South Africa was plunged into political chaos today after 11 cabinet ministers, including internationally respected Finance Minster Trevor Manuel, resigned in support of Thabo Mbeki who was kicked out of office after losing a bitter power struggle within the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
Opposition parties termed the exodus, which also saw three deputy ministers leaving the government, a disaster for the country’s stability. Mr Mbeki is believed to have asked cabinet members to stay put in the interests of stability.
Independent analysts said it showed the depth of division within the ANC and predicted it could ultimately lead to a realignment of the ineffective opposition.
Analysts believe younger pro-Mbeki supporters, who now face years in the political wilderness, could be tempted to launch a new party.
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“It now longer a split, it is a chasm… the ANC is hopelessly divided – even if some of these ministers will accept to serve a new president and go back in government for the sake of unity. They were asked not to do this, but made the gesture to show the depth of anger within the party,” said one ANC insider.
Ian Davidson, parliamentary chief whip of the opposition Democratic Alliance which has largely failed to resonate with black voters, said the move could lead to the creation of a new “black” political party and hasten a much-needed political reshuffle.
“We need a realignment of politics in this country… the ANC is tired. All people of all colours who respect the constitution and independent institutions should be together under one banner,” he said.
The news of Mr Manuel’s action spooked the markets, already jittery that the triumph of Mr Mbeki’s arch foe, ANC President Jacob Zuma, would mean a lurch leftwards.
The Rand immediately fell some 2.5 per cent against the dollar and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange dropped about four percent. Both recovered slightly after Mr Manuel was forced to give an impromptu press conference in Washington saying it was a question of protocol and he remained ready to serve a new incoming administration.
The ANC later said it had asked him to remain as Finance Minister and would also re-appoint some of the other ministers who had stepped down to give the ANC’s new man, Kgalema Motlanthe, a free hand.
Mr Motlanthe will be sworn in on Thursday when the current president’s resignation formally takes effect. Parliament, which is dominated by the ANC, today voted 299 to 10 to approve Mbeki’s exit which brings to a humiliating end the nine-year administration of the man who succeeded anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.
Only 14 years after the end of apartheid, the ANC dominates politics in the country and is expected to once again triumph in what will be the country’s third democratic election. However, many disillusioned voters are now expected to remain home, cutting the ANC’s overwhelming majority in the National Assembly.
The ANC said on Monday it wanted Mr Motlanthe, 59, as a caretaker president. He is expected to keep the seat warm for Mr Zuma who is not a member of parliament and cannot take over until after the next elections, now expected in April 2009.
The president’s office said the ministers’ resignations would also take effect on Thursday.
Those leaving include Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who spearheaded a turnaround of the country’s AIDS policies, and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, a key negotiator in the Zimbabwe crisis.
Both are close allies of Mr Mbeki and would have not proved acceptable to the backers of Mr Zuma. The caretaker president however is seen as appealing to a far wider spectrum of people within the ANC and will see some of the resignations as a blow to his hopes of reuniting the party ahead of next years poll.
Kgalema Motlanthe
— Elected ANC deputy president in December last year and appointed to Cabinet this July
— Defended Jacob Zuma against corruption allegations after he was sacked by Thabo Mbeki in 2005
— Believed to be about 59, is a former student activist, a trade unionist and a soldier in the ANC’s disbanded military wing
— Jailed on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela under the apartheid regime
— Elected secretary-general of the ANC in 1997 on the retirement from politics of Cyril Ramaphosa
Source: Reuters
– – – – – – – – – – Motlanthe named new South Africa president
By Hassan Isilow, Daily Monitor Correspondent
ANC president Jacob Zuma has suggested that his deputy Mr Kgalema Motlanthe will be acting President of South Africa when Thabo Mbeki finally steps down.
Addressing a press conference yesterday in Johannesburg, Mr Zuma said his party had forwarded Mr Motlanthe’s name to Parliament awaiting its approval.
“Once Parliament approves comrade Motlanthe’s name then he will become our interim president,” Mr Zuma told a press conference at the ANC house.
Asked why the ANC had chosen Mr Kgalema Motlanthe as their favoured candidate, Mr Zuma said “Kgalema has all the potential to govern and stir this country in a good direction”.
Mr Mbeki, who presided over South Africa’s longest period of economic growth, said in a televised address on Sunday he had tendered his resignation after the ANC asked him to quit before the end of his term next year.
The ANC made its request eight days after a judge threw out corruption charges against party leader Jacob Zuma, suggesting there was high-level political meddling in the case.
There are striking similarities between the political careers of Mr Motlanthe and the ANC President Mr Zuma. The two are long serving members of the ANC Party and actively participated in the freedom of South Africa resulting into their imprisonment.
The two were sentenced to a prison term of 10 years each to Robben Islands for their political activism.
He was born in 1947 and is currently the ANC’s deputy president and minister without portfolio.
He was appointed to Parliament in May after the death of an ANC Member of Parliament, which clearly paved a way for him to become a cabinet minister.
Mr Motlanthe was appointed as minister without portfolio in July after the executive asked President Mbeki to bring him into Cabinet so as to manage the transfer of power when Mr Mbeki steps down at the expiry of his term in April 2009.
While working as minister without portfolio Mr Motlanthe was responsible for the co-ordination of government business.
He was a former student activist, trade unionist and soldier in the ANC’s disbanded military wing UmKhonto we Sizwe. He was elected as the ANC’s deputy president in December 2007.
Analysts had speculated that the ANC executive had wanted Mr Motlanthe to be appointed in Cabinet so as to gain leadership skills at a time when the ANC President Jacob Zuma was facing corruption charges, therefore implying that he would be the party’s second choice had Mr Zuma been sentenced to prison.
Mr Zuma, who holds no government post, is all but certain to become head of state in an election in 2009.
KAMPALA, UGANDA – The Police Force has started arming senior traffic personnel following violent attacks on them in the line of duty by unruly motorists.
Lower cadre personnel, including Police Constables deployed to regulate traffic flow will later on also start wielding guns under the drastic administrative reforms intended to bolster their safety.
Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, the inspector general of police, said the officers were routinely being brutalised by errant drivers and motorcycle riders; including armed robbers and petty thieves.
“Our traffic officers are operating in a dangerous environment. I think we should consider arming them,” he said early this month at Police headquarters.
Although the IGP appeared to simply suggest reactivation of the seemingly abandoned proposal to arm traffic officers in the capital and on highways, some of the traffic officers, including the commissioner, Mr Steven Kansiima, said they had already been given pistols for self-defence.
Last year’s scheme to arm traffic wardens was shelved amid public anxiety that some officers could misuse the weapons to victimise and forcibly extract money from motorists at fault, especially after a bunch of apparently ill-trained and trigger-happy Special Police Constables were implicated in killing civilians.
But an upswing in heinous onslaughts on hapless traffic officers, including physical assault and calculated knocks by speeding drivers, has emboldened the Police to press ahead with the unpopular move to arm its officers.
“People are becoming wild due to our extensive operation to restore sanity [on the roads],” said Mr Kansiima, the commissioner for Traffic, whom some motorists clobbered at the start of the ongoing traffic operation in April.
Another driver offered him Shs20,000 as ‘lunch’ in a mocking public show that appeared calculated to cast the traffic officer as a greedy and easy-to-bribe lot, which is the dominant perception among the public.
In the same month, a group of commercial motorcycle riders, locally called boda boda, pelted Lawrence Nuwabiine, the Kampala Extra Traffic Officer, with stones.
Three weeks ago, some boda boda cyclists attacked traffic policemen on Queensway in downtown Kampala, prompting them to call for reinforcement from a nearby police post.
Earlier, a bus had run over a female traffic officer on the Masaka-Mbarara highway.
Mr Kansiima said, “If there is a threat to our [traffic officer’s] lives, [then] we need to carry guns.”
Three traffic officers have, since last year, reportedly died as a result of harsh beating or deliberate head-on accidents caused by wayward motorists they waved down in attempts to verify their driving permits and inspect the vehicle’s road worthiness and insurance cover.
Records show that 27 other traffic officers were assaulted within the same period, the latest being on Tuesday, when a group of boda boda riders, whose motorcycles had been seized by police, pounced on and beat four of the officers severely.
The suspected assailants; Mr Alex Ngagala, Mr Wasswa Katongole, Mr Joseph Ssemukasa, Mr Paul Kiwanuka and Mr Davis Wamala have since been arrested and are still in police custody, pending further investigations.
Their victims, whom police have declined to name, are said to be receiving treatment from city hospitals.
The public has been griping that the civilian security authority was using highhanded – sometimes crude – methods to enforce traffic compliance in the nationwide clampdown crafted to rid the streets of mechanically defective vehicles and unqualified motorists.
Ms Judith Nabakooba, the Police spokeswoman, last Tuesday said attacks on their staff, which are on the rise, are inexcusable, necessitating heightened protection.
Currently, regular constables who patrol streets and urban neighbourhoods offer sporadic guard services to lower cadre traffic officers. Many of the SPCs, who kept watch as auxiliary forces at city road intersections, have since been transferred to upcountry stations, creating a vacuum.
Ms Nabakooba said traffic officers are conversant with gun handling but had not been armed due to the nature of their work.
“It isn’t easy to handle an AK47 gun while directing motorists,” she said. It is still unclear how the Police Force plan to assuage public fears that traffic officers holding assault rifles would not be a menace on the road.
Since traffic officers work during the day and night, it would be difficult for commuters to distinguish between genuine police personnel and masquerading robbers, when flagged down, especially at lonely road stretches.
Ugandan police officers say their counterparts in Indonesia, Thailand and the US carry guns but still do decent jobs and that is why they need arms to tackle rogue elements.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – When I wake up in the morning all I can think about is what my trip to work will be like. Nothing was different this chilly morning. My outlook on the day suddenly became as foggy as the Kiremt (Amharic for the July-August rainy season).
I’m not unusual. In Addis Ababa weekday transportation is everyone’s biggest headache, except for those few private car owners.
Let me try to give you a picture of what I face when I get out of my house (actually my parents’ house. Yeah, I know, I’m still mamma’s boy).
The small “square” where the taxis meet in transit — in other words, where they dump one set of passengers and stack up with new ones — is already packed with hordes of people. One vacant taxi crawls slowly towards the herd of people waiting impatiently. Anxious faces turn up, hearts begin racing and feet soon follow. The taxi comes to a halt; everyone braces themselves for what’s to come and the crowds start to fight their way into the narrow doorway of the minibus.
There are certain ground rules (though not written, well accepted) that we, the daily taxi customers, know and follow. The first and most important rule is this: everyone for themselves, whatever it takes.
You can’t be helping your loved ones get a taxi and get one for yourself. Instead, you could — or should — use them as a human shield when the need arises. The second guideline is that some training in short-distance running comes in handy. When the taxi opens its door a few hundred metres away, your quick dash past the weak and the elderly may be just what puts you on the next flight to work.
Another rule of thumb is the bilateral push method. You should let other people push you from both sides, as long as they are behind you. This will help propel you further towards the taxi doorway. Stepping on other people’s feet is not a crime.
Last, but not least, check where the taxi is going after securing your seat on it. The worst part is over. If the taxi is not headed in your direction, you can leave immediately in the safe knowledge that there will be no pushing, pulling or being stepped on during your exit.
Just the other day I had been waiting and waiting and waiting for a taxi. I was, of course, running late. From far, far away I saw one slowly approaching and decided I was going to be on it. With athletic determination coupled with the adrenaline of fear of being late for work, I started racing for the door, oblivious to my surroundings. I heard a scream here, a gasp there and, I think, a bone cracking somewhere. I had no intention of slowing down or apologising to anyone to whom I might have caused a mishap. Breathing hard, but triumphant, I became one of the lucky ones to get on the taxi. When I got back from work that evening, my mom was telling the story of how she had missed the taxi because she was stomped by her own son — me. I told you, it’s all about determination.
Not to mention what happens amid the pushing and pulling. There is the unnecessary touching and the uncalled-for groping. But, believe me, this is the least of your worries. You should really beware of those who are waiting for an opportunity to relieve you of your property. I lost a wallet once and, on another occasion, an important document. I once had my watch broken. Though the watch had sentimental value, I was grateful that it was not my wrist, seeing how fierce the struggle was.
As the saying goes, old habits die hard — if they ever die. People are so used to wrestling for a seat that you see them manhandling one another against the taxi door, even when you can demonstrate that there is room for everyone in that taxi, and then some.
At times you can see people jostling to get out of a taxi. If you are in that taxi, you can’t help thinking that you might have been dozing and that the taxi has caught fire. On the worst days, at the climax of the tussle, you see an open taxi door, three or more people stuck at the door trying to be the next lucky one on the taxi, people pushing from behind, the car swaying and no one getting in. Several seconds go by and nothing happens until someone breaks the pack and makes it into the taxi.
Oh gosh. I’m late for work, gotta run … Wish me luck.
(Abiy Temesgen is a physician. He works at Tikur Anbessa Hospital in Addis Ababa. He does not own a car. “Don’t let the title doctor fool you,” he says. “In Ethiopia we are mostly average-income citizens.”)
(Reuters) – Britain’s Sun Biofuels plans to grow about 5,500 hectares of the biofuel plant jatropha in Tanzania in the next 10 years, the firm’s local subsidiary said on September 18. Sun Biofuels Tanzania is in the final stages of acquiring 8,000 hectares of land west of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
Peter Auge, Sun Biofuels Tanzania’s managing director, said that the company planned to plant 70 percent of that with jatropha, while the rest would be left as forest or game parks. “If we plant 1,000 hectares a year, it will take us five to six years to plant the land,” Auge said on the sidelines of a regional biofuels conference. “We are almost a year away from planting. It will take us five years to plant, then it will take us five years to get into full production, so effectively we will only be getting full production in 10 years.”
Soaring fossil fuel costs and concerns over carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming have led investors to turn to cleaner energy sources like biofuels. Many are focusing on Africa.
Sweden’s Sekab also plans to start producing 100 million litres of ethanol a year in Tanzania by 2012 at a cost of between $200 million and $300 million. It also hopes to set up several more plantations in the country in the coming years.
Auge did not give the exact price of establishing Sun Biofuel’s plantation, but he said it would cost about $1,000 per hectare — or $5.5 million in total — to get the farm up and running. He said his company was interested in acquiring more land in Tanzania, and that it would use its current acreage as proof that the company could take on more tracts successfully.
Sun Biofuels also operates in Ethiopia, where it has grown 1,000 hectares of jatropha and will start biofuel production in 2008/2009. The company is also active in Mozambique, where it has 5,000 hectares of land and expects to plant jatropha on 2,000 hectares beginning in November.
Sun Biofuels is majority owned by Trading Emission Plc, a London-listed renewable energy investment firm.
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Kidnappers seized 11 European tourists and eight Egyptians during a Sahara desert safari to Gilf al-Kebir, a plateau famed for its prehistoric cave paintings. Egypt’s foreign minister said Monday the tourists had been freed unharmed.
Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in New York that the group was captured by “gangsters.” He did not say how he knew of their release, or whether a ransom was paid.
The five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian were seized Friday along with their Egyptian guides and drivers while camping near the Sudanese border, Egyptian Tourism Minister Zoheir Garana said. Government spokesman Magdi Rady said it was feared the kidnappers had taken the captives into Sudan.
Only a few intrepid visitors make the daunting trek of more than a week in 4X4s across the desert to the Gilf, which lies near Egypt’s borders with Libya and Sudan beyond a vast plain of dunes known as the Great Sand Sea. It is one of the most arid places on Earth.
Gilf al-Kebir has become increasingly popular among adventure and eco-tourists drawn by the stark desert landscapes and the prehistoric paintings in caves that dot the plateau. They include the “Cave of the Swimmers,” immortalized in the 1996 movie “The English Patient.” The cave features 10,000-year-old paintings of people swimming, a hallmark of a time when scientists believe parts of the Sahara were covered by lakes and rivers.
The unpopulated region is a crossroads for ethnic African tribesmen — including smugglers — from Libya, Sudan and even Chad, further south. It borders Sudan’s Darfur region, where raging conflicts have given rise to armed bandits who have become notorious for robberies and hijackings.
Rady said the abduction was not connected to Islamic militants, who have previously attacked tourists in southern Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula. “This is a criminal act. They are seeking a ransom,” he said.
Garana said the tour company that organized the trip negotiated with the kidnappers, who demanded up to $6 million in ransom. He said the German government was involved in the talks but the Egyptian government was not. Germany’s Foreign Ministry said only that it had formed a “crisis team” on the abduction.
The kidnapping was only discovered because the Egyptian owner of the tour company, who was on the trip, was able to call his German wife by mobile phone, Garana told state television. The group included eight Egyptians, he said.
The tour owner told his wife that a group of armed men, who appeared “African,” drove up to the group while they were setting up their tents, an Egyptian security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media. It was not clear when that phone call took place.
Italy’s Foreign Ministry said the owner called his wife in Cairo again on Monday night and told her their captors had taken the group to Sudan.
The kidnapped Italians included three women and two men from the Turin area, Italy’s ANSA news agency said.
A tour guide who operates in the area said colleagues in the Western Desert told him the kidnappers were tribesmen. Mohammed Marzouk said there have been previous robberies in the area, most recently in May, when tribesmen seized two tour company SUVs during a desert trip.
Tourism is Egypt’s biggest foreign currency earner. The industry was devastated in the 1990s when Islamic militants waged a campaign of violence, including attacks on tourists. The campaign was suppressed in a fierce crackdown by the government of President Hosni Mubarak and the industry has since been rebuilt.
Since 2004, attacks on foreigners shifted to the beach resorts of the Sinai peninsula in northeastern Egypt, with a total of 121 people, including tourists, killed in a series of bombings.
But there have been no major attacks in the capital, Cairo — home of the Pyramids — or the main antiquities sites in the south in more than a decade. There have been no known Islamic militant attacks in Egypt’s Western Desert, where the Gilf al-Kabir is located.
The Gilf al-Kabir, some 550 miles southwest of Cairo, is one of the last frontiers in Egypt, explored by a few Egyptian and European expeditions in the early 20th Century. The Cave of the Swimmers was discovered in a niche in the cliff face in 1933 by Hungarian explorer Laslo Almasy. Since then, the Gilf has largely been ignored until it gained the recent notice of adventure travelers.
The Gilf is a giant limestone and sandstone plateau — bigger than Delaware or the island of Cyprus and nearly 1,000 feet high at some points. It is separated from the rest of Egypt by a vast sea of sand dunes.
The plateau is creased with wadis, or dry river valleys, producing dramatic landscapes of dunes washing up against high black cliff faces. The wadis are pockmarked with caves holding one of the richest troves of Neolithic cave art in Africa. Rock faces are covered with red and black paintings of lions, gazelles, bullocks, giraffes and people hunting, as well as silhouettes of hands. Tour guides still boast of discovering new cave paintings.
Tourists are required to get permits from the military to visit the site and must travel in tour groups with at least one security guard. The tour, done in desert 4X4s, can take more than 12 days.
But, as in other places, expanding adventure tourism may be moving closer to zones of instability. Earlier this year, the annual Dakar Rally through the Western Sahara was canceled because of al-Qaida threats of attacks.
Associated Press reporters Paul Schemm and Katarina Kratovac contributed to this report.
