WEST AFRICA: Family pressure fuels illegal migration

DAKAR, 8 September 2008 (IRIN) - Sibling and family rivalries, parental and community pressure, continue to encourage undocumented migration, according to a four-country “Irregular Migration in West Africa” study released by the Soros Foundation-funded Open Society Institute of West Africa (OSIWA).

Researchers for the non-profit Dakar-based advocacy organisation spent three months interviewing about 100 undocumented migrants and their families in Mali, Senegal, Ghana and Mauritania to learn why and how people continue to migrate illegally despite multiple death-at-sea reports, heightened border controls, and at-times deadly security crackdowns.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80230

ZIMBABWE: Small scale farming seen as only alternative for food security

JOHANNEBSURG , 22 September 2008 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's fledgling unity government cannot agree on much, but when it comes to the land issue President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) share common ground - any return to the pre-2000 pattern of land ownership is non-negotiable.

In 2000 Mugabe launched the fast-track land reform programme, a chaotic and at times violent redistribution of about 4,500 white-owned commercial farms to landless black Zimbabweans; a policy big on patriotic exhortation, but limited in terms of direct assistance to the new small-scale farmers.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=80524

Why Mbeki was fired

Moffet Mofokeng, Caiphus Kgosana and Sabelo Ndlangisa

20/09/2008 19:41 - (SA)

DEPUTY President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is set to lead an exodus of cabinet ministers who are unhappy with the ANC national executive committee (NEC) decision to axe President Thabo Mbeki.

Despite this, ANC president Jacob Zuma is expected to reassure ANC deployees in government that the party wants them to remain in their positions.

http://www.news24.com/City_Press/News/0,,186-187_2396935,00.html

Finally: Zim deal signed

Article By:

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:30

Zimbabweans on Friday waited to hear details of a power-sharing deal reached by the country's political rivals in a bid to end a bitter crisis after marathon talks that centred on how much authority President Robert Mugabe would cede.
South African President Thabo Mbeki — who has long served as mediator in the talks — announced the agreement in Harare on Thursday, where he had been since earlier in the week to try to overcome a deadlock in the negotiations.
"An agreement has been reached on all items on the agenda... all of them endorsed the document tonight, signed it," Mbeki told reporters. Details of the deal were not released and Mbeki said the agreement would be made public only after a formal signing ceremony scheduled for Monday.

http://news.iafrica.com/worldnews/1146400.htm

DEVELOPMENT: U.N. Warns of Faltering Goals on Aid, Trade

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 4 (IPS) - When the United Nations approved a set of development goals on poverty, health, gender empowerment, and sustainable environment back in September 2000, it laid down a deadline of 2015 to reach these targets.

Of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) endorsed by the General Assembly, seven had a clear-cut deadline of 2015 as the target date.

But the eighth goal -- a North-South partnership for development, mostly underlying the obligations of Western industrial nations -- did not carry a rigid deadline.

"The deadlines were meant for the poor, not for the rich," says one cynical Third World development expert, who has been tracking the status of MDGs since their inception.

The eighth goal (MDG8) calls for a substantial increase in development aid; reduction or cancellation of developing countries' debts; removal of protectionist barriers for agricultural products; and access for developing nations to western markets.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43793

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Why The Richest Continent Is Also The Poorest

By Miriam Mannak

ACCRA, Sep 5 (IPS) - The ecological impact of natural resource exploitation on the lives of the poor in Africa and other regions is not being addressed sufficiently in aid effectiveness and development discussions, aid experts say.

"Africa is known as one of the richest parts of the world when it comes to natural resources, yet it is also the poorest region -- despite the natural wealth and the aid flow," said Charles Mutasa, executive director of the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) – a Zimbabwe-based NGO working on Africa's debt problem.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43808

Denel seeks more equity partnerships

September 12, 2008

By Roy Cokayne

Pretoria - Denel is in negotiations with local and international defence firms to conclude equity partnerships for some of the defence parastatal's other businesses.

Talib Sadik, Denel's acting group chief executive, said the company was looking for an equity partnership for its missiles business and the broader Denel Dynamics entity.

"We are in discussions with an interested party. Those discussions are at an exploratory stage," he said this week at a presentation of Denel's latest financial results

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?from=rss_&fArticleId=4606522