Russia's state-owned power plant developer, Technopromexport (Moscow, Russia), and Libya African Investment Portfolio (LAIP) (Tripoli, Libya), a state-owned investment fund, have joined to construct and operate power-generating facilities in six African states--Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Namibia and Uganda--and Yemen in the Middle East. The two firms have established a joint venture company, Laptechno-Power, for this undertaking. LAIP will finance these projects, the total cost of which amounts to $6.73 billion.
Laptechno-Power will first undertake the construction of a 1,250-km electric transmission line with a capacity of 400-kW in Libya. Technopromexport has reportedly concluded the topographic survey for the project. The firm has also drafted a preliminary design and proposed a commercial offer for three sections of the transmission line, including the 470-km Tobruk-Benghazi section, the 400-km Tobruk-Adjabia section and the 380-km Sirt-Beni Walid-Abu Argub section. Another project that tops the priority list is a hydropower plant with a power generation capacity of 300-MW on the Blue Nile River in Uganda.
On April 17, 2008, Russia and Libya entered into a memorandum of understanding for mutual cooperation in the power sector during a visit to Libya by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Technopromexport and LAIP entered into an agreement in November this year to establish Laptechno-Power as a general contractor for turnkey construction projects in Africa and the Gulf region.
LAIP, a part of the Libyan Investment Corporation, was established in 2006 with an initial investment of $5 billion as a fund committed to financing projects in African nations. LAIP is currently funding projects in diverse sectors, including agriculture, aviation, real estate, and oil refining and distribution.
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Zambia should receive a sovereign credit rating early in 2009 after the process stalled in part to the death of President Levy Mwanawasa in August, central bank Governor Caleb Fundanga said on Monday.
Mwanawasa, whose economic management won Zambia billions of dollars in debt relief, died after a stroke. He was replaced in October by Rupiah Banda, but a prolonged electoral dispute and anti-government riots stymied the country's economic progress.
Fundanga said J.P. Morgan, Zambia's financial advisor, had already done the bulk of work required for the credit rating.
Johannesburg - ANC president Jacob Zuma on Monday urged tougher legislation against crime.
"I am convinced that within the parameters of the Constitution there is significant space for us to toughen legislation against all forms of criminality and to erase the space within which criminals are able to operate," he told The Star newspaper.
"Criminals must know that breaking the law will have severe consequences and that they'll suffer as a result of their actions," said Zuma.
Critics say that current legislation is not adequate or tough enough to prevent crimes and deter criminals.
"Adequate and long sentences that fit the crimes that are committed and the detrimental consequences these have on our society must be handed down by our courts," said Zuma.
He said that while the African National Congress (ANC) would not "erode" rights enshrined in the Constitution, he wanted to see the establishment of an efficient and transformed criminal justice system, working with communities to fight crime.
"The goal is to reduce serious and violent crime by seven to 10% per year," he said.
'Killing fields'
Crime-weary South Africa's new Safety and Security Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, vowed last month to deal firmly with armed violence, saying police in the "killing fields" had to be ready to return fire.
Addressing Parliament, Mthethwa said his top priorities would be fighting organised crime, improving crime intelligence and strengthening the capacity of task forces.
Pretoria – South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Fatima Hajaig, today, Monday, 29 December 2009, summoned the Israeli Ambassador, Mr Dov Segev-Steinberg, to a meeting at the Union Buildings in order to express the grave concern of the South African government at the brutal assault by Israeli military forces on the Palestinian people in Gaza. She stressed that what is going on is a gross violation of the rights of the people of Gaza.
The Deputy Minister emphasised to the Ambassador that the large-scale loss of life and injuries to the inhabitants of Gaza, including women and children, as well as the destruction of physical infrastructure in the territory, such as mosques, schools and universities, is totally unacceptable and she called upon Israel to stop this aggression immediately.
The deputy minister informed Ambassador Segev-Steinberg that the South African government found the continued siege of Gaza unacceptable as it does not allow humanitarian relief supplies such as medicines, food, water and medical supplies to reach the desperate people of Gaza.
The South African government called on the Israeli government to stop the military onslaught in Gaza and to immediately and unconditionally withdraw its forces currently amassing on the border.
The deputy minister stated that no amount of bloodshed or destruction of infrastructure will bring peace to either the people of Israel or the people of Palestine.
The South African government called on all parties involved in the conflict to return to negotiations without preconditions in order to bring about a lasting solution as outlined in the Oslo Accords, Camp David negotiations and Annapolis Peace Conference.
By Mohamed Olad Hassan and Elizabeth A. Kennedy Associated Press
POSTED: 02:48 p.m. EST, Dec 29, 2008
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA: The president of Somalia's U.N.-backed government resigned today amid deepening international pressure, a move that could usher in more chaos as a strengthening Islamic insurgency scrambles for power.
Within hours of Abdullahi Yusuf's resignation, mortars shells slammed into the pockmarked streets near the presidential palace in the capital, Mogadishu, where the government maintains only a token presence.
Yusuf is the latest leader to have failed to pacify Somalia during two decades of turmoil. The Horn of Africa country has been beset by anarchy, violence and an insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing for their lives.
''Most of the country is not in our hands,'' Yusuf said in a speech before parliament in Baidoa — one of the only towns controlled by Somalia's government, which has been sidelined by Islamic insurgents with alleged ties to al-Qaida.
There have been more than a dozen attempts to form an effective government since 1991. Meanwhile, all public institutions have crumbled and the once-beautiful seaside capital is now a gun-blasted shantytown. The lawlessness also has allowed piracy to flourish off the coast in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
In the address broadcast nationwide on the radio, Yusuf said he could not unite Somalia's bickering leadership and that the country was ''paralyzed.''
''After seeing all these things, I have finally quit,'' said Yusuf, who was president for four years. Meanwhile, troops from neighboring Ethiopia are scheduled to pull out this week, leaving a massive power vacuum after two years of propping up the weak Somali government.
The parliament speaker will stand as acting president until parliament elects a new leader within 30 days. There have been no announcements of who might be under consideration, but many believe Yusuf's absence will allow moderate Islamist leaders into the government. Yusuf had largely rejected that idea.
The most aggressive Islamic insurgency group, al-Shabab, has made dramatic territorial gains in recent months, and insurgents now control most of the country. In a statement today, al-Shabab said Yusuf was resigning ''with shame.'' The statement said it was too early to tell if Yusuf's replacement would be an improvement.
The United States accuses al-Shabab of harboring the al-Qaida-linked terrorists who blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Many of the insurgency's senior figures are Islamic radicals; some are on the State Department's list of wanted terrorists.
The U.N. envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who has been trying to salvage an ineffective peace deal in the country, welcomed Yusuf's resignation and said ''a new page of Somalia history is now open.''
The United Nations has brokered peace deals between the government and an opposition faction, but they have failed to quell the political and violent chaos. Al-Shabab has refused to participate in the talks.
Yusuf, who like many of Somalia's leaders is a former warlord, has been accused of being an obstacle to peace. Earlier this month, he tried to fire his prime minister, but was rebuffed by parliament. Neighboring countries, including Kenya, have threatened to impose sanctions on Yusuf and his family.
''I am happy that the Somali president has resigned,'' Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein said. ''I wish him to become a Somali elder and play a role in the common endeavor to restore peace and order in Somalia.''
Thousands of civilians have been killed or maimed by mortar shells, machine-gun crossfire and grenades in near-daily fighting in this arid country. The U.N. says Somalia has 300,000 acutely malnourished children, but attacks and kidnappings of aid workers have shut down many humanitarian projects.
Rights groups have accused all sides in the conflict — Islamic insurgents, the government and Ethiopian troops — of committing war crimes and other serious abuses for indiscriminately firing on civilian neighborhoods.
Ethiopia's planned withdrawal of troops would end their unpopular presence and leave the administration more vulnerable to insurgents. The Ethiopians entered Somalia two years ago with the tacit approval of the United States to drive out an earlier group of Islamic insurgents.
Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on one another. The current transitional government was formed with U.N. help in 2004.
Yusuf, a former Somali army colonel in the 1960s, was jailed by Barre when he refused to cooperate in a coup d'etat in 1969. Although Yusuf is a member of one of Somalia's four biggest clans, the Darod, he was unpopular in Mogadishu because of his ties to Ethiopia — one of Somalia's traditional enemies.
Elizabeth Kennedy reported from Nairobi, Kenya. Associated Press writers Mohamed Sheikh Nor in Mogadishu and Malkhadir M. Muhumed in Nairobi also contributed to this report.
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA: The president of Somalia's U.N.-backed government resigned today amid deepening international pressure, a move that could usher in more chaos as a strengthening Islamic insurgency scrambles for power.
Within hours of Abdullahi Yusuf's resignation, mortars shells slammed into the pockmarked streets near the presidential palace in the capital, Mogadishu, where the government maintains only a token presence.
Yusuf is the latest leader to have failed to pacify Somalia during two decades of turmoil. The Horn of Africa country has been beset by anarchy, violence and an insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing for their lives.
''Most of the country is not in our hands,'' Yusuf said in a speech before parliament in Baidoa — one of the only towns controlled by Somalia's government, which has been sidelined by Islamic insurgents with alleged ties to al-Qaida.
There have been more than a dozen attempts to form an effective government since 1991. Meanwhile, all public institutions have crumbled and the once-beautiful seaside capital is now a gun-blasted shantytown. The lawlessness also has allowed piracy to flourish off the coast in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
CONAKRY, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Guinea's new military rulers must swiftly meet promises of fighting graft and preparing for free elections if they are to avoid the route of other would-be reformers in Africa who badly outstayed their welcome.
Seizing control of the world's No. 1 bauxite exporter after the death of President Lansana Conte a week ago, the young officers of the National Council for Democracy and Development junta have been unopposed in what is so far a bloodless coup.
Led by a 44-year-old little-known army supply corps captain, they have promised a clean break from a nearly quarter century of Conte's rule, which saw the diabetic, chain-smoking general govern with a corrupt clique of military and civilian cronies.
Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara has promised elections in December 2010, saying he has no wish to keep power. He has also pledged to review multi-billion dollar mining contracts with foreign firms.
But although Camara has been cheered in the streets and applauded by political and civil society leaders, Africa watchers say his words are the staple offering of incoming reformers, used more often than not to justify violent or unconstitutional takeovers.
"We've seen this before in Africa -- the young guard wanting to have the trappings and power of the old guard. And then it's always the people who get left out," Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.
"If Camara is serious, he needs to hold elections quickly, well before 2010. Guineans are fed up, they want democracy and have been denied it for years."
SAVIOURS
Africa's turbulent half century of post-independence history has seen a legion of self-styled "saviours" and reformers, and national liberators, from Uganda's Idi Amin to Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe whose bright, crusading starts in power have degenerated into long, autocratic, inept, and nepotism-riddled regimes.
Many also started off with domestic and foreign blessing.
Guinea's own Conte, who as a colonel took over in a bloodless 1984 coup after the death of the first president, the Marxist Sekou Toure, made similar early public pledges to usher in an a new era of freedom and prosperity.
Conte did introduce multi-party democracy after the end of the Cold War, and opened up Guinea to wider foreign investment.
But he remained a military autocrat, increasingly capricious and reclusive at the end of his rule, tolerating no rivals and keeping power and privilege in the hands of a small elite, whose squabbling members he skilfully played off against each other.
The vast majority of Guineans still live in poverty, without regular electricity or piped water despite the nation's mineral riches, which besides a third of the world's known bauxite -- used to make aluminium -- include gold, iron ore and diamonds.
"We can't abandon our fate to soldiers. We need to get back as quickly as possible to a civil regime," said Madani Dia, a political analyst from a local Guinean think-tank, Agora.
SEOUL, Dec 29 (Reuters) - South Korea's yearly overseas arms sales topped $1 billion for the first time in 2008, a government agency said on Monday, while officials were quoted as saying the country aims to soon be one of the world's top 10 arms exporters.
South Korea's biggest exports in 2008 included self-propelled guns, aircraft and naval vessels with its main customers being Middle Eastern states and ally the United States, the Defence Acquisition Programme Administration said in a statement.
South Korea had been increasing its sales to developing countries in Africa and Latin America, the agency said without naming specific buyers.
South Korea is looking to sell $3 billion worth of arms by 2012 and be one of the world's top 10 arms exporters in the next few years, Yonhap news agency reported defence officials as saying. The Defence Ministry would not confirm the report.
The military is hoping the main drivers in weapons exports will be its next generation K-2 tank and T/A 50 supersonic fighter-trainer developed by its aerospace industry with help from Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), Yonhap said.
"We should think in terms of how much of the market share we take, rather than amounts," it quoted Colonel Lee Hyun-soo, a senior official in the export trade, as saying.
Over the past several years, South Korea has sought to improve its weapons technology to boost its deterrence against North Korea, which has a numerical superiority in troops but antiquated weapons systems.
The military has found increased opportunities for exports as it has improved its weapons.
What with a deepening global recession it's been pretty much a lousy 2008 for most folks, but it's closing on a very good note--if you happen to be an elephant, that is.
Come January 1, eBay's worldwide ban on ivory products goes into effect, a move that animal rights advocates hope will help protect elephant populations around the world.
The proliferation in the illegal trade of wildlife species has been aided by the use of the Internet. In a recent report (PDF), the International Fund for Animal Welfare found that about two-thirds of the global online trade in protected wildlife takes place on eBay's platform. The group said that poachers kill more than 2,000 elephants in Africa and Asia annually to meet demand for ivory products.
The sale of elephant ivory has been illegal since 1989 (although there are certain exceptions to the prohibition).
In a statement, Jack Christin, senior regulatory counsel for eBay had this to say:
"Due to the unique nature of eBay's global online marketplace and the complexity surrounding the sale of ivory, we decided to ban the sale of ivory on eBay. We appreciate the support from the IFAW in assisting us and we look forward to continuing to work with them on the implementation of the global ban. Like the IFAW, ultimately we feel this is the best way to protect the endangered and protected species from which a significant portion of ivory products are derived."
2008 in Ethiopia was Groundhog Year! It was a repetition of 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004… Everyday millions of Ethiopians woke up only to find themselves trapped in a time loop where their lives replayed like a broken record. Each “new” day is the same as the one before it: Repression, intimidation, corruption, incarceration, deception, brutalization and human rights violation. Everything that happened to them the previous day, the previous week, the previous month, the previous 18 years happens to them today. They are resigned to the fact that they are doomed to spend the rest of their lives asphyxiated in a Prison Nation. They have no idea how to get out of this awful cycle of misery, agony, despair and tribulation. So, they pray and pray and pray and pray… for deliverance from Evil!
2008-12-28 11:57:10 By Richard Mgamba and Rodgers Luhwago
Most Tanzanians may not have had much cause to smile during the year 2008, due to the tough economic situation, but they were gladdened by dramatic, historically significant events, topping the list being the government`s earnest move to probe and prosecute perpetrators of grand corruption.
Looking at the laundry list of the events spanning the past 12 months - the dramatic resignation of prime minister Edward Lowassa, the four-day historic visit by the world`s most powerful leader, US President George W. Bush, the resignation of three senior cabinet ministers, the EPA scam and the arrest and prosecutions of top individuals - the year under review was truly historic, and will remainfor a long time in the minds of the Tanzanians and even external observers.
Economically it was a tough year because of the dramatic surge of fuel prices at the global market reaching a record high of $146 per barrel, while food production plummeted extremely, posing a threat to millions of people, especially in the Third World.
At the global level, there was an ill-omened frailty about the economic trend following the financial turmoil that emerged suddenly during the last quarter of 2008.
In mid-September, the financial system came close to collapse. The failure of Lehman Brothers, the 158-year-old Wall Street investment bank, triggered panic in markets.
With the current uncertainty of international oil prices, the global financial economic meltdown already mounting pressure on the Nigerian banking industry, and the sheer confusion and politicisation of Budget 2009 proposal, MARCEL MBAMALU writes that it has become imperative for the managers of both the Nigerian economy and the business community to put on their thinking caps and tighten seat belts for a rough ride in 2009.
Three days to the end of the year, Nigeria appears to be neck-deep in what, for want of a better expression, one might describe as a reversal of fortunes.
Reversal of fortunes in the sense that the economy is taking a beating - the global economic meltdown is, indeed, taking a toll on Nigeria and the unmitigated impact, when carried over to 2009, portends greater difficulties for weaker countries of the world, including Nigeria.
In the last four years, Nigeria had enjoyed an unprecedented macro-economic stability, high revenue growth, and some impetus for growth.
Foreign Direct Investment, portfolio investment had climbed to an all-time high; remittances from Nigerians living broad had also been growing.
But all of a sudden, the economy began a very steep downward trend, at a rate that is, to say the least, very frightening to all stakeholders, especially the manufacturing sector.
First was the unseasoned bearish default in the stock exchange, which some analysts optimistically described as a mere flash in the pan.
But soon, the country was, again, hit by the hurricane of the decline in price of crude. Subsequently, foreign reserves began a process of depletion that brought the figure from $63 billion, to about $50 billion, only within a short time. Government revenue has been declining, with greater emphasis on tax collection.
LUSAKA, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Zambia has asked foreign mining firms to use profits they made when copper prices were high to keep working in the downturn, its central bank chief said on Monday after Luanshya Copper Mine (LCM) suspended operations.
Bank of Zambia (BoZ) governor Caleb Fundanga expressed optimism that copper prices would soon rebound but said the developments at LCM were a threat to the country's copper industry.
LCM shut down its Chambishi Metals Plc unit, the country's largest cobalt producer, and the Baluba copper mine soon after suspending the $354 million Mulyashi copper project, which had been due to start producing 60,000 tonnes of copper in 2010.
It cited operational difficulties arising from the global credit crunch as reasons for the decision.
"The fact that there has been a low copper demand and prices have seen a downward trend is a development with lots of implications. However, (mining firms) must be able to weather the storm, it's a bit too early to leave (and) it's not too good to leave in a rush," Fundanga told Reuters.
LONDON (Reuters) - Mining group Rio Tinto is seeking a meeting with the new military junta in Guinea to discuss its $6 billion Simandou iron ore project, the firm said on Monday.
Rio -- the world's fourth biggest diversified mining group by market value -- had been locked in a dispute about Simandou with the previous government of President Lansana Conte, who died last week, sparking a military coup.
"One of main priorities is that we want to fix up a meeting with the new government as soon as possible to discuss the situation," spokesman Nick Cobban said.
On Saturday, the military junta led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara in the West African state said "defective" mining contracts would be revised, without naming firms or projects.
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- South Africa's central bank may cut the benchmark interest rate for the first time in more than three years this week as the global credit crisis undermines economic growth and inflation eases. The Reserve Bank will probably lower the repurchase rate by half a percentage point to 11.5 percent on Dec. 11, according to 12 of 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The rest predict the rate will stay unchanged. Six interest rate increases since June last year have sapped consumer spending, helping push the retail industry into recession and restricting economic growth to a decade low. The central bank is under pressure to make its first interest-rate cut since April 2005 as plunging oil costs ease price pressures and a recession in much of Europe and the U.S. undermines demand for exports.
Africa is a continent of darkness and is desperately in need of power. Only one in three of Africa's 700 million people have electricity - and in the countryside only one in ten has light at the flick of a switch. Namibia is essentially a desert country and it relies on South Africa for almost half its electricity. However, it does have plenty of uranium and the government is already quietly getting on with a nuclear programme. "We are going for nuclear power, there is no question about it, but what we are going to do - I am not prepared to talk about it because we haven't even got legislation in place yet," said Joseph Iiata, the permanent secretary in Namibia's ministry of minerals and energy. "Why should we sleep in darkness if we have been given resources like uranium," he added.
THE signs are all around. In the spectre of cholera haunting the sewage-strewn streets of Harare's townships. In the fading bodies of the hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans surviving on wild fruits because their fields are barren. In the glass littering streets after embittered soldiers smashed their way into shops that stopped accepting Zimbabwe's near worthless currency as the inflation rate surged through the billions and trillions. But perhaps nothing is as disturbing a symbol of the collapse of governance in Zimbabwe as the ghostly corridors of the country's biggest hospital as patients are turned away from its doors to die.
Ghanaians queued up and began voting on Sunday to pick a new president in a tight race between two foreign-educated lawyers competing to lead the West African nation as it prepares to cash in on offshore oil reserves. Peaceful elections, as most observers are expecting, would be a shot in the arm for African democracy campaigners after electoral violence in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.Voters in the coastal capital Accra began forming hundreds-strong queues from the early hours."I was here at 3.15 (3.15am GMT). I'm anxious for my party to win," Gregoire Adukpo (62) a retired private security official, said at a polling station set up at a Catholic Church in Accra.
Johannesburg- Alex Mabizela is a poster boy for the lawless world of South African minibus taxis. Standing outside a taxi rank in central Johannesburg, amid drivers soaping down their cars and hawkers roasting corn on the cob on makeshift grills, he cuts a hapless figure, with his tattered shirt and mobile phone dangling from a cord around his neck. Then you notice his chest-high sjambok, the traditional whip made of hippopotamus hide, he uses in confrontations with other drivers. "When you start to talk you start to fight. You have a sjambok like this, you are going to hit some people," he explains. "Guns? Yes, there are also plenty of guns." From the chapa in Mozambique to Kenya's matatu, the privately- owned 16-seater minibus taxi is the transport of the masses in sub- Saharan Africa, ferrying people to and from townships in the absence of decent rail or bus services.
In a new partnership coordinated by the U.S. Government through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), leaders from the private sector are joining forces with the public sector and non-governmental organizations to revolutionize HIV prevention for youth through the Partnership for an HIV-Free Generation (HIV-Free Generation). “A key challenge in the fight against global AIDS is the ongoing need for innovation in HIV prevention. Over 7,000 people a day are newly infected with HIV worldwide,” said Ambassador Mark Dybul, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. “The Partnership for an HIV-Free Generation brings together an unprecedented coalition to address HIV prevention for youth. Initially in Kenya, this alliance combines PEPFAR’s technical and programmatic capacity with the expertise of the private sector in messaging, branding, new technologies, and real-time market research to promote and maintain behavior change.” PEPFAR has engaged with the following industry leaders from the private sector and well-established non-governmental organizations to comprehensively address youth prevention: Accenture, The Africa Media Broadcast Partnerships Against HIV/AIDS/ Global Media AIDS Initiative, APCO Worldwide, The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, The Draper Richards Foundation, Girl Scouts of the USA, Grassroot Soccer, The Global Business Coalition, Hasbro, Intel, Junior Achievement, AmericaShare/Micato Safaris, Microsoft, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP, The MTV Staying Alive Foundation, Nike Foundation, Rotarians for Fighting AIDS, TechnoServe, and Warner Bros. Advanced Media Services Inc. Youth are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection because they lack information, education, and skills; generally have a low perception of risk; and lack access to, and utilization of, health care services. Young women and girls are extremely vulnerable to infection due to biological and social vulnerabilities, such as having older partners, the inability to negotiate condom use, sexual violence, and other psychosocial and cultural factors. HIV-Free Generation will combine current evidence-based HIV prevention approaches with the private sector’s 21st century capabilities to promote and maintain healthy behaviors among 10-24 year old youth.
POZNAN, Poland (Reuters) - South Africa needs millions of dollars in aid to tackle environmental degradation, since it must also deal with problems ranging from poverty to AIDS, an environment ministry official said on Thursday. Among developing countries, South Africa is one of the most active in fighting climate change, and the United Nations, sponsoring climate talks in Poland, often commends it for its efforts. But South Africa says it needs international assistance to invest in environmentally friendly technology, such as solar power plants to replace coal-fuelled generators that supply 90 percent of electricity.
The South African government has established a nuclear task team to develop a framework for procuring a nuclear technology partner to support both the nuclear power station build programme, and the associated industrialisation process.“This will probably take about a year,” Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) DG Portia Molefe told journalists in Pretoria on Friday.This came after Eskom announced that it would not award the tender for the nuclear power station that was originally proposed to come into service in 2017. A consortium led by Areva of France, and another consortium led by US-based Westinghouse were the two preferred bidders for the contract, and negotiations had been taking place for about a year.The core change was that instead of just procuring only one power station, the task team would be looking for a partner that would co-develop the nuclear industry in South Africa, and assist in the introduction of broadening of the nuclear base, which currently consists of only the Koeberg power station.
The giant mining firm Barrick Gold Tanzania has said it is considering halting its operations in the country. Barrick Vice President, Africa Region, Gareth Taylor told this paper in an interview yesterday, shortly after he attended a workshop to launch the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) held in Dar es Salaam, a global mining `watchdog`. During the interview with selected media, Taylor said the mining firm had for several years recorded declining profits. He did not give figures, only stating: ``We are now thinking about our future operations in the country. This is due to the fact that the company has for several years not recorded profits. As a business company, this is a critical position where we are required to think about our future,`` he said. He said the widely exaggerated criticism that the mining firm was enriching itself through exploiting the mineral wealth of the country at the expense of its poor people was not true as the company paid all levies and taxes and that it operated in an open and transparent manner. ``All criticisms being levelled at us are not true. They are just unfounded claims which intend to tarnish the good image of our company. We are operating under rules and regulations stipulated in the mining laws and not otherwise,`` said Taylor.
Research institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific have three months to apply for a €33 million fund to boost their ability to compete for international research funding. The grant programme — the ACP Science and Technology Programme — is funded by the European Union (EU) and coordinated by the secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States. Its call for funding was announced last week (27 November).
The World Economic Forum announced 34 visionary companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2009 for their accomplishments as innovators of the highest calibre, and whose technologies will have a deep impact on business and society. The selection of these companies is the result of a vigorous selection process, for which the Forum received more than 320 applications from around the world that were evaluated by 44 global technology experts. The Technology Pioneers 2009 are active in fields such as in-body computing platforms for personalized healthcare; utility-scale solar power projects; mobile phone authentication methods to assure drug safety in developing nations; miniaturized 3rd generation mobile networks; traceability and assurance over food quality; and electric motors with unprecedented levels of energy efficiency and smart grid solutions. The entire list of Technology Pioneers, with their profiles and interviews with the executives of the selected companies, can be found at: http://www.weforum.org/techpioneers. This year’s class is one of the most geographically diverse ever: besides the traditional technology strongholds of North America and Europe, Technology Pioneers from the People’s Republic of China, Africa (Ghana and Nigeria) and Chile were selected for the first time ever, confirming the growing globalization of science and technology. All in all, the class of 2009 includes companies from 15 countries, with Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the USA completing the list.
NEXT year, Namibia will hold its fifth democratic elections, the fourth after political independence in March 1990. This time around, they will be held under the most volatile conditions thus far, accompanied by the spread of fear, intimidation and political violence. The spectre of political arrogance on the part of the ruling party and intolerance sweeping across the land is one of the most frightening of our time. The three elections that Namibia held previously were characterised by relative peace, and to his credit, Founding President Sam Nujoma remained relatively above the fray characterised by insults and intolerance that seems to have invaded the political leadership of the ruling party today.
The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said today that it was "well past time" for Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, to step down. Rice called on other southern African nations to take the lead on pressuring him to quit. Rice was in Copenhagen as part of a European farewell tour before George Bush leaves the White House on January 20.
By Vernon Wessels Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s rand fell against the dollar this past week as the stock market declined with those around the world on concern the global economy is headed toward a recession. The rand weakened as the country’s benchmark index of equities fell in the week by the most since October on concern slumping economies in the U.S. and euro region will erode demand for higher-yielding emerging-market assets. South Africa’s currency also slipped after reports showed manufacturing shrank at the fastest pace in at least nine years in November.
The scourge of rape on women and children (and men) comes under focus yet again in South Africa for sixteen days from Tuesday November 25th , as women’s groups, gender activists and other human rights groups draw attention to the ongoing onslaught on human dignity goes on unabated.
But it is not confined to this country only. And it has been going on in other parts of Africa for years, escalating during wars. In the Congo, stories of atrocities have been reported since the civil war started in the early 1990’s; with the world turning the other way. The situation is found in Iraq, where women are also exposed to retribution and isolation from their own families due to the traditional attitudes prevalent in Middle Eastern societies. The same phenomenon was seen in Bosnia during the war.
What is wrong with our society? What causes people to aggress others in such a humiliating manner; and so barbarically? Can we do something more than just feeling upset about this? Are governments and civilians equally to blame? What is the role of multinational companies in these ongoing horror stories? In the Congo a little-known mineral is the source of great wealth for governments, companies, rebels and adventurers as it is sought for the production and manufacture of cell phones. It is called coltan. I had never heard of it before. It is also used for laptops. I use both – and have never made any connection between my cell phone, my laptop and rape victims in the Congo. There are other highly-sought minerals in the Congo and other African countries.
Jan Goodwin in an article he wrote in February 1994, called these “blood minerals”: The commerce in these "blood" minerals, such as coltan, used in cell phones and laptops, cobalt, copper, gold, diamonds and uranium (Congolese uranium was used in the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki), drives the conflict.
But laptops and cell phones are not manufactured in the Congo, or in Sierra Leone, or in Liberia. So maybe there are some hard questions that need to be asked; and straightforward answers that need to be given. Where do we start?
In South Africa as we are preparing for elections next year, rape and its associate consequences should be high up on the agenda. The ANC ruling party’s preferred candidate for the highest office of state president was himself a rape trialist last year. He was acquitted. Yet so many questions remain in the public mind. His utterances about women during that trial and ever since have been a cause for concern, not only among women but also among ordinary decent people.
The ANC Women's League launched its plan for the annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign, saying its focus this year would be on consolidating and generating more awareness of the negative impact of violence on women and children, reports IOL online.
At the launch in Durban last Thursday, ANC Women's League provincial chairperson Lungi Gcabashe said the league would concentrate on increasing awareness of children's and women's rights, and challenge perpetrators to change their behaviour.
"We will engage with men and boys, starting within our structures in the ANC, to combat violence," she said.
There so many questions that we need to be asking ourselves. What do other political parties think about rape? And what do they think about violence to women and children (and men), what is called domestic violence? What do the moral guardians of society say, the church leaders, the Imams, the Rabbis; where is the voice of business and the trade union movement?
Maybe this should be a starting point to open a public debate, even before going to the wider issues of crime, and violent crime and its causes? Do we need to have our country to be drawn into the barbarism we have seen in the Congo, and that is still going on? Or should we be reminded by other horror killings like in Rwanda during 1994, while we were celebrating our own accession to political freedom on April 27 th? More than 800,000 people were butchered during that conflict which was fanned to no small degree by foreign government and business interests. That tragedy is often described as a tribal affair. My foot! That's too convenient.
Rwanda is accusing France of complicity in the killings; and diplomatic relations between the two countries have worsened since Rwanda published a judicial report backing up these claims early this year. Why can't the International Court of Justice be more forthcoming? And the EU's Human Rights Commision? The US could also show more candidness in the affair as they have been accused of knowing silence. The case of rwanda is not unique.
In the Congo more than nearly five million people have been reported killed from the on-going conflict. Who is responsible for all this? A French NGO, Survie, publishes regular reports on alleged French involvement in various conflicts in a number of Francophone countries. These are mainly igmored by the mainline media of both the West and Africa.
Is it possible to publish such material in Africa; and to protect our citizens from state terror?
Here are two articles on the rape tragedies of the Congo and Iraq that show what is happening to our fellow human beings while we are being kept in ignorant un-bliss. Where was the international media? And the Western governments and their African and Arab lackeys? Where were they? Where are they now in the Congo? In Iraq? Tomorrow it will be Zimbabwe – or is it today? Tomorrow it may be South Africa; or the Cameroun; or Gabon. Or is today?
Rape's vast toll in Iraq war remains largely ignored
Journalist, ex-trade unionist and freedom fighter; now a spiritual activist. Looking forward to the Resurrection of Africa. A silent witness to a Miracle.
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