29th November, 2008.
Dear Family and Friends,
A few days ago I had no choice but to travel past the farm my husband and I legally bought in 1990 but which was grabbed from us by a mob of government supporters 10 years later in 2000. In the eight years since then I've never had any official written communication from the government of Zimbabwe about the farm - not even a letter informing me of the state acquisition of the property. I've never been offered or received any compensation for the assets seized. I am not talking about the land itself but about the improvements on it including workers' houses, farm buildings, a dairy, spray race, tobacco barns, trading store, dams, borehole, water pumps and pipes, an electricity transformer and scores of kilometres of fencing. Nor has the government of Zimbabwe given any compensation for our home on the farm or for all the fixtures and fittings that were in place in our fully functional house. Nothing has been given to any of the men and women who worked for us on the farm either - not land, money, homes, jobs or pensions.
Believe it or not, this lack of official paperwork concerning the seizure of the farm and then the non payment of any compensation at all, is something that the vast majority of Zimbabweans are not aware of. Mostly we just don't talk about the farms anymore, its become a topic of shame, embarrassment, disgust, contempt.
What I saw this week as I drove past the farm to which I hold the Title Deeds, filled me with deep sadness at the widespread destruction. All the fencing has gone - many kilometres of it. Thousands of trees planted for poles and timber have been chopped down. All the contours which protected the land from erosion have gone. The roofing on the dairy has gone. The workers houses - made of brick and cement - have all been smashed down into piles of rubble. The tin roof sheets have gone. The metal door and window frames have gone. The borehole pump, motor and pipes have gone. The roofing on the tobacco barns has gone. The farm store which used to sell groceries, fresh produce and milk has been turned into a beer hall. The state of the farm dams and the main farmhouse is unknown, this is a no-go area. The local people call it The Jambanja Place and they speak scornfully of the people on the farm as the Jambanja People. (The word Jambanja has many connotations but mostly it means a violent struggle)
It's been eight years since Zanu PF put us into a perpetual state of jambanja and now Zimbabwe is completely stricken. A lethal cocktail of hunger, disease, super hyper inflation, infrastructural collapse, brain drain and emigration is decimating our population and crippling our country.
This week a ruling was made by SADC in the test case of 78 white Zimbabwean farmers trying to keep their land. Judge Louis Mondlane, President of the SADC Tribunal said that the Zimbabwe government "is in breach of the SADC treaty with regards to discrimination." We wait to see if these are just words and if SADC hold any sway when it comes to dealing with one of their own breaking 15 nation treaties. While we wait ever more Zimbabweans have no choice this Christmas but to flood into neighbouring countries in search of food, medicines, and work.
I will be taking a break for a while but wish all Zimbabweans, wherever you are in the world, a blessed, peaceful, healthy Christmas. 2009 will be better!
Until next year, thanks for reading,
love cathy.
Vanessa Heaney reports on the violence in Nigeria!
Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed in central Nigeria after Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election.
A Muslim charity in the town of Jos says it collected more than 300 bodies, and fatalities are also expected among Christians.
There is no official confirmation yet, and figures are notoriously unreliable in Nigeria, says the BBC's Alex Last. Police have imposed a 24-hour curfew and the army is patrolling the streets. They have been given orders to shoot on sight in an effort to quell hostilities that mark the worst clashes in the restive West African nation since 2004.
For the second straight day on Saturday, angry mobs went through the town burning homes, churches and mosques. The Nigerian Red Cross says at least 10,000 people have fled their homes.
The mostly Christian-backed governing party, the People's Democratic Party, was declared to have won the state elections in Plateau state, of which Jos is the capital city.
The result was contested by the opposition All Nigeria People's Party, which has support from Muslims. Violence started on Thursday night as groups of angry youths burnt tyres on the roads over reports of election rigging. Bodies from the Muslim Hausa community were brought into the central mosque compound. The local imam, Sheikh Khalid Abubakar, said more than 300 dead bodies were brought there on Saturday alone.
Those killed in the Christian community would probably be taken to the city morgue, raising the possibility that the total death toll could be much higher. Police spokesman Bala Kassim said there were "many dead," but couldn't cite a firm number. Despite the overnight curfew, groups in some areas took to the streets again as soon as police patrols had passed by.
In 2001, more than 1,000 people died in religious clashes in the city, situated in Nigeria's fertile "middle belt" that separates the Muslim north from the predominantly Christian south. And in 2004, a state of emergency was declared in Plateau state after more than 200 Muslims were killed in the town of Yelwa in attacks by Christian militia.
Correspondents say communal violence in Nigeria is complex, but it often boils down to competition for resources such as land between those that see themselves as indigenous versus the more recent settlers.
In Plateau, Christians are regarded as being indigenous and Hausa-speaking Muslims the settlers.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
"DEMOCRACY IS BEING ALLOWED
TO VOTE FOR THE CANDIDATE
YOU DISLIKE LEAST" !
______
Posted by: Mara at November 29, 2008 16:04 |
link | comments |
sayings
A leading South African scientist has warned that gross underinvestment in water management has left it at risk of a cholera outbreak.
Five people have died from cholera in South Africa, after crossing from Zimbabwe, where a recent outbreak has killed more than 300 people.
Anthony Turton told the BBC that unless South Africa increased its spending on water, it was heading for disaster. He was recently sacked from a state body over his report on water safety. Mr Turton was suspended by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) last week after being prevented from presenting a paper in which he concludes that South Africa is "heading for a significant crisis in the water sector".
His report said:
• Investment in South Africa's water quality has fallen sharply since the 1980s
• Decades of mining for gold and other minerals has left much of the water supply heavily polluted with heavy metals and other pollutants
• Many municipalities across South Africa have no qualified engineers.
Mr Turton said the situation was still very different to that in Zimbabwe but compared it to a plane losing height.
"Unless we alter course, we are heading for a disaster," he said.
Cholera is a water-borne disease, which spreads rapidly if water supplies are contaminated - there is no evidence that this is the case at the moment in South Africa.
In the paper, Mr turton outlines the issues that have led to this situation, saying that South Africa has failed to maintain its investment in the infrastructure needed to maintain a clean water supply.
In the decades since the 1980s, spending on treatment works, pump stations, reservoirs and other items has fallen sharply. In the 1980s it hit 40,000m rand ($4,080m). By the 1990s this had fallen to around 17,000m rand ($1,734m) and then to about 4,000m rand ($408m in the 2000s.
This fall, says Mr Turton, was matched by a skills shortage. Qualified engineers, most of whom were white, were not replaced by younger, men and women. Many are now close to retirement age, and younger whites, says Mr Turton, have been discouraged by affirmative action and many have simply left the country. As a result, Mr Turton argues, South Africa is faced with increasing problems of water quality.
The CSIR has issued a statement denying reports that it had gagged Mr Turton and that he was suspended for what are called "inappropriate statements" to the media. The CSIR says Mr Turton's presentation used inappropriate material, including an image of a person being executed by a burning tire placed around their necks during the 1980s. They also question his scientific argument.
But a number of organisations have come to Mr Turton's support. A petition launched by the Federation for a Sustainable Environment described Dr Turton as a "present-day giant" and called for him to be reinstated. South Africa's Minister of Health Barbara Hogan said South Africa was not facing a severe cholera crisis, but said the country was dealing with the disease as a matter of urgency, with nearly 200 cases reported so far.
Local government officials said the quality of water at the town of Musina and the crossing of Beit Bridge had been tested and that it showed no signs of being contaminated with cholera.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Mediators are returning to their base after the Ugandan rebel leader, Joseph Kony failed to sign a peace deal. The mediation team is expected to return to the remote area near the Congolese border on Sunday to try once more to have the deal signed.
During the tortuous two-year negotiations, Mr Kony has failed to appear on several previous occasions. The mediation effort is being led by former Mozambiquan President Joachim Chissano and Sudan's Riek Machar. They are returning to the Southern Sudanese capital, Juba, leaving some of their team on the ground, hoping that the process can be brought to a successful conclusion on Sunday.
Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebel leader Joseph Kony has not showed up to previous signing ceremonies on several occasions during two years of protracted negotiations. Mr Kony has in the past blamed the Ugandan government for jeopardising the talks, by moving troops into the area, in an attempt to assassinate him.
Earlier, Uganda's government said it would ask for arrest warrants for Mr Kony to be lifted if he signed. But Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa made it clear that Mr Kony must sign the deal first before the issue of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was addressed.
"We were only prepared to talk to the ICC about an alternative method of resolving that dispute, and also of justice in the country, only if peace is going to come to the people of northern Uganda," he told the BBC's World Today programme. He added that as far as the government was concerned Mr Kony was the only serious obstacle to a final peace agreement being signed by the two sides. "Our people are ready to sign any time, but Kony is the one who has been eluding us," he said.
Before today's setback Mr Chissano told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that he understood Mr Kony was heading to the signing ceremony in Ri Kwangba in South Sudan from his jungle hideout in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The UN special envoy said he could not guarantee that Mr Kony would sign this time, but he was optimistic. "I don't have reasons to doubt that he'll not show up, because all the indications which he gave coming up to now are encouraging so I'm more confident than a few weeks ago," he said.
A one-year suspension by UN Security Council of the arrest warrants would give the government time to prove that it was able to deal with the matter, Mr Chissano said. "I think that the UN Security Council would facilitate because the alternative is to have Kony forever in the jungles of Congo."
The LRA has led a rebellion for more than 20 years which has displaced some two million people in northern Uganda.
BBC NEWS REPORT!
By Andrew Walker - BBC News, Johannesburg
In a quiet street behind Johannesburg's Park bus station, Warren waits for customers for his minibus to Zimbabwe. Buses arrive every day dropping migrant workers in the city, but not many have time to go back home because they are so busy working.
But Warren doesn't take people, he takes cargo and money to migrant workers' families. They trust him to take sacks of maize meal, rice, oil and hard currency back home where people desperately need them.
Warren is one of around 20 bus drivers, standing around chatting and chomping on watermelon, waiting to fill their buses. "We take things for about 20 or 30 people at a time, depending on what they want to send," he says.
A small box can cost 200 rand ($20, £13) to send to Harare, bigger sacks cost much more. They also take envelopes of hard currency to people waiting in Zimbabwe, for a price. They charge a 20% commission on 1,000 rand. But Zimbabweans don't have much choice as electronic money transfers don't reach rural areas. And their own currency is now totally worthless, teachers can't even buy a loaf of bread with their monthly pay.
A ragged cardboard sign shows his destinations, but he'll take a delivery right to the customer's door and then phone them when he's back to say "job done". David, a 26-year-old painter has been using these minibuses for two years to take back food for his family. He has seven people to provide for. "Only three are working, but that isn't enough, there's nothing to buy, nothing." The whole system works on trust. "It wasn't easy the first time to trust them," he says. "I kept calling them constantly finding out how far they had got, but when my family called to say they had received it, my mind was settled."
An estimated three million Zimbabweans have gone to earn their living in South Africa, as their economy has collapsed at home. The bus drivers are anticipating a rush in demand at the beginning of December, as people start sending things back for the festive season. With no end in sight to the crisis, these couriers will be in business for some time.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
By Martin Plaut - BBC's Africa analyst.
A southern African regional court has ruled in favour of more than 70 white farmers who faced expropriation under Zimbabwe's land reform programme. In a landmark ruling, the court, which sits in Namibia, ruled President Robert Mugabe's reforms were discriminatory.
Farmers should be allowed to return to their farms unhindered, the court said. The ruling was greeted with jubilation by the farmers. "It's unbelievable," said one. "The end of a long battle. We are going home to farm."
But it may not be quite that easy.
Although Zimbabwe's ambassador to Namibia, Chipo Zindoga, said the government would respect the ruling, she warned that the government's land reforms would not be halted. And this has been at the heart of the issue.
Land is a highly emotive subject in the region. Whites took land from Zimbabwe's black farmers by force at the start of the 20th Century. And when Mr Mugabe led the country to independence there was an expectation the process would be reversed.
But by 2000, just 4,400 white farmers still held a third of Zimbabwe's land - much of it the best farms. One million black peasant farmers scratched a living on about the same area. Since then the government has seized all but a handful of white-owned land. It is these farmers who have won this ruling at the Southern African Development Community court, which says in essence that all citizens must be treated equally, regardless of their race.
The judgement will have ramifications across the region. South Africa is planning to redistribute nearly a third of its agricultural land. If the colour of a farmer is no longer a legal criteria for pursuing land redistribution, this programme could be put on hold.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Four men have been killed after Sierra Leone's navy acted against a pirate attack, police say. A group of pirates from neighbouring Guinea opened fire on a Chinese fishing vessel, the Shanghai Three, police spokesman Ibrahim Samura told the BBC. He said following the intervention of the navy, two pirates were shot dead and two men believed to be Guinean soldiers drowned.
A BBC reporter says pirate attacks are rare in West Africa, outside Nigeria. At least four alleged pirates, from Guinea and Sierra Leone, were arrested. "The pirates boarded the vessels... and put the crew under gunpoint. We responded to a distress call from one of the vessel's captains and a three-hour battle ensued," Mr Samura said.
The fishing boat's Chinese and Sierra Leonean crew was unharmed. BBC West Africa correspondent Will Ross says there have been warnings that piracy is growing in the region and the small under-resourced navies need help to counter the threat. The fact that West Africa is being used as a staging post for Latin American cocaine is adding to the insecurity.
Our correspondent says there have also been several oil discoveries in the region and there is a need to improve the protection of these offshore installations. Fishermen who complain that illegal trawlers are depleting fish stocks would also welcome better policing of the West African coastline, he says.
The waters off Africa's east coast are the most dangerous in the world. Earlier this month, Somali pirates seized a Saudi super-tanker carrying 100m barrels of oil.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
A team of South African bodyguards have been explaining how they led 120 hostages to safety from a hotel seized by gunmen in the Indian city, Mumbai. The guards, armed only with knives and meat cleavers, helped other hotel guests to safety down a fire escape. They carried a traumatised old woman in a chair down 25 flights of stairs.
"Everybody was calm and no-one became hysterical," said Bob Nicholls, director of the security company in Mumbai for a cricket tournament. Mr Nicholls said he and his employees were eating in the restaurant and were planning to get an early night when they heard shooting in another part of the five-star Taj Mahal hotel. The seven bodyguards were in Mumbai providing protection for cricketers playing in the Indian Premier League tournament.
They barricaded the doors to the conference centre shut with tables and refrigerators and kept guests calm while they worked out what to do. "Shortly afterwards, we felt explosions rock the building and I became worried about how safe the people were behind those glass doors," Mr Nicholls told South Africa's Beeld newspaper.
"We put the lights off in the restaurant to give us an element of surprise," bodyguard Faisul Nagel told the AFP news agency. They watched the lifts to see if the gunmen were coming their way. When they realised the building was on fire they began to move the other hotel guests out. "We told the security manager of the hotel to tell the police not to shoot, and then walked everyone down the fire exit at the back of the hotel very quickly," Mr Nagel said. Mr Nicholls said they had all been trained how to deal with threatening situations.
Meanwhile, all the South African nationals who were trapped in the other hotel attacked on Wednesday have now been freed. South African officials said the Indian security forces had evacuated the remaining seven nationals from the Oberoi hotel, and they were safe.
Another five had been evacuated earlier. All worked for the national airline, SAA. Indian commandos who managed to enter other parts of the Taj Mahal say they found at least 30 bodies in one hall. It is not clear if that number is included in the reported overall death toll of 130.
Gunmen armed with automatic weapons and grenades targeted at least seven sites in Mumbai late on Wednesday, opening fire indiscriminately on crowds at a major railway station, the two hotels, the Jewish centre, a hospital and a cafe frequented by foreigners. The attacks are the worst in India's commercial capital since nearly 200 people were killed in a series of bombings in 2006.
A claim of responsibility has been made by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen. However, most intelligence officials are keeping an open mind as the attacks have thrown up conflicting clues, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Zimbabwe's political parties have agreed on constitutional changes central to a power-sharing deal, an opposition spokesman has said.
But Nelson Chamisa said that other issues remained outstanding before a unity government could be formed.
The changes agreed in South Africa pave the way for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to become prime minister - as outlined in a September deal.
The rivals have still not agreed on the allocation of cabinet posts.
President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) agreed to share power after disputed election to try to rescue the economy.
Mr Chamisa stressed that the agreement on the draft constitutional bill was one of just five outstanding issues.
Asked how he thought the talks were going, he told the BBC: "If you're optimistic, the glass is half-full, if you're pessimistic, it is half-empty." He said the talks had now ended in South Africa and the delegates would return to Zimbabwe for consultations with their respective party leaders.
Mr Tsvangirai has accused Mr Mugabe of going back on the spirit of the power-sharing agreement by trying to keep control of all the major cabinet posts.
Mr Mugabe has threatened to name a government on his own if the MDC refuses to join a unity administration.
Southern African leaders have urged the MDC to accept an offer to share the ministry of home affairs which controls the police. But Mr Tsvangirai refuses, pointing out that Mr Mugabe wants defence and state security.
Zimbabwe's economy is in meltdown, while the country is being ravaged by cholera, which has killed at least 360 people.
The health and education sectors are reported to be on the verge of collapse.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
South African state lawyers have appealed against the dismissal of corruption charges against African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma. The charges were rejected on a technicality in September, sparking a political row, which led to President Thabo Mbeki leaving office. The judge accused the state prosecutors of interfering in the case for political reasons.
Mr Zuma is favourite to win general elections due next year. Security is reported to be tight outside the Supreme Court of Appeals in the central city of Bloemfontein Mr Zuma was surrounded by bodyguards when he arrived at the court where a large number of journalists were gathered, the South African Press Association reports.
Mr Zuma's supporters started arriving in buses shortly after the legal teams, and have been singing their support for the ANC leader outside the courthouse.
Mr Mbeki denied any political interference but lost an appeal against that part of the judgement earlier this month. But he is expected to argue in court that he should be allowed to be party to the case. He argues it was unfair of Judge Chris Nicholson to pass judgement on his government's actions without giving him the right to defend himself. Mr Mbeki lost a bitter contest for the leadership of the governing ANC to Mr Zuma last year.
Mr Zuma has always denied charges of graft, money-laundering and racketeering, stemming from a controversial $5bn 1999 arms deal. Judge Nicholson stressed that his September ruling had no bearing on the guilt or otherwise of Mr Zuma.
But dismissing the charges meant that Mr Zuma would be free to lead the ANC in the elections.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Zimbabwean playwright Cont Mhlanga, an outspoken opponent of Robert Mugabe's regime, has been honoured with an international award. Mhlanga has won the inaugural $50,000 (£33,000) Artventure Freedom to Create Prize for his politically-charged satirical play The Good President. The prize was created to honour artists who defend their freedom of expression at great personal sacrifice.
Mhlanga was one of several people and groups honoured at the London ceremony. He was described by the philanthropic organisation as a "fierce opponent" of the Mugabe regime.
The Good President depicts an African dictator who has ruled Zimbabwe for 27 years since the country gained independence in 1980. The play is presented as a fictional account, but closely mirrors recent and current events in Zimbabwe.
Speaking from Zimbabwe, Mhlanga said: "I am extremely humbled by the recognition of my work. This award is not just for me, it is for those artists who are victimised for working with me, and it is an award for theatre in this country. "Theatre is the only tool that amplifies the people's voice in Zimbabwe."
A statement from Artventure said Mhlanga had been "challenging and questioning state ideologies, policies, corruption, nepotism and leadership" for more than 25 years. Mhlanga will dedicate £16,000 of his prize towards making his work available to a wider audience and to the southern Africa region.
Second place went to the Belarus Free Theatre, an underground project founded in 2005 as an artistic means of resisting censorship.
Pakistani-Norwegian singer and human rights activist Deeyah, nicknamed "The Muslim Madonna", was third.
Burmese satirist Zarganar, who was recently imprisoned for 45 years, was awarded the Imprisoned Artist Prize.
The £16,000 Youth Prize went to City of Rhyme, a 14-strong hip-hop group from northern Brazil, whose lyrics condemn violence.
BBC NEWS REPORT
By Muliro Telewa - BBC News, Kisumu
Boats approaching the tiny Migingo Islands on Lake Victoria are greeted by the surprising sight of a Ugandan flag flying high above a collection of shiny tin shacks.
The three islands are located about two hours by motorboat from the Migori district of western Kenya.
According to officials from Uganda and Kenya, it takes at least nine hours by motorboat to reach the islands from Bugiri in Uganda.
The two countries have had several conflicts in the past over fishing activities on Lake Victoria. Kenya has always considered the rocky Migingo islands to be part of its territory, and maps dating back to the mid 1950s show them to be in Kenyan territory. But Uganda has recently laid claim to the smallest one, sparking a row between the two neighbours.
The one acre island has been home to about 1,000 people from the three East African countries, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Of the three islands, this is the most popular among the fishermen because of its flat, rocky beaches which make it easy to dock boats.
But Kenyan boats and fishermen are no longer allowed to land on the disputed island, which is guarded by armed Ugandan policemen.
In October, Uganda arrested 15 Kenyan fishermen and ordered about 800 others to leave the island. Now, the country's flag flies prominently over the island, which acts as a landing port for fishermen on the lake.
"The Ugandans came with their flag and hoisted [it] in the Kenyan soil, something that has never happened anywhere in any part of this country," Kenyan fisherman Ojuku Onyonyi said. He blames a lapse on the part of the Kenyan security system for the dispute. "The Migingo island is in our country. It is in Kenya," he said.
The Ugandan security officers say they will only allow Kenyans back on to the island if they are led by Migori district commissioner Julius Kalonzo. Earlier this month, Mr Kalonzo led a group of angry Kenyan fishermen to the island, where they were greeted by a Ugandan delegation. The two groups held a four-hour meeting but failed to reach an agreement.
The two officials addressed the restless crowd of Kenyans which was threatening to pull down the Ugandan flag.
"The Kenyan government has spoken to the Ugandan government and said that according to us, Migingo belongs to us," Mr Kalonzo said. His statement was greeted with loud cheers from the Kenyan fishermen.
In contrast, the head of the Ugandan delegation, Bugiri regional district commissioner, Mwanaisha Chikomeko, was heckled by the largely Kenyan crowd. She suggested the formation of a joint beach management committee to oversee fishing on the island as the two countries resolved the dispute.
"The chairperson could be a Ugandan, the treasurer could be a Kenyan, the secretary can be a Ugandan, the vice-chair can be a Kenyan, the deputy treasurer should be a Kenyan," she said. "No!" the crowd shouted back. "We've already said that harmony means working as brothers and sisters. Be it Ugandan is harassing Kenyan, or be it Kenyan is harassing Ugandan. We want it to stop immediately," she said.
The public meeting ended in disarray, and the two commissioners said the Ugandan flag would continue to fly over the island until the dispute was resolved. Mr Onyonyi arrived at the meeting carrying a Kenyan flag with him, which he said he intended to hoist on the island.
But after the hostile gathering broke up, the fisherman was forced to surrender his flag to the Kenyan security forces who accompanied the district commissioner. The other Kenyan fishermen grumbled but hopped into their boats and sailed off since the Ugandan security forces had cocked their guns to prove that they were still in charge.
Since then, the two countries have resolved to engage surveyors to draw up the boundaries and determine who the islands belong to. A joint committee has also been formed to oversee activities on the island and prevent any conflict.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
The number of children going to school regularly in Zimbabwe has fallen dramatically from 90% to 20%, a senior UN relief official says.
Catherine Bragg said many teachers were not being paid and could not afford to travel to work. She warned Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis would worsen.
Meanwhile, it is reported that power-sharing talks have stalled because of insults traded between the opposition and mediator Thabo Mbeki.
Representatives of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF had resumed talks in South Africa earlier in the week.
At a news conference in New York, Ms Bragg called for "massive" international assistance for Zimbabwe.
In addition to the cholera outbreak, which has killed more than 360 people since August, she said there has also been a breakdown in both the health and education sectors. “For a country that used to have over 90% school attendance, now we're seeing less than 20%,” she said. As well as teachers not being able to afford to work, students were required to make payments in kind, including food, which they did not have, she said.
Zimbabwe used to have one of the best education systems in Africa.
Earlier, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said the cholera outbreak was "the greatest threat ever to face" the country. Mr Tsvangirai is in South Africa to attend the talks, which are reported to be making little progress.
A letter from South Africa's former leader Mr Mbeki, who negotiated September's deal between the MDC and Zanu-PF, has been leaked to the press.
In a 10-page response dated 22 November to the MDC questioning his impartiality, he accused the opposition of not respecting Africa leaders and paying too much heed to the West, South Africa's Business Day newspaper reports.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
About 9,000 cholera infections have been confirmed in Zimbabwe
"It may be that, for whatever reason, you consider our region and continent as being of little consequence to the future of Zimbabwe, believing that others further away, in western Europe and North America, are of greater importance," Mr Mbeki wrote in the letter also quoted on the ZimOnline news agency website.
He said the MDC had denounced regional leaders as "cowards".
"Such manner of proceeding might earn you prominent media headlines. However, I assure you that it will do nothing to solve the problems of Zimbabwe," Mr Mbeki said.
On Wednesday, Mr Tsvangirai repeated calls for Mr Mbeki to go as mediator.
"He does not appear to understand how desperate the problem in Zimbabwe is, and the solutions he proposes are too small," Mr Tsvangirai said in a statement, AFP news agency reports.
"He is not serving to bring the parties together because he does not understand what needs to be done."
Nigeria's food and drug agency says that 25 children aged between three months and four years have died after taking a contaminated teething syrup. The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control said it had shut down the Lagos-based manufacturer, Barewa Pharmaceuticals. It said the syrup, called My Pikin, had been tainted with diethylene glycol. The substance, used in engine coolant and anti-freeze, triggered kidney failure in the children, it said.
The children died at three hospitals in Lagos, Ibadan and Zaria. At least 10 other children are reported to have been brought to hospital. The NAFDAC said symptoms among the children who had taken the syrup included diarrhoea, vomiting, fever and convulsions, and that they had not been able to pass urine for several days.
The agency said it had first received reports of possible contamination on 19 November and had begun to confiscate the syrup two days later. "NAFDAC officers nationwide have been directed to mop up all batches of the offending drug from circulation," the agency's head, Dora Akunyili, was quoted as saying.
She also appealed to mothers to stop using the medicine on their children.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
By Bill Wilson - Business reporter, BBC News, Johannesburg.
The 12th edition of football business exposition Soccerex is meeting in South Africa, 18 months before the country is due to host the Fifa World Cup in 2010.
As hundreds of overseas firms gather for the convention, it should not be forgotten that African companies are also hoping to grab a slice of football business in the run up to the 2010 World Cup. The number of African delegates crowded across five floors of the US-style convention centre - housed in the new business district to the north of the city - has increased this year. They represent a number of industries, from new media, to tourism, engineering, and a host of other sectors.
Among those looking to win new business on the back of the World Cup coming here in 18 months' time, is Emiley Vollmer who runs Evo Media.
Evo is a company that specialises in new media design, visual effects design, 3D animation, web design, video-production, and post-production. It has offices both in Cape Town and here in a huge tower block opposite from Soccerex. Emiley, who was born in neighbouring Namibia and later studied and lived in Germany, opened a studio in Cape Town in 2005.
"I had the skill, international experience, and I was very passionate about doing multi-media work," says the lively 28-year-old. "I now have the two offices here in South Africa, but my mission is to take over the globe," she jokes.
To that end the firm has also opened a small office in London. "We design TV commercials, starting with concept development through to the final stage," she says, sipping coffee on the terrace of her modern Johannesburg office. The firm, which employs 23 people, has secured work from Germany, Spain, Russia, and Romania - for a mineral water firm - among others.
"The entrepreneurial spirit has to be instilled into the local black population of South Africa," says Emiley, who is also deputy chair person of the Cape Town film commission, looking after young film makers. Football legend George Weah believes the games will be good for Africa "We still need support to change the mindset to tell people 'you are capable of performing in the marketplace'. "I am in a minority - I don't let anything put me down."
She adds: "But because people have been told for so many years to consider themselves 'small' they do not have the attitude to start their own businesses." To this end she says that the post-apartheid policy of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), which is designed to give black people - and also women - a greater role in the economy, has been a great stimulus.
"BEE allows me to perform in the market, and not be locked out because of the colour of my skin, or because I am a woman," she says. "Now we have the World Cup coming, and I have been hoping that it will help increase the audience for Evo Media, and bring us extra work." But she believes that at the moment there is not enough verve about selling the tournament .
"I want to use the World Cup to communicate my company to a wider audience, and get people excited. But there is not really much vibe about it yet in South Africa. "Of course I hope the tournament brings me more opportunities, but perhaps as a country we don't feel the magnitude of it right now."
Creating and achieving business results around the World Cup is the responsibility of people like Mandla Nkomfe, head of finance and economic affairs at Gauteng provincial government. "The World Cup offers the opportunity for the 11,000 firms we have in the creative industries here in South Africa - film companies and others - to win wide exposure for themselves," he says.
If measured on its own, Gauteng - whose provincial capital is Johannesburg - has the fourth biggest economy in Africa, behind South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt. It is also where the World Cup opening game and final will take place, and where the international media centre for the tournament will be based.
"The 2010 World Cup offers us an opportunity to attract investment in to our country," says Mr Nkomfe. The South African government is investing up to 28bn rand ($2.8bn, £1.8bn) in infrastructure projects such as in stadiums, improved transport links, IT and communications. And, although most opportunities to win contracts in heavy infrastructure work have now gone, Mr Nkomfe says there are other areas to potentially invest in the South African economy around 2010. "The private sector is building new hotels and restaurants and other tourist facilities ahead of the tournament," he says.
Other areas for private business involvement - apart from in the creative media and tourism sectors - include infrastructure maintenance, call centres, energy, and television transmission technology.
Meanwhile Emiley Vollmer is hoping that the potential opportunities surrounding the World Cup soon become reality, particularly in the two industries where black people are making inroads - media and tourism. "The 2010 World Cup will have an impact on our society like never before," she says. "Africans will receive increased opportunities, including those for freelancers in the media, especially cameramen and sound engineers. "In addition advanced training will be rendered to individuals and companies to improve the quality of our broadcasting and production." She also believes that BEE means the black African population will see their talents reach a new peak during and after the World Cup.
As Liberian and African football legend George Weah said at the close of this year's Soccerex: "It is a new beginning - one of confidence in Africa."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
The cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe is "the greatest threat ever to face" the country, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said. His warning came after health officials said the outbreak, which aacording to the UN has killed 360 people since August, was under control.
South Africa says it will not stop ill Zimbabweans crossing its borders.
Mr Tsvangirai added that talks on a power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe's party had stalled. "The humanitarian crisis that is now engulfing all Zimbabweans represents the greatest threat ever to face our country," Mr Tsvangirai said in a statement reported by AFP. He also said the toll could rise as the rainy season got under way.
The Deputy Health Minister, Edwin Muguti, earlier said the outbreak was under control and blamed the situation on Western sanctions against President Mugabe.
In South Africa, where some Zimbabweans have been treated, Health Minister Barbara Hogan also described the situation as a humanitarian crisis. "Under no conditions would we want to stop entry of any person who is ill crossing from Zimbabwe to South Africa," she said. "These are people who need our help. They are our neighbours."
Aid agency Oxfam earlier called on Zimbabwe's government to declare a national health emergency - a call rejected by the government. Oxfam said ordinary Zimbabweans were desperately short of food, health care, clean water and safe sanitation, and the crisis is set to worsen significantly in December.
Amid the dire predictions, Mr Tsvangirai said talks aimed at ending the deadlock over a power-sharing deal, being held in South Africa, were failing. He also called on former South African leader Thabo Mbeki to step aside as mediator because his proposed solutions were "too small" for the scale of Zimbabwe's problems.
Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) are in a stand-off following disputed presidential elections earlier this year. They have agreed to form a government of national unity but have been unable to agree on who should fill key ministries.
Earlier UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Zimbabwe could not afford to fail in the negotiations if the country was to improve its humanitarian situation. Mr Ban said Zanu-PF and MDC needed a workable agreement soon, so they could tackle "formidable challenges" ahead.
Botswana's Foreign Minister, Phando Skelemani, told the BBC's HardTalk programme earlier that the region needed to accept that the mediation in Zimbabwe's political crisis had failed. He said borders with Zimbabwe should be closed to push Mr Mugabe from power.
"The rest of us should own up and say 'Yes, we have failed'. Call upon the international community and tell Mugabe to his face, 'Look, now you are on your own, we are switching off, we are closing your borders', and I don't think he would last," he said.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
An overturned fuel tanker in the Ghanaian town of Techiman has exploded, killing at least 22 people. The explosion happened as people tried to scoop up fuel that had spilt around the vehicle. The dead were burnt beyond recognition and at least 50 people are in hospital, a local official said.
Such incidents are frequent in West Africa where poverty tempts many risk salvaging fuel from accident sites, a BBC correspondent reports. The fuel truck broke down near Techiman in Ghana's Brong-Ahafo region, more than 290km (180 miles) north-west of the capital, Accra.
Many people carrying small containers rushed to the vehicle hoping to scoop some free petrol. The truck then exploded, engulfing the crowd. Those taken to hospital have severe burns all over their bodies, a local official said from the scene of the explosion. One eyewitness said a soldier had stepped out of his car and was trying to disperse the people but he too was then caught up in the explosion. He survived and was later flown by helicopter to the military hospital in Accra.
Staff at the Holy Family Hospital in Techiman told the BBC they felt overwhelmed but were coping with the number of casualties. Some have been transferred by ambulance to other hospitals in the region and to a specialist burns unit in Ghana's second city, Kumasi.
Techiman Mayor Prince Yaw Donyina, a candidate in next week's parliamentary elections, suspended campaigning to rush to the accident site. "I've only ever seen something like this in television pictures from Nigeria," he told the BBC.
A similar incident happened in northern Cameroon in August and last year 98 people died as they tried to scoop up fuel from a broken-down tanker in Nigeria's Kaduna State.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
"WE MUST ACCEPT FINITE DISAPPOINTMENT,
BUT WE MUST NEVER LOSE INFINITE HOPE" !
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Posted by: Mara at November 26, 2008 08:14 |
link | comments |
sayings
Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebel leader Joseph Kony is on his way to sign a peace deal to end Uganda's 20-year rebellion, the UN mediator says.
"Every indication is that there will be signing on 29th [November]," Joachim Chissano told the BBC. The LRA refused to sign an agreement in April because of international arrest warrants against its leaders.
Earlier, Uganda's government said it was considering asking the UN Security Council to suspend the warrants.
But Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa made it clear that Mr Kony must sign the deal first before the issue of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was addressed.
"We were only prepared to talk to the ICC about an alternative method of resolving that dispute, and also of justice in the country, only if peace is going to come to the people of northern Uganda," he told the BBC's World Today programme. He added that as far as the government was concerned Mr Kony was the only serious obstacle to a final peace agreement being signed by the two sides. "Our people are ready to sign any time, but Kony is the one who has been eluding us," he said.
But Mr Chissano, Mozambique's former president, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that he understood Mr Kony was heading to the signing ceremony in Ri Kwangba in South Sudan from his jungle hideout in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Other signatories from northern Uganda were also on their way to Ri Kwangba, just north of Sudan's border with DR Congo
The UN special envoy said he could not guarantee that Mr Kony would sign this time, but he was optimistic. "I don't have reasons to doubt that he'll not show up, because all the indications which he gave coming up to now are encouraging so I'm more confident than a few weeks ago," he said.
A one-year suspension by UN Security Council of the arrest warrants would give the government time to prove that it was able to deal with the matter, Mr Chissano said. "I think that the UN Security Council would facilitate because the alternative is to have Kony forever in the jungles of Congo."
The LRA has led a rebellion for more than 20 years which has displaced some two million people in northern Uganda.
BBC NEWS REPORT
