Nigeria is threatening legal action against the UK government unless it returns, with interest, £3m ($5m) that it says was stolen from its central bank. The money - a small fraction of the billions of dollars thought to have been plundered by Sani Abacha, the late African dictator - was seized in 1998 from a Nigerian businessman at Heathrow airport. The UK Treasury acquired the money after the customs service argued it was probably the proceeds of drug sales.

The world anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI), says that Zimbabwe, one of Africa’s wealthiest nations that has sadly been reduced to an economic basket case, is accelerating towards being one of the worst corrupt countries in the world, giving another twist to the screws on a country already bruised by negative international perception.

Nigeria has lodged a request for judicial cooperation with Switzerland as part of an ongoing probe into an alleged multi-billion-dollar embezzlement by the late military dictator Sani Abacha, Swiss authorities said on Saturday.

Vijay Makhan is the outgoing African Union Commissioner for Trade, Industry and Economic Affairs. In an interview with IRIN, just days after returning from the failed trade talks in Cancun, Mexico where he led the AU mission he argues that rich nations have let down Africa once again despite their repeated promises and he calls for a radical overhaul of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has gone by many names. NEPAD is typically depicted by architects and foremost proponents as an attempt to address Africa's vast development challenges. Some have even called it Africa's 'Marshall Plan". More others see it as a development strategy and a programme of the African Union (AU). Critics on the other hand depict NEPAD as a 'neo-liberal' project, clearly contrary to the views of its supporters who see NEPAD as a revolutionary plan. Critics have even called NEPAD the 'Africanisation of GEAR'. Whatever name and epithet one chooses, NEPAD has clearly generated a great deal of debate, says this paper prepared for the labour research organisation Naledi.

Initiatives will take place in more than 45 countries on October 10 to mark World Day Against the Death Penalty. The initiative is launched by the Worldwide Coalition Against the Death Denalty (http://www.worldcoalition.org/bcoaljm01.html#710) which gathers international NGOs, Bar Associations, Unions and local government from all over the world. The Coalition aims at encouraging the constitution of national coalitions, the organisation of common initiatives and the coordination of international lobbying efforts to sensitize the states that still maintain the death penalty. A worldwide internet appeal will take place on the website intended to question/challenge the authorities of countries that retain the death penalty. Below are some facts and figures on the death penalty, compiled from information available on the web site of Amnesty International. (http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-index-eng)

THE DEATH PENALY: SOME FACTS AND FIGURES
* The past decade has seen more than three countries a year on average abolish the death penalty.
* 76 countries and territories had abolished the death penalty for all crimes by April 2003.
* Known executions in 31 countries were recorded at 1,526 people during 2002. At least 3,248 people were sentenced to death in 67 countries.
* In 2003, for the first time, the UN Commission on Human Rights has urged states that still maintain the death penalty "not to extend its application to crimes to which it does not at present apply".
* More than half the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice. 76 countries are abolitionist for all crimes, 16 abolitionist for ordinary crimes only and 20 Abolitionist in practice
* 112 countries are totally abolitionist in law or practice while 83 are retentionist.
* Does the death penalty deter crime? A United Nations survey done in 1988 and updated in 2002, concluded that "it is not prudent to accept the hypothesis that capital punishment deters murder to a marginally greater extent than does the threat and application of the supposedly lesser punishment of life imprisonment". (Reference: Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective, Oxford University Press, third edition, 2002, p. 230)
* Two African countries – the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria – have executed children in the last decade, despite a prohibition on the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by people younger than 18 under international human rights law.
* During 2002, executions were known to have been carried out in the following African countries: Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
* In 2002, the death penalty was imposed in the following African countries: Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
* As long as the death penalty is maintained, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated. Since 1973, 107 prisoners have been released from death row in the USA after evidence emerged of their innocence of the crimes for which they were sentenced to death.
USEFUL LINKS:
http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/world-day-against-death-penalty-2003.html
http://www.worldcoalition.org/bcoaljm00.html

Recent political discourse in South Africa has been characterised by a preoccupation with allegations of sleaze and government corruption. Senior government bureaucrats and party officials are alleged to have received kickbacks in return for favours; there were allegations of an internal ANC plot by black businessmen to undermine the President; and Deputy President Jacob Zuma has been accused of taking bribes. Director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka has in turn been accused of being an apartheid agent by Zuma's allies, giving rise to a spate of accusations and counter-accusations which threaten to destabilise the ruling ANC.

While South Africans concentrate on their homegrown scandals, it is important to understand that an obsession with sleaze and corruption is today an international phenomenon. There is a worldwide dynamic to 'scandal politics', which runs far deeper than the latest allegations. Today scandals seem to be one of the central features of politics throughout the world. The political classes in Japan, Italy, the USA, Britain and even Germany are no less immune to the disease than our local politicians. While scandals take different forms in different countries, if we look beyond the specifics, there is a broader pattern at work.

Politicians everywhere have power but usually not wealth. They are therefore often tempted to translate the one into the other. Given the history of apartheid oppression and black exclusion in South Africa, it might be argued that the power-wealth gap - and hence the temptations - are even greater than usual in this country. This form of corruption – an abuse of political power that might be termed “the corruption of politics” is however a very different thing from something that increasingly characterises politics everywhere today: the politics of corruption.

In the Western democracies this phenomenon usually started as a public crusade by opposition politicians or the press against government. While there was often some substance to allegations against government politicians, there was also a lot of hypocrisy. Longstanding petty corruption that had always been accepted as part of the everyday business of politics was suddenly cast in a new light. What had up to then been seen as perks of the job was now presented as evidence of corruption.

The politics of corruption has since transformed public life in a number of countries. In Britain it destroyed the Conservative Party and then came back to haunt the new Labour administration which had previously gained by playing the corruption card. Throughout the 'nineties and into the new millennium, a succession of political scandals accelerated the dislocation of traditional party politics in the West:

* Italy: In 1992 corruption charges were brought against leaders Craxi, Andreotti, and Silvio Berlusconi;
* Britain: The ‘Cash for Questions’ scandal 1994 – 1997; the recent resignation of prime minister Tony Blair's director of communications Alastair Campbell in the middle of Lord Hutton's inquiry into the death of David Kelly;
* Ireland: A beef scandal rocked the administration of premier Albert Reynolds;
* France: In 1998 the ministerial flats scandal damaged Jacques Chirac;
* United States: President Clinton was exposed in the Monica Lewinsky and Whitewater affairs in 1998; the current Bush administration remains tainted by allegations of voting irregularities;
* Belgium: A ministerial cover-up in a child torture case shook Jean-Luc Deheane’s government in 1998;
* Switzerland: 1998-2000 saw a sustained campaign over Jewish bank deposits;
* Germany: The CDU was hit by a funding scandal in 2000.

For the opposition, crying “corruption” was a way of attacking governing parties while essentially leaving their politics uncriticised. There was, after all, usually little significant difference between the political programmes of any of the major parties. Making an issue out of their opponents alleged corruption or immorality was a way of criticising governments whose politics the opposition largely agreed with. The cry of “corruption” allowed politicians to reap votes where they had not sowed a political alternative. For the media, corruption exposés seemed to be a way of demolishing governments with a strong grip on power. As was the case with the exposés of SA's ANC government, digging the dirt on a scandal seemed to be a way of breaking a powerful grip on parliament, which was based on the popular vote.

In many parts of Africa so-called 'structural adjustment' also encouraged an obsession with the corruption of African elites. The structural adjustment 'package' imposed on the majority of sub-Saharan African countries since the early 'eighties consisted of privatisation and an attack on state spending. Given the high level of dependence of the African elite upon the state, this further frustrated their advancement. Western obsession with 'good governance', conducted in the name of anti-corruption, was a frontal assault upon the networks that were necessary for the ruling elite to rule.

In most Western countries the crusade against corruption has transformed the political landscape. The reputation of parliament can no longer merely be restored by a change of government. Through campaigns around issues of corruption and personal rectitude, opposition parties and the media have changed the nature of politics. In the absence of genuine political differences, personal morality becomes the only basis on which politicians can be judged. Under these circumstances the meaning of politics has become more and more narrow. Neither government nor opposition even bothers to pretend that significant principles are at stake in their little debates. Unsurprisingly, many people have become cynical. They are ready to put the knife into those who are seen to have responsibility for the mess in which ordinary people have to live. There are no strong opposition parties to provide a voice for the angry and alienated, or to suggest political, economic or social alternatives to the problems of the modern world.

In the absence of an alternative standpoint from which to criticise, it is difficult to criticise at all. In these circumstances it seems as if the only thing open to scrutiny is the individual behaviour of politicians. Personal character has become the substance of modern politics. Given the dominant discussion and debate here in recent months, it seems that South Africa will be no exception to this trend.

Even progressives have been swept along with this disastrous approach to politics. Many seem to harbour the illusion that the ruling classes can be stopped in their tracks as long as the dirty secrets they hide are exposed. This fantasy arises out of a passive relationship between the governed and the governing. And it side-steps the difficult business of building political alternatives to government policies.

Even worse, this kind of outlook encourages a growing reliance on the high and the mighty to decide on issues which should be left to democratic political contestation. In Britain an unelected official, Ulster Judge Lord Hutton, is relied on to sort out the Kelly scandal. South Africa promptly follows suit with the appointment of Judge Hefer to look into the Ngcuka spying allegations. In the process the scope of authority of judges over elected government is enlarged. This is unlikely to be in the long-term interests of the people. Thus is democracy downgraded in favour of enlightened despotism.

* Please send comments to

Deputy president Jacob Zuma may still be prosecuted on corruption charges if the French authorities agree to help the Scorpions obtain information from two French businessmen which might be crucial to the investigation.

Kenyan public sector officials are perceived to be just as corrupt under President Mwai Kibaki as they were under former president Daniel arap Moi, according to the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI). Kenya scored 1.9 out of a clean score of 10 in both this year's and last year's Corruption Perceptions Index, formulated by TI, which reflects perceived levels of corruption among politicians and public officials.

The party of President Paul Kagame emerged as the victor last Thursday in Rwanda's first multiparty legislative elections since achieving independence in 1962, the head of the election commission said. A five-party coalition led by Kagame's ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front, or RPF, won 40 of the 53 elected seats in the 80-member Chamber of Deputies or lower house.

A Nigerian minister has told a corruption investigation that two senators asked him to pay $414,000 for them to confirm his appointment. Nasir el-Rufai says that when he said he did not have the money, he was told to recoup his "investment" from land sales.

An analysis of the World Bank’s ‘Knowledge for Development’ indicates that this new development paradigm may adversely affect the validity and diversity of the knowledge needed for equitable and sustainable development. The deployment of knowledge management and ICTs, most notably through the implementation of the Development Gateway, is based on a narrow understanding of knowledge, often indistinguishable from ‘information’, and on the separation of knowledge, people, and power. The proposed alternative requires appropriate communication systems, knowledge creation in the South, and the cultivation of knowledge diversity through a focus on the knowers, the people who hold, use and create knowledge.

On September 21, 2003, the World Bank unveiled its annual flagship publication, the 2004 World Development Report, entitled “Making Services Work for Poor People.” The WDR’s main premise is that basic services - primary education, basic health care, water and electricity services - fail to reach the poor because too many governments lack sound and representative institutions of governance. Ironically, the report expresses strong confidence in the ability of these same unaccountable governments to regulate private service provision.

There's still time to "prevent the twin spectres of starvation and destitution" from occurring in Zimbabwe, said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in a plea for more assistance from donors. UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Zimbabwe, J. Victor Angelo, said the generous support of aid efforts in 2002/03 had saved lives but that "the relief needs in Zimbabwe have increased in 2003”.

This article from the Nordic Journal of Human Rights gives a brief overview of activities during the UN Decade of Human Rights Education (1995-2004). The author concludes that "...although the UN Decade will be over in 2004 there is little hope that governments will improve their actions towards the fulfilment of their obligations in human rights education. With or without a second UN Decade and a Voluntary Fund for Human Rights Education, the obligations for States will last and the duty to cooperate meaningfully in human rights information will remain.

This report from Christian Aid demonstrates how the World Bank and IMF fail to fulfill the standards of transparency and accountability that they call for in poor countries. These hugely powerful institutions are managed in a way that prevents poor countries from being fairly represented. This report recommends how these institutions need to change if they are to become modern and appropriate.

Work on a United Nations treaty to combat corruption worldwide, including the return of assets obtained through bribery and embezzlement to the country of origin, has been completed, with Secretary-General Kofi Annan hailing it as a milestone in improving the lives of millions of people around the planet.

This year's World Development Report (WDR) addresses the challenges of making essential public services reach the poor by confronting the power relations that govern resources, exploring institutional complexities and recognising the centrality of politics to service delivery. But does it go far enough? This feature on the website of the Institute for Development Studies raises questions about three issues: Accountability, Service Delivery Performance and Health Systems.

This report from the UK Department for International Development is based on a study whose overall aim was to create a context-relevant knowledge base of the implications for education and training policy of globalisation in two low-income sub-Saharan African countries, namely, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Aid has become a much contested issue. Orthodox approaches treat foreign Aid as a critical factor for redressing capital deficiencies in poor nations, boosting local demand and supply and through positive multiplier effects, establishing conditions for sustainable long-term growth. Donors expect Government to adopt policies and programmes that will create a conducive environment for improved economic performance. The reality however, indicates that Aid is driven by other motivations, argues this article one the website of Afrodad, a research, lobby and advocacy regional organisation seeking to secure positive policy changes to redress Africa's debt and development crisis.