This Status Report by Sikhalazo Dube on Current status of postgraduate training in animal production and veterinary science in southern Africa (SADC region): Strengths, gaps and priority areas for support was released on 22 December, 2009.

One of the five objectives of ILRI’s Capacity Strengthening Strategy is to facilitate building sustainable capacity of institutes to build capacity. This could only be achieved through building the capacity of the agricultural higher learning institutes and by facilitating the effective integration of research-based learning outputs (tools, methods and approaches) into the curricula of the learning institutes.

In order to establish the priorities for collaborative capacity strengthening activities of the learning institutes in the areas of animal production and veterinary services, ILRI commissioned five studies covering the following subregions: Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA region); Southern Africa (SADC region), West Africa (CORAF region); South Asia; and Southeast Asia. This report summarizes the findings of the gap analysis study for the Southern Africa (SADC) region. ILRI will make every effort to share and validate these findings and use this information in designing and implementing capacity strengthening activities in this region.

Download the paper

More on ILRI,

Members and supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party committed widespread, systematic rape in 2008 to terrorize the political opposition, said AIDS-Free World in “Electing to Rape: Sexual Terror in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe,” a report released today. These crimes against humanity have received little public attention and the government has made no effort to hold the perpetrators accountable. A concerted regional effort is needed urgently to bring both high- and low-level perpetrators to justice.

The 64-page report is based on extensive interviews with 72 survivors and witnesses, and documents 380 rapes committed by 241 perpetrators across Zimbabwe’s ten provinces. ZANU-PF supporters who carried out the attacks, including members of the “youth militia” and former soldiers in Zimbabwe’s war of liberation known as “war veterans,” identified themselves to their victims. All the women targeted were supporters of Morgan Tsvangirai’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

“The evidence is incontrovertible: Mugabe believes he can sanction rape without fear of consequences. Zimbabwe is perhaps the greatest test for ending impunity,” said Stephen Lewis, co-director of AIDS-Free World.

The testimony demonstrates that the rape campaign waged by ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe was both widespread and systematic, with recurring patterns throughout that cannot be coincidental. For example, the striking similarity of rhetoric about MDC political activity made before and during the violence; the uniform physical and emotional brutality of the rapes; the specific types of beatings and weapons on common parts of the body; the modes of detention and locations of the rapes; the circumstances and concurrent crimes as part of the broader attacks; and the consistent refusal of police to investigate and refer these cases for prosecution, taken
together, demonstrate a systematic, organized campaign. It is also exacerbating an HIV/AIDS crisis in a country where, according to statistics updated by the UN two weeks ago, eighteen percent of adults are infected with HIV. Rape helps to spread the virus farther and faster.

“ZANU-PF orchestrated its campaign of rape to terrorize, and destabilize entire communities,” said Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World. “Clearly, the tactic worked: Mugabe is still president.” Some women were forced to watch the rape of their daughters and murder of their husbands and other family members before or after they were raped. Several women were held as sexual slaves at ZANU-PF base camps for up to two weeks.

All the women who testified described either their fear of reporting their rapes, or the indifference they encountered from the police. They consistently ascribed the lack of police action to the close, well-known association between the local and national police and ZANU-PF.

The government of Zimbabwe was well aware of the widespread sexual violence against women during this period. The Joint Operations Command (JOC), the
supreme organ of Zimbabwe state security including the heads of the military, police, intelligence services, prisons, and reserve bank was responsible for masterminding the election violence. As the head of the government and the leader of the political party in power, Robert Mugabe had the ability to control both the JOC and his ZANU-PF supporters and failed to do so. Similarly, as the head of the government, President Mugabe could have insisted on addressing the rape campaign through prosecutions and the rule of the law. He did not. This combination of knowledge, the refusal to prevent, and the failure to punish the widespread political rape requires
that Robert Mugabe and members of the JOC should be investigated and prosecuted for their individual criminal liability for the rapes.

The report asserts that in Zimbabwe, both the police and the legal infrastructure are so seriously compromised as to make justice for systematic rape inside the country impossible. The majority of public prosecutors, magistrates, and judges are well known for their connections to ZANU-PF, making independent criminal prosecutions against ZANU-PF supporters unlikely. Zimbabwe’s domestic rape law requires that victims overcome insurmountable hurdles, and to risk the very real possibility of reprisals from authorities. And under Zimbabwe law, rape cannot be prosecuted as a concerted campaign, ordered from on high and executed on the ground.

“Electing to Rape” recognizes the severe limitations on legal accountability within Zimbabwe, and therefore looks at a number of compelling alternative routes to justice that exist in the region. High-level commanders could be tried in the courts of other African countries under the principle of universal jurisdiction. South Africa, in particular, has a universal jurisdiction statute implementing the Rome Statute, the international treaty governing the International Criminal Court. If it so decided, South Africa could try perpetrators of serious international crimes should they enter the country. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has its own
tribunal as well as other tools – including sanctions and suspension – that it could use to censure Zimbabwe. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights could also hear complaints of human rights abuses, and the African Union could take action against Zimbabwe to express its disapproval.
AIDS-Free World contends that the international community has a crucial role to play. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) should conduct a preliminary examination of sexual crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe in 2008 with the possibility of opening an investigation into the situation in Zimbabwe. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights should conduct an independent investigation that would culminate in a public report presented at the Human Rights Council.

Zimbabwean human rights activist Elinor Sisulu, who spoke at the Johannesburg launch of the report today, underscored the report’s focus on shared responsibility, “The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights obligates countries in our region to protect the lives and security of women and girls,” she said. “If victims cannot be sure that it’s safe to come forward, they will not be able to testify about the crimes they have endured. Accountability is the key to preventing the next round of rapes in
Zimbabwe, and there can be no accountability without the active participation of victims.”

Click here to read the full report online.
http://www.aids-freeworld.org/content/view/340/199/

According to a recent (26 Nov 2009) report from UNDP-WHO 56% or 3 billion people rely on solid fuels for cooking. In Sub Saharan Africa the number is 620 million people or 82% of the population. 90% is biomass and the rest fossil coal.

A traditional standard, reasonable 3-stove fire uses about 7-8 kg of dry wood per day. And say the average family in the developing world is 6 people (World average is 4) 3 billion divided with six is 500 million times 3000 kg is 1,5 billion tonnes.

An Improved Cooking Stove does the same job with 2-3 kg of dry wood.

While we are waiting for electricity to reach these people and for them to make enough money to afford such a luxury, we should distribute the Improved Cooking Stove technology and Sustainable Fuel Production concept. This would half the overall use of biomass and possibly more than half the need to cut down trees as we would also make pellets of from forest (sawdust) and agriculture residues (from rice husk to straw) not used for any purpose today.

The main three results would be:

1) Many of the 2 million women and children dying from respiratory illnesses would not die and many, many more would not suffer!

2) We would possible save 5 million ha of forest every year (say there is 200 MT/ha of dry biomass) if we cut down half the amount of trees.

3) If we measure the saving in green house gases ONLY from the reduction in biomass used and ONLY in the 1,5 tonnes/1 tonne biomass of CO2. the reduction is 1,1 billion into account.

However, if we take a closer look at the statistics, more than 10% of the Biomass is actually Charcoal, which takes 5 times it weight in production and 6-12 times higher GHG emissions. If we replaced charcoal with virgin/plain biomass, this would save:

Another 5 million ha of forest and another 1,1 billion of CO2, equivalents.

If this concept was implemented it would equal 2,2 billion CERs. 2009 the total yearly reduction in ALL CMD project will be 329 million CERs.

This is what the developing countries should have brought with them to Copenhagen!

http://www.tradeinvestsa.co.za/investment_opportunities/220641.htm

Quite by accident I was thumbing through a magazine in the lobby of where I am staying in Nairobi.  Two words caught my eye: Katima Mulilo…….

Apparently Namibia is in the process of creating The Zambezi Waterfront Tourism Park.  I am not exactly sure how I feel as tourism always seems to mar something which was once beautiful and simple – on the other hand, bringing in money to this impoverished area will raise up the living standards of the people and improve on the depleted wildlife which has lagged due to pollution issues – plastics.

It was so strange to see the ad as I know the exact area being described – I lived right by it.   It takes my Peace Corps adventure and seems to be turning it into a ‘theme park’ which is not what my Peace Corps adventure was about. Times, they are a changing and it would have never occurred to me that this would be an outcome of ten years ago.

Hopefully I will make it to this area sometime while living in Kenya, if not to say good bye to the past and welcome the future, to make peace with the past.

Where is Katima….my e-mail will now apparently be on the internet, not some village in the middle of nowhere Namibia.

By Udo W. Froese in Johannesburg, South Africa and Windhoek, Namibia.

Namibia, gimme some volume! We want to hear your music! Africa shouts: “Mayibuye i’Afrika!” And, “Viva, Namibia, Viva!”

SWAPO Party of Namibia, like MPLA of Angola, like Frelimo of Mozambique, like ZANU-PF of Zimbabwe, like KANU of Kenya and like the ANC of South Africa – they are from Africa. They are Africa! Africa identifies with them, as they are so much an integral part of Africa’s anti-imperial, anti-colonial-settler and anti-racist history. They paid the highest price. They paid with their blood.

One of Africa’s best muses, the late Brenda Fassie sang her African pride out loud, embracing Nelson Mandela and an ANC-led South Africa without imperial colonial-apartheid, where she too could now appear on every stage, not restricted to black townships and squatter camps only.

MaBrrrr, as Fassie was popularly known, reflected the real African. Her hits were sung everywhere in Africa. She spoke isiXhosa, isiZulu, SeTshwana, siPhedi, Tsotsi Taal, English and Afrikaans. She embodied Africanism. Another great African, the late Gibson Kente, trained sis Brenda.

Whether you like it or not, whether this columnist will be discarded as brazenly biased, or not – it is good to be in Africa.

One merely has to ask the international Western interest groups – theirs is however a loveless, indifferent, imperial and a greedy exploitational relationship at any cost. It is destabilizing and war mongering, hateful racist and ungodly. Yes, it is un-Christian!

Perhaps, the reader of this column might now understand, why Africa in general celebrates Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, when he tells the former imperial-colonial-racist master, Britain and their partners, to “go to hell”.

Remember the old colonial-apartheid Boer description of the British in Africa? They are crudely called “Souties”, or “Sout piele” in the Germanic-Afrikaans language or Boere Taal. Directly translated, this means “salties”, or “salt penises”.

This columnist ventured to ask, why? Their explanation to me was, “die een voet is in Afrika en die ander een in Engeland, maar hul piel hang in die Atlantiese Oseaan”. Translated this reads, “The British have one foot in Africa and the other in England, whilst their penises hang in the (salty) Atlantic Ocean. – Well, those imperial international Western British must have something, other Caucasians might be jealous of.

On the other hand, Africa is not necessarily blessed with that vague international Western export ‘Number One’ to Third World countries – “democracy” and all its other sweet-sounding, cancerous offspring, called “freedoms” of whatever.

As the ‘Caucasian international Western civilized’ destructive obsession with their so-called “balance of power” under the flag of democracy is executed amongst others by their well paid-up uncivil, self-righteous and racist “civil society”, organized crime syndicates and covert operations. And, their creations in the form of “popular opposition politics” continue their harassing attempts to discredit and destablise their own.

Believe it or not, the SADC has its fair share of such un-African attempts, funded and guided by foreign interests.

It seems part of the formation of one single block by 2018 – the SADC – that this region is being economically and politically undermined with the willing help of those political non-entities that were turned against their own history for a few Dollars more.

Historically, Africa has been the most brutally colonised and re-colonised continent.

Namibia, like Eritrea had been colonised twice: the first time by Germany (this columnist is a product of the Imperial German colonization of Namibia); the second time by South Africa immediately after World War 1, when Namibia was handed over to South Africa as C-Mandate by their international Western creation, the League of Nations, later the United Nations and thirdly, when the largest chunk of Namibia’s economy became South African owned.

Eritrea was first colonised by the Italians and later by the Ethiopians. Today, Eritrea is almost forgotten.

To defend neo-imperial-colonial ambitions in Africa is offensive and disrespectful for most Africans.

No matter how irrelevant political minions are, it must be hurtful for their mothers and fathers, their brothers and sisters, their children and their workers, when they become recklessly and viciously desperate and collude against their own kith and kin … for a few Dollars more.

Imagine being part of history and then selling it for small personal gain and leave no legacy for anybody.

Senior SWAPO Party leader, Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo once stated wisely, where there are human beings (with egos – the columnist) there are problems. How true.

Imagine, betraying oneself and the principles one once stood for to the point of being prepared to die for? Imagine then, announcing to the general public in Africa as a confirmed and confused renegade and to one’s followers, who are equally confused, that such renegades are “represented at all government institutions, including State House”. What does this say for the incumbent head-of-state? How would a head-of-state deal with such deliberate and intentional undermining? Does he have access to intelligence reports?

It is in Namibia that the Secretary General of the recently formed “Rally for Democracy and Progress, RDP”, Jesaya Nyamu proudly announced, “ RDP is represented everywhere you can think of. Even at State House. They are calling our representatives at State House ‘hibernators’ but those people are on a mission”. As a former senior SWAPO Party member, Nyamu was fired from the party too.

Namibia’s opposition political party, RDP under leadership of fired former senior SWAPO member, Hidipo Hamutenya, split from the ruling SWAPO Party a few years ago, similar to the Congress of Democrats, CoD, under Ben Ulenga.

As repeatedly mentioned, former African political struggle movements who form current governments, are stuck with continuous efforts of destabilisation, character assassination, concerted media onslaughts and vicious propaganda campaigns.

Namibia’s RDP/CoD/DTA; Zimbabwe’s MDC/ZCTU; Kenya’s ODM; Angola’s UNITA; Mozambique’s RENAMO and South Africa’s Cope/DA/UDM/FF+ all sing from the same hymnbook and from the same page, whether or not out of tune, doesn’t really matter. But, it is the old cacophony of the imperial international Western colonial interests in Africa.

The pattern is the same everywhere as the interests remain the same.

However, such noise of confusion reverberates in their own minds only and does not affect the general African public. This is an observation most, if not all representatives from the international West simply cannot understand, therefore not accept. They too are misled by localized greed.

Africa knows this by now. It is nothing new. Therefore it would be solid analysis to assume, SWAPO Party will win this election in Namibia too. In this context this columnist can safely claim that Namibia, SWAPO Party and Sam Nujoma are one.

End.

Earlier this month it was announced that Mugabe’s Kimberley Process cronies have decided to give him until June to withdraw the soldiers in the Marange diamond fields. The army runs smuggling operations and use forced labour in mines whose profits benefit Zanu-PF.

Human Rights Watch exposed the horrors of Marange in June. A task team from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme followed soon after and confirmed HRW’s findings. They recommended Zimbabwe be suspended from trading in diamonds.

But the horrors have continued. “As recently as late October 2009, [HRW] uncovered rampant abuses by the military in Marange including forced labour, child labour, killings, beatings, smuggling, and corruption,” says the rights body.

There is a clear case for Zimbabwe to be suspended. The gems from Marange are blood diamonds, extracted through the persecution and oppression of those living in the area. But no: Zimbabwe gets away with it. By letting them off the hook, “this diamond monitoring body has utterly lost credibility,” says Georgette Gagnon, HRW’s Africa director. She is absolutely right.

Having failed to do anything about the rights abuses and military occupation of Marange, over the past few months since abuses have been exposed, it is highly unlikely that Mugabe will implement the Kimberley Process’s recommendations by the agreed deadline. And with friends like South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, DRC and Russia — why should he? Doubtless they’ll rush to his defence in June next year.

So the army will continue its plunder. The diamonds will continue to be smuggled. The people — women, children included — will continue to be oppressed and exploited. And the revenues will continue to fund senior Zanu-PF apparatchiks’ lavish lifestyles. All the while, the country continues its implosion: blackouts roll across the country; people starve; hospitals have no medicine; sewage trickles in the street.

Perhaps we should all boycott purchasing diamonds (of course in these dark times it’s not like there are vast hordes rushing to the jewellery shop anyway). But let’s boycott nonetheless. If there was a significant drop in sales, perhaps the diamond-producing countries that allowed Zimbabwe’s shame to continue, will develop scruples. It’s worth a try.

After all, there’s very little one can do, it seems, except jump up and down — and weep, and pray that sanity may prevail in Zimbabwe. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s re-engagement with Mugabe in the sham “unity” government is a great pity. It means his threats are empty. Mugabe can continue regardless. Do you really think Mugabe’s going to fall in line within thirty days like Tsvangirai’s demanded he do? And what then — another deadline?

The unity government has failed to stop Zanu-PF’s reign of terror: human rights continue to be violated with brutal impunity. And the country continues to fall apart. Tsvangirai is an appeaser. His dalliance with Zanu-PF makes me curious: is he stupid, naïve, or has he been bought by Mugabe’s machine? He reminds me of Neville Chamberlain, and the British prime minister’s desperate attempts to secure “peace in our time” in the months before World War II. Well, as that tragic history showed us, appeasement only led to immense suffering, cataclysmic violence and upheaval.

If Morgan Tsvangirai really cares about his country and the members of his party that continue being persecuted, he must act decisively and abandon the marriage he should never have agreed to. Mugabe needs his foe — and bedfellow — to maintain his legitimacy. If the latter walks away, the promise of aid, investment and all the other lifelines that would prop up the Zanu-PF regime will be pulled away.

I admit, it’s not easy for old Morgan. His job is difficult. And lonely. Shamefully, the SADC (which should stand for Southern African Dictators’ Club thanks to its tireless support for Mugabe’s tyranny) is not interested in true democracy taking root in Zimbabwe. Rather, the regional body craves a continuation of the postcolonial aristocracy in which despotic psychopaths can pillage and persecute freely because they are somehow entitled to. SADC’s logic appears to be that such ghastly behaviour is reward for having liberated their countries from the Europeans.

But the threat of regional alienation is no excuse for Tsvangirai to be co-opted by SADC. It is no excuse for him to become the useful idiot acting out SADC’s wilful contempt for the democratic will of the Zimbabwean people. Zimbabwe has suffered long enough. It is time Tsvangirai stops talking and starts acting.

By Udo W. Froese

As was the case in South Africa’s elections in April 2009 and later, in November in Mozambique, their respective ruling parties and governments grew out of tried-and-tested struggle movements, taking charge from their former colonial-racist occupiers.

Former popular struggle movements also govern other member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Angola and Zimbabwe – the MPLA in Luanda and ZANU-PF in Harare respectively.

All of them have one thing in common – they reflect the interests, the faith and the trust of the average African populations.

Namibia finds herself in the middle of parliamentary and presidential elections and the ruling SWAPO Party seems on the winning trail again – since October 1989, when it won the first democratic elections.

Going by the current stand of votes cast in the coastal region of the ports of Walvis Bay and Luederitz, the analysis that the ruling party will retain its position in the democratic political mainstream, is spot on. The ruling party, SWAPO, will again govern Namibia, like its neighbours Angola, South Africa and Zimbabwe and fellow SADC member, Mozambique – where their former struggle movements form the respective governments today.

SWAPO seems set to win these parliamentary and presidential elections with a defined majority.

Africa’s Painful History of Struggle.

One of the most defining reasons for success of these ruling political parties is Africa’s long, brutal, exploitative race-based colonial history.

For as long as the majority of the population remembers the brutal occupation of former colonial-apartheid-racist South Africa and that of its silent partners in the international Western Judeo-Christian civilisation, with their continuous destabilisation efforts; “tribal and civil wars”; colonial-racist-occupational structures on all levels; a murderous rebel war involving the entire SADC region, hi-jacked as “defending the moral principles of the international Western capitalism against the communist-terrorist Soviet Bloc during the Cold War”.

The aforementioned war had cost hundreds of thousands of African lives. Never had Africa been exposed to such brutalities and torture, dehumanization, abuse, abject poverty, chronic starvation and reckless wars. The colonial-apartheid-racist South Africa took African land with brutal force until 1990.

Would someone please de-confuse this columnist’s understanding of the difference in the definition of the “Holocaust”?

Born in the third generation in Swakopmund, Namibia, Africa, of German colonial settler background well after World War 2, I have seen many international Western productions, read many of their books and other publications, even visited a Holocaust museum. To this day in 2009 I have been aware of the gruesome murder of six million Jews in Germany until shortly before the end of World War 2. This columnist took great strain and was seriously horrified and remains such.

Rightfully, Germany has paid serious reparations settlements to the international Jewish community and the state of Israel, which was formed in 1948. To this day and beyond the Germans will not be allowed to forget that horror.

But, as far as Africa and the mass-killings of Africans are concerned, the referral to a Holocaust thunders in its absence. The foreign-owned and controlled media simply ignores the millions of deaths of African people since World War 2. Are Africans lesser people, I ask from a Caucasian colonial-settler background? Is this Christian?

Meanwhile, Germany has officially apologised to the descendants of the Herero in Namibia for the brutal massacres of their forefathers under German colonial rule.

In the above context, SWAPO Party will certainly win these elections too, like their brothers- and sisters-in-arms in the rest of Africa. It is observed that no other political party can deliver the caliber of Namibia’s SWAPO Party; South Africa’s ANC; Angola’s MPLA; Kenya’s KANU, Mozambique’s FRELIMO and Zimbabwe’s ZANU-PF.

The aforementioned political structures are those of respected, mature and seasoned African leaders.

To assume otherwise, repeatedly attempting to discredit this history through abuse of power; abuse of the law and the judiciary; character assassination; continuous media propaganda; trying to unsettle those political movements and parties through a “foreign civil society”, covert and third force operations, attempting to render them corrupt and toothless old dogs, is in real terms not only an exercise of futility, but an insult to African structures.

South Africa’s Elections a Case In Point.

South Africa’s democratically elected President Jacob Zuma and the ruling ANC had to endure an eight-year long concerted onslaught of vicious daily media propaganda and strategised media disinformation campaigns to character assassinate Jacob Zuma and some of his supporters. This was purgery at its worst.

The abuse of power, of the constitution, of the law and the judiciary and of the media eventually caused the fall of recalled former President Thabo Mbeki and his inner circle. Their rolled-out action of defamation and purgery allegedly seemed to be viewed as a national and regional security threat.

It backfired, as was first demonstrated at the ANC Congress in Polokwane, Limpopo Province, in northern South Africa.

The majority of South Africans realised that it was wrong to centralize power and abuse it. They came out in their numbers and voted for the ANC and Zuma as their President.

Mbeki and his cohorts were disgraced and left embarrassed. Zuma and the real ANC form the government of South Africa today.

Namibia’s Embarrassment.

To now publicly claim that all former struggle movements in the SADC region that form today’s ruling parties and governments have won elections in their respective countries, because they had “moved ballot boxes to exchange genuine ballot boxes with fake ones” (as expressed by Hidipo Hamutenya), creates the perception that those utterances were made by an individual who “either whithers in despair, or is downright mischievously immature, or both”.

When asked for comment, senior academic analysts described the statement from Namibia as “irresponsible accusations” and as that of a “corrupt, colonised mindset of entitlement, un-African by nature”.

The response from senior members of some of the ruling parties in the SADC region was equally scathing.

That unfortunate statement was described as “coming from a confused and troubled mind of an individual, definitely not from an African”.  A senior member from ZANU-PF in Harare, Zimbabwe, stated, “the least said about that unsubstantiated and corrupt opinion of an individual, the better”.

A FRELIMO member in the Maputo Head Quarters described that statement as “unfortunate, misleading and unbecoming”.

All former struggle movements who form today’s governments in the SADC member states and beyond seemed to agree with the rebuke from government in Windhoek, which responded, “The leader of the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), Hidipo Hamutenya, is instigating instability and uproar in the SADC region by accusing all ruling parties in the region of cheating during elections.”

Similar to the political opposition parties RDP/DTA/CoD/RP in Namibia; the Cope/DA/IFP/FF+/UDM in South Africa; the MDC-T in Zimbabwe; RENAMO in Mozambique; the remnants of UNITA in Angola and Raila Odinga’s and his right- hand-man, William Ruto’s party in Kenya, all are not respected political structures in Africa for the reason that they are perceived to be forced into the respective countries and communities by racist-colonial international Western interests and backed by a foreign “civil society”.

A profound reason for not being accepted and respected, certainly not by African heads-of-state of most AU members with the exception of a few, is the serious discomfort most African leaders feel with same old exclusively imperialist-corporate-colonial interests backing the above-mentioned political groupings. Those are not Africa’s interests.

End.

source: BOPA
10 November, 2009

BOBONONG, – The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has a goal to eliminate malaria in the region by 2015, hence member states are urged to consolidate their malaria control and intervention programmes.

Giving a keynote address at the commemoration of SADC Malaria Day at Semolale in the Bobirwa Sub District recently, Bobonong East councilor, Mr Calvin Sekwababe said it was important to review progress towards attaining the goal.

“This year’s theme ‘Counting Malaria out!’ and the slogan ‘kick Malaria out: Act Now!’ highlight the importance of tracking progress along the way as we join forces to attain the SADC goal,” Mr Sekwababe said.

Speaking on behalf of Bobirwa MP, Mr Shaw Kgathi, the councilor said it was incumbent upon the region to [continue reading]

De Volkskrant van 10 november meldt, dat de investeringen door Schiphol voor de periode 2009-2014 teruggeschroefd worden met 1 miljard euro. De winst van Schiphol staat door de recessie zwaar onder druk. Dit is al enige tijd bekend. Des te opmerkelijker is het, dat de Gemeente Amsterdam, en dan met name GroenLinks wethouder Maarten van Poelgeest, heeft besloten een enorme kapitaalinjectie van tientallen miljoenen euro’s belastinggeld te steken in de semi-publieke projectontwikkelaar SADC (Schiphol Area Development Company) om dit bedrijf (waarvan de directeur wellicht meer dan de Balkenende norm zou verdienen (alles natuurlijk van ons belastinggeld)) in staat te stellen in de regio Amsterdam en omstreken Schipholgebonden bedrijventerreinen te kunnen blijven ontwikkelen.

Omdat de SADC dermate belangrijk wordt gevonden door Amsterdam, heeft men, teneinde de doorstart van dit bedrijf mogelijk te maken, de prachtige Lutkemeerpolder opgeofferd: deze locatie dient aan de SADC te worden overgedragen als ‘part of the deal’, zodat in deze prachtige ongerepte polder een nieuw, en volledig overbodig, bedrijventerrein kan worden gebouwd.

Het krantenartikel in de Volkskrant van vandaag toont wederom aan, dat de noodzaak van deze deal in het huidige tijdsbestek absoluut niet meer kan worden aangetoond. De Lutkemeer moet groen blijven; er is geen enkele reden daar een bedrijventerrein te vestigen, er zijn daarentegen talloze redenen de unieke historische polder te behouden voor de burgers van Amsterdam.

source: Mmegi
HUMPHREY NKONDE
Correspondent

NDOLA: Southern African Development Community (SADC) nations look set to benefit from massive investments in the agriculture sector that have every potential to transform the region’s agricultural landscape.

Atlas Farming, which had successful farming ventures in Zimbabwe from the late 1960s until president Robert Mugabe’s much criticised land reforms around 2000, has partnered with Chayton Capital to invest in large-scale farming in Zambia.

Atlas Farming is buttressed by Chayton Capital’s approximately Û 234 million of committed capital in Central and Eastern Europe .The joint venture has selected Zambia to kick-start investments in the agriculture sector in Africa due to, among other factors, political stability, diverse agronomic conditions and [continue reading]

A velha crise política do Zimbabwe está em discussão hoje, em Maputo, Moçambique.

Países africanos que integram o órgão de defesa da Cimeira da SADC tentam encontrar uma saída para o impasse entre Morgan Tsvangirai e Robert Mugabe.

Os dois participam do encontro.

Clique aqui e veja o que diz a BBC sobre o assunto.

Reproduzo abaixo um trechinho do texto da Angop, agencia de noticias angolana, que explica o problema:

O Zimbabwe encontra-se mergulhado numa grave crise política desde Março de 2008, no período pós-eleições. A SADC fez pressão sobre os protagonistas políticos e obteve a criação em Fevereiro de um governo de União Nacional, tendo Robert Mugabe como presidente e Morgan Tsvangirai como primeiro-ministro.

As duas entidades trabalharam em colaboração até meados de Outubro, quando Tsvangirai decidiu suspender todo o contacto com o campo presidencial após a detenção de um dos seus colaboradores.

Até ao momento, o clima continua deteriorado apesar das tentativas de mediação da SADC, que convocou a mini-cimeira de de quinta-feira, em Maputo, para tentar sair do impasse.

source: allAfrica
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
4 November 2009

Maputo — The SADC (Southern African Development Community) body on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation (commonly referred to simply as “the Troika”) will hold a summit in Maputo on Thursday, mainly to discuss the current crisis in Zimbabwe.

SADC Executive Secretary Tomas Salomao told reporters on Wednesday that the three major players in Zimbabwean politics, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Deputy Prime Minister Arthud Mutambara, and President Robert Mugabe, will attend, as will all three members of the Troika, its current chairperson, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, its past chair, Swazi King Mswati III, and the Troika deputy chair, Zambian President Rupiah Banda

Also expected at the summit are the current chairperson of [continue reading]

source: allAfrica
The Nation (Nairobi)
Kitsepile Nyathi
2 November 2009

Nairobi — A regional summit to try and break an impasse that threatens to bring down Zimbabwe’s unity government is set for neighbouring Mozambique.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), which brokered the power sharing agreement between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai mandated Mozambique, Zambia and Swaziland to tackle the Zimbabwean crisis.

Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Mr James Maridadi told various news agencies that the prime minister had received an invitation to attend the summit set for Thursday.

“Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai will be attending the conference in Maputo on Thursday to discuss the power sharing agreement,” he said.

The three countries that make up the troika on security and peace last week sent their [continue reading]

source: SW Radio Africa
30 October 2009
By Violet Gonda

Joseph Kabila, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, told journalists in South Africa on Friday that he didn’t believe the political deadlock in Zimbabwe was out of control. Kabila, the current chairman of SADC, was speaking as the SADC Troika on Defence, Security and Politics was in Zimbabwe on its ‘fact finding’ mission. The South African news agency, Sapa, said the SADC chair, who is expected to meet the political rivals on Saturday in Zimbabwe, said the regional bloc still believed that the implementation of the Global Political Agreement is the only solution to the problems affecting Zimbabwe.

However, while President Kabila is saying things are not out of control, his counterpart in Botswana disagrees. President Ian Khama said recently that the unity government is on the brink of collapse and [continue reading]

Van de website van D66 Amsterdam:

donderdag, 10 september 2009

In de gemeenteraad is gisteren besloten om de Lutkemeer 3 polder als “ontwikkelgebied” in te brengen in het gezamenlijke ontwikkelingsbedrijf Schiphol Area Development Company (SADC). “Daarmee zijn de kansen om de Lutkemeer 3 te behouden als groengebied vrijwel verkeken”, aldus fractievoorzitter Ivar Manuel. De Lutkemeer 3 polder ligt midden in de kop van de Westrandscheg, een uniek groengebied dat momenteel wordt ontwikkeld tot de Tuinen van West. Manuel: “D66 heeft indertijd het initiatief genomen tot behoud en groene ontwikkeling van dit gebied.”

De Lutkemeer 3 polder had toen al de bestemming bedrijventerrein maar omdat er nog geen ontsluiting van het gebied is aangelegd gebeurde er feitelijk niks. Dat gaf ruimte om de bestemming te herzien waardoor bijvoorbeeld de ecologische zorgboerderij de Boterbloem behouden zou kunnen blijven. Daarvoor is ook in het stadsdeel steeds meer steun. Door de Lutkemeer 3 in het te brengen in het SADC verliest de gemeente de grip op de ontwikkeling van het gebied. Herbestemming tot groengebied is daardoor onwaarschijnlijk geworden.

Fractievoorzitter Ivar Manuel: “Wij zijn zwaar teleurgesteld dat wethouder van Poelgeest (GL) zo met het groene buitengebied van Amsterdam omgaat. Als raadslid liet hij indertijd een heel ander geluid horen. Dat nu ook zijn partij GroenLinks de Lutkemeer opgeeft doet nog het meeste pijn. We zijn op dit punt altijd samen opgetrokken maar nu het erop aan komt geeft GroenLinks niet thuis. Ongelofelijk!”

By HOPEWELL RADEBE – Business Day

President Jacob Zuma ’s administration could significantly increase economic growth if it carefully spelt out the objectives of its economic relations with the US, says Witney Schneidman*, who advised Barack Obama’s presidential campaign on African affairs.

He was at the University of Pretoria yesterday, where he delivered a lecture in memory of the late US senator Edward Kennedy, who had a particular concern for SA.

Schneidman said SA was important to the Obama administration, but was trailing Angola when it came “to a game plan”.

“From the moment (US) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton landed in Angola to the time she flew out of Lusaka during her recent African Safari, they (Angolans) tabled their strategic document, which outlined goals and objectives about the two countries’ future relations.”

Schneidman, who was also deputy assistant secretary of state for Africa in the Bill Clinton administration, told Business Day yesterday the Obama administration wanted relations with SA that would advance the continent and the world on issues of climate change, alternative energy, agriculture development and capacity building for the continent’s institutions of democracy.

On Zimbabwe, he said the US would play a bigger role in a bid to help both SA and the Southern African Development Community resolve the political impasse.

Source: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=85185

* Witney Schneidman is a member of Idasa’s board in the USA

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai left for a four-nation regional tour to consult with leaders on the crisis in the southern African country.

Tsvangirai will meet Mozambique president Armando Guebuza in Chimoio on Tuesday. Guebuza is the chairperson on SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security.

The MDC leader will also travel to Angola, DRC and will meet SA president Jacob Zuma.

I must admit that I’m particularly happy about the decision that Tsvangirai and his MDC took to withdraw from communication with president Robert Mugabe’s party.

I often hear people talk about the unity government as a marriage but I beg to differ. In a marriage there is a husband and wife, and if we were to agree that the unity government is a marriage, who would be the husband, head of the family and who, would be the wife.

I think Zimbabwe’s unity government is more to do with two bachelors agreeing to start a business together. Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai share executive power and so cannot be classified as being in a marriage whether of convenience or genuine.

Mugabe has filled himself with the notion that he is the husband, the bully in the construed marriage that is why he behaves like an angry papa.

Tsvangirai to an extent is behaving like jilted lover, or a wife being subjected to brutal domestic violence, and always running to NGOs (SADC) for protection.

I think Tsvangirai must stand up to Mugabe in his face and tell him once and for all, that he is destroying the nation.

Concargo services include abnormal out of gauge road services into SADC that require special care and attention here – http://bit.ly/eyT6F

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has cut all contact with President Robert Mugabe, stopped attending cabinet and will not “sit with in meetings with an unreliable and repentant partner”.

MDC leader and Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told journalists after a meeting of his party’s national executive that he will also not attend policy development Monday meetings with Mugabe.

The disengagement effectively means a constitutional crisis in Zimbabwe.

“However, it is our right to disengage from a dishonest and unreliable partner. In this regard, whilst being government, we shall forthwith disengage from Zanu PF and in particular from Cabinet and the Council of Ministers until such time as confidence and respect is restored amongst us,” Tsvangirai said.

Tsvangirai demanded a resolution of the outstanding issues that include the appointment of central bank governor, Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana.

“This will include the full resolution of all outstanding issues and the substantial implementation of the GPA. We are aware of the Constitutional implications of our decision, in light of the foundational element of the transitional government that executive power is shared between the President, the Prime Minister and Cabinet,” said Tsvangirai.

“However, it is a Constitutional crisis which should be resolved if Zanu PF and its leadership know that there is a price to pay for procrastination. Naturally should this Constitutional crisis escalate, then the self-evident solution would be the holding of a free and fair election to be conducted by SADC and the AU and under UN supervision,” he added.

Exactly 264 days since the extra-ordinary summit of SADC of 26 January 2009 that directed the formation of the transitional government, which government started work on the 13 February 2009, that administration has still not been fully consummated.

The MDC complained that provincial governors have not been appointed to date despite agreement on every item.

“More indecently is the fact that even the government itself has not fully been constituted due to the failure to swear in the deputy minister of Agriculture. Perhaps more embarrassingly is the fact that there has been no review of the GPA nor of the ministerial positions six months after 26 January 2009.

The party accused ZANU PF of “a complete lack of paradigm shift on the part of Zanu PF”.

“Instead, we have seen total abuse and disrespect of the GPA and in particular of the MDC. Ministerial mandates have been changed unilaterally, government internal rules have not been changed to recognize the new reality. Over and above this, some government agencies, in particular few components in the National Security forces still behave as if the old order exists. The National Security Council itself has met only once in nine months,” said Tsvangirai.

“We are also aware of the extensive militarization of the countryside through massive deployment of the military and the setting up of bases of violence that we saw after the 29th of March 2008. Over and above this, we are aware of over 16 000 of Zanu PF youth functionaries who have been imposed on the government payroll,” he said.

The party also complained about “continuous selective and unequal application of the rule of law”. Tsvangirai said seven of his MDC MPs have been persecuted and convicted on shadowy charges whilst several others are on remand.

“The public media, in particular The Herald and the ZBC continue to treat the MDC and our leaders in government as if they were a third-rate treasonous and sell-out element instead of a genuine and equal partner in the transitional government.

The slow rate of movement and execution of positions agreed in the GPA is also as worrying as it is unacceptable. Indeed, the lack of real movement on the key issues of democratization of the media, the Constitutional reform process, the land audit and the rule of law issues in the GPA are issues that stick out like a sore thumb,” Tsvangirai said.

He said if the constitutional crisis persists UN supervised elections should be conducted.

Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, OSISA and Africa i-Parliaments Action Plan, is convening a Regional ICT Conference on “e-Parliament, concepts, policies and reality”, 12-14 October 2009, Cape Town, South Africa.
As the SADC region continues to witness an increase in the digital divide, it becomes critical for parliaments, as legal representatives of the most affected, to respond in a manner that will ensure the active participation of the electorate. Reducing the digital divide means ensuring the access to the Internet and that the benefits of accessing technology are extended even to the remotest parts of the countries; ensuring also that all sectors respond critically to the policy issues and that the backbone telecommunication infrastructure facilitates access to Internet. In order to effectively reduce this digital divide SADC needs a response that is anchored on policy and legislation and thus parliaments, as one of the important pillars for democracy, should take a leading role. The demand for inclusive democracy is pushing parliaments to be more transparent and accountable and ensure the active participation of their constituencies in the policy and decision making process of their countries. In the absence of an enabling and supportive legislative environment it is difficult to plan, allocate resources, monitor and oversee the effective implementation of any policies.
In the past few years the issue of access to information and the technologies that facilitate this has become a critical element of deliberations within the SADC Parliamentary Forum. A number of interventions have been conducted bringing together the relevant people to develop a road map for the crucial engagement of parliaments in the information society and the development of e-parliaments. These interventions have exposed members to a number of crucial issues and very significant recommendations have been put forward that call for:
the crucial role of Parliaments as political catalysts for the promotion of consistent strategies aimed at directing the information and communication technologies towards social and economic development goals; the identification of legislative instruments that can both enhance public and private interventions for the development of ICT and the Information Society; and the ensuring of  adequate protection of new and emerging rights and of the positive impact of new technologies on political representation and citizens’ empowerment and participation in public life.
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The focus on ICT Policy, Legislation and Internet Governance specifically for MPs at this conference comes from the realization that there is need for a more active engagement by parliaments in ensuring the development of an equitable information society for all. Internet has become the backbone for access to information and Africa lags behind in the access to Internet and even more in the global governance of Internet.
Therefore the Conference is aimed at providing an in-depth analysis of the existing national ICT policy and legislative frameworks to identify challenges and opportunities to harmonize the ICT policy and regulation at regional level. More specifically the workshop seeks to achieve the following objectives:
1.    identify existing gaps in implementing ICT to develop a network of e-parliaments;
2.    facilitate the interpretation of ICT Policy frameworks and provide a basis for a harmonised model;
3.    provide a forum for ICT Managers to deliberate on designing tools that will facilitate the achievement of e-parliaments;
4.    identify challenges and opportunities that can facilitate the quicker achievement of e-parliaments in the region and foster inter parliamentary cooperation;
5.    further the discussion on access to the Internet, broadband and affordability of the Internet;
6.    initiate discussions on Internet Governance to ensure the inclusion of African issues in the global agenda.

Source: www. sadcf.org