Following the successful and peaceful South African General Elections of the 22 April 2009, Mpumalanga's former transport MEC, David Mabuza, has been sworn in as the province's new premier.
Mr David Mabuza will be inaugurated as the fourth Premier of Mpumalanga Province on 11 May 2009 at Kanyamazane Stadium.
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Send feedback Court agrees to release Mobutu assets
Assets belonging to the deceased dictator of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko, are to be released from Swiss banks and returned to his heirs.
In a ruling published on Tuesday, the Federal Criminal Court rejected a citizen's appeal by Basel University criminologist Mark Pieth to keep a freeze on funds worth SFr7.7 million ($6.68 million).
Pieth opposed returning the funds to Mobutu's heirs, who he alleged were suspected of criminal activities in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Switzerland blocked assets deposited by the late ruler and his family in 1997 following a request from the country's government.
In 2008 Swiss authorities agreed to keep the assets frozen so that a Congolese government lawyer could initiate proceedings in Switzerland to block the assets and for the competent legal authority to decide how to deal with the case.
However in April 2009 the Swiss Prosecutor's Office declared Mobutu's heirs should receive the money since the statute of limitations had run out in the case.
Source: ICAR
In a ruling published on Tuesday, the Federal Criminal Court rejected a citizen's appeal by Basel University criminologist Mark Pieth to keep a freeze on funds worth SFr7.7 million ($6.68 million).
Pieth opposed returning the funds to Mobutu's heirs, who he alleged were suspected of criminal activities in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Switzerland blocked assets deposited by the late ruler and his family in 1997 following a request from the country's government.
In 2008 Swiss authorities agreed to keep the assets frozen so that a Congolese government lawyer could initiate proceedings in Switzerland to block the assets and for the competent legal authority to decide how to deal with the case.
However in April 2009 the Swiss Prosecutor's Office declared Mobutu's heirs should receive the money since the statute of limitations had run out in the case.
Source: ICAR
Revolution on march as Correa makes history
PRESIDENT Rafael Correa of Ecuador received an emphatic endorsement of his socialist policies last Sunday by winning more than 50 per cent of the vote in an eight-candidate contest – enough to give him a majority in the national assembly.
Exit polls put him on 54 per cent of the popular vote, well ahead of former president Lucio Gutierrez with 28 per cent.
The president danced, sang his party anthem and pumped his fists after hearing the result. “This revolution is on the march, and nobody and nothing can stop us”, said
Mr Correa, who has re-shaped one of South America’s poorest countries by doubling state spending on healthcare, education, pensions and infrastructure.
He added “We have formal democracy, our great challenge now is to build true democracy, which means a more fair and more equal homeland.”
Before Mr Correa was elected in 2006, Ecuador was one of South America’s most turbulent countries, with 10 presidents in the decade 1996-2006. He has defaulted on £2 billion worth of international debt, calling it “illegitimate”, expelled two United States diplomats and appropriated the assets of oil companies.
Critics worry about the world recession and a financial black hole from falling oil revenues as well as repercussions from his decision to default on the country’s debt. But his actions are popular – and seen as patriotic – in a country once written off as a “banana republic”.
Mr Correa told supporters: “We will never defraud the Ecuadorean people. I think that’s why we received such immense support. We’ve made history in a nation that between 1996 and 2006 never saw a democratic government complete its term.
“Socialism will continue. The Ecuadorian people voted for that. We are going to emphasise this fight for social justice, for regional justice. We are going to continue the fight to eliminate all forms of workplace exploitation within our socialist conviction: the supremacy of human work over capital. Nobody is in any doubt that our preferential option is for the poorest people – we are here because of them.”
He concluded his victory speech with the final words from the last letter Che Guevara wrote to Fidel Castro: “Hasta la victoria siempre.”
Source: Tribune Magazine
Exit polls put him on 54 per cent of the popular vote, well ahead of former president Lucio Gutierrez with 28 per cent.
The president danced, sang his party anthem and pumped his fists after hearing the result. “This revolution is on the march, and nobody and nothing can stop us”, said
Mr Correa, who has re-shaped one of South America’s poorest countries by doubling state spending on healthcare, education, pensions and infrastructure.
He added “We have formal democracy, our great challenge now is to build true democracy, which means a more fair and more equal homeland.”
Before Mr Correa was elected in 2006, Ecuador was one of South America’s most turbulent countries, with 10 presidents in the decade 1996-2006. He has defaulted on £2 billion worth of international debt, calling it “illegitimate”, expelled two United States diplomats and appropriated the assets of oil companies.
Critics worry about the world recession and a financial black hole from falling oil revenues as well as repercussions from his decision to default on the country’s debt. But his actions are popular – and seen as patriotic – in a country once written off as a “banana republic”.
Mr Correa told supporters: “We will never defraud the Ecuadorean people. I think that’s why we received such immense support. We’ve made history in a nation that between 1996 and 2006 never saw a democratic government complete its term.
“Socialism will continue. The Ecuadorian people voted for that. We are going to emphasise this fight for social justice, for regional justice. We are going to continue the fight to eliminate all forms of workplace exploitation within our socialist conviction: the supremacy of human work over capital. Nobody is in any doubt that our preferential option is for the poorest people – we are here because of them.”
He concluded his victory speech with the final words from the last letter Che Guevara wrote to Fidel Castro: “Hasta la victoria siempre.”
Source: Tribune Magazine
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Foundation Taps Visionaries to Reform U.S. Justice System
The Open Society Institute today awarded Soros Justice Fellowships to 17 outstanding individuals working to restore fairness to a deeply flawed criminal justice system.
The lawyers, advocates, scholars, and journalists will tackle issues from death penalty reform and the criminalization of immigrants to juvenile justice and the challenges of parenting in prison. The Soros Justice Fellows will receive a total of more than $1.3 million. "At a time of uncertainty and hardship for many in America, criminal justice looms as one of our most pressing challenges," said Ann Beeson, executive director of the Open Society Institute's U.S. Programs. "The new group of Soros Justice Fellows will bring fresh ideas to fix a failed system that breaks America's promise of fairness under the law."
Among the new fellows is a community organizer in Nashville whose son was murdered in street violence and who spent more than half her life entangled in the criminal justice system. She will train current and former gang members to become advocates for reform. Another fellow, a lawyer in Seattle, will challenge a common police practice that targets homeless and poor people and bans them from entire city neighborhoods. In Virginia, a parent whose son was incarcerated in the juvenile justice system is now a full-time advocate for reform in a state that houses youth in adult jails.
The Soros Justice Fellowships fund outstanding individuals to implement innovative projects that advance OSI efforts to reform the U.S. criminal justice system. OSI’s criminal justice reform strategy takes aim at two overarching ills in our system: the over-reliance on incarceration and harsh punishment, and the lack of equal justice—especially for people of color and the poor. Since its inception in 1997, the Soros Justice Fellowships have supported over 230 dynamic individuals working to address these issues at the local, state, and national levels.
The Soros Justice Fellowships fund individuals through two programs:
* Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowships, which support lawyers, advocates, grassroots organizers, activist academics, and others with important perspectives;
* Soros Justice Media Fellowships, which support print and radio journalists, filmmakers, authors, and others with distinctive voices.
All fellowship projects must seek to further OSI’s U.S. criminal justice reform priorities and should involve the intersection of these priorities with the particular needs of one or more of the following specific constituencies: communities of color; immigrants; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities; and women and children. Fellowship applications are especially encouraged from individuals directly affected by, or with significant direct personal experience with, the issues their projects seek to address.
For more information, please see the Soros Justice Fellowships guidelines. For program inquiries, please contact Christina Voight at cvoight@sorosny.org.
Source: Open Society Institute
The lawyers, advocates, scholars, and journalists will tackle issues from death penalty reform and the criminalization of immigrants to juvenile justice and the challenges of parenting in prison. The Soros Justice Fellows will receive a total of more than $1.3 million. "At a time of uncertainty and hardship for many in America, criminal justice looms as one of our most pressing challenges," said Ann Beeson, executive director of the Open Society Institute's U.S. Programs. "The new group of Soros Justice Fellows will bring fresh ideas to fix a failed system that breaks America's promise of fairness under the law."
Among the new fellows is a community organizer in Nashville whose son was murdered in street violence and who spent more than half her life entangled in the criminal justice system. She will train current and former gang members to become advocates for reform. Another fellow, a lawyer in Seattle, will challenge a common police practice that targets homeless and poor people and bans them from entire city neighborhoods. In Virginia, a parent whose son was incarcerated in the juvenile justice system is now a full-time advocate for reform in a state that houses youth in adult jails.
The Soros Justice Fellowships fund outstanding individuals to implement innovative projects that advance OSI efforts to reform the U.S. criminal justice system. OSI’s criminal justice reform strategy takes aim at two overarching ills in our system: the over-reliance on incarceration and harsh punishment, and the lack of equal justice—especially for people of color and the poor. Since its inception in 1997, the Soros Justice Fellowships have supported over 230 dynamic individuals working to address these issues at the local, state, and national levels.
The Soros Justice Fellowships fund individuals through two programs:
* Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowships, which support lawyers, advocates, grassroots organizers, activist academics, and others with important perspectives;
* Soros Justice Media Fellowships, which support print and radio journalists, filmmakers, authors, and others with distinctive voices.
All fellowship projects must seek to further OSI’s U.S. criminal justice reform priorities and should involve the intersection of these priorities with the particular needs of one or more of the following specific constituencies: communities of color; immigrants; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities; and women and children. Fellowship applications are especially encouraged from individuals directly affected by, or with significant direct personal experience with, the issues their projects seek to address.
For more information, please see the Soros Justice Fellowships guidelines. For program inquiries, please contact Christina Voight at cvoight@sorosny.org.
Source: Open Society Institute
IIF and the Global Association of Risk Professionals Jointly Launch Special Programs on Risk Governance for Boards of Directors
The Institute of International Finance and the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) are leveraging their respective strengths to jointly launch a program on “Risk Governance for Boards of Directors in the Financial Industry.” Strengthening the board’s role in the understanding of risk governance is an essential element in efforts to draw lessons from the financial crisis and implement reforms.
Source: IIF
Source: IIF
DR Congo: 100,000 Civilians at Risk of Attack
More than 100,000 displaced civilians in Lubero territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo desperately need protection from further attacks by Rwandan militias and Congolese forces, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations peacekeeping force and humanitarian agencies to take urgent steps to increase protection and assistance to the civilians at risk.
In mid-January 2009, Congolese government forces - initially supported by Rwandan Defense Forces and later by the UN peacekeeping force, MONUC - carried out military operations against two Rwandan militia groups, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and the Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD). According to the UN, recent fighting has forced more than 100,000 people from their homes in Lubero territory, North Kivu province, as they tried to flee rapidly shifting front lines, bringing to 250,000 the number of those who have fled since January.
"Civilians fleeing for their lives are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and are unsure where they can find safety," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "They urgently need protection and humanitarian assistance, but there are too few peacekeepers and UN agencies to help them."
Many have sought shelter in the villages and towns of Luofo, Kayna, Kirumba, Kanyabayonga, and Kasegbe, in Lubero territory, some of which were later attacked by the Rwandan militias. According to information collected by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lubero, at least 35 civilians have been killed, 91 women and girls raped, and hundreds of homes burned to the ground since the operations began. Both Rwandan fighters and Congolese army soldiers are responsible for the abuses, with each accusing civilians of supporting the other side. Promised additional UN peacekeeping forces have not yet arrived.
In an attack on April 17, five children were burned to death when Rwandan militias attacked Luofo village, where more than 12,000 displaced people had sought shelter. The attack appeared to be a reprisal against the population in response to the government's military operations. Local authorities said that two days after the attack they received a letter from one RUD militia commander stating that the people of Luofo would "continue to be burned and buried."
Similar reprisal killings by the other Rwandan militia, the FDLR, have been documented by Human Rights Watch in areas of North and South Kivu. Human Rights Watch repeated its call on the Rwandan militias to stop immediately its deliberate attacks on civilians, which constitute war crimes.
The attack on Luofo came only five days after the UN peacekeeping force withdrew its temporary operating base from the village following the arrival of Congolese army soldiers. With peacekeeping troops stretched sparsely across eastern Congo, UN officials said their presence was more urgently needed in other towns.
The UN has fewer than 400 peacekeepers in Lubero territory, in two bases at Kanyabayonga and Lubero, plus two recently established temporary bases at Luofo and Kirumba. Rwandan militias have threatened to attack next the neighboring towns of Kirumba and Kayna, which harbor over 35,000 displaced people.
The 3,000 additional peacekeepers authorized by the UN Security Council in November 2008 have still not arrived in eastern Congo, despite promises from council members that they would urge a rapid deployment. Helicopters and intelligence support, desperately needed by the mission, have also not materialized. On April 9 in New York, Alan Doss, the head of the UN peacekeeping force, warned the Security Council that, without such assets, MONUC's "capacity to respond quickly to emerging threats and protect civilians would be curtailed."
"UN Security Council members gave MONUC a strong mandate to protect civilians, but not the means to do so," said Van Woudenberg. "They should immediately provide the support they promised."
Congolese government soldiers responsible for protecting their citizens have themselves been involved in many of the abuses. Of the 91 women and girls known to have been victims of sexual violence in recent months, at least 56 reported they were raped by government soldiers, who often accused their victims of being the wives of FDLR combatants. Government troops, ill-disciplined and unpaid, have burned and pillaged hundreds of homes, arbitrarily arrested civilians, stolen their crops, and looted their property.
UN peacekeepers are involved in the joint military operations with Congolese government forces against Rwandan militias in what is known as Operation Kimia II. But peacekeepers have so far been unsuccessful in restraining government soldiers from committing abuses against civilians.
"Congolese authorities need to discipline abusive soldiers to bring the rape and looting to a halt," said Van Woudenberg. "UN officials should be clear that its peacekeepers cannot support military operations where Congolese soldiers are committing abuses against civilians."
Tens of thousands of people displaced from their homes are struggling to survive. Unable to harvest their crops, they are continually hungry and dependent on the limited help provided by already-overburdened host families. Few UN and humanitarian agencies are working in Lubero territory to provide the much-needed assistance, due to limited donor funds and lack of security to give them access to the people in need.
"More UN peacekeepers, improved protection, and increased humanitarian aid are desperately needed to help those at risk of further attacks in Lubero territory," said Van Woudenberg. "The cries of Congolese people in distress should not be ignored."
Source: Human Rights Watch
In mid-January 2009, Congolese government forces - initially supported by Rwandan Defense Forces and later by the UN peacekeeping force, MONUC - carried out military operations against two Rwandan militia groups, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and the Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD). According to the UN, recent fighting has forced more than 100,000 people from their homes in Lubero territory, North Kivu province, as they tried to flee rapidly shifting front lines, bringing to 250,000 the number of those who have fled since January.
"Civilians fleeing for their lives are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and are unsure where they can find safety," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "They urgently need protection and humanitarian assistance, but there are too few peacekeepers and UN agencies to help them."
Many have sought shelter in the villages and towns of Luofo, Kayna, Kirumba, Kanyabayonga, and Kasegbe, in Lubero territory, some of which were later attacked by the Rwandan militias. According to information collected by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lubero, at least 35 civilians have been killed, 91 women and girls raped, and hundreds of homes burned to the ground since the operations began. Both Rwandan fighters and Congolese army soldiers are responsible for the abuses, with each accusing civilians of supporting the other side. Promised additional UN peacekeeping forces have not yet arrived.
In an attack on April 17, five children were burned to death when Rwandan militias attacked Luofo village, where more than 12,000 displaced people had sought shelter. The attack appeared to be a reprisal against the population in response to the government's military operations. Local authorities said that two days after the attack they received a letter from one RUD militia commander stating that the people of Luofo would "continue to be burned and buried."
Similar reprisal killings by the other Rwandan militia, the FDLR, have been documented by Human Rights Watch in areas of North and South Kivu. Human Rights Watch repeated its call on the Rwandan militias to stop immediately its deliberate attacks on civilians, which constitute war crimes.
The attack on Luofo came only five days after the UN peacekeeping force withdrew its temporary operating base from the village following the arrival of Congolese army soldiers. With peacekeeping troops stretched sparsely across eastern Congo, UN officials said their presence was more urgently needed in other towns.
The UN has fewer than 400 peacekeepers in Lubero territory, in two bases at Kanyabayonga and Lubero, plus two recently established temporary bases at Luofo and Kirumba. Rwandan militias have threatened to attack next the neighboring towns of Kirumba and Kayna, which harbor over 35,000 displaced people.
The 3,000 additional peacekeepers authorized by the UN Security Council in November 2008 have still not arrived in eastern Congo, despite promises from council members that they would urge a rapid deployment. Helicopters and intelligence support, desperately needed by the mission, have also not materialized. On April 9 in New York, Alan Doss, the head of the UN peacekeeping force, warned the Security Council that, without such assets, MONUC's "capacity to respond quickly to emerging threats and protect civilians would be curtailed."
"UN Security Council members gave MONUC a strong mandate to protect civilians, but not the means to do so," said Van Woudenberg. "They should immediately provide the support they promised."
Congolese government soldiers responsible for protecting their citizens have themselves been involved in many of the abuses. Of the 91 women and girls known to have been victims of sexual violence in recent months, at least 56 reported they were raped by government soldiers, who often accused their victims of being the wives of FDLR combatants. Government troops, ill-disciplined and unpaid, have burned and pillaged hundreds of homes, arbitrarily arrested civilians, stolen their crops, and looted their property.
UN peacekeepers are involved in the joint military operations with Congolese government forces against Rwandan militias in what is known as Operation Kimia II. But peacekeepers have so far been unsuccessful in restraining government soldiers from committing abuses against civilians.
"Congolese authorities need to discipline abusive soldiers to bring the rape and looting to a halt," said Van Woudenberg. "UN officials should be clear that its peacekeepers cannot support military operations where Congolese soldiers are committing abuses against civilians."
Tens of thousands of people displaced from their homes are struggling to survive. Unable to harvest their crops, they are continually hungry and dependent on the limited help provided by already-overburdened host families. Few UN and humanitarian agencies are working in Lubero territory to provide the much-needed assistance, due to limited donor funds and lack of security to give them access to the people in need.
"More UN peacekeepers, improved protection, and increased humanitarian aid are desperately needed to help those at risk of further attacks in Lubero territory," said Van Woudenberg. "The cries of Congolese people in distress should not be ignored."
Source: Human Rights Watch
Five held for attack on ANC motorcade
Five more people have been arrested for the murder of an ANC supporter and the attempted murder of six others in Swayimani near Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Wednesday. This brought the number of people arrested in connection with Monday's ambush on the ANC motorcade to seven.
Mphatiseni Gumede, 27, was arrested just a few hours after the attack. Police confiscated a firearm. He briefly appeared in the Camperdown Magistrate's Court on Wednesday on charges of murder and attempted murder. Police spokeswoman Director Phindile Radebe said Gumede would stay in custody until his next court appearance on May 13. Radebe said a further two firearms were found when the five suspects were arrested on Wednesday.The ANC motorcade was ambushed as party members were celebrating the party's election victory. ANC provincial secretary Senzo Mchunu welcomed the arrests. He said one of those arrested was an IFP chairman. "This is not the first time that the IFP leadership has been linked to the murder of ANC members. In Nongoma an IFP councillor Hezekiah 'Fish' Ngwenya was arrested for the murder of ANC member Jabulani Khumalo and is currently out on bail." Khumalo was shot dead in March.
Another IFP councillor was arrested for the shooting of ANC member Bongani Ngcobo in the ANC's offices in Nongoma, said Mchunu. "The IFP leadership must come out strongly to condemn their members' involvement in the attacks of ANC members, otherwise people will start believing that they are acting on the mandate of their top leadership." The IFP on Monday criticised ANC leaders for jumping to conclusions during the early stages of the investigation.
IFP national organiser Albert Mncwango said ANC leaders were "reckless and irresponsible". Their statements could fuel tensions between IFP and ANC supporters, he said.
Source: IoL
Mphatiseni Gumede, 27, was arrested just a few hours after the attack. Police confiscated a firearm. He briefly appeared in the Camperdown Magistrate's Court on Wednesday on charges of murder and attempted murder. Police spokeswoman Director Phindile Radebe said Gumede would stay in custody until his next court appearance on May 13. Radebe said a further two firearms were found when the five suspects were arrested on Wednesday.The ANC motorcade was ambushed as party members were celebrating the party's election victory. ANC provincial secretary Senzo Mchunu welcomed the arrests. He said one of those arrested was an IFP chairman. "This is not the first time that the IFP leadership has been linked to the murder of ANC members. In Nongoma an IFP councillor Hezekiah 'Fish' Ngwenya was arrested for the murder of ANC member Jabulani Khumalo and is currently out on bail." Khumalo was shot dead in March.
Another IFP councillor was arrested for the shooting of ANC member Bongani Ngcobo in the ANC's offices in Nongoma, said Mchunu. "The IFP leadership must come out strongly to condemn their members' involvement in the attacks of ANC members, otherwise people will start believing that they are acting on the mandate of their top leadership." The IFP on Monday criticised ANC leaders for jumping to conclusions during the early stages of the investigation.
IFP national organiser Albert Mncwango said ANC leaders were "reckless and irresponsible". Their statements could fuel tensions between IFP and ANC supporters, he said.
Source: IoL
Mashatile tops ANC Gauteng premier list
The Gauteng African National Congress (ANC) on Wednesday recommended three people for the position of provincial premier. "We have unanimously recommended the provincial chairperson, comrade Paul Mashatile, as the Gauteng's preferred candidate for the position of the premier of Gauteng. The Provincial Executive Committee also recommended experienced comrades, deputy chairperson comrades Nomvula Mokonyane and deputy provincial secretary Mandla Nkomfe as the other nominees to the ANC NEC [national executive committee] for the position of provincial premier," the party said in a statement.
The committee nominated the ANC Gauteng provincial treasurer Lindiwe Maseko as the speaker of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and Stewart Ngwenya as the deputy speaker. "We are confident that their 15 years of experience as provincial parliamentarians will ensure a continued high standard of legislature oversight of government work."
The party thanked the voters for a "renewed mandate" and assured them that they were now ready and "willing to improve service delivery, create decent work and build a safer province". "We have done a great deal to improve the quality of life of our people. We are acutely aware of the challenges of poverty and inequality which remain. The ANC is confident that working together with the people of Gauteng, we can and will do more."
The ANC attributed its success to the unity, commitment and dedication of itself and alliance structures in Gauteng. "We fought an energetic, creative campaign focused on relevant voter concerns and issues. We want to thank our team of more than 22 000 volunteers for working tirelessly with creativity and selfless dedication to the cause of the ANC."
Source: Mail & Guardian
The committee nominated the ANC Gauteng provincial treasurer Lindiwe Maseko as the speaker of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and Stewart Ngwenya as the deputy speaker. "We are confident that their 15 years of experience as provincial parliamentarians will ensure a continued high standard of legislature oversight of government work."
The party thanked the voters for a "renewed mandate" and assured them that they were now ready and "willing to improve service delivery, create decent work and build a safer province". "We have done a great deal to improve the quality of life of our people. We are acutely aware of the challenges of poverty and inequality which remain. The ANC is confident that working together with the people of Gauteng, we can and will do more."
The ANC attributed its success to the unity, commitment and dedication of itself and alliance structures in Gauteng. "We fought an energetic, creative campaign focused on relevant voter concerns and issues. We want to thank our team of more than 22 000 volunteers for working tirelessly with creativity and selfless dedication to the cause of the ANC."
Source: Mail & Guardian
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Globalization Causing Increase in Organized Crime: Workshop
Free movement of people across national boundaries is creating space for the commission of various organizes crimes, a workshop was told on Monday.
Addressing participants at a workshop on Organized Crime sponsored by the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) in Harare on Monday, Zimbabwe's acting officer commanding CID assistant commissioner Silence Pondo said globalisation had resulted in an increase in crimes such as drug trafficking and illicit dealings in precious stones.
"It is undeniable that the intrusion of globalization has created numerous avenues for the commission of various organised crimes such as stock theft, car jacking, human trafficking and money laundering," he said. Pondo said organized criminals had over the years perfected ways of committing crimes. He said it was against that background that law enforcement agents should acquire knowledge about organized crime and methods of effectively investigating such crimes, adding workshops provided a platform for sharing information.
"We share information with independent organizations with interests in crime management and law enforcement," he said. Speaking at the same occasion, Harare Institute for Security Studies (ISS) research program head Charles Goredema said SARPCCO country members agreed that organised crime was on the increase hence the need to carry out the research in Zimbabwe. "Since organised criminals operate as syndicates through networks there is need to research on the nature and trends of those criminals," said Goredema.
The workshop organised by ISS was held after the institution was given the green light to conduct a research on Organized Crime in member countries of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation.
Source: China Radio International,
Addressing participants at a workshop on Organized Crime sponsored by the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) in Harare on Monday, Zimbabwe's acting officer commanding CID assistant commissioner Silence Pondo said globalisation had resulted in an increase in crimes such as drug trafficking and illicit dealings in precious stones.
"It is undeniable that the intrusion of globalization has created numerous avenues for the commission of various organised crimes such as stock theft, car jacking, human trafficking and money laundering," he said. Pondo said organized criminals had over the years perfected ways of committing crimes. He said it was against that background that law enforcement agents should acquire knowledge about organized crime and methods of effectively investigating such crimes, adding workshops provided a platform for sharing information.
"We share information with independent organizations with interests in crime management and law enforcement," he said. Speaking at the same occasion, Harare Institute for Security Studies (ISS) research program head Charles Goredema said SARPCCO country members agreed that organised crime was on the increase hence the need to carry out the research in Zimbabwe. "Since organised criminals operate as syndicates through networks there is need to research on the nature and trends of those criminals," said Goredema.
The workshop organised by ISS was held after the institution was given the green light to conduct a research on Organized Crime in member countries of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation.
Source: China Radio International,
Monday, April 27, 2009
Unfettered capitalism as a panacea for global poverty
Finance ministers responsible for overseeing the financial institutions at the heart of the global recession used an international gathering in Washington over the weekend to make amends, promising billions of new lending for emerging markets.
While hardly oblivious to the plight of the poor, economic leaders from the United States, Britain, Japan and other industrial nations have devoted most of their energy over the past year to cleaning up their financial messes at home.
But the risks facing emerging economies in Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern Europe have become so severe that they were impossible to ignore at meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
The economies of emerging and developing countries will expand a mere 1.6 per cent in 2009, compared with 6.1 per cent last year, according to the IMF. Already, 50 million people have been thrust into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis, according to the World Bank.
The crisis, rooted in the rampant trading of exotic financial assets by American and European banks, exposed the weaknesses of unfettered capitalism as a panacea for global poverty.
France and Germany teamed up to contribute almost $2-billion (U.S.) to a World Bank program that will finance infrastructure projects in poorer countries that are at risk of stalling because of the crisis, and World Bank president Robert Zoellick said he will be pushing other nations to contribute to the fund. Richer countries’ support of poorer nations isn’t entirely altruistic.
While economic growth in emerging economies has slumped, it still is growth. The economies of the world’s industrialized nations will contract 3.8 per cent this year and won’t grow at all in 2010, according to the IMF.
Source: University of Toronto G8 Research Group
While hardly oblivious to the plight of the poor, economic leaders from the United States, Britain, Japan and other industrial nations have devoted most of their energy over the past year to cleaning up their financial messes at home.
But the risks facing emerging economies in Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern Europe have become so severe that they were impossible to ignore at meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
The economies of emerging and developing countries will expand a mere 1.6 per cent in 2009, compared with 6.1 per cent last year, according to the IMF. Already, 50 million people have been thrust into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis, according to the World Bank.
The crisis, rooted in the rampant trading of exotic financial assets by American and European banks, exposed the weaknesses of unfettered capitalism as a panacea for global poverty.
France and Germany teamed up to contribute almost $2-billion (U.S.) to a World Bank program that will finance infrastructure projects in poorer countries that are at risk of stalling because of the crisis, and World Bank president Robert Zoellick said he will be pushing other nations to contribute to the fund. Richer countries’ support of poorer nations isn’t entirely altruistic.
While economic growth in emerging economies has slumped, it still is growth. The economies of the world’s industrialized nations will contract 3.8 per cent this year and won’t grow at all in 2010, according to the IMF.
Source: University of Toronto G8 Research Group
Saturday, April 25, 2009
ANC rules National Assembly, but misses two-thirds
Although narrowly missing a two-thirds majority, the ANC will dominate the National Assembly, with 264 seats compared to its closest competitor, the DA, with 67.
The announcement by Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson Brigalia Bam was met with applause on Saturday evening in Pretoria.
The ANC was happy with its performance in the election despite missing a two-thirds majority by a whisker. Its spokesperson, Ishmael Mnisi, said the party did not need such a majority and never said it wanted one.
Source: Mail & Guardian
The announcement by Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson Brigalia Bam was met with applause on Saturday evening in Pretoria.
The ANC was happy with its performance in the election despite missing a two-thirds majority by a whisker. Its spokesperson, Ishmael Mnisi, said the party did not need such a majority and never said it wanted one.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Friday, April 24, 2009
G7 hails China's actions and pledges supoort
The G7 major economies Friday hailed the contribution of “many countries,” including China, in the fight against the global economic crisis and pledged to work toward increasing their clout in international financial institutions.
“Many countries are now playing a major role in the global economy and we welcome their contribution to the collective international effort to promote recovery,” Group of Seven finance officials said in a statement following a meeting in Washington.
“We welcome China’s continued commitment to move to a more flexible exchange rate, which should lead to continued appreciation of the renminbi in effective terms and help promote more balanced growth in China and in the world economy,” the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors said.
The G7 added that they “will work with our international partners to modernize the governance of the international financial institutions in order to enhance their relevance, effectiveness, and legitimacy.”
The People’s Bank of China cut the renminbi’s peg to the dollar in 2005 and since then has allowed it to appreciate steadily, but under close control.
In recent months, the Chinese government appears to have decided the currency had gone up enough against the dollar as the global crisis saps its key export market.
Source: G8 Research Group University of toronto
“Many countries are now playing a major role in the global economy and we welcome their contribution to the collective international effort to promote recovery,” Group of Seven finance officials said in a statement following a meeting in Washington.
“We welcome China’s continued commitment to move to a more flexible exchange rate, which should lead to continued appreciation of the renminbi in effective terms and help promote more balanced growth in China and in the world economy,” the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors said.
The G7 added that they “will work with our international partners to modernize the governance of the international financial institutions in order to enhance their relevance, effectiveness, and legitimacy.”
The People’s Bank of China cut the renminbi’s peg to the dollar in 2005 and since then has allowed it to appreciate steadily, but under close control.
In recent months, the Chinese government appears to have decided the currency had gone up enough against the dollar as the global crisis saps its key export market.
Source: G8 Research Group University of toronto
Zuma saved us – Maharaj
The recently revealed transcripts of telephone conversations between Leonard McCarthy and Bulelani Ngcuka had uncovered an abuse of power and manipulation of State institutions that threatened democratic South Africa.
Speaking at a debate hosted by the Platform for Public Deliberation at the University of Johannesburg, African National Congress (ANC) stalwart Mac Maharaj delivered a paper entitled ‘Life under a Zuma Presidency: What Zuma saved us from and what we need to do to protect our institutions.' Citing a number of examples of warning signs hinting at the abuse of power in post apartheid South Africa, the struggle veteran stated that these abuses had been dismissed and ignored until now.
Maharaj explained that a clique of "kingmakers" had developed within the first five years of democratic South Africa, bent on "perpetuating power in politics and business".
For example, in April 2001, Steve Tshwete had announced an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the then President Thabo Mbeki. The three alleged conspirators, who were committed ANC members, had had to publicly deny that they harboured any presidential ambitions. When Jacob Zuma, then the deputy president of the ANC, followed suit, denying that he wanted to become President, Mbeki had cemented his hold on power.
In this case and others, Maharaj asserted, the State had rushed to the media rather than holding further investigations into the allegations. These revelations were received in the public arena with scepticism, said Maharaj, as the public was not ready to question the State.
Similarly, with investigations undertaken by the Scorpions, there were many leaks to the media. Maharaj explained that because those people fingered by the investigative unit had not yet been legally charged, they had to answer to the allegations in the public media. A trial by media was viewed, said Maharaj, with "a sense of righteousness and justification". Thus, the untried allegations were kept alive.
The accusations of corruption by Zuma were treated in this way, said Maharaj. McCarthy's and Ngcuka's transcripts were evidence of this.
If a man was tried and found guilty, Maharaj explained, then he would disappear into prison. But by keeping an accused man in the public eye, he would be publicly judged, publicly shamed and would never be able to gain employment after his downfall. To make or break a man; this was the power wielded by these men in positions of authority.
The timing of the charges against Zuma was a political consideration, said the struggle veteran, and never a decision based on the merits of the case. This abuse of power was a threat to democratic South Africa, he stated. It was only through the convictions of the ANC and the tenacity of Zuma himself that the exposure of this abuse of power was brought to light.
Revelations of such abuses, and consequently the future of our democracy, could not be left to such a "fortuitous conjunction of events", said Maharaj. When asked by a member of the audience how this abuse of power had come about, Maharaj explained that those involved in the struggle for freedom had become so proud of democratic South Africa's institutions, that any criticism of these foundations was seen as an attempt to undermine South Africa's democracy. This was why the public had not been prepared to question any revelations of mismanagement in the first decade of democracy in South Africa.
Maharaj explained that the ANC had conflated being on the side of the right institutions and the right individuals. It should not have happened that way, he said. The ANC should have remained on the side of what was right and just, not stood behind individuals that could have abused their power. This was why Zuma would be confronted with the necessity to act in a markedly different way, said Maharaj. His actions must restore confidence in State institutions.
Source: Polity
Speaking at a debate hosted by the Platform for Public Deliberation at the University of Johannesburg, African National Congress (ANC) stalwart Mac Maharaj delivered a paper entitled ‘Life under a Zuma Presidency: What Zuma saved us from and what we need to do to protect our institutions.' Citing a number of examples of warning signs hinting at the abuse of power in post apartheid South Africa, the struggle veteran stated that these abuses had been dismissed and ignored until now.
Maharaj explained that a clique of "kingmakers" had developed within the first five years of democratic South Africa, bent on "perpetuating power in politics and business".
For example, in April 2001, Steve Tshwete had announced an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the then President Thabo Mbeki. The three alleged conspirators, who were committed ANC members, had had to publicly deny that they harboured any presidential ambitions. When Jacob Zuma, then the deputy president of the ANC, followed suit, denying that he wanted to become President, Mbeki had cemented his hold on power.
In this case and others, Maharaj asserted, the State had rushed to the media rather than holding further investigations into the allegations. These revelations were received in the public arena with scepticism, said Maharaj, as the public was not ready to question the State.
Similarly, with investigations undertaken by the Scorpions, there were many leaks to the media. Maharaj explained that because those people fingered by the investigative unit had not yet been legally charged, they had to answer to the allegations in the public media. A trial by media was viewed, said Maharaj, with "a sense of righteousness and justification". Thus, the untried allegations were kept alive.
The accusations of corruption by Zuma were treated in this way, said Maharaj. McCarthy's and Ngcuka's transcripts were evidence of this.
If a man was tried and found guilty, Maharaj explained, then he would disappear into prison. But by keeping an accused man in the public eye, he would be publicly judged, publicly shamed and would never be able to gain employment after his downfall. To make or break a man; this was the power wielded by these men in positions of authority.
The timing of the charges against Zuma was a political consideration, said the struggle veteran, and never a decision based on the merits of the case. This abuse of power was a threat to democratic South Africa, he stated. It was only through the convictions of the ANC and the tenacity of Zuma himself that the exposure of this abuse of power was brought to light.
Revelations of such abuses, and consequently the future of our democracy, could not be left to such a "fortuitous conjunction of events", said Maharaj. When asked by a member of the audience how this abuse of power had come about, Maharaj explained that those involved in the struggle for freedom had become so proud of democratic South Africa's institutions, that any criticism of these foundations was seen as an attempt to undermine South Africa's democracy. This was why the public had not been prepared to question any revelations of mismanagement in the first decade of democracy in South Africa.
Maharaj explained that the ANC had conflated being on the side of the right institutions and the right individuals. It should not have happened that way, he said. The ANC should have remained on the side of what was right and just, not stood behind individuals that could have abused their power. This was why Zuma would be confronted with the necessity to act in a markedly different way, said Maharaj. His actions must restore confidence in State institutions.
Source: Polity
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Election observers applaud SA standards
South Africa sets an exemplary standard for elections, observers to the elections told the Mail & Guardian Online on Wednesday evening.
Only observers from African countries are in South Africa to monitor the national elections.
Observers from the African Union, Pan African Parliament (PAP), Southern African Development Community (SADC) as well as from Nigeria and Zimbabwe came to see whether the elections are free and fair.
"We are not here for an investigation, rather to show support for the process," Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, who heads the AU observer team said.
"There is no reason for concern here. There are strong institutions and great tolerance despite the past. The state of reconciliation that Madiba started in this country ensured this."
"There is also so much enthusiasm by young people. It is an example to other countries on the continent," he said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Only observers from African countries are in South Africa to monitor the national elections.
Observers from the African Union, Pan African Parliament (PAP), Southern African Development Community (SADC) as well as from Nigeria and Zimbabwe came to see whether the elections are free and fair.
"We are not here for an investigation, rather to show support for the process," Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, who heads the AU observer team said.
"There is no reason for concern here. There are strong institutions and great tolerance despite the past. The state of reconciliation that Madiba started in this country ensured this."
"There is also so much enthusiasm by young people. It is an example to other countries on the continent," he said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Where are human rights in Zuma's plan?
Nelson Mandela's clear vision for South Africa has grown cloudy, as Jacob Zuma shifts the focus away from human rights
Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president-in-waiting, faces plenty of tough domestic challenges without worrying over-much about international relations.
But how he handles the ongoing crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe will show how much importance he attaches to key issues of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law that resonate at home and abroad. South Africa's recent performance could certainly be improved.
Addressing foreign diplomats in Pretoria last month, Zuma said the African National Congress's main foreign policy aim was to strengthen South Africa's role in peacemaking, reconstruction, development and integration, especially in Southern Africa and the African continent. "We must emphasise what our icon, Nelson Mandela, said in 1992: that the primary task of ANC international policy was to be a friend to every nation in the world," he said. The party had a "clear plan" to fight poverty and other global ills.
But Zuma's lack of emphasis on human rights and good governance contrasted sharply with something else his more famous predecessor said. Writing in 1993, Mandela acknowledged the importance of human rights ideals in the international anti-apartheid movement and pledged "human rights will be the light that guides our foreign affairs". A free South Africa, he said, would be "at the forefront of global efforts to promote and foster democratic systems of government".
According to Terence Corrigan, "an emergent multipolarity of power in the world will spawn a multipolarity of values". In other words, universal rights remain an aspiration, not a fact. One day South Africa may have to meet a more exacting standard. But that is unlikely to happen while Jacob Zuma is in charge. - guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2009.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president-in-waiting, faces plenty of tough domestic challenges without worrying over-much about international relations.
But how he handles the ongoing crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe will show how much importance he attaches to key issues of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law that resonate at home and abroad. South Africa's recent performance could certainly be improved.
Addressing foreign diplomats in Pretoria last month, Zuma said the African National Congress's main foreign policy aim was to strengthen South Africa's role in peacemaking, reconstruction, development and integration, especially in Southern Africa and the African continent. "We must emphasise what our icon, Nelson Mandela, said in 1992: that the primary task of ANC international policy was to be a friend to every nation in the world," he said. The party had a "clear plan" to fight poverty and other global ills.
But Zuma's lack of emphasis on human rights and good governance contrasted sharply with something else his more famous predecessor said. Writing in 1993, Mandela acknowledged the importance of human rights ideals in the international anti-apartheid movement and pledged "human rights will be the light that guides our foreign affairs". A free South Africa, he said, would be "at the forefront of global efforts to promote and foster democratic systems of government".
According to Terence Corrigan, "an emergent multipolarity of power in the world will spawn a multipolarity of values". In other words, universal rights remain an aspiration, not a fact. One day South Africa may have to meet a more exacting standard. But that is unlikely to happen while Jacob Zuma is in charge. - guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2009.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Monday, April 20, 2009
Fidentia's Goodwin goes to jail
A key figure in the Fidentia saga, Steve Goodwin, has been convicted of fraud and corruption, and of money laundering involving about R93m. In terms of a plea agreement endorsed by the Cape High Court on Monday morning, he has been sentenced to an effective 10 years in jail. Part of the deal is that he will testify in criminal proceedings against his former associate, ex-Fidentia boss Arthur Brown.
Goodwin, a broker, fled to Australia in early 2007, shortly before the Scorpions began probing the Fidentia affair. He was arrested by the FBI at Los Angeles airport in the United States in April last year, and launched a protracted legal challenge - which he lost - to the extradition agreement between the US and South Africa. When he appeared before acting Cape judge president Jeanette Traverso on Monday morning, prosecutor Jannie van Vuuren said Goodwin had agreed to return voluntarily, and had waived his rights in terms of formal extradition proceedings.
The bespectacled Goodwin, sporting a bushy black beard and wearing a white shirt with no tie or jacket, was brought into the courtroom in handcuffs. He answered "I do, your honour," when Traverso asked him if he understood the terms of the 12-page agreement. She sentenced him to 20 years jail on one count of fraud, of which 10 years was conditionally suspended for five years.
On two counts of corruption, he was sentenced to one jail term of 15 years, of which five were suspended. On 33 counts of money-laundering, he was sentenced to one term of 15 years, of which seven was suspended. Traverso said the corruption and laundering sentences would run concurrently with the fraud. The 12 months he had spent in a US detention centre since April 7 would be subtracted from the jail time, she said. One of the conditions of the suspensions is that he testify against Brown, who is facing a range of fraud and theft charges.
According to the agreement, Goodwin played a key role in getting the Transport Sector Education and Training Authority (Teta) to transfer investments to Fidentia's control. To do this, he paid former Teta chief executive Piet Bothma bribes totalling R4.6m, which were disguised first as commission payments, then as a sale of shares in a shell company that had no assets. Although the plea agreement does not mention the amount of the investments, according to other prosecution documents it involved promissory notes worth just over R100m, which Fidentia then sold off to pay personal and company expenses and creditors. According to the agreement, Goodwin himself got about R32m of the Teta funds as his own share of the loot. To disguise what had happened, he complied fictitious monthly statements for the benefit of the Teta board, showing what the funds would have been at prevailing interest rates. The money laundering charge involved the flow of this cash through bank accounts controlled by Goodwin or companies he owned,including Worthytrade and Intaband. "To facilitate the aforementioned theft, and corrupt payments, devices were created and measures were taken to disguise the origin, nature and destination of monies," the agreement read.
It said though Goodwin had not been employed by Brown's Fidentia Asset Management, or privy to its internal arrangements, he had suspected a theft had taken place. "He was not aware at the time of the exact nature, quantum and source of the funds that are the subject matter of the theft. "He accepts that an amount of approximately R93m was laundered by him." In terms of the agreement, Goodwin would co-operate fully with prosecutors on the Fidentia investigation, assist Fidentia's curators "in their restitution efforts", and assist investigators in tracing the missing funds.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Tlali Tlali said outside the court afterwards that the state was "very pleased" with the outcome of the matter. "We are talking about a situation that involves acts of criminality that hit the hardest on the poorest of the poor," he said. Investigators were still pursuing "other legs of the investigation". "Hopefully soon we'll still be in court again, because we have other outstanding investigations that have to be concluded in terms of two other suspects."
Former Fidentia director and accountant Graham Maddock last year began a seven year jail sentence after pleading guilty to theft and money laundering. Prosecutors have also charged Teta's Bothma and broker Jacobus Theart. Though he is challenging the charges in the Cape High Court, Brown has been involved in plea bargain talks.
Source: News 24
Goodwin, a broker, fled to Australia in early 2007, shortly before the Scorpions began probing the Fidentia affair. He was arrested by the FBI at Los Angeles airport in the United States in April last year, and launched a protracted legal challenge - which he lost - to the extradition agreement between the US and South Africa. When he appeared before acting Cape judge president Jeanette Traverso on Monday morning, prosecutor Jannie van Vuuren said Goodwin had agreed to return voluntarily, and had waived his rights in terms of formal extradition proceedings.
The bespectacled Goodwin, sporting a bushy black beard and wearing a white shirt with no tie or jacket, was brought into the courtroom in handcuffs. He answered "I do, your honour," when Traverso asked him if he understood the terms of the 12-page agreement. She sentenced him to 20 years jail on one count of fraud, of which 10 years was conditionally suspended for five years.
On two counts of corruption, he was sentenced to one jail term of 15 years, of which five were suspended. On 33 counts of money-laundering, he was sentenced to one term of 15 years, of which seven was suspended. Traverso said the corruption and laundering sentences would run concurrently with the fraud. The 12 months he had spent in a US detention centre since April 7 would be subtracted from the jail time, she said. One of the conditions of the suspensions is that he testify against Brown, who is facing a range of fraud and theft charges.
According to the agreement, Goodwin played a key role in getting the Transport Sector Education and Training Authority (Teta) to transfer investments to Fidentia's control. To do this, he paid former Teta chief executive Piet Bothma bribes totalling R4.6m, which were disguised first as commission payments, then as a sale of shares in a shell company that had no assets. Although the plea agreement does not mention the amount of the investments, according to other prosecution documents it involved promissory notes worth just over R100m, which Fidentia then sold off to pay personal and company expenses and creditors. According to the agreement, Goodwin himself got about R32m of the Teta funds as his own share of the loot. To disguise what had happened, he complied fictitious monthly statements for the benefit of the Teta board, showing what the funds would have been at prevailing interest rates. The money laundering charge involved the flow of this cash through bank accounts controlled by Goodwin or companies he owned,including Worthytrade and Intaband. "To facilitate the aforementioned theft, and corrupt payments, devices were created and measures were taken to disguise the origin, nature and destination of monies," the agreement read.
It said though Goodwin had not been employed by Brown's Fidentia Asset Management, or privy to its internal arrangements, he had suspected a theft had taken place. "He was not aware at the time of the exact nature, quantum and source of the funds that are the subject matter of the theft. "He accepts that an amount of approximately R93m was laundered by him." In terms of the agreement, Goodwin would co-operate fully with prosecutors on the Fidentia investigation, assist Fidentia's curators "in their restitution efforts", and assist investigators in tracing the missing funds.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Tlali Tlali said outside the court afterwards that the state was "very pleased" with the outcome of the matter. "We are talking about a situation that involves acts of criminality that hit the hardest on the poorest of the poor," he said. Investigators were still pursuing "other legs of the investigation". "Hopefully soon we'll still be in court again, because we have other outstanding investigations that have to be concluded in terms of two other suspects."
Former Fidentia director and accountant Graham Maddock last year began a seven year jail sentence after pleading guilty to theft and money laundering. Prosecutors have also charged Teta's Bothma and broker Jacobus Theart. Though he is challenging the charges in the Cape High Court, Brown has been involved in plea bargain talks.
Source: News 24
Friday, April 17, 2009
Heath supports Mpshe’s decision
Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Moketedi Mpshe could have made no other decision than to drop charges against African National Congress president Jacob Zuma, former judge Willem Heath said on Thursday.
"If he proceeded [with the prosecution] the judge would have ruled that it was an illegality and it would have come to an end," Heath said.
Heath said it was frightening that practising legal practitioners had been so quiet about the outcry over the NPA's decision.
"The silence and the apathy of practitioners in South Africa after the announcement by advocate Mpshe is deafening."
Source: News 24.com
"If he proceeded [with the prosecution] the judge would have ruled that it was an illegality and it would have come to an end," Heath said.
Heath said it was frightening that practising legal practitioners had been so quiet about the outcry over the NPA's decision.
"The silence and the apathy of practitioners in South Africa after the announcement by advocate Mpshe is deafening."
Source: News 24.com
Socialism and American public opinion
A national telephone survey conducted in early April by Rasmussen Reports, the US polling company, discovered that only 53 percent of Americans believe capitalism to be superior to socialism. Twenty percent favor socialism and 27 percent are undecided.
Adults under 30, according to Rasmussen, were “essentially evenly divided: 37 percent prefer capitalism, 33 percent socialism, and 30 percent are undecided.”
These results lift the veil on a reality the US establishment feverishly seeks to conceal: the existence of a deeply-felt popular opposition to the existing economic system and social conditions.
The Rasmussen findings, under the ideological conditions that prevail in America, are a stunning refutation of the official manufactured public opinion. To the extent that socialism is understood as the opposite of capitalism, it is viewed favorably by substantial sections of the population.
There is widespread popular outrage at the bankers, the corporate CEOs and the rest of the financial aristocracy who have plundered the country for decades and now accept trillions of dollars in handouts. This is viewed as deeply unjust by millions of people whose jobs, pensions and health care benefits are under sustained attack, who have seen the value of their homes drop dramatically and who generally view the future with increasing pessimism and even alarm.
The mass anger toward Wall Street and the generalized disaffection with the existing system generates the strong desire for an alternative to the present intolerable conditions. That alternative, evidently, is identified in general terms with “socialism.”
Socialism is associated positively in many minds in America with a more humane, democratic and egalitarian policy, with a society in which social needs, and not the profit interests of the rich, are addressed.
The high level of popular support for such ideas, especially among the young, is particularly striking when one considers that for the past 60 years or so socialism has been relentlessly denounced in the US, or banned from public discourse altogether. Within the political establishment, including its liberal wing, to label someone a “socialist” has been the equivalent of formally cursing, shunning or excommunicating an individual.
In recent decades ruling circles were unanimous: the capitalist free market solved all problems and “un-American” socialism was a dead issue. Apparently not.
A vast chasm separates Establishment opinion and consensus from the thoughts and feelings of the working population. The average American sees and experiences nothing in the mainstream political arena or the daily media that would offer a favorable picture of socialism. And yet, according to the poll, 47 percent of the population, according to this survey, either favor or haven’t made up their minds about socialism.
In March Barack Obama told a group of top corporate directors, “I’ve always been a strong believer in the power of the free market. It has been and will remain the very engine of America’s progress—the source of a prosperity that has gone unmatched in human history.” When the economy “gets out of balance,” Obama argued, government has to intervene, “but the goals should always be to right the ship and let private enterprise do its magic.”
Millions of Americans think otherwise, but their views find no expression in the existing set-up. Every significant American politician, as well as many insignificant ones, is a bought and paid for stooge of powerful corporations and financial interests. We have, in effect, the Senator from Oil and Gas, the Governor from Finance, the Representative from Health Care or Defense. Social inequality has reached levels disastrous for the functioning of any society; the obscene flaunting of wealth by the super-rich does not go unnoticed.
The powers that be imagine they have gotten away with their looting of society, colonial wars and other crimes because the rottenness of the trade unions, the so-called civil rights organizations and liberalism has meant no one speaks up for the needs and interests of the population. But the more the social contradictions are ignored or papered over, the more explosive they become.
This situation, in which popular sentiment and the entire political system are so obviously out of joint, is volatile and untenable. The US has been staggered in the past seven months by the economic breakdown. Objective developments, despite all the efforts of the establishment, are bringing about a violent adjustment in the relationship between social consciousness and social reality: socialism will emerge as a major presence in American political life. The poll reflects a process already under way.
After decades of a reactionary bombardment, most Americans are no doubt confused about socialism. If Rasmussen or any other firm, however, asked people whether they preferred a society in which all policy was geared to the enrichment of the wealthiest one percent (or one-tenth of one percent) of the population, or a society based on social equality ... what would such a poll show?
In a crisis, inevitably, basic social interests and sentiments find expression. The present breakdown of the capitalist order is objectively sorting the population out along class lines.
Despite all the efforts to brutalize American society and render the population callous and indifferent to the suffering and plight of others, the recent poll reveals that the broad masses of the people have an elemental socialistic orientation. They oppose injustice, they support social equality and democracy, their sympathies lie with the downtrodden.
The capitalist media believes in its own reality and its infinite ability to manipulate and shape public opinion. In fact, other processes are taking place, with ultimately revolutionary implications. Leon Trotsky offered a far more profound view of the changes in consciousness that occur in a time of crisis: “Scientific socialism is the conscious expression of the unconscious historical process; namely, the instinctive and elemental drive of the proletariat to reconstruct society on communist beginnings. These organic tendencies in the psychology of workers spring to life with utmost rapidity today in the epoch of crises and wars.”
Social development has an inexorable logic. At the very moment when popular sentiment is shifting to the left, against capitalism, the remnants of the liberal-left around the Nation magazine proclaim the virtual impossibility of “reimagining socialism,” much less realizing it. These social elements, deeply conservative in their outlook and wedded to the economic status quo, will fiercely oppose the growth of a mass socialist movement in the US. That is the elemental instinct of their class, the privileged petty bourgeois.
The poll conducted by Rasmussen is cause for genuine optimism. For the same reason, while the poll’s uncovering of socialist sympathies in the population has created a stir in ultra-right circles, it has gone largely unreported in the major media. If Rasmussen, run by a right-wing evangelical Christian, meant the poll as a wake-up call, the phone was promptly hung up.
Source: World Socialist Web Site
Adults under 30, according to Rasmussen, were “essentially evenly divided: 37 percent prefer capitalism, 33 percent socialism, and 30 percent are undecided.”
These results lift the veil on a reality the US establishment feverishly seeks to conceal: the existence of a deeply-felt popular opposition to the existing economic system and social conditions.
The Rasmussen findings, under the ideological conditions that prevail in America, are a stunning refutation of the official manufactured public opinion. To the extent that socialism is understood as the opposite of capitalism, it is viewed favorably by substantial sections of the population.
There is widespread popular outrage at the bankers, the corporate CEOs and the rest of the financial aristocracy who have plundered the country for decades and now accept trillions of dollars in handouts. This is viewed as deeply unjust by millions of people whose jobs, pensions and health care benefits are under sustained attack, who have seen the value of their homes drop dramatically and who generally view the future with increasing pessimism and even alarm.
The mass anger toward Wall Street and the generalized disaffection with the existing system generates the strong desire for an alternative to the present intolerable conditions. That alternative, evidently, is identified in general terms with “socialism.”
Socialism is associated positively in many minds in America with a more humane, democratic and egalitarian policy, with a society in which social needs, and not the profit interests of the rich, are addressed.
The high level of popular support for such ideas, especially among the young, is particularly striking when one considers that for the past 60 years or so socialism has been relentlessly denounced in the US, or banned from public discourse altogether. Within the political establishment, including its liberal wing, to label someone a “socialist” has been the equivalent of formally cursing, shunning or excommunicating an individual.
In recent decades ruling circles were unanimous: the capitalist free market solved all problems and “un-American” socialism was a dead issue. Apparently not.
A vast chasm separates Establishment opinion and consensus from the thoughts and feelings of the working population. The average American sees and experiences nothing in the mainstream political arena or the daily media that would offer a favorable picture of socialism. And yet, according to the poll, 47 percent of the population, according to this survey, either favor or haven’t made up their minds about socialism.
In March Barack Obama told a group of top corporate directors, “I’ve always been a strong believer in the power of the free market. It has been and will remain the very engine of America’s progress—the source of a prosperity that has gone unmatched in human history.” When the economy “gets out of balance,” Obama argued, government has to intervene, “but the goals should always be to right the ship and let private enterprise do its magic.”
Millions of Americans think otherwise, but their views find no expression in the existing set-up. Every significant American politician, as well as many insignificant ones, is a bought and paid for stooge of powerful corporations and financial interests. We have, in effect, the Senator from Oil and Gas, the Governor from Finance, the Representative from Health Care or Defense. Social inequality has reached levels disastrous for the functioning of any society; the obscene flaunting of wealth by the super-rich does not go unnoticed.
The powers that be imagine they have gotten away with their looting of society, colonial wars and other crimes because the rottenness of the trade unions, the so-called civil rights organizations and liberalism has meant no one speaks up for the needs and interests of the population. But the more the social contradictions are ignored or papered over, the more explosive they become.
This situation, in which popular sentiment and the entire political system are so obviously out of joint, is volatile and untenable. The US has been staggered in the past seven months by the economic breakdown. Objective developments, despite all the efforts of the establishment, are bringing about a violent adjustment in the relationship between social consciousness and social reality: socialism will emerge as a major presence in American political life. The poll reflects a process already under way.
After decades of a reactionary bombardment, most Americans are no doubt confused about socialism. If Rasmussen or any other firm, however, asked people whether they preferred a society in which all policy was geared to the enrichment of the wealthiest one percent (or one-tenth of one percent) of the population, or a society based on social equality ... what would such a poll show?
In a crisis, inevitably, basic social interests and sentiments find expression. The present breakdown of the capitalist order is objectively sorting the population out along class lines.
Despite all the efforts to brutalize American society and render the population callous and indifferent to the suffering and plight of others, the recent poll reveals that the broad masses of the people have an elemental socialistic orientation. They oppose injustice, they support social equality and democracy, their sympathies lie with the downtrodden.
The capitalist media believes in its own reality and its infinite ability to manipulate and shape public opinion. In fact, other processes are taking place, with ultimately revolutionary implications. Leon Trotsky offered a far more profound view of the changes in consciousness that occur in a time of crisis: “Scientific socialism is the conscious expression of the unconscious historical process; namely, the instinctive and elemental drive of the proletariat to reconstruct society on communist beginnings. These organic tendencies in the psychology of workers spring to life with utmost rapidity today in the epoch of crises and wars.”
Social development has an inexorable logic. At the very moment when popular sentiment is shifting to the left, against capitalism, the remnants of the liberal-left around the Nation magazine proclaim the virtual impossibility of “reimagining socialism,” much less realizing it. These social elements, deeply conservative in their outlook and wedded to the economic status quo, will fiercely oppose the growth of a mass socialist movement in the US. That is the elemental instinct of their class, the privileged petty bourgeois.
The poll conducted by Rasmussen is cause for genuine optimism. For the same reason, while the poll’s uncovering of socialist sympathies in the population has created a stir in ultra-right circles, it has gone largely unreported in the major media. If Rasmussen, run by a right-wing evangelical Christian, meant the poll as a wake-up call, the phone was promptly hung up.
Source: World Socialist Web Site
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Mbeki betrayed Mandela legacy – Mbalula
Former President Thabo Mbeki is a "conniving" person who betrayed the legacy of struggle icon Nelson Mandela, the African National Congress's (ANC's) election head said in an open letter published on Tuesday. "[Former President] Mandela handed you a vibrant and united ANC, yet at the twilight of your Presidency, you chose to betray everything that Mandela and those that came before him stood for, struggled for, and laid down their lives for," said Fikile Mbalula, campaign head of the ANC.
Mbalula said that Mbeki decided to "spawn" the ANC breakaway party, the Congress of the People (Cope), after being defeated as ANC leader by Jacob Zuma at the Polokwane conference in December 2007. "In a moment of intoxication with power, you forgot Madiba's wise counsel and allowed our glorious movement to stumble on the edge of an abyss," said Mbalula, who was writing in his personal capacity. "When your cabal was finally defeated in Polokwane because of its actions and underhanded tactics at securing a third term for you as a president of the ANC, they went into an elaborate conspiratorial mode, famously dubbed 'the fight-back strategy' which clearly carried your blessing. It is one's considered view that it was the failure of this strategy that led you and your lieutenants to spawn the so-called Congress of the People as a vehicle to fight the ANC and undermine its hegemony and legacy."
Mbalula, who is also a member of the ANC national working committee, said that the events of the past week had left him with "very little option but to address you directly on the matters at hand". He referred to the release of transcripts of conversations between former prosecutions chief Bulelani Ngcuka and former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy, discussing the timing of re charging Zuma with fraud and corruption. "How did the State apparatus become so embroiled in partisan politics that sought to rip our movement apart such that not even the highest office in the land had the political will to put brakes on the rot that was settling in?" asked Mbalula.
Acting National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Mokotedi Mpshe last week announced that the charges against Zuma will be dropped, saying that the transcripts were evidence of an "abuse of process". Mpshe said that no concrete evidence could be found to support claims that Mbeki had manipulated the prosecuting process behind-the-scenes but many Zuma supporters believe that was the case. "The NPA briefing finally brought closure to a painful episode of your reign both as President of the republic and president of the ANC, an episode one hopes will never come to pass ever again in the history of our movement," wrote Mbalula. "It is a sad reality that the phenomenon we are dealing with today is a result of your actions of conniving, manipulating people and advancing politics of patronage. Despite the fact that you were a democratically elected President, you chose to run both the organisation and the country with a cabal which sought to commandeer everyone along your thinking and vision, which at times ran contrary to what the ANC stood for," said Mbalula.
Mbeki's spokesperson, Mukoni Ratshitanga, was not immediately available for comment.
Mbalula said that Mbeki decided to "spawn" the ANC breakaway party, the Congress of the People (Cope), after being defeated as ANC leader by Jacob Zuma at the Polokwane conference in December 2007. "In a moment of intoxication with power, you forgot Madiba's wise counsel and allowed our glorious movement to stumble on the edge of an abyss," said Mbalula, who was writing in his personal capacity. "When your cabal was finally defeated in Polokwane because of its actions and underhanded tactics at securing a third term for you as a president of the ANC, they went into an elaborate conspiratorial mode, famously dubbed 'the fight-back strategy' which clearly carried your blessing. It is one's considered view that it was the failure of this strategy that led you and your lieutenants to spawn the so-called Congress of the People as a vehicle to fight the ANC and undermine its hegemony and legacy."
Mbalula, who is also a member of the ANC national working committee, said that the events of the past week had left him with "very little option but to address you directly on the matters at hand". He referred to the release of transcripts of conversations between former prosecutions chief Bulelani Ngcuka and former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy, discussing the timing of re charging Zuma with fraud and corruption. "How did the State apparatus become so embroiled in partisan politics that sought to rip our movement apart such that not even the highest office in the land had the political will to put brakes on the rot that was settling in?" asked Mbalula.
Acting National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Mokotedi Mpshe last week announced that the charges against Zuma will be dropped, saying that the transcripts were evidence of an "abuse of process". Mpshe said that no concrete evidence could be found to support claims that Mbeki had manipulated the prosecuting process behind-the-scenes but many Zuma supporters believe that was the case. "The NPA briefing finally brought closure to a painful episode of your reign both as President of the republic and president of the ANC, an episode one hopes will never come to pass ever again in the history of our movement," wrote Mbalula. "It is a sad reality that the phenomenon we are dealing with today is a result of your actions of conniving, manipulating people and advancing politics of patronage. Despite the fact that you were a democratically elected President, you chose to run both the organisation and the country with a cabal which sought to commandeer everyone along your thinking and vision, which at times ran contrary to what the ANC stood for," said Mbalula.
Mbeki's spokesperson, Mukoni Ratshitanga, was not immediately available for comment.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Al-Qaeda in Yemen: Political, Social and Security Dimensions
Last month, two suicide attacks occurred in Hadramaut’s Shibam area and Sana’a respectively. The first one left four South Korean tourists killed, a Yemeni driver and six others injured. The second terrorist operation targeted a Korean delegation that came to investigate the circumstances of Shibam operation, but there were no causalities save the bomber.
The address of Al-Qaeda is instigative and allowed other parties and organizations to recruit people in the name of Al-Qaeda to launch terrorist operations. Further, some people can personally launch such attacks under the influence of Al-Qaeda’s instigative and chaotic address. Al-Qaeda in Yemen raises many questions as for the number of its personnel, the risks they pose and their relations with those considered by them to be enemies including the authorities and Americans.
In their efforts to contain Al-Qaeda, Yemeni authorities are in a open war with them and the nature of this organization made it possible for some groups to work with the authorities while others work against. Still, there are deep doubts about Yemen’s dealing with such a file especially when the state lacks in the concept of state’s overall security.
Al-Qaeda’s address was focused on fighting crusaders and Jews, despite the fact that no single Israeli interest was attacked. Further, targeting foreign tourists is included in Al-Qaeda’s address, but the question remains, why Koreans?
The first assumption is that Al-Qaeda’s style is chaotic and targeting tourists is not decided by nationality; the second is that another organization targeted the Korean tourist for unknown reasons and both assumptions are accepted.
Both operations have left behind wide negative effects. The first victims of such acts are both Islam and Muslims. Islam which is a mercy for human beings and urges Muslims to posses power for forcing others to accept peace is thus viewed to be the religion that: calls Muslims to commit suicide and killing acts against others.
Both operations will have negative political aspects on Yemen especially in matters relating to the attempts by the authorities to contain Al-Qaeda and cooperate with Americans in what is known to be “war on terror”. These two operations reinforce the distrust of Americans on the authorities and the possibility of directing military attacks in certain areas of Yemen and turning these areas into another Waziristan. This will also bring Yemen into the front of international media and will picture the country as a safe haven for Al-Qaeda, something that harms Yemen’s international relations.
The two operations clearly indicate that the absence of a total national security strategy is among the key reasons that prevent the state from containing the armed groups including Al-Qaeda. They clearly indicate that Al-Qaeda has penetrated security apparatuses, because its element were capable to decide both time and place at which the Korean delegation passed by the area; they can further lead to other security problems the last of which was killing a university student at the gate of Sana’a University and this prompted tribesmen to occupy the university premises. Again, both operations raise the concerns of foreign governments who have started to warn their citizens against traveling to Yemen, considering it to be a highly dangerous country.
The recent operations have left negative impact on investments and tourism, leading to complicated economic problems. Thus the country is inflicted by three destructive powers: foreign powers, the regime and Al-Qaeda.
Source: Yemen Post
The address of Al-Qaeda is instigative and allowed other parties and organizations to recruit people in the name of Al-Qaeda to launch terrorist operations. Further, some people can personally launch such attacks under the influence of Al-Qaeda’s instigative and chaotic address. Al-Qaeda in Yemen raises many questions as for the number of its personnel, the risks they pose and their relations with those considered by them to be enemies including the authorities and Americans.
In their efforts to contain Al-Qaeda, Yemeni authorities are in a open war with them and the nature of this organization made it possible for some groups to work with the authorities while others work against. Still, there are deep doubts about Yemen’s dealing with such a file especially when the state lacks in the concept of state’s overall security.
Al-Qaeda’s address was focused on fighting crusaders and Jews, despite the fact that no single Israeli interest was attacked. Further, targeting foreign tourists is included in Al-Qaeda’s address, but the question remains, why Koreans?
The first assumption is that Al-Qaeda’s style is chaotic and targeting tourists is not decided by nationality; the second is that another organization targeted the Korean tourist for unknown reasons and both assumptions are accepted.
Both operations have left behind wide negative effects. The first victims of such acts are both Islam and Muslims. Islam which is a mercy for human beings and urges Muslims to posses power for forcing others to accept peace is thus viewed to be the religion that: calls Muslims to commit suicide and killing acts against others.
Both operations will have negative political aspects on Yemen especially in matters relating to the attempts by the authorities to contain Al-Qaeda and cooperate with Americans in what is known to be “war on terror”. These two operations reinforce the distrust of Americans on the authorities and the possibility of directing military attacks in certain areas of Yemen and turning these areas into another Waziristan. This will also bring Yemen into the front of international media and will picture the country as a safe haven for Al-Qaeda, something that harms Yemen’s international relations.
The two operations clearly indicate that the absence of a total national security strategy is among the key reasons that prevent the state from containing the armed groups including Al-Qaeda. They clearly indicate that Al-Qaeda has penetrated security apparatuses, because its element were capable to decide both time and place at which the Korean delegation passed by the area; they can further lead to other security problems the last of which was killing a university student at the gate of Sana’a University and this prompted tribesmen to occupy the university premises. Again, both operations raise the concerns of foreign governments who have started to warn their citizens against traveling to Yemen, considering it to be a highly dangerous country.
The recent operations have left negative impact on investments and tourism, leading to complicated economic problems. Thus the country is inflicted by three destructive powers: foreign powers, the regime and Al-Qaeda.
Source: Yemen Post
Friday, April 10, 2009
Intelligence IG probes Zuma tapes
The Office of the Inspector General of Intelligence (OIGI) is probing whether the intelligence services were acting within the law when they made the spy tapes that sank the State's case against African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma. "The circumstances surrounding the interception of the voice communications of certain individuals by the Intelligence Services is currently being investigated," OIGI's COO Imtiaz Fazel said on Wednesday. "The investigation is seeking to establish whether or not these communications were lawfully obtained by the services as required by interception legislation and handled in a manner that is compliant with appropriate legislation and the constitution."
Fazel said the scope of the investigation was confined to the conduct of the intelligence services and declined to provide further details. On Monday, acting National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Mokotedi Mpshe, cited extracts from transcripts of phone recordings as proof that the then Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy took political instructions on the timing of recharging Zuma in 2007. Also quoted was former NPA chief Bulelani Ngcuka.
Though no longer in the job, he appeared in Mpshe's presentation to be dictating to McCarthy when to proceed with the charges, given the sensitivity of the Polokwane conference where Zuma and the then President Thabo Mbeki battled for control of the ANC. Mpshe said that after Zuma's lawyers confronted his staff with recordings to this effect, he approached the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) to verify the authenticity of the tapes. The NIA produced its own tapes that matched those in Zuma's possession, he said as he announced he was dropping all charges against the ANC's Presidential candidate. Mpshe said the NIA recordings were made legally as part of an investigation into the controversial Browse Mole report produced by the Scorpions that outlined an alleged foreign-backed plot to overthrow Mbeki.
The Sunday Times reported last week that permission to tap McCarthy's phone was granted by a High Court judge after the police presented an affidavit alleging he was involved in crime. But the newspaper said it found no evidence of a criminal investigation into McCarthy and could not establish the name of the judge who granted the order. The OIGI has confirmed that it was also probing how Zuma's lawyer got hold of the secret tapes. The Argus on Wednesday reported that McCarthy had signalled that he would cooperate with a judicial commission of inquiry into the Scorpions' handling of the Zuma case, provided he was furnished with the recordings that were cited by Mpshe.
Mpshe concluded that it was not possible to proceed with the corruption and fraud case against Zuma because McCarthy's conduct amounted to "a serious abuse of process".
Fazel said the scope of the investigation was confined to the conduct of the intelligence services and declined to provide further details. On Monday, acting National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Mokotedi Mpshe, cited extracts from transcripts of phone recordings as proof that the then Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy took political instructions on the timing of recharging Zuma in 2007. Also quoted was former NPA chief Bulelani Ngcuka.
Though no longer in the job, he appeared in Mpshe's presentation to be dictating to McCarthy when to proceed with the charges, given the sensitivity of the Polokwane conference where Zuma and the then President Thabo Mbeki battled for control of the ANC. Mpshe said that after Zuma's lawyers confronted his staff with recordings to this effect, he approached the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) to verify the authenticity of the tapes. The NIA produced its own tapes that matched those in Zuma's possession, he said as he announced he was dropping all charges against the ANC's Presidential candidate. Mpshe said the NIA recordings were made legally as part of an investigation into the controversial Browse Mole report produced by the Scorpions that outlined an alleged foreign-backed plot to overthrow Mbeki.
The Sunday Times reported last week that permission to tap McCarthy's phone was granted by a High Court judge after the police presented an affidavit alleging he was involved in crime. But the newspaper said it found no evidence of a criminal investigation into McCarthy and could not establish the name of the judge who granted the order. The OIGI has confirmed that it was also probing how Zuma's lawyer got hold of the secret tapes. The Argus on Wednesday reported that McCarthy had signalled that he would cooperate with a judicial commission of inquiry into the Scorpions' handling of the Zuma case, provided he was furnished with the recordings that were cited by Mpshe.
Mpshe concluded that it was not possible to proceed with the corruption and fraud case against Zuma because McCarthy's conduct amounted to "a serious abuse of process".
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The next urban crisis: poverty and climate change
Global climate change and poverty are inextricably interconnected. The best way to break one is to bend the other.the dangers of global poverty and climate crises will be especially acute in cities because accelerating, unplanned urbanization around the world tends to concentrate low-income people in high risk areas, on ecologically fragile land, desperately vulnerable to the consequences of imminent and worsening climate disruption.
The reason is clear: more people live in cities than ever before. In 1950, the earth’s total population was 2.2 billion and New York was the only metropolis with a population greater than 10 million. In the years since, the planet’s population tripled, concentrating in cities, most of which are located in developing countries. Within a decade, more than 500 cities will have populations exceeding one million. By 2020, seven cities in developing countries will have more than 20 million inhabitants. These are not cities with picture-postcard skylines. UN-HABITAT projects that within three decades, one of every three human beings will live in near total squalor – packed tightly on low-lying land, lacking sanitation and clean water, increasingly susceptible to the wrath of a warming world. Cities historically have been engines of vitality – crossroads of commerce and culture. Now, they are at the epicenter of climate change’s impact.
According to the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the earth is likely to experience at least another century of warming. The only realistic solution for cities is stronger resilience: integrated urban planning, land use regulation, water management, infrastructure investment, and emergency preparedness. The private sector and national governments alike must support these adaptation efforts with wider access to insurance, healthcare, and the financial resources to encourage and expand effective programs.
Greater resilience is possible – and without bank-breaking expense. There's often resistance to adaptive solutions for fear of huge costs. The best ideas, however, are not necessarily the priciest, and many are already deployed in developing cities that have little flexibility in their budgets. Durban, South Africa, for example, incorporates ongoing climate risk assessment, adaptation, and mitigation into long-term city planning. To pilot innovative services and solutions, the Rockefeller Foundation recently launched the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network. This work emerged as one response to a consensus that communities in Southeast Asia’s urban areas find themselves in great peril. During the next three decades, 60 percent of the world’s population increase will occur in Asia’s cities and eight in 10 of the countries most vulnerable to climate change’s reach will be located on the continent. By mid-century, climate change could subject 132 million people in Asia to resurgent hunger and poverty – and a full billion could struggle to find fresh water.
The Rockefeller Foundation's intervention is also designed to test strategies that can be adopted in other urban regions. The Asian Cities Network – an alliance of governments and donors, scientists, academics, and planners, health care and emergency service providers – will chart new approaches for cities everywhere to prepare for and recover from the global climate crisis’ very local impacts. It will link circuitry to help diverse partners and policymakers learn from best-practices. And it will aggressively court governments and donors who can bring successful approaches to scale.
We can all agree that solving the global poverty and climate crises are not contradictory, but rather complementary – and increasingly urgent – opportunities. Yet, as a global community, we must redouble our commitments to equip those most vulnerable to the three-headed hydra of climate-risk, poverty, and urbanization, especially against the backdrop of continued economic contraction. Each successive day we do not act brings us all closer to catastrophe. City by city, we can and must prepare to cope with what’s coming.
[Climate Change Resilience]
Source: Worldbank
The reason is clear: more people live in cities than ever before. In 1950, the earth’s total population was 2.2 billion and New York was the only metropolis with a population greater than 10 million. In the years since, the planet’s population tripled, concentrating in cities, most of which are located in developing countries. Within a decade, more than 500 cities will have populations exceeding one million. By 2020, seven cities in developing countries will have more than 20 million inhabitants. These are not cities with picture-postcard skylines. UN-HABITAT projects that within three decades, one of every three human beings will live in near total squalor – packed tightly on low-lying land, lacking sanitation and clean water, increasingly susceptible to the wrath of a warming world. Cities historically have been engines of vitality – crossroads of commerce and culture. Now, they are at the epicenter of climate change’s impact.
According to the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the earth is likely to experience at least another century of warming. The only realistic solution for cities is stronger resilience: integrated urban planning, land use regulation, water management, infrastructure investment, and emergency preparedness. The private sector and national governments alike must support these adaptation efforts with wider access to insurance, healthcare, and the financial resources to encourage and expand effective programs.
Greater resilience is possible – and without bank-breaking expense. There's often resistance to adaptive solutions for fear of huge costs. The best ideas, however, are not necessarily the priciest, and many are already deployed in developing cities that have little flexibility in their budgets. Durban, South Africa, for example, incorporates ongoing climate risk assessment, adaptation, and mitigation into long-term city planning. To pilot innovative services and solutions, the Rockefeller Foundation recently launched the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network. This work emerged as one response to a consensus that communities in Southeast Asia’s urban areas find themselves in great peril. During the next three decades, 60 percent of the world’s population increase will occur in Asia’s cities and eight in 10 of the countries most vulnerable to climate change’s reach will be located on the continent. By mid-century, climate change could subject 132 million people in Asia to resurgent hunger and poverty – and a full billion could struggle to find fresh water.
The Rockefeller Foundation's intervention is also designed to test strategies that can be adopted in other urban regions. The Asian Cities Network – an alliance of governments and donors, scientists, academics, and planners, health care and emergency service providers – will chart new approaches for cities everywhere to prepare for and recover from the global climate crisis’ very local impacts. It will link circuitry to help diverse partners and policymakers learn from best-practices. And it will aggressively court governments and donors who can bring successful approaches to scale.
We can all agree that solving the global poverty and climate crises are not contradictory, but rather complementary – and increasingly urgent – opportunities. Yet, as a global community, we must redouble our commitments to equip those most vulnerable to the three-headed hydra of climate-risk, poverty, and urbanization, especially against the backdrop of continued economic contraction. Each successive day we do not act brings us all closer to catastrophe. City by city, we can and must prepare to cope with what’s coming.
[Climate Change Resilience]
Source: Worldbank
DR Congo: Brutal Rapes by Rebels and Army
Rwandan rebel forces, government army soldiers, and their allies have raped at least 90 women and girls since late January 2009 in the volatile North and South Kivu provinces of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch said today. The Rwandan rebel forces have also been implicated in the deaths of most of the 180 civilians killed during this period.
The United Nations Security Council will discuss on April 9 the latest report by the UN secretary-general on the peacekeeping force in Congo. Human Rights Watch called on the UN Security Council to press the Congolese government to remove human rights abusers from its armed forces and end rights violations, including attacks against women and girls.
The Rwandan Hutu militia called the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) attacked and burned dozens of villages and towns in Masisi and Lubero territories (North Kivu) as well as in Kalehe territory (South Kivu) in recent weeks, committing numerous deliberate killings, rapes, and acts of looting. Blaming government military operations, the FDLR deliberately targeted civilians, used them as human shields, and accused civilians of having betrayed them. According to witnesses and victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the FDLR have been implicated in the killings of at least 154 civilians since January 23.
"The FDLR are deliberately killing and raping Congolese civilians as apparent punishment for the military operations against them," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Both the fighters who commit such horrific acts and the rebel commanders who permit them are responsible for war crimes."
The FDLR were temporarily pushed out of their military positions in January and February 2009 following the start of a joint military operation against them by Congolese and Rwandan troops on January 20. Following the withdrawal of Rwandan forces on February 24, military action diminished and the FDLR reoccupied many of their previous positions.
Most recently, at least seven civilians were killed and 24 others wounded during FDLR attacks in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Watch and Walikale in early April. On March 20, 2009, the FDLR attacked Buhuli, North Kivu, and four other nearby villages, killing at least five civilians, including two women, an elderly man, a 7-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy. On February 13, the FDLR attacked the village of Kipopo, killing at least 13 people, who were burned to death in their homes.
In late February, the FDLR abducted at least a dozen women and girls from Remeka, in Masisi territory, North Kivu. Two women who escaped reported that FDLR combatants brutally killed nine of the women and girls when they resisted attempts to rape them. The fate of the others is unknown.
The Congolese army has also been implicated in numerous rapes. In March, Congolese soldiers raped at least 21 women and girls in southern Masisi and northern Kalehe territories. Many of the victims were violently gang raped while the soldiers were on looting sprees.
On March 24, four women from Ziralo, South Kivu, were returning from the market when they were stopped by a group of army soldiers at a makeshift barricade. The soldiers took the sacks of food the women were carrying and then said they were going to examine the women's vaginas for any hidden money. The soldiers took the women into the nearby forest and gang raped each of them for hours. One woman was six-months pregnant and was raped so brutally that she lost her unborn child.
The recent killings by the rebel group are in addition to those perpetrated by its forces on January 27, when FDLR combatants hacked to death dozens of civilians used as human shields at their military position in Kibua. One witness at Kibua interviewed by Human Rights Watch saw an FDLR combatant batter a 10-year-old girl to death against a brick wall.
According to the United Nations, an estimated 250,000 people have fled their homes since January, adding to hundreds of thousands of others who fled earlier waves of violence.
The Congolese army says it is preparing for the next phase of operations against the FDLR, this time expanding the operations to South Kivu. The army has added over 10,000 additional soldiers from former Congolese rebel groups, including the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), the Coalition of Congolese Patriotic Resistance (PARECO), and other local militia groups. The rapidly mixed brigades of former enemies have been sent to the front lines with no salaries, rations, or any formal training, increasing the likelihood of future human rights violations.
Serious abuses against civilians by government soldiers have already been reported. Army soldiers killed at least five civilians in Lubero territory in March, some while on looting sprees. In Ziralo, an elderly man was killed by soldiers while they raped his wife and looted his home.
The rapid integration process has included no formal vetting mechanism to stop those with serious records of past human rights abuses from being promoted and integrated into the Congolese army.
Bosco Ntaganda, wanted on an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the war crime of enlisting child soldiers and using them in hostilities, was promoted to the position of general in the Congolese army in January 2009. In addition to the ICC charges, Ntaganda has been accused of commanding troops that massacred 150 civilians at Kiwanja in North Kivu province in November 2008.
Jean-Pierre Biyoyo was recently appointed a colonel in the Congolese army despite being found guilty by a Congolese military court in March 2006 of recruiting child soldiers. He later escaped from prison. Both Ntaganda and Biyoyo play an important role in current military operations.
The Congolese army will be supported by the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUC, in its military operations against the FDLR. MONUC says that its top priority is to protect civilians, but it is not clear how civilians will be protected against further attacks by either FDLR or Congolese army soldiers.
"Protection of civilians can only be taken seriously if known human rights abusers are removed from the ranks of the Congolese army," said Van Woudenberg. "The Security Council should seek an immediate answer from the Congolese government on when it will carry out such arrests and what it will do to stop further rape and killing by its troops before it gives any support to the military operations."
Source: Human Rights Watch
The United Nations Security Council will discuss on April 9 the latest report by the UN secretary-general on the peacekeeping force in Congo. Human Rights Watch called on the UN Security Council to press the Congolese government to remove human rights abusers from its armed forces and end rights violations, including attacks against women and girls.
The Rwandan Hutu militia called the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) attacked and burned dozens of villages and towns in Masisi and Lubero territories (North Kivu) as well as in Kalehe territory (South Kivu) in recent weeks, committing numerous deliberate killings, rapes, and acts of looting. Blaming government military operations, the FDLR deliberately targeted civilians, used them as human shields, and accused civilians of having betrayed them. According to witnesses and victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the FDLR have been implicated in the killings of at least 154 civilians since January 23.
"The FDLR are deliberately killing and raping Congolese civilians as apparent punishment for the military operations against them," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Both the fighters who commit such horrific acts and the rebel commanders who permit them are responsible for war crimes."
The FDLR were temporarily pushed out of their military positions in January and February 2009 following the start of a joint military operation against them by Congolese and Rwandan troops on January 20. Following the withdrawal of Rwandan forces on February 24, military action diminished and the FDLR reoccupied many of their previous positions.
Most recently, at least seven civilians were killed and 24 others wounded during FDLR attacks in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Watch and Walikale in early April. On March 20, 2009, the FDLR attacked Buhuli, North Kivu, and four other nearby villages, killing at least five civilians, including two women, an elderly man, a 7-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy. On February 13, the FDLR attacked the village of Kipopo, killing at least 13 people, who were burned to death in their homes.
In late February, the FDLR abducted at least a dozen women and girls from Remeka, in Masisi territory, North Kivu. Two women who escaped reported that FDLR combatants brutally killed nine of the women and girls when they resisted attempts to rape them. The fate of the others is unknown.
The Congolese army has also been implicated in numerous rapes. In March, Congolese soldiers raped at least 21 women and girls in southern Masisi and northern Kalehe territories. Many of the victims were violently gang raped while the soldiers were on looting sprees.
On March 24, four women from Ziralo, South Kivu, were returning from the market when they were stopped by a group of army soldiers at a makeshift barricade. The soldiers took the sacks of food the women were carrying and then said they were going to examine the women's vaginas for any hidden money. The soldiers took the women into the nearby forest and gang raped each of them for hours. One woman was six-months pregnant and was raped so brutally that she lost her unborn child.
The recent killings by the rebel group are in addition to those perpetrated by its forces on January 27, when FDLR combatants hacked to death dozens of civilians used as human shields at their military position in Kibua. One witness at Kibua interviewed by Human Rights Watch saw an FDLR combatant batter a 10-year-old girl to death against a brick wall.
According to the United Nations, an estimated 250,000 people have fled their homes since January, adding to hundreds of thousands of others who fled earlier waves of violence.
The Congolese army says it is preparing for the next phase of operations against the FDLR, this time expanding the operations to South Kivu. The army has added over 10,000 additional soldiers from former Congolese rebel groups, including the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), the Coalition of Congolese Patriotic Resistance (PARECO), and other local militia groups. The rapidly mixed brigades of former enemies have been sent to the front lines with no salaries, rations, or any formal training, increasing the likelihood of future human rights violations.
Serious abuses against civilians by government soldiers have already been reported. Army soldiers killed at least five civilians in Lubero territory in March, some while on looting sprees. In Ziralo, an elderly man was killed by soldiers while they raped his wife and looted his home.
The rapid integration process has included no formal vetting mechanism to stop those with serious records of past human rights abuses from being promoted and integrated into the Congolese army.
Bosco Ntaganda, wanted on an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the war crime of enlisting child soldiers and using them in hostilities, was promoted to the position of general in the Congolese army in January 2009. In addition to the ICC charges, Ntaganda has been accused of commanding troops that massacred 150 civilians at Kiwanja in North Kivu province in November 2008.
Jean-Pierre Biyoyo was recently appointed a colonel in the Congolese army despite being found guilty by a Congolese military court in March 2006 of recruiting child soldiers. He later escaped from prison. Both Ntaganda and Biyoyo play an important role in current military operations.
The Congolese army will be supported by the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUC, in its military operations against the FDLR. MONUC says that its top priority is to protect civilians, but it is not clear how civilians will be protected against further attacks by either FDLR or Congolese army soldiers.
"Protection of civilians can only be taken seriously if known human rights abusers are removed from the ranks of the Congolese army," said Van Woudenberg. "The Security Council should seek an immediate answer from the Congolese government on when it will carry out such arrests and what it will do to stop further rape and killing by its troops before it gives any support to the military operations."
Source: Human Rights Watch
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Private prosecutions are rare - and expensive
Private prosecutions are rare in South African legal history and rarely succeed - perhaps one reason why the Democratic Alliance has decided to first seek a full judicial review of the decision to drop charges against Jacob Zuma.
Under the Criminal Procedure Act, any private person may launch a prosecution if the National Prosecuting Authority declines to prosecute or halts a prosecution and issues a certificate of nolle prosequi (we shall no longer prosecute).
The prosecution would then be initiated by summons.
But such a person would have to prove some substantial and peculiar interest in the issue - and would also have to prove they were a direct victim of the alleged crime.
The act is silent on how a private prosecution would obtain evidence. In the case of Zuma, this evidence is in the hands of the State.
A legal source said the only way to obtain the information would be through an application under the Promotion for Access to Information Act. By applying for a judicial review, the DA may be on firmer legal ground.
Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos said that while the NPA had the discretion to decide whether to prosecute, it had to make that decision within the terms of the law.
"One could argue a review is necessary in terms of deciding whether the NPA met its constitutional obligations," De Vos said.
"Any decision (on whether to prosecute) would have to be based on the NPA's prosecutions policy spelt out in Section 179 of the constitution.
"The question would be, was that followed when the decision was taken - or was it made on non-legal, or political, grounds? As an organ of state, the NPA can act only in terms of the law."
Professor Marinus Wiechers, retired Unisa professor of constitutional law, said a class-action suit could be another option open to those who wanted to challenge the NPA's decision by way of private prosecution.
"The constitution does make provision for class-action suits, representing a broad public spectrum of interest, so it would not be totally far-fetched," he said.
Gauteng lawyer John Ngcebetsha said: "I think most people would rather want this to be aired in a public court. What we have is clearly a national constitutional crisis."
Source: IoL
Under the Criminal Procedure Act, any private person may launch a prosecution if the National Prosecuting Authority declines to prosecute or halts a prosecution and issues a certificate of nolle prosequi (we shall no longer prosecute).
The prosecution would then be initiated by summons.
But such a person would have to prove some substantial and peculiar interest in the issue - and would also have to prove they were a direct victim of the alleged crime.
The act is silent on how a private prosecution would obtain evidence. In the case of Zuma, this evidence is in the hands of the State.
A legal source said the only way to obtain the information would be through an application under the Promotion for Access to Information Act. By applying for a judicial review, the DA may be on firmer legal ground.
Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos said that while the NPA had the discretion to decide whether to prosecute, it had to make that decision within the terms of the law.
"One could argue a review is necessary in terms of deciding whether the NPA met its constitutional obligations," De Vos said.
"Any decision (on whether to prosecute) would have to be based on the NPA's prosecutions policy spelt out in Section 179 of the constitution.
"The question would be, was that followed when the decision was taken - or was it made on non-legal, or political, grounds? As an organ of state, the NPA can act only in terms of the law."
Professor Marinus Wiechers, retired Unisa professor of constitutional law, said a class-action suit could be another option open to those who wanted to challenge the NPA's decision by way of private prosecution.
"The constitution does make provision for class-action suits, representing a broad public spectrum of interest, so it would not be totally far-fetched," he said.
Gauteng lawyer John Ngcebetsha said: "I think most people would rather want this to be aired in a public court. What we have is clearly a national constitutional crisis."
Source: IoL
Politics Trumps Justice? Zuma and the NPA
On Monday 6 April 2009, the Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Advocate Mokotedi Mpshe, announced the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) decision to withdraw all charges against Jacob Zuma and to terminate the prosecution. This decision will be confirmed in court today.
Mpshe said the NPA's decision took into account all representations made, including those by legal representatives, which dealt with the following issues:
• The merits of the case against Zuma
• Any legal defences Zuma may have concerning the fairness of any trial
• The practical implications and considerations of a continued prosecution of Zuma
• The policy aspects militating against prosecution
The NPA found that none of Zuma's representations cast doubt on the merits of the prosecution's case, the prospects of a fair trial for Zuma, or raised practical obstacles to a prosecution. There remains therefore a case for Zuma to answer - the NPA accepts that. However, Mpshe said that allegations of outside political influence on then-head of the Scorpions, Leonard McCarthy, had led to an abuse of the overall "legal process", albeit not of the prosecution process. He said that this abuse had undermined confidence in the impartiality of the legal process, which is a "constitutional value of supreme importance". It offended "one's sense of justice", and made it unfair and unjust on a "policy" level to continue with the prosecution.
The "abuse of process" is a reference to McCarthy's alleged willingness, for a political purpose, to change the timing of the reinstitution of charges against Zuma until after the ANC's December 2007 Polokwane conference.
Mpshe set out two categories of possible abuse of process:
1. a manipulation or misuse of the criminal justice process so as to deprive the accused of a protection provided by the law or take unfair advantage of the accused; or
2. where an accused is prejudiced in the preparation or conduct of his defence or trial by an unjustified delay or haste by the prosecution.
The question, he said, is whether a legal or judicial process designed to dispense justice with impartiality and fairness has been abused to give rise to unfairness or injustice. Whether or not a fair trial is possible is not the only test of the relevance of an abuse of process. Another is if it would offend one's sense of justice, integrity and propriety to continue with a trial. Ultimately, said Mpshe, there must be something so gravely wrong that it would be unconscionable that a trial should proceed. The practical question is, then, was it a sufficiently grave wrongdoing that McCarthy consulted outsiders, like ex-NPA head Bulelani Ngcuka, close to then-President Mbeki, on the timing of the announcement that charges were to be reinstituted against Zuma? Was this political strategy which was ultimately unsuccessful and affected one aspect of the conduct of the prosecution, sufficiently serious so as to remove all credibility from the overall legal process, albeit not the validity of the prosecution?
There is no suggestion by the NPA that evidence was withheld or manufactured. Nor has the NPA said that the strength of the case against Zuma is diminished, or that the possibility of a fair trial for Zuma had been affected in any way. A court has said there is sufficient evidence to require Zuma to stand trial. And Mpshe has not disagreed with the Supreme Court of Appeal's recent ruling that an improper motive for a prosecution is insufficient to render a prosecution unlawful. The NDPP has a wide discretionary power to withdraw charges and discontinue a prosecution. But it is not an unfettered discretion: it must be a reasonable decision in the light of all relevant circumstances as set out in the prosecution policy. A court can review this decision.
Apparently relying on considerations outside this policy, Mpshe has concluded, against the advice of his prosecution team, that justifiable public interest in the prosecution of serious crimes is outweighed by "a compelling public interest which expresses a distaste and outrage for abuse of process by law enforcers who are expected to behave with absolute integrity, impartiality, fairness and justice". Thus, McCarthy's alleged misuse of a small and ultimately inconsequential part of the legal process for an improper purpose is said to taint the entire legal process. Mpshe has therefore made a "policy" decision that "it would be unfair as well as unjust to continue with the prosecution".
Given the seriousness of the charges against Jacob Zuma - corruption in high office, by the person likely to be the next President - it is unclear that the alleged misconduct can outweigh the public interest in a court process to determine conclusively the truth of Zuma's guilt or innocence. It is not immediately evident that the remedy of a discontinued prosecution is proportionate to the alleged mischief that should undoubtedly be dealt with firmly. Nor has the NPA clarified the evidentiary status of the tape recordings upon which it has based its decision, or the lawfulness of their possession by Zuma's legal representatives. It appears that only some of the recordings were also in the possession of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). The NIA informed the NPA that it had obtained the recordings legally, and the NIA declassified certain transcripts of the recordings, only extracts from which were released to the public yesterday in the NPA's statement.
The NPA has apparently requested the Inspector-General of Intelligence to conduct an investigation into "any possible illegality surrounding the recordings". This matter and any misconduct inside the NPA should be vigorously investigated and appropriate action taken urgently. The piecemeal manner in which the NPA has chosen to deal with these issues has unfortunately left many questions unresolved and has also posed a raft of new questions. Foremost among these is whether we will ever definitively know Jacob Zuma's guilt or innocence, and whether the NPA's unpersuasive ‘policy' rationale is indicative of another instance of inappropriate political pressure trumping purely legal considerations?
These doubts could have been pre-empted and more effectively resolved had the NPA opted instead to allow a court to make these determinations, as Idasa proposed last week. By avoiding the route of the greatest transparency and by not placing all these issues before a court to decide in an open and dispassionate manner, the NPA has succeeded only in compounding the sense of suspicion and mistrust of our democratic institutions.
Source: Polity
Mpshe said the NPA's decision took into account all representations made, including those by legal representatives, which dealt with the following issues:
• The merits of the case against Zuma
• Any legal defences Zuma may have concerning the fairness of any trial
• The practical implications and considerations of a continued prosecution of Zuma
• The policy aspects militating against prosecution
The NPA found that none of Zuma's representations cast doubt on the merits of the prosecution's case, the prospects of a fair trial for Zuma, or raised practical obstacles to a prosecution. There remains therefore a case for Zuma to answer - the NPA accepts that. However, Mpshe said that allegations of outside political influence on then-head of the Scorpions, Leonard McCarthy, had led to an abuse of the overall "legal process", albeit not of the prosecution process. He said that this abuse had undermined confidence in the impartiality of the legal process, which is a "constitutional value of supreme importance". It offended "one's sense of justice", and made it unfair and unjust on a "policy" level to continue with the prosecution.
The "abuse of process" is a reference to McCarthy's alleged willingness, for a political purpose, to change the timing of the reinstitution of charges against Zuma until after the ANC's December 2007 Polokwane conference.
Mpshe set out two categories of possible abuse of process:
1. a manipulation or misuse of the criminal justice process so as to deprive the accused of a protection provided by the law or take unfair advantage of the accused; or
2. where an accused is prejudiced in the preparation or conduct of his defence or trial by an unjustified delay or haste by the prosecution.
The question, he said, is whether a legal or judicial process designed to dispense justice with impartiality and fairness has been abused to give rise to unfairness or injustice. Whether or not a fair trial is possible is not the only test of the relevance of an abuse of process. Another is if it would offend one's sense of justice, integrity and propriety to continue with a trial. Ultimately, said Mpshe, there must be something so gravely wrong that it would be unconscionable that a trial should proceed. The practical question is, then, was it a sufficiently grave wrongdoing that McCarthy consulted outsiders, like ex-NPA head Bulelani Ngcuka, close to then-President Mbeki, on the timing of the announcement that charges were to be reinstituted against Zuma? Was this political strategy which was ultimately unsuccessful and affected one aspect of the conduct of the prosecution, sufficiently serious so as to remove all credibility from the overall legal process, albeit not the validity of the prosecution?
There is no suggestion by the NPA that evidence was withheld or manufactured. Nor has the NPA said that the strength of the case against Zuma is diminished, or that the possibility of a fair trial for Zuma had been affected in any way. A court has said there is sufficient evidence to require Zuma to stand trial. And Mpshe has not disagreed with the Supreme Court of Appeal's recent ruling that an improper motive for a prosecution is insufficient to render a prosecution unlawful. The NDPP has a wide discretionary power to withdraw charges and discontinue a prosecution. But it is not an unfettered discretion: it must be a reasonable decision in the light of all relevant circumstances as set out in the prosecution policy. A court can review this decision.
Apparently relying on considerations outside this policy, Mpshe has concluded, against the advice of his prosecution team, that justifiable public interest in the prosecution of serious crimes is outweighed by "a compelling public interest which expresses a distaste and outrage for abuse of process by law enforcers who are expected to behave with absolute integrity, impartiality, fairness and justice". Thus, McCarthy's alleged misuse of a small and ultimately inconsequential part of the legal process for an improper purpose is said to taint the entire legal process. Mpshe has therefore made a "policy" decision that "it would be unfair as well as unjust to continue with the prosecution".
Given the seriousness of the charges against Jacob Zuma - corruption in high office, by the person likely to be the next President - it is unclear that the alleged misconduct can outweigh the public interest in a court process to determine conclusively the truth of Zuma's guilt or innocence. It is not immediately evident that the remedy of a discontinued prosecution is proportionate to the alleged mischief that should undoubtedly be dealt with firmly. Nor has the NPA clarified the evidentiary status of the tape recordings upon which it has based its decision, or the lawfulness of their possession by Zuma's legal representatives. It appears that only some of the recordings were also in the possession of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). The NIA informed the NPA that it had obtained the recordings legally, and the NIA declassified certain transcripts of the recordings, only extracts from which were released to the public yesterday in the NPA's statement.
The NPA has apparently requested the Inspector-General of Intelligence to conduct an investigation into "any possible illegality surrounding the recordings". This matter and any misconduct inside the NPA should be vigorously investigated and appropriate action taken urgently. The piecemeal manner in which the NPA has chosen to deal with these issues has unfortunately left many questions unresolved and has also posed a raft of new questions. Foremost among these is whether we will ever definitively know Jacob Zuma's guilt or innocence, and whether the NPA's unpersuasive ‘policy' rationale is indicative of another instance of inappropriate political pressure trumping purely legal considerations?
These doubts could have been pre-empted and more effectively resolved had the NPA opted instead to allow a court to make these determinations, as Idasa proposed last week. By avoiding the route of the greatest transparency and by not placing all these issues before a court to decide in an open and dispassionate manner, the NPA has succeeded only in compounding the sense of suspicion and mistrust of our democratic institutions.
Source: Polity
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Deportation was unlawful
Human rights activists have accused the Home Affairs Department of violating legislation governing the treatment of illegal foreigners after this week's court ruling that Pakistani national Khalid Rashid was illegally detained and deported in 2005. They also called for an immediate review of the department's immigration policies.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) this week upheld an application, brought on Rashid's behalf, to have his detention at the Cullinan police station on November 1 2005 and his subsequent deportation to Pakistan on November 6 declared unlawful.
"This judgment proves that the department's immigration policies are very irregular. We have had several judgments of this nature -- the Rashid case is a drop in the ocean," said Dosso Ndessomin, coordinator of the Body for Refugee Communities. But Ndessomin doubted that a court judgment was sufficient to change government's approach. Lawyers for Human Rights's Jacob van Garderen said that in future the department would have to consider deportation and detention cases carefully. The civil proceedings against the department over the Rashid case could be damaging.
"We expect the department to study the judgment carefully and communicate with the immigration offices [especially at border posts] to avoid similar cases," he said.
Van Garderen said that in the past three months Lawyers for Human Rights had obtained eight court orders forcing the department to release asylum seekers who had been detained unlawfully at the Lindela Repatriation Centre. After his arrest Rashid was handed to Pakistani officials at the Waterkloof military air base in Pretoria. He was flown to Pakistan and held in custody amid speculation that he was suspected of links with international terrorist organisations. The SCA found that his removal from South Africa was apparently effected secretly without his relatives or friends being informed. The court said that as an illegal foreigner Rashid was liable to arrest, but the Immigration Act required that a warrant be issued by an immigration officer for detention and removal from a place of detention. In Rashid's case no warrant was obtained. The court ordered Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula to pay the costs incurred by Ismail Ebrahim Jeebhai, a Lenasia-based businessman who started court proceedings on Rashid's behalf, and his attorneys. This week one of the attorneys, Zehir Omar, said he was trying to contact Rashid in Pakistan to prepare to sue the department.
"I'd be very pleased if we came to the bottom of Rashid's removal from this country and to embark on civil proceedings against the department," said Omar. The SCA judgment, he said, had not elaborated on the reasons for Rahid's deportation.
"He was surreptitiously removed from the country because he was suspected of being a terrorist. Yet today he is a free man in Pakistan. That is a disguised extradition," he said.
In February 2007 the high court ruled that Rashid's detention and deportation were lawfully carried out. At the time of going to press the Mail & Guardian had not yet received a response from Home Affairs.
Source: Mail & Guardian
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) this week upheld an application, brought on Rashid's behalf, to have his detention at the Cullinan police station on November 1 2005 and his subsequent deportation to Pakistan on November 6 declared unlawful.
"This judgment proves that the department's immigration policies are very irregular. We have had several judgments of this nature -- the Rashid case is a drop in the ocean," said Dosso Ndessomin, coordinator of the Body for Refugee Communities. But Ndessomin doubted that a court judgment was sufficient to change government's approach. Lawyers for Human Rights's Jacob van Garderen said that in future the department would have to consider deportation and detention cases carefully. The civil proceedings against the department over the Rashid case could be damaging.
"We expect the department to study the judgment carefully and communicate with the immigration offices [especially at border posts] to avoid similar cases," he said.
Van Garderen said that in the past three months Lawyers for Human Rights had obtained eight court orders forcing the department to release asylum seekers who had been detained unlawfully at the Lindela Repatriation Centre. After his arrest Rashid was handed to Pakistani officials at the Waterkloof military air base in Pretoria. He was flown to Pakistan and held in custody amid speculation that he was suspected of links with international terrorist organisations. The SCA found that his removal from South Africa was apparently effected secretly without his relatives or friends being informed. The court said that as an illegal foreigner Rashid was liable to arrest, but the Immigration Act required that a warrant be issued by an immigration officer for detention and removal from a place of detention. In Rashid's case no warrant was obtained. The court ordered Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula to pay the costs incurred by Ismail Ebrahim Jeebhai, a Lenasia-based businessman who started court proceedings on Rashid's behalf, and his attorneys. This week one of the attorneys, Zehir Omar, said he was trying to contact Rashid in Pakistan to prepare to sue the department.
"I'd be very pleased if we came to the bottom of Rashid's removal from this country and to embark on civil proceedings against the department," said Omar. The SCA judgment, he said, had not elaborated on the reasons for Rahid's deportation.
"He was surreptitiously removed from the country because he was suspected of being a terrorist. Yet today he is a free man in Pakistan. That is a disguised extradition," he said.
In February 2007 the high court ruled that Rashid's detention and deportation were lawfully carried out. At the time of going to press the Mail & Guardian had not yet received a response from Home Affairs.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Friday, April 3, 2009
North Korea Rocket Launch on Track
Determined to demonstrate its latest missile technology both to its adversaries and perhaps to potential buyers in the Middle East, North Korea pressed ahead with final preparations on Friday to launch a multistage rocket.
North Korea is banned from ballistic missile tests under two United Nations Security Council resolutions, which were adopted in 2006 after it launched a ballistic missile and conducted its first nuclear test.
Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan told China’s president, Hu Jintao, during the Group of 20 summit meeting that if the launching went ahead, there should be a new United Nations resolution, the Yomiuri newspaper reported. Mr. Hu showed “some understanding” but did not made a clear commitment, the newspaper said.
For the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, who reportedly suffered a stroke in August, a successful launching would demonstrate his country’s mastery of crucial missile technologies.
Source: New York Times
North Korea is banned from ballistic missile tests under two United Nations Security Council resolutions, which were adopted in 2006 after it launched a ballistic missile and conducted its first nuclear test.
Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan told China’s president, Hu Jintao, during the Group of 20 summit meeting that if the launching went ahead, there should be a new United Nations resolution, the Yomiuri newspaper reported. Mr. Hu showed “some understanding” but did not made a clear commitment, the newspaper said.
For the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, who reportedly suffered a stroke in August, a successful launching would demonstrate his country’s mastery of crucial missile technologies.
Source: New York Times
Thursday, April 2, 2009
IMF and World Bank reports predict bleak future for Africa
The IMF predicts the global economic crisis will have a huge and disproportionate impact on sub-Saharan Africa. The effect will be to widen global inequality and plunge more of the African population into poverty.
The IMF's prediction of Africa's economic growth has been slashed by half, from 6.7 percent to 3.25 percent. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned that even this figure may be "too optimistic". Growth at this level would mean declining GDP per capita (because of population growth) and therefore rising poverty.
Less than a year ago, the IMF was forecasting economic growth of 6.7 percent in 2009, an increase on the 5 percent growth in 2008. While the recent IMF report, "Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Sub-Saharan Africa", says that "Unlike in developed economies, there has been no systemic banking crisis in sub-Saharan Africa", and makes the point that its financial institutions "so far remain largely sound", this will cause only a delay in the world crisis making itself felt in Africa rather than mitigating its effects.
According to the report, "In some countries banking systems may be increasingly exposed to market volatility. Countries where high equity returns had led to borrowing for investment in the stock market (e.g., Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda) are at greatest risk".
It points out the danger "of contagion from distressed foreign parent banks [spreading] to local subsidiaries". A downturn in productive industries such as timber and cotton "could quickly affect the banking sector".
While the IMF talks about "dangers" of the banking crisis spreading to Africa, other sources regard it as all but inevitable. Heavily dependent on exports, often of a small number of basic commodities, 15 of the 21 countries in the world most vulnerable to the crisis are in Africa. The IMF states, "Oil and metal exporters have been hardest hit: oil prices have fallen over 60 percent from their mid-2008 peak". Zambia will be severely hit with the fall by two-thirds in the price of copper.
In previous recessions each one percent decline in global growth led to a half percent slowdown in the sub-Saharan African countries, but the IMF concludes that the effect will be greater this time because it will be compounded by the "tightening of global credit".
Strauss-Kahn warned that millions of African people will be thrown into poverty due to the crisis, and political systems put to the test. "This is not only about protecting economic growth and household incomes—it is also about containing the threat of civil unrest, perhaps even war".
The World Bank has also predicted that the global economic crisis will drag 46 million people in Africa down into absolute poverty.
In 1960, sub-Saharan Africa's per capita income was around a ninth of that in high-income OECD countries. By 1998, it had fallen to around an eighteenth. This gap is set to widen.
Antoinette Sayeh, director of the IMF's Africa department, stressed that the crisis that began in developed economies and then the emerging markets was now hitting the world's poorest continent through low global commodity prices, depressed demand for their exports and the effects of the credit crunch.
At the London G20 summit of world leaders in April, the IMF is likely to ask for a substantial increase in its funding. It is expected that such pleading for additional funds will fall on deaf ears. African leaders met British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to present their requests for more funds in the run up to the summit. South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told reporters that overseas development aid could "dry up or diminish", and that some western donor countries "have indicated they are not capable of meeting these commitments." Egyptian Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali told Reuters, "In the case of Africa, people are going to die. We are talking about lives, not just somebody who will have to drive a smaller car".
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows into sub-Saharan Africa fell by 21 percent in 2008, and the IMF predicts that this trend will continue. The World Bank also expects that developing countries will face a shortfall of $270 billion to $700 billion on their finances this year due to private sector creditors turning away from emerging markets.
The IMF report calls on the richer nations to maintain their aid commitments, but in fact all the Western countries are turning towards protectionism. Since they committed to increasing core development aid at the Gleneagles summit in 2005, they actually cut aid by 4 percent. France and Ireland are weighing up whether to make big cuts in their aid budgets as a response to the recession.
It is hardly surprising that nothing is said by the IMF about its own role in creating the conditions for a human catastrophe on the African continent. Some African leaders, including Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, have accused the IMF of unfairness in its treatment of its members, being hard on poor countries whose populations were already on the brink while allowing richer countries to do as they pleased, even when this undermined their finances.
The IMF also calls on African countries to "seize the opportunity to advance their structural reform agendas in order to boost prospects for growth"—that is to continue with the IMF-imposed policies that have been responsible for squeezing huge amounts of wealth out of the poorest region of the world.
A report by the charity ActionAid has given a bleaker picture of Africa's future than the IMF. Claire Melamed, head of policy for ActionAid commented, "We've calculated that just by the end of this year, Africa's income stands to fall by $50 billion. And that's equivalent to a pay cut of more than 10 percent for the continent".
Melamed argues against those who hope "globalization hasn't really gone as far as we thought it had and that will protect developing countries from the recession". She says, "What this crisis does is that it just shows the depth of global integration and the way in which we're all interconnected now whether we like it or not".
In particular, Melamed describes the layoff of tens of thousands of miners in South Africa. Although it is the major economic power house on the continent, South Africa is one of the worst affected countries.
Another factor that will affect most African countries is the big downturn in remittances sent back by those who work abroad. According to the BBC, $19 billion was sent home by Africans in 2007, more than double the amount three years earlier. But three-quarters of these remittances come from Western Europe or the United States, already mired in recession.
Source: World Socialist Web Site
The IMF's prediction of Africa's economic growth has been slashed by half, from 6.7 percent to 3.25 percent. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned that even this figure may be "too optimistic". Growth at this level would mean declining GDP per capita (because of population growth) and therefore rising poverty.
Less than a year ago, the IMF was forecasting economic growth of 6.7 percent in 2009, an increase on the 5 percent growth in 2008. While the recent IMF report, "Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Sub-Saharan Africa", says that "Unlike in developed economies, there has been no systemic banking crisis in sub-Saharan Africa", and makes the point that its financial institutions "so far remain largely sound", this will cause only a delay in the world crisis making itself felt in Africa rather than mitigating its effects.
According to the report, "In some countries banking systems may be increasingly exposed to market volatility. Countries where high equity returns had led to borrowing for investment in the stock market (e.g., Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda) are at greatest risk".
It points out the danger "of contagion from distressed foreign parent banks [spreading] to local subsidiaries". A downturn in productive industries such as timber and cotton "could quickly affect the banking sector".
While the IMF talks about "dangers" of the banking crisis spreading to Africa, other sources regard it as all but inevitable. Heavily dependent on exports, often of a small number of basic commodities, 15 of the 21 countries in the world most vulnerable to the crisis are in Africa. The IMF states, "Oil and metal exporters have been hardest hit: oil prices have fallen over 60 percent from their mid-2008 peak". Zambia will be severely hit with the fall by two-thirds in the price of copper.
In previous recessions each one percent decline in global growth led to a half percent slowdown in the sub-Saharan African countries, but the IMF concludes that the effect will be greater this time because it will be compounded by the "tightening of global credit".
Strauss-Kahn warned that millions of African people will be thrown into poverty due to the crisis, and political systems put to the test. "This is not only about protecting economic growth and household incomes—it is also about containing the threat of civil unrest, perhaps even war".
The World Bank has also predicted that the global economic crisis will drag 46 million people in Africa down into absolute poverty.
In 1960, sub-Saharan Africa's per capita income was around a ninth of that in high-income OECD countries. By 1998, it had fallen to around an eighteenth. This gap is set to widen.
Antoinette Sayeh, director of the IMF's Africa department, stressed that the crisis that began in developed economies and then the emerging markets was now hitting the world's poorest continent through low global commodity prices, depressed demand for their exports and the effects of the credit crunch.
At the London G20 summit of world leaders in April, the IMF is likely to ask for a substantial increase in its funding. It is expected that such pleading for additional funds will fall on deaf ears. African leaders met British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to present their requests for more funds in the run up to the summit. South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told reporters that overseas development aid could "dry up or diminish", and that some western donor countries "have indicated they are not capable of meeting these commitments." Egyptian Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali told Reuters, "In the case of Africa, people are going to die. We are talking about lives, not just somebody who will have to drive a smaller car".
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows into sub-Saharan Africa fell by 21 percent in 2008, and the IMF predicts that this trend will continue. The World Bank also expects that developing countries will face a shortfall of $270 billion to $700 billion on their finances this year due to private sector creditors turning away from emerging markets.
The IMF report calls on the richer nations to maintain their aid commitments, but in fact all the Western countries are turning towards protectionism. Since they committed to increasing core development aid at the Gleneagles summit in 2005, they actually cut aid by 4 percent. France and Ireland are weighing up whether to make big cuts in their aid budgets as a response to the recession.
It is hardly surprising that nothing is said by the IMF about its own role in creating the conditions for a human catastrophe on the African continent. Some African leaders, including Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, have accused the IMF of unfairness in its treatment of its members, being hard on poor countries whose populations were already on the brink while allowing richer countries to do as they pleased, even when this undermined their finances.
The IMF also calls on African countries to "seize the opportunity to advance their structural reform agendas in order to boost prospects for growth"—that is to continue with the IMF-imposed policies that have been responsible for squeezing huge amounts of wealth out of the poorest region of the world.
A report by the charity ActionAid has given a bleaker picture of Africa's future than the IMF. Claire Melamed, head of policy for ActionAid commented, "We've calculated that just by the end of this year, Africa's income stands to fall by $50 billion. And that's equivalent to a pay cut of more than 10 percent for the continent".
Melamed argues against those who hope "globalization hasn't really gone as far as we thought it had and that will protect developing countries from the recession". She says, "What this crisis does is that it just shows the depth of global integration and the way in which we're all interconnected now whether we like it or not".
In particular, Melamed describes the layoff of tens of thousands of miners in South Africa. Although it is the major economic power house on the continent, South Africa is one of the worst affected countries.
Another factor that will affect most African countries is the big downturn in remittances sent back by those who work abroad. According to the BBC, $19 billion was sent home by Africans in 2007, more than double the amount three years earlier. But three-quarters of these remittances come from Western Europe or the United States, already mired in recession.
Source: World Socialist Web Site
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