Deputy President Jacob Zuma will not be prosecuted over South Africa's multi-billion rand arms deal, despite indications that there may be a corruption case for him to answer to, the country's top prosecutor said on Saturday. The decision was taken in spite of a recommendation by the investigating team that Zuma be criminally charged, national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka said.
Related Links:
* Ngcuka spoke in 'riddles' about Zuma
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?a=11&o=27596

The debate over apartheid reparations took an unexpected turn this week with Nobel laureate and former World Bank vice-president Joseph E. Stiglitz coming out firmly in support of the victims' lawsuits. Stiglitz, also a former chief economist of the World Bank, wrote to the New York court in an apparent move to counter efforts by the South African government and multi-national corporations to squash the lawsuits.

The task force that was mandated to establish whether the country needs a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) has recommended the setting up of a powerful commission with powers to track down stolen public property and funds.

The United States has a moral duty to slash its farm subsidies even if developing countries do not reciprocate by opening their markets to more U.S. farm goods, officials with a leading private sector development group said last Thursday. The United States is under pressure in world trade talks to reduce the billions of dollars in subsidies it pays to farmers each year. Leading U.S. farm groups have vowed to fight such an agreement unless developing countries reduce their tariffs to allow in more agricultural imports.

I am very keen to connect with women involved in peace building. The programme I am involved with works mainly but not only at schools. We train educators to incorporate peace building in the curriculum. We also train educators to run peer mediation programmes at their individual schools. Some incorporate peace into the curriculum. I am keen to connect with anyone in this field of peace building, especially in Africa. I believe that women play a key role but not just as the stereotypical nurturer and care giver. Peace is also about people taking responsibility and good citizenship. I look forward to being part of this network. Peace.

Must complement you on the continuing excellent quality of this newsletter and let you know it is highly valued in its relevance and usefulness as a resource and reference regarding human rights in Africa.

shameme manjoo
SA Human Rights Commission

Dear Subscriber
Pambazuka News is taking a holiday for the next few weeks. We will be back in your inbox on August 28. Meanwhile, we hope you have a good rest while we are away.
Editor

Food shortages grew more accute in the Liberian capital Monrovia on Wednesday as rebel forces continued pounding the city centre with mortar fire and the United Nations warned that its one million population faced a humanitarian tragedy.

Activist Trevor Ngwane speaks about South Africa as vanguard of post-colonial neoliberalism, and laboratory of its social consequences. From the townships around Johannesburg, Ngwane describes the rebellion against the privatizations of the ANC regime, and the enrichment of a new political class.

The launch of the UN Literacy Decade was yet another in a series of international pledges to provide education to all. Time and again, in the past two decades, an atmosphere of urgency to achieve education goals has been created. And yet, each time, these pledges have met with very little commitment and action.

Wealthy nations and international institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have become the central economic planners for Africa. The result is sporadic project implementation; corruption; poor economic performance attributable to inept policies; political tensions as each ethnic community jostles to partake of the "national cake"; and disaster unpreparedness due to donor anaesthesia, writes James S. Shikwati in South Africa's The Star newspaper. Shikwati is director of the Kenyan-based Inter Regional Economic Network (Iren).

President Mwai Kibaki has pledged to be the first to declare his wealth once the various administrative procedures are in place. "I have offered to be the first to declare my wealth and that is real," said Kibaki. The President said the Public Officer Ethics Act, under which all public servants are expected to declare their assets and liabilities, aims at bringing about cultural change in the public service.

South Africa could face economic collapse within a few generations unless it adopts a more urgent response to its HIV/AIDS epidemic, a new World Bank research report warned on Wednesday. According to the report "The Long-run Economic Costs of AIDS: Theory and an Application to South Africa", most studies on the macroeconomic costs of AIDS had overlooked the long-term damage of the disease.

Former President Daniel arap Moi has been advised to voluntarily appear before the anti-corruption police unit to record a statement and to clear his name against the many economic crimes levelled against him. Justice and Constitutional affairs Assistant Minister Robinson Githae at the same time dismissed claims that the former President was being harassed by the NARC Government, adding that other than the sitting President, nobody else enjoys immunity.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has urged the international community and African governments to back rural development for the continent. Speaking at the launch of the UN Development Programme’s 2003 Human Development Report in Addis Ababa on Monday, he said rural and agricultural development was the “quickest and most reliable” way to reduce poverty. Meanwhile, Patrick Asea, chief economist at the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa, told the meeting that cooperation between rich and poor nations was a litany of broken promises.

Sound financial management of South Africa's courts was essential to maintain public respect and confidence in the country's justice system, the New National Party (NNP) said on Monday. For this reason, a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe -- authorised by President Thabo Mbeki -- into allegations of misappropriation of funds and corruption, could not happen soon enough, said NNP justice spokesperson Carol Johnson.

Panicking high ranking officials of the ruling Zanu PF party are allegedly systematically stripping down the country of most of its valuable assets as they realise that President Robert Mugabe's reign is coming to an end, it emerged last week. Economic experts said the entire country was being methodically plundered by high-ranking Zanu PF and government officials who plan to eventually flee the country and retire in comfort with their offshore holdings.

The Development Law and Social Justice Programme is an academic programme aimed at strengthening capacity for lobbying, advocacy and networking on human rights issues. It brings together experienced human rights activists, legal practitioners, jurists, academics and human rights policy makers and facilitates their sharing of experiences and strategies. The Development Law and Social Justice Programme covers core issues in human rights. These include legal resources and political instruments of an international and regional nature and the role of various state and non-state actors in shaping international and regional human rights policies. They also include collective rights such as those of women, children, minorities and indigenous peoples and state responsibility for protecting them, and various strategies for strengthening human rights advocacy, education, communication and resource mobilisation.

The job description includes: To support the food security project manager in mobilising communities at grass roots level and to improve the effectiveness of the project by building a strong partnership with the extension department of the Ministry of Agriculture (at municipal and provincial level) and civil society organisations; To support the project manager (PM) in the management of project activities using Concern's Project Cycle Management model, policies and strategy; and To support the PM to prepare high quality reports and proposals.

Every time my American friends alert me to an article on Africa in a major US newspaper, they do so with the comment that all one reads about Africa is grim, sad and tragic. As a Malawian studying in the United States, frustration over the way Africa is portrayed in the western media is almost cliché. The just-ended trip to five African countries by President George W. Bush triggered debates as to whether his concern for Africa was genuine, or whether it was a photo-op. Salih Booker, executive director for Africa Action conceded that at least the world was focusing on Africa and that in itself was a good thing, while arguing that the whole trip, on the whole, didn't amount to much. Save for TV and newspaper shots of the president with his hosts and his speeches, much of the media however was gripped by the debate over the White House admission earlier in the week that the state of the union address reference to Saddam Hussein seeking uranium in Niger, pronounced wrongly half the time, was inaccurate. The admission took the limelight away from Africa and brought it back to the US as soon as the president landed on the African continent.