AFRICAN NEWS

• Politics

Today just as it was yesterday

November 6, 2012

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When Libya fell and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi murdered, most African leaders spoke about how the continent should have saved the situation instead of allowing it to deteriorate.

There is no doubt that even today with the chaos and the ongoing uncertainty in Libya, Africa is looking back in regret over what should have been resolved the African way.

Over the years, this has been one of Africa’s greatest weaknesses – disunity.

In an informal sequel to his narrative, “Two Thousand Seasons” – “Healers”, Ayi Lwei Armah illustrates how it is easy for Africa to be divided and ruled; to be turned against each other and be controlled; to be lulled into false security and be cheated; and to be made to waste precious time engaged in useless issues while those who control them are busy exploited.

“Healers” is a simple story that unfolds in the nineteenth century when colonialism came to Africa.

Struggles for the control of land break out between the colonialists and the locals in general but it’s the story about Densu in particular.

The war is between the Asantes and the colonialists as well as the Fantes. It’s a war over land.

There is also a parallel story where Densu is framed for the murder of the heir apparent to the Essuano throne.

Ababio does the framing after he fails to push Densu fight for the crown.

Densu does not act according to Ababio’s orders because his eyes are set on becoming a healer as Damfo, the healer’s intern.

Damfo and his daughter, Ajo, live in the Eastern Forest. The healers are seen as protectors.

While all this is going on, at the Cape Coast, the colonialists are using unscrupulous chiefs whom they sweet-talk into surrendering young men as conscripts for the war against the Asantes.

Eleven chiefs ‑ Dahomey, Hausas, Ada, Ga, Aneho, Akim, Ekuapem, Kru, Temne, Mande and Sussu – all give men who fight and defeat the Asantes.

These chiefs are bribed with clothes, whiskey, sugar, wine and various other non-essential stuff to cause disunity among themselves and sell their own.

This also makes Africans aware of the tribal differences among themselves thereby exacerbating conflicts on the continent while foreigners are busy looting.

When the Asantes are defeated, they turn their anger against the healers, accusing them of betrayal.

So rewind to 2012, and ask yourself whether there has been any change in the modus operandi of the colonialists.

Let’s go to Malawi.

Joyce Banda plays against the whole African team for what she says is for the benefit of her nation.

She is not the first one though regarding Malawi.

The mighty Kamuzu Banda too never had anything to do with southern Africa, opting to work with apartheid South Africa when that regime was under sanctions.

While other leaders were helping free the region, Banda was busy shutting his borders to people running away from wars in the region.

Although colonialists no longer use cheap non-essential stuff, they promise aid money.

The Asante queen mother sums up the situation then and now: “The wisdom of a king lay in knowing at all times what to do to remain a king.

“If what should be done now was to yield a bit to the whites, better that than lose all power to an upstart general,” (Page 331).

In short, Armah says Africa is not united today because of greedy leaders who look at Europe for help; leaders who have no strategy to empower their people and choose to rely on handouts and because of leaders who are scared of upsetting their erstwhile masters.

But Armah says all is not lost. There are leaders like former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who see beyond the US dollar, who are talking about the African renaissance.

There are leaders such as President Robert Mugabe who believe in black empowerment.

These are the healers Africa needs at this moment in time to restore the continent’s lost integrity.

But such ‘healers’ are hated by those ‘kings’ who still believe in the power and magic of the ‘colonialists’.

In conclusion, people like Mbeki and Mugabe will not be appreciated now; but future generations will certainly turn back and ask why such healers were not heeded.

SOURCE: SOUTHERN AFRICAN NEWS

AFRICAN NEWS

• Politics

How Africa helps maim, kill herself

October 29, 2012

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Every African season is either bloody or deadly. There is never a time when Africa enjoys a peaceful season. The end of one war has heralded the beginning of another.

Examples of this abound. Look at the so-called Arab Spring and its after-effects. Look at the endless Congolese blood-letting. Look at the suicidal Somalia. In all these cases, we lead in our own destruction while foreigners follow.

We create our own two thousand seasons of self-hate, self-annihilation and self-exploitation.

And Ghanaian author Ayi Kwei Armah sums this up well in his narrative “Two Thousand Seasons”, an epic story of how Africa has contributed to her suffering and exploitation saying:
“Woe the race, too generous in the giving of itself, that finds a highway not of regeneration but a highway to its own extinction.”
The narrative is set in a nameless African country and starts with the coming of the “predators” who are harbingers of the country’s ruin.

There are Arabs first followed by Europeans and always they link up with weak Africans who easily and generously give themselves.

The pioneer predators come as beggars attracting pity and sympathy from locals but they cunningly use their religion to mislead and hold hostage the locals who, in turn, are used against their own.

Gradually, the locals are stripped of any character thereby becoming zombies or what Armah calls “white desert-men’s dogs”.

Turning the locals against their religion and culture, Armah says, is capturing the mind and the body into a slavery that lasts more and forever than the mere capture of the bodies.

Once the mind and the body have been captured, the African is left with no means of fighting back and the only solution is running away hoping “that new places, new circumstances might bring us back to reciprocity, might bring us closer to our way, the way”.

In the event where a few, yet to be captured, Africans resist, the predators retreat into the desert only to return stronger and in greater numbers.

The locals’ situation is no better because of lack of leadership, which is greedy and ready to give in in exchange of crumbs.

One such king in the narrative is Koranche who is described as, “The quietest king, the gentlest leader of the mystified, is criminal beyond the exercise of any comparison.”

After the Arabs – predators – come the destroyers from Europe.

Unlike the Arabs, the white men is armed and determined to have their way. They have no time for negotiation or listening to the locals.

“There is nothing white men will not do to satisfy their greed,” Armah notes adding: “Monstrous is the greed of the white destroyers, infinite their avarice.”

Of course, as part of the destroyers is the missionary with a different kind of religion, which will further poison and subdue the locals who, in turn, will destroy their societies.

Armah writes despite ‘the treachery of chiefs and leaders, of the greed of parasites that had pushed us so far into the whiteness of death’ all is not lost.

Once in a while, a voice of sanity emerges in the calm chaos of silent destruction. For Armah, that voice is Isanusi, the old man who is mocked and called mad because he still clings to the African way. He is imprisoned when he speaks against the destroyers.

Nobody listens to him when he warns the people of the greedy king’s intention of selling them off to slave traders. Only those who escaped from the slave ship live to recall Isanusi’s words but it was too late to return.

That we are still wasting our two thousand seasons wandering in the maze of our confusion as the narrative says is of no doubt.

Look at Africa today and see leaders who are leading their people the wrong path.
They are encouraged and urged by their benefactors – the Arabs and the Europeans.
In the eyes of these benefactors, such leaders are rewarded and praised while those who stand by their people and call for a return of African lands and culture are called despots.

The narrative also sums up what is happening in ‘liberated’ countries where whites still enjoy the fruits of the stolen lands and wealth.

Below is what Isanusi tells people: “. . . These white men, they do not want to be part of us. But here they have come claiming they have crossed the sea from wherever it is they come from just to do us good. They are pretenders. They are liars.
We have asked them for nothing. We should not have let them come among us. They have no desire to live with us. They will live against us.” (153-154)

SOURCE: SOUTHERN AFRICAN NEWS

AFRICAN NEWS

• Politics

Africa needs real men of the people

November 19, 2012

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African politics, in most cases is a dick-measuring exercise, which is usually done to settle scores either between the two contestants or some disgruntled people behind one of the contestants.

In analysing Chinua Achebe’s narrative ‘A Man of the People’, this observation proves very correct.

In short, former teacher Chief Nanga, who becomes a politician, meets his former student, Odili.

Chief Nanga is now the minister of culture whose responsibility is to preserve traditions and norms ‑ a critical position that should be held by an honest and reliable man. Instead, Chief Nanga is a corrupt, dishonesty and cheating bastard who can even betray those closest to him.

When Chief Nanga invites his former student, Odili into politics, he has no idea how this move would impact his future and life.

His belief is that since he has invited Odili, the young man will kowtow and lick his feet for survival.

But three things ‑ lifestyle, cultural beliefs and political issues ‑ bring the two into conflict.

These three can be underlined by the age gap between the two, with Odili Samalu representing the young while Chief Nanga symbolising the ageing class.

Odili learns about how Chief Nanga creates his wealth by being close to him and how such acts do not make him think twice about other people.

 Slowly but surely, Odili becomes disillusioned with politics until when Chief Nanga laid his girlfriend, Elsie, who has been taken by the glitter of the chief’s wealth.

He then goes into politics with vengeance just to take down his former teacher and political mentor thereby making it a dick-measuring exercise.

After failing to get revenge by laying Chief Nanga’s girlfriends, Odili takes him on in his constituency as well as courting Edna, Chief Nanga’s girlfriend.

But without money and experience, Odili is defeated at the polls; is brutally savaged by Chief Nanga’s thugs and his lawyer friend, Maxwell Kulamo is murdered.
While it appears set that Chief Nangas would be in charge of the country and continue stealing, a coup takes place, which overthrows the government and ends the corrupt regime’s rule.

It is only after the coup that Odili gets to have his take on politics, and even succeeds in marrying Edna.

Written in 1966 when most of the African countries that had gained self-rule had fallen to coups, ‘A Man of the People’ captures the struggle that characterises the continent ‑ corruption, ruthlessness, insensitivity, run-away theft, anger, violence and intolerance.

It also puts forward the generational gap issue which characterises present-day African politics where the youths are restless and impatient with old people still in power.

The narrative also questions whether some politicians practise for their concern for the people or it has more to do with their own selfish ends. Can there be a real man of the people? But most of all, ‘A Man of the People’ clearly underlines how newly-independent African states lose out on the economy where governments still have to rely on companies owned by erstwhile masters.

It also outlines that the fight for Africa’s soul is no longer being done by foreign powers but by those who fought to liberate the continent.

In addition, the narrative states how Africa is still being dragged backwards by personality cults, which put mostly corrupt politicians at par with God.

This is done even when such men have destroyed the spirit of nationalism is their quest for self-enrichment.

This narrative does not only talk about Nigeria but Africa where there were coups and elections are always violent and questionable. Such ‑ the absence of men of the people ‑ is the struggle for Africa. 

SOURCE: SOUTHERN AFRICAN NEWS

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SOUTH AFRICAN NEWS

national 26.1.2016 10:14 am

Tito Mboweni takes on Mbeki

Austil Mathebula

Former Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni. (File Photo by Gallo Images / Foto24 / Lertao Maduna)

“This really gets under my skin.”

Former Governor of the South African Reserve Bank Tito Mboweni took to his Facebook account to challenge former South African president Thabo Mbeki’s use of the phrase “ruling party” to refer to the ANC.

This comes after Mbeki wrote a letter titled Yet another myth: Mbeki and the monopolisation of power, published on his Facebook account.

“It has therefore been stated as a fact that I centralised this power in the government presidency, the Union Buildings, and therefore government in general, marginalised the ANC itself from discharging its responsibilities as a democratically mandated ruling party, and created the possibility for problems emanating from the phenomenon of ‘two centres of power’,” wrote Mbeki on a letter in which he referred to the ANC as a “ruling party” seven times.

In a bid to correct what Mboweni sees as an incorrect description of what political parties are in South Africa, he said contrary to popular belief, the ANC is not a “ruling party” but a “governing party”.

According to Mboweni, only monarchs are rulers, because unlike political parties who get elected to power by the people, monarchs inherit their leadership positions.

“Political parties, by their nature, cannot ‘rule’, but ‘govern’ based on the will of the people. They are voted into power. They can be removed by the voters, the people,” Mboweni explained.

“Rulers on the other hand are not voted into power but inherit their positions from their forebears. kings, queens, etc. King Moswati, Letsie, Queen Modjadji, etc are ‘rulers’, monarchs for life. They are not voted into power,” wrote Mboweni.

Mboweni lashed out at the ANC and Mbeki, saying the tendency of seeing the ANC as a “ruling party” was  “the usual error that ANC people make”.

“In volume three (3) of the Thabo Mbeki letters, the President makes the usual error that ANC people make. This really gets under my skin. Sorry Sir!” lashed out Mboweni.

“Failure to comprehend this distinction can have severe ‘politico-psychological’ implications where people think they will ‘rule’ forever=one party states.”

SOURCE: The Citizen

SOUTH AFRICAN NEWS

Mbeki denies axing Zuma as ANC deputy president

2016-01-25 18:31

Mpho Raborife, News24

Johannesburg - Former president Thabo Mbeki did not fire Jacob Zuma as the deputy president of the ANC in 2005.

Zuma stepped down, Mbeki insisted in a letter published on the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute's Facebook page on Monday.

It was in response to a 2007 article in UK newspaper, The Guardian, in which Chris McGreal critiqued Mbeki's leadership during his tenure as president.

In the letter, Mbeki said the story that delegates at the national general council (NGC) in July 2005 had defeated a national executive committee (NEC) decision to remove Zuma from his position as the ANC deputy president, after Mbeki himself had removed him from his position as deputy president of the Republic, was pure fabrication.

Mbeki had announced on June 14 2005 that he was releasing Zuma from his responsibilities as deputy president of the country. He made the announcement during a special joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament.

Zuma stood down

Mbeki's announcement came almost two weeks after Zuma was implicated in corruption during the Durban High Court trial of businessman Schabir Shaik, who had acted as his financial adviser.

In the letter, Mbeki said the party's NEC did not make the decision to remove Zuma as the deputy of the party.

"The truth, as I can recollect, is that Comrade Zuma had decided to stand down as deputy president of the ANC – at least for a while – to give him(self) a chance to focus on the case against him. And the NEC had reluctantly accepted his chosen path after a long meeting which went into the early hours."

Mbeki said the public was made to believe the NEC had taken a decision to suspend Zuma behind the scenes at the NGC. 

"This in itself had been dramatic. There was intense controversy.

"This event was of course rolling out at a time when Zuma was under tremendous pressure because of the legal action being taken or threatened against him. Yet the reality, as it was presented to me, is not quite the same as that (public) report," Mbeki said.

Disgusted

He said he recalled one of his colleagues expressing his disgust at their fellow comrades and the level to which they had lowered themselves.

"Apparently another meeting had been held at which it was agreed to reinforce a lie that the NEC had suspended or removed Zuma from his [ANC] position. Meanwhile, they knew very well that this was not the case.

"And so it happened that, also by agreement, one of [the delegates] would take the platform and call for Zuma’s reinstatement. The expectation was that he would then be asked to respond and accept their plea.

"My comrade said to me: 'Watch it and you will see this being played out.'

"And it did. It was like a choreographed show, and regrettably not a single member of the NEC was bold enough to stand up and stop the lie. It felt as if everyone froze on stage," Mbeki said.

SOUTH AFRICAN NEWS

Plans to regulate 200,000 traditional healers in SA

By The ConversationJanuary 23, 2016

South African traditional healers play a significant role for people that follow African cultural beliefs. There are more than 200,000traditional healers across the country.

Until recently, traditional healers have operated relatively freely from government interference, though many work under governing structures such as the Traditional Healers Organisation, which has more than 29,000 members.

In 2014, the Traditional Health Practitioners Act was passed to standardise and regulate the affairs of all traditional healers. Late last year additional regulations were published to give effect to the act. The government has invited public comment on the regulations.

Both the act and the proposed regulations have been criticised by some traditional healers who believe they are unrealistic and unworkable.

Protection for practitioners and users

The act has established an interim council to provide a regulatory framework. This allows for traditional healers to be registered and categorised according to their different healingspecialities. These include:

• a diviner (those who have a calling from ancestral spirits);
• a herbalist (someone practising herbalism);
• student (someone training to be a traditional healer);
• traditional birth attendant (a midwife);
• traditional tutor (a traditional healer trainer); and
• traditional surgeon (someone performing cultural operations such as circumsion).

The proposed regulations would require all traditional healers to register before being able to practise. This means all traditional healers will have to apply to the council to be registered. They will also have to pay R200 for a practising certificate.

This will only be issued if the registrar, who is appointed by the health minister after consulting with the council, is satisfied that they meet the requirements. These include:

• being a South African citizen;
• providing character references from people unrelated to the applicant; and
• proof of qualifications.

There are several advantages to registering traditional healers. Aside from the government being able to exercise greater control over the quality of the profession, the public will also be protected from swindlers.

Although legislation is not always the best way to address problems, it might be the only way to provide protection to both the profession and its users.

Regulations need to be realistic

The regulations place several additional responsibilities on traditional healers, which could be costly and time-consuming.

As a start, the proposed regulations will require traditional healers to undergo education or training at an accredited training institution or educational authority. This is to ensure that the profession complies with universally accepted health care norms.

But the practicalities of how, when or where this training will take place remains indeterminate. This will be particularly challenging as there are currently no accredited training institutions.

A prospective trainer will have to register at a cost of R500. They would need to provide a list of their qualifications and details of the course modules, practical skill that would be acquired and duration. But the minimum skills or qualifications are not defined in the regulations.

One of the most bizarre requests is for trainers to produce copies of their teaching or learning materials. This may have serious implications for intellectual property rights. The tutors or training institutions will also need to keep in mind that there are different categories of traditional healers that are recognised in terms of the Act. Each category has different training needs.

For students to be considered, they would need an Adult Basic Education Training certificatelevel 1. This amounts to basic numeracy and literacy skills. The regulations also propose an age restriction of at least 18 years for student diviners and herbalists. Traditional birth attendants and traditional surgeons would need to be 25 years old before they can be registered to practice.

Diviners, herbalists and traditional birth attendants need to train for a minimum of one year while traditional surgeons need to train for at least five years.

The onus will be on trainers to ensure that their students are registered with the council. At the end of their training, students need to submit a log book to the council, providing details of the observations and procedures they undertook during their training.

Better cover for employees

Employment laws in South Africa require employees absent for more than two consecutive days to provide a valid medical certificate. This certificate must be issued and signed by a medical practitioner, registered with a professional council. If this does not happen, the employer has the right not to pay the employee.

As none of the traditional healers associations in the past were registered with a professional council, employers were not obligated to accept medical certificates from traditional healers.

The introduction of the act means that traditional healers would be registered by a professional council and employers would no longer be able to refuse a valid medical certificate issued by the traditional healer.

By Renee Street, Project Manager, South African Medical Research Council and Christa Rautenbach, Professor of Law, North-West University

This article was first published on The Conversation.

SUNDAY TIMES NEWS BY PIET RAMPEDI

'We need Mbeki's wisdom to rescue SA', says Mathews Phosa (podcast)

Matthews Phosa, former ANC treasure general, on 13 January 2016. 
Image: Simphiwe Nkwali / Sunday Times.

Even as he rejects the former president's washing of hands over claims of a plot against him, Mathews Phosa says the ANC still needs him. He spoke to Piet Rampedi

ANC veteran Mathews Phosa has called on the party to rope in Thabo Mbeki in an advisory role, arguing that the former president's "wisdom" is crucial to help resolve South Africa's crises.

Mbeki, said Phosa, should not be "hanged for one mistake" - a reference to perceptions that Mbeki had mistreated his political rivals, including President Jacob Zuma, when he was in power.

Phosa made his call in response to an article Mbeki published online this week giving his version of events in the alleged 2001 plot, later found to be false, to assassinate him.

Thabo Mbeki insists he had nothing to do with conspiracy allegations against rivals when he was president Image: JAMES OATWAY

Ironically, Phosa was named as one of the plotters - alongside Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and businessman Tokyo Sexwale.

Phosa this week urged Zuma and the ANC to create a council of elders to advise the party on difficult situations, rather than allowing personal differences to trump national interests.

"Mbeki is a great asset to this country and he will remain that," he said. "He is a strategist. He is a good leader. He is one of those leaders who was a shining example of strategy in action. He could find solutions where many people would see darkness."

A former ANC treasurer, Phosa said that despite Mbeki's weaknesses, his leadership capacity and management of the economy remained unmatched.

The ANC, which recalled Mbeki as president in September 2008, eight months before his five-year term would have ended, should "maximise the use for Mbeki", he said.

"Why is he locked up in Sudan and other far places? What are we making him do in this country? We should make use of the wisdom he has in the sense of giving advice on difficult issues, like economic issues.

"He is a very serious economist. He didn't read it from in the streets. He read it from the books," said Phosa.

  

Under Mbeki, he insisted, the economy had performed extremely well - the "graphs speak for themselves".

Asked whether he thought Zuma had allowed his personal differences with Mbeki to overshadow reason, Phosa replied: "My view has always been that if there are personal differences, they should not become more important than national interests because if they [do], then we are acting incorrectly."

Mbeki had all the time in the world as a retired politician, said Phosa, and "all those people in the cabinet are busy".

Phosa said Zuma's sacking of Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister was "unfortunate" because it destroyed the world's confidence in South Africa's fiscal management.

"It doesn't matter whether you put Pravin [Gordhan] or you put whomever. That confidence is not going to come back tomorrow. And we all must sink that in our heads. The confidence in us as a country has been shattered."

Tokyo Sexwale was cleared by state agencies Image: Veli Nhlapo / Sowetan.

Phosa, however, rejected Mbeki's assertion in the letter this week that he, Mbeki, had nothing to do with implicating Phosa, Sexwale and Ramaphosa in the so-called plot to overthrow his government.

He said Mbeki's failure to dismiss the rumour plot when it surfaced in April 2001, the timing of his letter and his failure to break his silence while former Mpumalanga ANC Youth League leader James Nkambule and former safety and security minister Steve Tshwete - the two key players in the saga - were still alive raised ethical and moral questions.

Mbeki's letter opened old wounds and was defensive.

"If it was true, he would have said it when Steve was alive and Nkambule was alive. In the absence of evidence we must hold judgment on it. He should have spoken at the time. Why he didn't speak at the time I cannot explain. It's very strange to me and it's a bit of a problem."

Mbeki's failure to reprimand Tshwete in public meant that "he failed a moral standing there", Phosa said.

Mbeki's decision not to follow suit when Nelson Mandela dismissed the claims on the spot was a sign of "weakness in leadership" because he chose to "govern by gossips" rather than facts.

Mbeki's letter denied accusations that his administration had orchestrated the conspiracy claims. The former president said such beliefs were "based on deliberate misinformation" and "gross distortion" of history.

"The Nkambule saga . . . had nothing whatsoever to do with my alleged paranoia, which the domestic and international media has continuously trumpeted for almost 15 years now, to date, based on false deductions and pure self-serving speculation," Mbeki wrote.

SOURCE: SUNDAY TIMES NEWS BY PIET RAMPEDI, 2016-01-17