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By Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Barely a month into his presidency, Cyril Ramaphosa has taken sides on a hot button issue whose resolution had eluded previous leaders. He vowed to speed up the seizure of land from white owners and turn the properties over to blacks.
"This original sin that was committed when our country was colonized must be resolved in a way that will take South Africa forward," he declared.
By Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE | ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – He was just 17 when his country Zimbabwe gained independence. Now, 38 years later, Trynos Hove is over half a century old and what he remembers is persistent underdevelopment and repeated calls for foreign investment.
Without meaningful foreign direct investment in this Southern African nation, says Hove, suffering will continue for the majority of citizens who are now bearing the brunt of joblessness.
“I’m one of the Zimbabweans who are without employment today. I worked for Lever Brothers before I was sacked as the company scaled down operations owing to the failing economy here,” Hove told IDN.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The new, vicious, fighting in the Congo is the fourth round of warfare since independence in 1960. No other country has seen so many “blue berets” – UN peacekeeping troops – in its short history.
The Belgian colonialists may have exploited it and transferred massive amounts of its wealth back to Belgium but one leader after another has continued in its steps, making use of the country’s vast mineral deposits to build an edifice of wealth and unilateral power. Leaders have played on tribal fears and insecurity. War has been the outcome.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Just days before a major retrospective of his cinematic work in Brazil, Idrissa Ouedraogo passed away in his home country of Burkina Faso on February 18. He was 64.
"We talked two weeks ago," said a grieving Janaina Oliveira of Brazil's Center for Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous Studies in a Facebook post. "I was bringing him to Brazil. Tickets, screening, tribute…it was all set. He was so happy."
Ouedraogo was born on January 21, 1954, in Banfora, Burkina Faso. His parents were farmers, and he grew up in a village outside Ouagadougou.
By Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Six nationals of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and two Zambian citizens were sent back to the U.S. after Congolese officials called their deportations "inhumane".
The six arrived on February 21 aboard an American aircraft at Ndjili airport, said Congolese Human Rights Minister Marie Ange Mushobekwa, "handcuffed, chained to the ankles and hips as slaves". Further, the expelled persons were given "diapers" as they were prohibited from getting up from their seats to use the toilet.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | HARARE (IDN) – After weeks of silence, former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe came out of his shell and delivered a furious tirade against his one-time party allies who engineered his ouster in November 2017 in an action they called 'Operation Restore Legacy'.
Mugabe, in a rare display of resentment and bitterness, called his removal by military members of his own Zanu-PF party "unconstitutional". He was speaking at a private party at his Harare mansion where guests had gathered to celebrate his 94th birthday, according to the Standard newspaper which attended the event.
Viewpoint by Jean-Luc Stalon
Jean-Luc Stalon is UNDP Country Director in Senegal. This article first appeared on January 31, 2018 on Africa Review. – The Editor.
DAKAR (IDN-INPS) – The defeat of Keynesianism in the 1980s witnessed an increase in income and social inequalities associated with the domination and monopoly of neoliberalism.
Neoliberalism advocates a free market that would promote growth through public spending cuts, deregulation of the economy, lower taxes on business, reduction of restrictions capital movement and global open markets.
Consequently, it seemed to have conquered the world through the transfer of power from the public to private sector.
By Jutta Wolf
This is the first in a series of reports highlighting salient aspects of Transparency International's latest analysis on challenges posed by corruption around the world as well as successes and failures of efforts targeting a scourge that eats into the vitals of human rights. – The Editor.
BERLIN (IDN) – Though Africa is widely regarded as the world's most corrupt region, Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2017 points to a more hopeful future for the continent.
The index, released by the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption, on February 21 reveals that despite attempts to combat corruption around the world, the majority of countries are moving too slowly in their efforts.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – It’s been an odd couple of months for southern Africa. No one predicted last year that in almost the same breath the long-serving dictator of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, and the super-corrupt president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, would be soon overthrown – and non-violently to boot.
In Zimbabwe the army did trigger Mugabe's demise, but it was a sort of passive coup, a non-violent withdrawal of support. In South Africa Zuma was compelled to stand down as leader of the African National Congress because of a majority vote against him in an assembly of the ANC, the party of black protest against former minority white-led rule. Again, all done non-violently.
By Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – The Central African Equatorial Guinea, under President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, is reviving the odious death penalty against 147 opposition activists accused of "rebellion, attacks on authority and public disorder".
The activists include leaders of Citizens for Innovation (CI), many of whom were rounded up after a purported coup plot discovered near the country's border with Cameroon. Malabo's security minister accused citizens of Chad, Sudan and the Central African Republic of taking part in the attempted putsch but his version of events could not be confirmed.
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