20091222

ABUJA (Reuters) - More than 30 people were killed and scores of homes set alight in clashes in the past week between nomadic herdsmen and farmers in the central Nigerian state of Nasarawa, police said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of people are killed every year in fighting between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and subsistence farmers over farmland and grazing rights in the mainly agrarian central region.

Police said the latest clash erupted on Sunday when herdsmen attacked villages to avenge the killing on December 6 of a Fulani nomad by farmers who said his cattle had destroyed crops.

"Over 100 mostly mud houses have been burned and over 30 people on both sides, including one policeman, are believed to have been killed," Nasarawa state police commissioner Shehu Babalola told Reuters.

"There are claims that people were killed and thrown into the river."

He said soldiers and police deployed to patrol an area of more than 40 villages had since restored order.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous country with 140 million people belonging to more than 250 ethnic groups, who mostly live peacefully side-by-side, but competition for scarce resources in rural areas is often fierce and bloody.

20091222

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have agreed on commissions to drive media and electoral reforms, one of the key issues which has been threatening their power-sharing deal.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed a unity government earlier this year to try to end a decade-long political and economic crisis, but the coalition has been struggling with disputes over the pace of reforms and the appointment of senior state officials.

In a statement after a meeting between Mugabe and Tsvangirai on Monday, the government said the leaders had appointed people nominated by a parliamentary committee to sit on Zimbabwe's Media Commission, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission -- all new organs expected to steer reforms seen as critical to attracting foreign aid.

Analysts say the three commissions look politically balanced with technocrats and officials with ties to both Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change

(MDC).

Despite the appointments, Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, leader of a small MDC faction in the unity government, are still haggling over the appointment of provincial governors and Mugabe's refusal to swear in as Deputy Agriculture Minister Roy Bennett, a senior Tsvangirai ally facing treason.

Mugabe has also refused to sack two of his own ZANU-PF allies who he appointed as head of the central bank and the Attorney-General without consulting Tsvangirai.

In October, Tsvangirai's MDC announced it was "disengaging" from the unity government over these disputes but rejoined three weeks later after mediation by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

20091222

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Cameroon, a haven of relative stability in turbulent Central Africa, could face social unrest due to slow growth and stubbornly high poverty levels, the World Bank warned on Monday.

The Bank is forecasting Cameroon's economy will grow by 2.9 percent next year after two percent in 2009, anaemic rates by the standards of a continent with a surging population and some of the lowest income per capita levels in the world.

"Cameroon's growth achievement is disappointing and the country is off-track for meeting most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," it said in a report on a set of internationally agreed poverty reduction targets.

"Under-employment is extremely high ... with risks of social unrest and instability," said the document, obtained by Reuters in the capital Yaounde.

It attributed the weak growth to factors including the impact of a decade of fiscal austerity, poor governance and unequal distribution of public services including healthcare between urban and rural areas and between regions.

As an illustration, it noted there was one doctor per 583 people in President Paul Biya's home South region compared to one doctor per 20,662 in the North.

The percentage of the population classified as living in poverty stoood at 39.9 percent, barely changed from the 2001 level of 40.2 percent, while around one-third of children were described in the report as "chronically malnourished".

Surrounded by countries such as Chad and Central African Republic, Cameroon has enjoyed a reputation for stability.

20091222

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria and the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe have agreed to set up a joint maritime military commission to protect offshore crude oil fields and try to check piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, officials said on Monday.

The two countries share a joint offshore oil development zone in an area where the numbers of armed gangs, pirates and organised criminals have risen in recent years.

"Recent security developments in the Gulf of Guinea especially on the illegal trafficking of arms and ammunition have become serious concerns," the two countries said in a joint statement following a meeting in Nigeria's capital Abuja.

"If the situation is allowed to deteriorate without instituting a mechanism to check the atrocities, it could threaten our national security."

Although acts of piracy are more frequent off Somalia in east Africa, analysts say ships passing through the Gulf of Guinea are at greater peril because West African pirates have shown they are ready to use deadly force to snatch oil cargoes.

Seaborne gangs seize oil tankers and sail them to one of many ports along the coast which, analysts say, lack sufficient security or where officials can be bribed. The stolen oil can then be sold into the local market.

The insecurity is a deterrent for investors.

Sao Tome has been looking for partners to extract crude oil reserves off its coast and expects to launch its first oil block tender at the end of January or early February next year.

But exploration in its joint development zone with Nigeria has so far been disappointing. Chevron has said an early oil strike did not prove commercially viable but it is continuing to drill.

China's Sinopec and Addax Petroleum are also exploring there.

20091222
allafrica

Abuja — The Federal Government has proposed the sum of N249.4billion for federal roads across the country in the 2010 fiscal year. Out of this amount, about N6billion will be spent on personnel costs, N21.6billion has been set aside for overheads while the larger chunk of N221.3billion has been earmarked for capital projects.

Minister of Works, Dr Muhammed Hassan Lawan disclosed this yesterday at a budget defence session with the House Committee on Works.

Lawan who took the legislators through the work plan for the coming year said there will be no new projects in the New Year as funds will be deployed to ongoing projects to ensure that they were completed.

He said priority will be placed on 34 ongoing road projects which have reached 50 per cent completion, another 19 projects which are currently below 50 percent completion as well as some undisclosed number of projects under the presidential initiatives.

Lawan also disclosed that the government will ensure that major road arteries linking the various geo-political zones of the country but which have suffered neglect and under-funding in the past were given a facelift.

He blamed the poor state of major federal highways on the collapse of the railways and the abandonment of the inland waterways transportation.

According to him, the neglect of other means of transportation and the over-dependence on the roads have brought intense pressure resulting in the total collapse of these roads, just as poor funding and a budget cycle that pushes road construction into the rainy season was also given as reasons for the state of the roads.

But the lawmakers have expressed concern over the lack of capacity of the Ministry to implement its budget in previous years and the return of large chunk of funds to the treasury while roads remain in dilapidated conditions.

Acting Chairman of the House Committee on Works, Honourable Abullahi Jalo who led the onslaught against the Minister of Works said the issue of huge unspent funds in the Federal Ministry of Works was not only ironical but odd and challenged the Lawan to explain the alleged lack of capacity of his personnel to implement the budget.

Honourable Gbenga Elegbeleye followed suit when he declared that the Federal ministry of Works was a total failure considering the state of the roads and the inability of the Ministry to intervene over the years.

Elegbeleye and other legislators who spoke after him were unimpressed with the excuses of long rainy season and inability to transfer funds from one project to another and were emphatic in their position that something positive should be done on the roads to save lives and property that are lost on the roads on a daily basis.

20091222
allafrica

Gender and Development Minister, Varbah K. Gayflor has optimistically predicted that the National Gender Policy launched recently will go a long way in bringing about change, not only for women, but the country as a whole, and that the country will greatly prosper when women are brought on board and included in national leadership.

"I know that this policy will bring about great change for Liberia. I know this, because in every county across Liberia, I can already see the changes happening. The determination and drive of the women represented here today cannot be held back," she said.

Addressing the launch of the National Gender Policy in Monrovia last week, she highlighted several issues that necessitated the drafting of the document. According to her, the carving of the document had substantial root in the struggle women endeavored over time to come to national prominence.

"The history and struggles of women from rural Liberia illustrate why this policy had to come. Rural women have been marginalized and excluded from justice, from security, from economic opportunities, from education and from basic services," Minister Gayflor told the hilarious gathering of women including President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf whose ascendancy to the highest office of the land has inspired and brought motivation to Liberian women.

Still motivating and inspiring her colleagues, the minister told them that their determination and strong contributions over the past years illustrate just what this policy will be able to achieve for Liberia's future.

"Women from every county, every district, have stepped up to learn, to teach, to farm, to make business, and to lead. We celebrate these efforts during this four day conference because we know - When women are included, this country will prosper in peace!" she noted.

Minister Gayflor hypnotized the women gathering when she proclaimed that the Gender Policy had been written and adopted by the cabinet: so that all Liberians, whether you are woman or man, boy or girl, have equal opportunities and equal rights, so that all Liberians are given the right to contribute to Liberia's development and to benefit from the great resources of our land.

More than that, she went on saying that policy was intended to create opportunity for any Liberian to "own land, take out a loan, go to court, attend school, and feel safe and secure - no matter where they are from and no matter whether they are woman or man."

She used her address to remind President Sirleaf about a sacred promise she made to the women of Liberia in your inaugural address in 2006 when she took the oath of office.

"You promised the women of Liberia to give them prominence in all affairs of our country. You stated that your Administration 'shall empower Liberian women in all areas of our national life.' Thanks to your vision, your leadership and your support, Madam President, we are pleased to report that the women of Liberia are turning over a new page," Minister Gaylor reflected.

Because of that sacred promise, she informed the president that women were stepping out at the clan, the district and the county levels to lead; to lead their communities; to drive the economy, to bring peace to their communities and education to their children.

"Madam President, I have visited with women around the country during this past year, and I assure you that we are making progress to build a new future for Liberia's women and girls," the outspoken Minister of Gender said.

20091222
allafrica

The scarcity of petroleum products that is ravaging the country currently is an indication that the Christmas and New Year season would be marked by socio-economic hardship for Nigerians if appropriate measures are not taken immediately to redress the situation.

The scarcity in the supply of petroleum products, though now a recurring decimal in the nation's life, especially during the yuletide, was substantially tamed in the immediate past regime of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Many had thought the achievement would be sustained to enable Nigerians celebrate Christmas and New Year with ease as regards the procurement of petroleum products, but this optimism appears to have been misplaced.

Indeed, for residents of Lagos and most other parts of the country, the last 10 days or so have been a harrowing experience of endless wait for fuel at filling stations as there was virtually unavailability of petroleum products in most of the stations.

The situation even degenerated to violence in some areas, with area boys having a field day.

Unfortunately, the scarcity of these products, especially premium motor spirit (PMS) or petrol, has persisted despite assurances and re-assurances by the managements of the petroleum resources ministry and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), that there is enough petroleum products to service the yuletide and thereafter.

The cost of petroleum products scarcity in any economy is enormous: Businesses are grounded, man-hours are lost and the cost of doing business skyrockets. This is a luxury an economy, such as Nigeria's cannot afford, especially as it wants to emerge one of the 20 leading economies in the world by 2020.

The current fuel scarcity is further exacerbated by the fact that public power supply has remained epileptic , hence compelling individuals and businesses to depend on generators .

The Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia and the Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Dr Livi Ajuonuma, last week, separately gave assurances that there is enough fuel products to go round! They even reeled out the number of vessels loaded with petroleum products waiting to berth at the ports.

Notwithstanding, scarcity of petroleum products has remained a cruel reality as most filling stations claim to have run out-of-stock, even when some are believed to be hoarding the products, and rationing them at higher than the normal prices. A random survey in parts of Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states showed that most filling stations inflated the pump price of PMS to as much as N100 per litre.

The reality is that Nigerians are being made to pass through excruciating pains to obtain fuel in a country that is ranked the eighth biggest producer of crude oil in the world and which has four refining plants with a combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day. This is clearly, most unacceptable and the government and its agencies, especially the NNPC and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) must squarely take the blame.

For one, the supply difficulties would have been unnecessary if the local refineries had been operational. But they are literally comatose, hence local consumption is almost entirely dependent on importation. This is bound to cause availability hitches given that the storage facilities of the NNPC and the Atlas Cove Jetty, where fuel imports are discharged are not constructed to host the volume of products they are currently hosting.

Besides, the kite of deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry,, being flown by the Federal Government, has kept marketers on edge. They are eagerly waiting to hear when the whistle would be blown. This explains why most of them are hoarding the products. Government has not come out clean on this matter and has, ill-advisedly, chosen to fly this kite at this time of the year, when there is always mass movement of people.

The direct consequence of this is that most of those who wish to be with their families, relations and well-wishes this season would not be able to do so with ease. Transportation costs are already hitting the roof while the dangerous option of motorists carrying fuel in jerry cans in their vehicles has again, become the order of the day.

No excuse can warrant the scarcity of products at this critical time of the year and we urge the NNPC to ensure that it takes immediate steps to keep the yuletide wet with petroleum products, to save the populace from the current hardship.

The DPR must also be alive to its duties by ensuring that all marketers hoarding products and extorting prices above the approved pump prices have their filling stations shut down and the offenders harshly treated as economic saboteurs. This way, sanity will return to the fuel supply chain in the country.

20091222
allafrica

Maputo — The central Mozambican government on Monday handed over responsibility for most education, health, commerce and industry in Maputo to the City Council, as part of the government's decentralization policy.

The governor of the city, Rosa da Silva, who represents the central government structures in the city, signed four agreements with the Mayor of Maputo, David Simango, under which, from 1 January, the City Council will take responsibility for 150 primary schools, some 30 health units, and 787 commercial and micro-industrial units.

"We are fully aware that the challenges are enormous", said Silva. "In education, more than 5,000 teaching and non-teaching staff and 150 public and privately owned primary schools will fall under the management of the municipality. Likewise in health, more than 30 health posts and over 500 doctors, nurses and auxiliary staff will also be under municipal management".

As for the industrial and commercial premises, most of these are privately owned, but they will now fall under municipal jurisdiction.

"This reality will demand from all of us commitment and dedication", said Silva, "and the common denominator is providing services of quality to the citizens of Maputo".

Simango said the City Council was ready to accept its new responsibilities. "Everything's in hand", he said. "The staff and the institutions that will now be managed by the City Council come with their own resources, and so we will not need to make great efforts to seek new resources. But we must work hard to comply with the objectives of the agreement - which are to provide better services for our citizens".

Maputo is the first of the country's 43 municipalities to experience this transfer of powers from the central state to the local authority

20091222
allafrica

Maputo — The Mozambican government approved on Tuesday a project to plant eucalyptus trees for industrial purposes across large swathes of the northern province of Nampula.

The project, proposed by the Norwegian-owned company, Lurio Green Resources, involves total investment of 2.2 billion US dollars.

According to the government spokesperson, Deputy Education Minister Luis Covane, only 209 million dollars will be spent on the eucalyptus plantation itself. The remaining two billion is for sawmills and other industrial infrastructure.

"The company will establish a forestry plantation for the production of paper, sawn wood and charcoal, and also for the generation of electricity", said Covane. "Part of the land granted to the company will be used for food production".

Lurio Green Resources initially asked for a concession of 210,000 hectares, but in the end the government granted it 126,000 hectares in several blocks in Mecuburi, Ribaue and Nampula districts

The project is expected to create 11,500 jobs, and the company has promised to invest 30 million dollars in building schools, health centres and other infrastructure for communities living in the project area.

A second, even larger eucalyptus project approved by the government on Tuesday will cover over 173,000 hectares in Ile and Namarroi districts, in the central province. In this case, the investor is the Portuguese forestry and paper group Portucel.

Covane gave no details of this project, but from the Portuguese media it is known that Portucel has been negotiating to set up a paper pulp factory in Mozambique.

20091222
allafrica

Maputo — The Mozambican government on Tuesday announced that it has cancelled the contract signed in 2007 with the company Procana to produce ethanol from a proposed 30,000 hectare sugar plantation at Massingir, in the southern province of Gaza.

The initial investor in Procana was the London-based Central African Mining and Exploration Company (CAMEC). In August 2008, CAMEC set up Bioenergy Africa, which took 94 per cent of the shares in Procana. Bioenergy later changed its name to Sable Mining, and is registered in the Caribbean tax haven of the British Virgin Islands.

Procana should have involved investment of over 500 million US dollars, and was to have been the first major biofuels project to come on-stream in Mozambique. When the contract was signed, in 2007, the plans looked very attractive. The factory would produce sugar and ethanol, and the by-products would be used to produce fertiliser and generate electricity.

Construction of the factory was to begin in 2010 (after the plantation of at least 15,000 hectares of sugar cane), and production of 320 million litres of ethanol a year would have begun in 2012.

In fact, Procana did next to nothing with its 30,000 hectare concession. The government spokesperson, Deputy Education Minister Luis Covane, told reporters the contract was cancelled because Procana did not comply with its contractual obligations.

"In the two years since the provisional authorisation in 2007, only 800 hectares of land was cleared", said Covane. "The company made no use at all of the remaining 29,200 hectares".

Furthermore the activities of corporate social responsibility that Procana promised also did not happen. Procana promised to drill 10 boreholes to provide water for Massingir communities, but to date it has drilled just one. Procana promised 7,000 jobs, but in the two years since the contract was signed, only 150 people have been involved.

"This is an embarrassing situation, because what was promised is not happening", said Covane. "The jobs were not created and this shows that they are not investors who deserve the trust of the Mozambican government".

The government had cancelled the contract because the situation was unsustainable. "The government is not satisfied, and the investors are incapable of implementing the project", said Covane. "Now we have to look for other investors inside the country and abroad".

"The terms and conditions of the project authorisation, laid down in the investment contract, were not complied with, and nor were the deadlines fixed in the investment timetable", stressed Covane. "So the government is revoking, with immediate effect, the resolution that authorised the Procana project. This means the investment contract is cancelled, and any rights, duties or obligations binding the Mozambican state to the project or to the investors cease".

He warned that the government will cancel any investment contract when the investors fail to comply with provisions of the contract.

Procana was always controversial because of fears that a huge sugar plantation in Massingir would deprive peasant farmers in Gaza of water.

The government insisted that there was enough water in the Limpopo valley for both Procana and peasant food production, but farmers on the lower and middle Limpopo were unconvinced - particularly since the Massingir dam, located on the Elephants river, the main tributary of the Limpopo, suffered severe damage last year, and its full water storage capacity has been compromised.

20091222
allafrica

There has been a mixed reaction to the appointment of Godfrey Majonga as the chairman of the newly constituted Zimbabwe Media Commission, (ZMC).

Commissioners to the ZMC, together with those who will sit on the Human Rights Commission and Election Commission were announced by the chief secretary to Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, on Monday.

The announcement followed a meeting held by the principals - Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara - also on Monday.

While many of the journalists interviewed by SW Radio Africa said they had little doubt about Majonga's integrity, they bemoaned his lack of print media experience for such a high profile job. Origionally Henry Muradzikwa had been earmarked to become the chairperson of the ZMC.

Majonga was a popular radio and television personality who fronted the main ZBC news bulletin in the 1980's. But following a fall from an Avondale flat in Harare, which was home to ZBC colleague and journalist Chris Somo, he was paralysed from the neck down and his media career came to an end. Somo was not in the flat at the time of Majonga's.

The exact details of what happened have never been explained but rumours have persisted that he was forced to jump from the second floor flat for allegedly getting involved with a girl who belonged to a top ZANU PF 'chef'. He has been in a wheelchair for over 20 years now.

Majonga is currently a deputy director at Danhiko project in Msasa, where Grace Mugabe is reportedly a trustee of the board. Danhiko is a training school for the disabled.

'Majonga has a strong personality I have no doubt, but I would have preferred Muradzikwa as chairman because of his vast experience in newspaper, news agency and electronic media,' said Guthrie Munyuki, a former Daily News staffer.

But reports say Mugabe was not comfortable with Muradzikwa after his spokesman, George Charamba, led a campaign that got him fired from the ZBC where he was the chief executive officer.

In May last year Charamba accused Muradzikwa of being sympathetic to the MDC and also blamed him for ZANU PF and Mugabe's loss in the 29th March harmonized poll.

Speaking about the media commission Munyuki said; 'I have no doubt that as a group they will try to reform and register new players in the industry but the appointments have been long, long overdue. The stabilising factor in the ZMC is the appointment of Chris Mhike, a journalist cum lawyer, whose experience in legal matters will come in handy'. He added; 'Now that the commissions have been appointed, the real work must begin. The commissioners will now face a formidable range of tasks and duties.'

Names for the commissioners were submitted to Mugabe in August and it has taken four months for the principals to agree on the names for the independent commissions.

Sam Mawokomatanda, the former chairman of the national Quill Club (the journalists club) and former Sunday Mail sports editor told us the deputy chairperson, Nqobile Nyathi, was a strong addition to the new commission.

'She's from the independent media where she was once an editor, so at least she can stand her ground. People like Chris Mutsvangwa pretend to be nice people but they are ZANU PF. I know Miriam Madziwa from her days at the Chronicle, I worked with Mathew Takaona for many at the Sunday Mail, they are decent characters,' Mawokomatanda said.

Freelance journalist Stanley Gama said while some members on the ZMC had strong links to ZANU PF, he believes the final list came about as a result of a compromise between the principals.

'I'm delighted we now have the new commissions and I will be the first to admit that some members are highly competent and experienced individuals but success will depend on being able to work in close cooperation with stakeholders, and not the government,' Gama said.

Gama added; 'The choice is not very exciting but it will bring finality, stability and clarity to the new roles envisaged under the Global Political Agreement.'

Sitting on the electoral commission will be Joyce Laetitia Kazembe, who was deputy chairperson of the previous electoral commission, and Harare lawyer Theophileus Gambe.

Other members are Petty Makoni, Sibongile Ndlovu, academic Bessie Nhandara, Zimbabwe International Trade Fair general manager Daniel Chigaru, UZ Professor of Public Law Professor Geoff Feltoe and Mukhuli Nyathi.

UZ law lecturer Dr Ellen Sithole sits on the human rights commission with Dr Kwanele Jirira, Neseni Nomathemba and Elasto Mugwadi, a former chief immigration officer and a lawyer.

Others are Dr Joseph Kurebwa, a UZ lecturer; Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube former Bulawayo mayor and civic leader, Jacob Mudenda, former ZANU Midlands chairman, who is also a lawyer and businessman, and Professor Carol Khombe, a lecturer at NUST.

Consultations are still underway on the appointment of chairpersons to the electoral and human rights commissions.

The official list of commissioners that have been announced are:

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission:

Joyce Kazembe, Dr Petty Makoni, Sibongile Ndlovu, Bessie Nhandara, Daniel Chigaru, Theophilus Gambe, Geoff Feltoe, Mukhuli Nyathi,

Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission:

Dr Ellen Sithole, Dr Kwanele Jirira, Neseni Nomathemba, Elasto Mugwadi, Dr Joseph Kurebgwa, Japhet Ndabeni Ncube, Jacob Mudenda, Prof Carol Khombe

Zimbabwe Media Commission:

Godfrey Majonga (chairperson), Nqobile Nyathi (deputy), Miriam Madziwa, Lawton Hikwa, Henry Muradzikwa, Chris Mutsvangwa, Mathew Takaona, Chris Mhike and Dr Millicent Mombeshora.

20091222
allafrica

THE recent by-elections have been characterised by low turnouts and observers have said part of the reason for apathy is that the voters' roll is not regularly updated.

Despite the law providing for continuous registration of voters, the update is done every five years before holding general elections.

This practice has short-comings, as it is not possible to capture all eligible voters including those that may have re-located given the limited time and enormity of such an exercise.

Inevitably, many would-be voters are disenfranchised especially those that live in peri-urban and rural areas where obtaining National Registration Cards is difficult.

The planned registration exercise by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) is not a departure from past practice, which means it will not resolve the long-standing limitations that go with registering voters in a fixed period.

As usual, the exercise will stir emotions, accusations and counter accusations from frustrated stakeholders but it is hoped that the ECZ will be left to carry out its mandate without undue pressure.

What needs to be addressed however, is the long-term solution to this issue so that eligible voters are registered at the same time when they obtain the national identity documents.

Apart from inadequate funds, the ECZ has repeatedly bemoaned the fact that the national registration department is ill-equipped and frustrates efforts of the ECZ to embark on continuous registration.

Apparently, this department is still not computerised and the ECZ which is advanced in such areas cannot tap the huge data bank that registration department holds.

The other complaint is that the ECZ still has not decentralised and some of its equipment such as computers, which it has placed at councils at district level, lies unused because of lack of staff.

While the fresh registration of voters is welcome, the ECZ needs to find permanent and long-term solutions so that updating of the voters roll becomes a continuous process.

20091222
allafrica

Harare — Most Members of Parliament do not live in Harare; they represent constituencies across the country but have to come into the capital city when Parliament meets.

Having nowhere else to stay, the 240 affected MPs and senators are put into hotels, and those bills total US$17 000 a day. A 100 sitting days would come to a staggering US$1,7 million a year and all the necessary attendance at meetings of committees and the like and we are looking at some very serious bills.

Zimbabwe needs a cheaper solution.

Some countries allow legislators to buy or rent a house or flat in their capital city. But the recent expenses scandal in Britain, where out-of-London MPs are allowed to have a second residence, shows the dangers and the huge costs of that solution.

The South Africans have a better solution, a "village" for MPs who do not live in Pretoria, which is just about everyone since the capital city is quite small.

Zimbabwe could tailor this solution to its own needs and purse.

The minimum requirements are a lot less than 240 houses.

We have two categories of people who we need to house: those who need to actually live in Harare, such as ministers and the Speaker, and those who only need to be in the city when Parliament sits, the bulk of the out-of-town members.

A block of town houses for the ministers, with a couple of large blocks of one-bedroomed flats for the backbenchers, would seem to answer the requirements and still keep the costs within reason.

We could even look at "studio" flats, with the bedroom being an alcove, for the backbenchers. These would be better than the hotel rooms they have to use now.

The flat blocks could have communal sitting rooms and even a pub, giving the backbenchers access to the same sort of facilities they now enjoy in a hotel.

A communal dining-room or canteen would fulfil the same function as the hotels.

It should be possible to build the basic blocks of flats with the sort of money we spend in just one year on hotel bills, giving a pretty good payback time.

It might even be possible to get a good architect to design the first blocks with quite small flats that could be converted later into better accommodation by combining a pair of smaller studio flats into one good one-bedroomed flat.

Those responsible for drawing up the new constitution could also look at just how many legislators we need.

Most countries force their legislators to represent far more constituents than Zimbabwe does, although the Zimbabwean Parliament has grown in numbers through a series of political deals, none of which were primarily intended to increase numbers but had that secondary effect.

As we are trying to write a constitution that we will get right the first time, and which will not need many amendments, one item on the agenda should be just how many people we need to represent the people but still allow all to participate in debate and have costs within reason.

We can then freeze the number of legislators, hopefully for all time, and just redistribute seats with each census or delimitation.

Setting that total can be tricky, since all communities should be represented effectively, but too large a Parliament will be both unwieldy and expensive.

But even while that figure is being settled, we can start on our Parliamentary Village.

We are unlikely to be able to build all the flats we need in just one or two years, so setting aside the land and building the first one or two blocks will be a good year's work and will start reducing bills.

Building costs are quite low now, so we think Parliament should look at making a start this year with a suitable amendment to the present Bills to put the budget into effect; so long as the flats are not too fancy most people will regard this start as a cost-saving measure rather than as some sort of scandal of MPs climbing onto the "gravy train".

20091222
allafrica

Johannesburg — THE pace of SA's recovery is gaining steam with a series of forward- looking signals from across the economy pointing upwards.

The Reserve Bank's leading indicator released yesterday rose at a faster pace in October than in September.

It combines several measures, including manufacturing hours worked, new building plans approved, vehicles sold and share and commodity prices.

The leading indicator rose 4,2 points to 116,6 in October. The previous month it picked up 2,6 points to 112,4. After a patchy start to the year, the trend has been solidly upwards.

"At the beginning of the year, when it started to improve, it was mostly financial market components that boosted it, but by now it is quite broad based. That is very encouraging," said Elna Moolman, group economist at brokerage Barnard Jacobs Mellet.

"If only the share price component had risen, you would have been a little more sceptical."

The index, which economists regard as a reliable indicator of the economy in six to nine months, gives the reassurance that the recovery that started with 0,9% growth in gross domestic product in the third quarter - after three quarters of contraction - will continue.

The report makes cheerful pre- Christmas reading for an economy that has shed almost 1-million jobs this year. Any improvement will not be immediate, however, and will come only after companies feel certain enough about their prospects to start hiring once again.

"The longer you see this continuing improvement, the closer you come to the point where employment starts growing. We don't expect employment creation on a net basis before the latter part of 2010," Moolman said.

Jobs remain the key issue for the economy. While manufacturing orders, business sentiment and the interest-rate yield spread between 10-year government bonds and US 91-day treasury bills also came up positive, one measure - job ads in the Sunday Times newspaper - did not.

Of the 11 measures included in the October index reading, job ads was the only negative measure.

The number of people in work continues to fall.

Job losses in SA have become such a concern - the average worker supports five people, meaning nearly 5-million have suffered in the recession - that organised labour and business earlier this month unveiled a list of proposals to ward off further retrenchments.

Among the measures Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and Business Leadership SA chairman Bobby Godsell suggested were reducing shareholder dividends and curbing capital expenditure.

Others also question the pace of recovery.

SABMiller CE Graham Mackay last month questioned the pace of recovery in global consumer spending, saying official reports indicated a faster pick-up than he was seeing in beer sales.

"Beer volume growth is not normally a lagging, but a current, indicator of consumer performance," he said.

Mackay was particularly cautious about prospects in the world's biggest economy.

"Of all the places we see a firmer tone, the US is not one of them," he said.

Still, there are signs of hope.

"Sales have been down approximately 10% this year - harder hit in the first quarter and improving each subsequent quarter through the year and expectations are that sales will be at a similar level to Christmas 2008," De Beers Group executive director Stephen Lussier said earlier this month.

"China and India have recovered fully from the crisis, and demand is strong there."

One component of the index measures the leading business cycle in SA's major trading partners, and the omens are good.

"It's really a broad-based improvement," Moolman said.

20091222
allafrica

Johannesburg — CORRECTIONAL Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has called for a report on convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik's alleged violation of his parole conditions.

Shaik has been accused of breaching his parole conditions a number of times, but has denied any wrongdoing. The Department of Correctional Services has described the investigation as urgent.

Shaik was in the spotlight again when weekend newspapers reported he had breached his parole conditions. City Press photographed Shaik on Wednesday just before 9.30am at a Durban grocery store.

The Presidency confirmed yesterday that Shaik had applied for a pardon, and President Jacob Zuma was considering it. Presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya said Shaik's pardon application was one of a number, and was not receiving any special treatment.

Mapisa-Nqakula's spokesman, Sonwabo Mbananga, said yesterday she would only ask the parole board to review Shaik's parole after she had obtained a report from the Department of Correctional Services in KwaZulu-Natal.

Sonwabo said this was to "test the veracity of the allegations published in the newspapers".

The Democratic Alliance's (DA's) James Selfe said Mapisa-Nqakula had told him that she wanted a report from KwaZulu-Natal by close of business yesterday.

This follows Selfe's request on Sunday for an investigation.

Selfe said he told the minister that an investigation was "essential" as the credibility of the parole system was at stake.

The power to investigate a parole violation has been delegated by the national commissioner of correctional services to the department's branch dealing with community correction in a region, in this case KwaZulu-Natal.

Should a violation be verified, it could result in a verbal warning, written warning, final written warning or warrant of arrest, depending on the severity of the violation.

Shaik, who was Zuma's former financial adviser, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2005 for fraud and corruption, related to the multibillion-rand arms deal.

He was released on medical parole earlier this year after serving two years and four months of his sentence.

Shaik's release was controversial because medical parole is, in terms of the law, granted only to those in the final stages of a terminal illness.

But reports of Shaik on the golf course, at restaurants and driving around Durban have appeared intermittently in the press since his release.

The details of Shaik's parole conditions are unclear.

He is reportedly allowed to leave his house after noon until 4pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

Also, according to a reply to a DA question in Parliament, Shaik may leave his house on Wednesdays between 10.30am and 12.30pm for physiotherapy.

But City Press and Rapport journalist Julian Rademeyer, who photographed Shaik, told Business Day that Shaik had left his house twice last week, on Tuesday and Wednesday - both outside his appointed times.

The Congress of the People (COPE) welcomed the investigation, saying: "There cannot be one law for the elite and another for ordinary South Africans.

"Mr Shaik is a convicted criminal, and should not look to circumvent paying his debt back to society."

COPE spokesman Phillip Dexter condemned the possible pardon of Shaik, saying: "Indeed, we anticipate that sooner rather than later Shaik's name will be mentioned in a list of potential executive pardons. COPE condemns this in advance."

20091222
allafrica

Johannesburg — FORMER health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang 's funeral service will be held in Pretoria today.

President Jacob Zuma is expected to address mourners at the Catholic Cathedral of the Sacred Heart before Tshabalala-Msimang's body is cremated at a private ceremony.

Tshabalala-Msimang died last week of complications related to her liver transplant two years ago.

Her nine years as health minister were dogged by controversy . She was replaced soon after interim president Kgalema Motlanthe 's appointment last year. Under president Thabo Mbeki , repeated calls for her removal fell on deaf ears.

Memorial services were held in Durban and Pretoria yesterday. In Durban, African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said she should be given respect for absorbing all the negative publicity on behalf of the ruling party . She was following ANC policies .

"Negative publicity tends to dwarf the positive work. It's important that we pay respect to Manto for absorbing the pain on behalf of the ANC," said Mantashe. Tshabalala- Msimang did not sulk or quit the ANC when she was left out of the Cabinet after the April elections.

Daughter Pulani Kingston read an account of her life and achievements. KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize praised her implementation of anti-smoking laws.

"Manto showed deep commitments," said Mkhize. "She received more criticism than credit."

Her work with traditional healers and the importance of nutrition would continue, he said.

20091222
allafrica

The year 2009 has come and gone. It was a good year for some and a bad one for others. It was a year characterised by many developments locally, regionally and internationally.

This year recorded many extra-judicial killings and this made people to even think that the country was degenerating into a police state. In fact, there was a ground swell of opinion against the setting up of the Directorate of Intelligence Services (DIS) which was deemed to be a witch-hunt organ for the state. Even as we speak, the DIS is in the news. They are accused for killing people willy-nilly.

In the region, the focus was on Zimbabwe where the incumbent President Robert Mugabe was accused of cheating during the national general elections. There were protracted negotiations between Mugabe of the ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Prior to elections, ZANU-PF operatives terrorised MDC supporters and the playing field was not level going into the elections.

During this year, the world was hit by the economic recession. Botswana was not spared.

The recession is still on going though there are indications that things will improve in 2010. It is our wish that things improve soon so that the quality of life of ordinary citizens improves.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish Batswana a merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. This is a time when we should all reflect on our failures and achievements over the last 12 months. We should take it upon ourselves to see where we went wrong and correct so that when the New Year comes we do things better. Where we did well we should maintain and try even harder.

We would like to urge Batswana to drink responsibly over the festive season. It has become a tendency for some people to over indulge in alcohol during the holidays. This is not good at all. We all know the repercussions of this habit as many of our families have been affected. We should not be drinking and driving. Please let us also condomise (if you can't abstain) for the HIV pandemic is still upon us.

We hope to meet all of you in 2010 when we get ready for the biggest sports event, FIFA World Cup, which will be held for the first time in our continent. We are luckier that the event is taking place just next door.

20091222
allafrica

Harare — PARISHIONERS of the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa conducted services outside the St Mary's Anglican Cathedral on Sunday after being locked out by the independent Anglican Province of Zimbabwe.

The situation was the same at other churches in Harare as the congregations of the Central African Province, which is the one in full communion with the worldwide Anglican communion, were locked out by the breakaway Zimbabwe province despite a court order for the two to share premises.

A fight ensued on Sunday as youths led by a Rev Makove of the Zimbabwe province allegedly threw stones and empty bottles at members of the congregation from the Central African province who were singing just outside the church's entrance along Kwame Nkrumah Avenue.

Rev Makove who was shouting insults, threatened to beat up The Herald photographer accusing him of being a member of the Gandiya-led faction.

"We will not allow you into the premises. We will not allow homosexuals into our church and you can go anywhere. You have been given money so that you can come here and disturb our worshipping," he said.

A member of the Central African Province, Reverend Phineas Fundira, said they were only trying to gain entry into the church premises in accordance with a High Court ruling by Judge President Rita Makarau that they share the premises.

According to the ruling, the two groups were told to share the premises with the Zimba-bwean province taking the morning slot, while the Central African province would take the afternoon session.

"This is the second time running that we have been barred from using the premises in direct violation of the High Court ruling.

"We are here waiting to get our chance to get into the church, but the other group has locked the doors from inside.

"We have been trying to enter the premises, but they are refusing to share the property hence we have decided to use this open space. As you can see, they are forcing us from the greens and are throwing missiles at us," he said.

Another parishioner from St Peter's Mabelreign Anglican Church, Mr Obvious Sherewa, said they had to conduct their service by the roadside after police denied them entry into the premises.

He said despite producing the High Court order compelling the police not to interfere with the parishioners, policemen manning the church said they were still to get communication to that effect.

20091222
allafrica

Johannesburg — NOT for the first time, SA has punched above its weight at a global summit, helping to broker a climate change deal that prevented the Copenhagen summit from turning into a complete flop.

What's become known as the Copenhagen Accord emerged from a meeting on Friday night of representatives of the US, China, India, Brazil - and SA. The meeting, convened by the White House, was a last-ditch attempt to salvage something from the two-week summit, which had run aground essentially because the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters - China and the US - were at odds. SA's support, with India's and Brazil's, was seen as crucial to the compromise that the two powers managed to reach.

In some ways, SA's leading role is not all that surprising. Though developed nations are responsible for the bulk of carbon emissions, it is developing countries that are expected to be worst affected by global warming. And SA has an unusual status not only because it is Africa's largest economy but because, in a sense, it straddles the carbon divide between industrial and developing economies. Though relatively poor, it's the world's 13th-largest producer of carbon dioxide. SA went out on a limb ahead of Copenhagen, offering to reduce emissions by 34% by 2020 and by 42% by 2025 -- as long as it could get financial and technical support from developed countries to do so.

Even so, the politics of SA's role at the summit are interesting -- especially since SA hasn't always been included among the big emerging "Bric" (Brazil, Russia, India and China) markets lately . This time, we clearly were up there with the big players. But were we so thrilled to be included that we went along with a bad deal?

It's easy enough to write off the three-page Copenhagen Accord as a failure. The two-week summit itself was rather a shambles and the accord has been greeted with huge disappointment, even outrage. Though it recognises the need to reduce emissions to prevent temperatures rising, it is simply a statement of intent that doesn't commit the signatories to any binding targets. And even if richer countries were to live up to their promise to cut emissions, this still wouldn't be enough to mitigate the effects of global warming.

Even so, the accord is a big step forward, one that has broken deadlocks on a couple of key issues. One important concession was that China has agreed to submit to a verification system under which all countries will have their emissions monitored. Another is that rich countries have committed to provide 100bn in aid to poorer countries to help them cut emissions and cushion them from global warming.

Crucially too, the accord ensures that talks will continue, with an eye to a follow-up summit in Mexico in a year's time. So it's a work in progress, one whose real outcome will become clear only later.

20091222
allafrica

Cape Town — Too few community service doctors have been assigned to rural hospitals next year, casting doubt on President Jacob Zuma 's promise that HIV/AIDS patients will be able to get care at any state health facility by April, according to the Rural Health Advocacy Project.

The project is a partnership between the Rural Doctors Association of SA (Rudasa), the Wits Centre for Rural Health and the AIDS Law Project .

Only accredited health facilities can provide HIV/AIDS treatment. Most of these sites are in urban areas, forcing many patients living in rural areas to travel long distances to obtain the care they need.

During his speech on World AIDS Day on December 1, Zuma said "any citizen should be able to move into any health centre and ask for counselling, testing and even treatment if needed" and said the government would "work hard to ensure the systems are in place by the 31st of March".

Although suitably qualified nurses can provide AIDS drugs to patients, they need backup from doctors for complex cases.

"The whole idea behind community service was to provide some 'people power' for under- serviced areas, but that's not happening," said Rudasa's former president Prof Steve Reid.

The policy was introduced in 1998, and requires doctors to complete a compulsory year of community service after they qualify. Unlike other health professionals, doctors can say whether they want to work in urban or rural areas, and most opt for the better resourced hospitals in towns and cities. Since there are not enough community service doctors to fill all the vacant posts, rural areas come up short.

For example, seven of KwaZulu-Natal's rural hospitals -- Nkandla, Ceza, Ekombe, Estcourt, Mbongolwane, Nkonjeni and Reitvlei -- will not get community service doctors, according to analysis by Rudasa and the AIDS Law Project . Many other rural hospitals in the province were only allocated one or two community service doctors.

"Many of these hospitals have had vacant posts frozen, and are unable to fill posts for 2010 because of financial constraints. They will therefore remain chronically understaffed with little relief from community service, and the rural-urban inequity will be perpetuated by the 2010 placements," they said.

Overall, 66 (32%) of the 205 community service candidates were allocated to 35 rural hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal. A similar picture emerged in the Eastern Cape, where more than 30 hospitals had not been assigned a community service doctor, and three quarters of the placements were in urban areas.

The Department of Health had been working on a rural health policy since 2004, but had yet to finalise it, said Rural Health Advocacy Project manager Marije Versteeg. The policy should stipulate that rural hospitals in underserved areas should be prioritised for the allocation of community service doctors, and that no community service doctor should be placed in urban hospitals that were training interns.

"Among the doctors there is a strong sense that people should not be forced to work in rural areas. If you do, you will lose them forever," said Versteeg.

Reid acknowledged that the department had introduced financial incentives for rural doctors, but said this was not enough.

The health department's deputy director-general for human resources, Percy Mahlathi, declined to comment, saying that he was unable to obtain the information he needed for an interview as staff were on leave until next month.