The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT), in the framework of their joint programme, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, express their deepest concern with regards to the 2002 law on NGOs (NGO Act) in Tanzania, which imposes serious restrictions to freedoms of association and expression. The Observatory wishes to express their support to the initiative of the Tanzanian NGOs against the entry into force of the NGO Act, which is planned through its publication in the Official Gazette before the end of October 2003.

Professor Okey Onyejekwe is an expert on African governance at the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Here, during a conference in Addis Ababa on good governance, he tells IRIN why he believes the credibility of Africa’s new development blueprint, the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), is threatened by the unwillingness of African leaders to hold each other accountable.

"Partly because of its evolutionary trajectory, NEPAD comes across as trying to be all things to all people. A 'comprehensive integrated plan that addresses key social, economic and political priorities for the continent' is, in my view, too grand a project. It is such claims that elicit the radical critique that NEPAD is merely warmed-over neo-liberalism. We must go beyond giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it." This is according to a paper by Dr. John FE Ohiorhenuan, UNDP Resident Representative and United Nations Resident Coordinator in South Africa.

The Mail and Guardian (M&G) reports that the forensic audit of the National Development Agency (NDA) ordered by the Minister of Social Development has revealed more irregularities. The M&G cites as examples that the NDA allegedly hired the services of a private investigation company to vet staff and conduct investigations into other Non Profit Organisations at exorbitant monthly payments.

Sweden this week donated almost US $6 million towards aid efforts in Southern Africa following a recent UN appeal for more funds to support humanitarian operations across the region.

The World Bank has stepped in to help fund Uganda's Bujagali hydropower project after US power giant AES Corporation pulled out of the project, which is aimed at providing Uganda with a cheaper source of power. The $520m project at Bujagali on the Nile river ran into trouble after environmentalists argued that it would destroy a network of waterfalls, a major tourism attraction and water rafting site, and a site of special spiritual significance to the local population.

Former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba appeared in court on Monday to face charges he stole about $30-million (about R210-million) while in office - accusations that his lawyers said were part of a political smear campaign.

The Hefer Commission adjourned on Wednesday in Bloemfontein within the first 15 minutes of its first public hearing at the Supreme Court of Appeal. The commission was set up to investigate their allegations that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka may have been an apartheid spy. Its terms of reference were later broadened to investigate alleged abuse of office by Ngcuka and his political head, Justice Minister Penuell Maduna.

In its own words, the World Bank Group's position as a leading source of global fossil fuel financing poses a "clear and present danger" to its reputation and the global commons. A September brief from the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network and Institute for Policy Studies Brief says it is high time for the Bank to decide whether to remain the world's key agent for transnational corporations' oil, gas and coal aspirations, or to become an agent for positive change, truer to the stated mission of an institution that claims to alleviate poverty and promote environmental sustainability.

Human Strategies for Human Rights (HSHR) has announced the launching of a series of email listservs in English, Spanish and French on legal and political developments related to human rights. Sign-up information can be found through HSHRs website at www.hshr.org/listservs.html.

UPND vice-president Sakwiba Sikota says the ranking of Zambia as an eleventh most corrupt country among the 133 other nations showed that the fight against corruption was failing to achieve the expected results. According to the 2003 Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) last week, Zambia had maintained its rank as the eleventh most corrupt among 133 countries in the world.

The Tanzanian National Assembly (Bunge) has begun exploring the potential for interactive information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enhance parliamentary democracy and create new channels of communication and participation between the House and citizens.

The United Nations expert on the right to food has recommended that UN Member States better monitor transnational companies to protect food supplies for the poor and suggested that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) could play a role in this effort. “The growing power of transnational corporations and their extension of power through privatization, deregulation and the rolling back of the State also mean that it is now time to develop binding legal norms that hold corporations to human rights standards and circumscribe potential abuses of their position of power."

The annual Trade and Development Report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, just before its meeting in Geneva October 6-17, calls for a "policy rethink" on the effects of market-driven free-trade policies on developing countries. The report notes particularly disadvantageous results for Africa, with further entrenchment of dependence on primary commodities with volatile prices. This posting from the Africa Action Africa Policy E-Journal contains a general press release from UNCTAD, brief excerpts from the Trade and Development Report, and the executive summary and introduction from a separate study of issues in Africa's trade performance prepared for UNCTAD.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have approved debt-reduction packages for 26 countries, 22 of them in Africa, under the enhanced Initiative for the Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). These packages will provide nominal debt service relief of about $41 billion ($25 billion in net present value terms). Taken together with other traditional debt relief mechanisms and additional voluntary bilateral debt forgiveness, these countries will see their debts fall, on average in net present value terms, by about two thirds, according to the IMF.

Northern Kenya is home to two million people, an 80 percent illiteracy rate, poor living conditions and health care, low rainfall, scarce water and diminishing grazing for the mainly pastorilist population. Present day circumstances are bad enough, but the people have also suffered from dehumanising acts inflicted on them first by British colonial rule and then the subsequent post-independent governments of Kenyatta and Moi. According to the organisation the Northern Forum for Democracy: "The situation prevailing in Northern Kenya is exceptional as communities have over the years suffered from gross injustices. It makes them feel that it's a conspiracy of all Kenyans against then and therefore a situation of hopelessness reigns."

I want to congratulate the team on Pambazuka. Keep up the good work, we as South African citizens enjoy it very much. Thanks a lot for all the effort.

The piece on corruption is right on the mark (Pambazuka News 127: The Politics of Corruption). It would have been even better if he could have elaborated further on the alternative to passive politics, i.e. how to develop and practice politics which is unambiguously emancipatory. Someone (in France I believe) once said that military and war questions should not be left in the hands of generals alone. The same can be said with politics: left to the politicians alone or their way of doing it, politics can only be disastrous. Emancipatory politics cannot be reduced to seeking to seize state power. Everywhere in the world, people are dissatisfied with politics solely defined by professional politicians. Philosophers and political activists are also tackling the problem. The works of John Holloway (Change the World Without Taking Power), Alain Badiou (An Essay on the Understanding of Evil) and Michel-Rolph Trouillot (Silencing the Past) show that it is not enough to denounce.

I agree that corruption has been elevated to unjustified high heights (Pambazuka News 127: The Politics of Corruption). In Zambia that is all the government is talking about. In the meantime, the masses are wallowing in unmitigated poverty. The failure or omission by government to provide social services is blamed on the corruption of the government of Chiluba. Chiluba in turn had blamed it on the corruption in Kaunda's time. So much is being said by Mwanawasa's regime on its zero tolerance to corruption. But the so-called economic plunderers of yesterday are being acquitted by the courts daily due to lack of evidence. The so-called Task Force on corruption is clearly out of its depth. We are tired of the corruption menu being served to us daily.

Of the 94 candidates for mayors of Mozambican towns and cities in the municipal elections scheduled for 19 November, only the 33 candidates from the ruling Frelimo Party have presented nomination papers free of any irregularities.