enhanced the ability to oppose the thumb to the other fingers facilitating the “precision grip” that is characteristic of humans and necessary for the production of sophisticated tools and other manipulative activities. At the same time, the hand retains a relatively flexed configuration useful in tree climbing, characteristic of other australopithecines and of apes, but not of Homo.

The conjunction of developments in cognitive capabilities and in the hand seen in Au. sediba raise the possibility that the ability to modify objects as observed in the genus Homo may not have required, at first, a large brain. Further analyses will be needed to elucidate the relationship between sediba’s brain, hands and any discovered stone tools. Frederick Engels contended 135 years ago in his work The Part Played by Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man that the coordinated development of mental and manual facility were key to early human evolution, a minority view at that time, though now widely accepted by most scientists and many archaeologists. Again, however, further analysis is needed to confirm the assessment of these particular fossils.

The fossils also reveal pelvises and feet that again combine attributes characteristic of Australopithecus and of Homo and some possibly unique to this species. Of particular note, the pelvises do not show an enlargement of the birth canal. This is consistent with the small size of the recovered skull and indicates that possible brain reorganization, but not enlargement was taking place in this lineage. In other words, the “obstetrical dilemma” was not a problem for Au. sediba. It should be noted that H. habilis did have a relatively enlarged brain size, but its internal architecture is not known in detail.

Interestingly, the foot morphology appears to have certain characteristics appear to suggest that Au. sediba walked in a way that was distinct from the mode characteristic of Homo, possibly supporting the interpretation that this species was not the direct ancestor of the latter genus. Most interestingly, sediba’s foot retains substantial adaptations for climbing, and possesses a small heel very unlike modern humans, our Homo erectus ancestors and even more primitive australopithecines. Nevertheless some aspects of the sediba ankle appear human-like, probably an adaptation to habitual walking.

The analysis and interpretation of these fossils are still at an early stage. As with all such discoveries, the dialectical process of scientific research involves the proposal of certain interpretations by one group of researchers and the criticism and testing of these proposals by others. Berger’s suggestion that Australopithecus sediba is the direct ancestor of the genus Homo contradicts the existing interpretation, which places the older east African Au. afarensis (i.e. Lucy) or other lineages at that position. There are prominent researchers in the field, including Donald Johanson, the discoverer of the Lucy fossil, who say that Berger is exaggerating the significance of his discovery. The struggle for recognition and funding sometimes leads to grandstanding, which is not a new phenomenon in science, as for example in the recent media frenzy over the early primate fossil “Ida.”

Speaking to the New York Times, paleoanthropologist Bernard Wood has cast doubt upon the notion that sediba is an ancestor of Homo erectus. Wood argued that Berger’s commitment to timely publication and his efforts to make the sediba material accessible have all been commendable. The discovery of Australopithecus sediba is undoubtedly a monumental event in the study of human origins.

It must be remembered that, even with these new discoveries, the sample size of early hominin fossils remains small. The range of variation within and between species is not well understood and will require further research. It may well be that there were multiple species of australopithecines that “experimented” with various ways of living that relied on increasing intelligence and the use of tools. Ultimately, it appears that only one group was successful in this endeavor, giving rise to the genus Homo.