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Africa News In Brief

October 17, 2012

LIBERIAN LAUREATE LEYMAH GBOWEE BREAKS WITH PRESIDENT
 
Oct. 16 (GIN) – Leymah Gbowee, whose efforts to end war in Liberia were recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize shared with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, sparked a firestorm of controversy last week by resigning from the Peace and Reconciliation Commission and criticizing the President.  

LIBERIAN LAUREATE LEYMAH GBOWEE BREAKS WITH PRESIDENT
 
Oct. 16 (GIN) – Leymah Gbowee, whose efforts to end war in Liberia were recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize shared with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, sparked a firestorm of controversy last week by resigning from the Peace and Reconciliation Commission and criticizing the President.  


 
Ms Gbowee said she was frustrated by the administration’s failure to end high-level corruption and address poverty. Pres. Sirleaf is also facing charges of nepotism, with her sons holding key positions in the administration.
 
In August, President Sirleaf suspended her son, Charles, as central bank deputy governor for failing to declare his assets.
 
Another son, Fumba, is head of the National Security Agency, while a third, Robert, is a senior adviser and chairman of the state-owned National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL).
 
In September, Sirleaf drew fire when it emerged that much of the country’s forests and arable land had been sold to private investors, leaving small farmers suffering. Some observers called it “the second scramble for Africa” – an echo of the 19th-century colonial carve-up of the continent.
 
Ms Gbowee said the President was not doing enough to ease poverty.
 
"In her first term she developed infrastructure. But what good is infrastructure if people don't have enough to eat?" she told the AFP news agency in Paris, where she is promoting the French edition of her book Mighty Be Our Powers.  "The gap between the rich and poor is growing. You are either rich or dirt poor, there's no middle class," she said.
 
During Liberia's conflict, Ms Gbowee mobilized women across ethnic and religious lines to campaign for peace and encouraged them to participate in elections. In 2003 she led a march through the capital, Monrovia, demanding an end to the rape of women by soldiers.
 
Meanwhile, a group of Liberian women met last Friday at the Ministry of Gender and Development. The topic was “the ill timed and most unfortunate statement reported to have been made by Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee.”
SENEGAL SACKED FROM AFRICA CUP AFTER ROCK-THROWING RIOT
 
Oct. 16 (GIN) – What should have been a thrilling match between neighbors, became frightening pandemonium as furious Senegalese spectators rained bottles, rocks, and firecrackers on players and fans from the Ivory Coast whose soccer team had just scored a goal that put them ahead 2-0.
 
The match was called off in the 74th minute after famed striker Didier Drogba scored his side’s second goal from the penalty spot.
 
The goal was the match that sparked the riot. Senegalese fans set fire to their own flag and began tearing up the stands at the Leopold Senghor stadium, throwing missiles and chairs onto the pitch.
 
A section of the metal fencing separating two parts of the stadium was torn apart, forcing police to fire tear gas to break up the mob. After some 40 minutes suspension, the referee was forced to call off the second-leg, final-round qualifier.
 
Among the injured was Senegal's minister of sports, who was hit in the head by a rock, while the Senegalese Press Agency said a match official was also hit by a projectile.
 
It’s a shame, it’s regrettable,” said Mbaye Ndiaye, the Senegal interior minister. “But we say bravo to the Ivory Coast team for their achievement, their behavior, wisdom and sense of fair play.” The West African team has been disqualified from next year's African Cup of Nations to be held Jan. 19 to Feb. 10 in South Africa.

LANDMARK COURT SETTLEMENT FOR REPORTER BEATEN BY POLICE
 
Oct. 16 (GIN) - A Nigerian High Court has awarded a local journalist over half a million dollars for a brutal beating he received while covering a protest at a local bank.
 
The journalist, Desmond Utomwen, had been covering a peaceful rally outside of the Guaranty Trust Bank in Abuja where protestors charged that fraudulent ATM withdrawals were being made by bank staff.
 
Utomwen, a senior reporter with TheNews magazine, was on assignment when police and bank staff attacked him, his equipment was taken, and he was hit with gun butts until he lost consciousness.
 
He sued the police and his case languished for two years and 10 months. In the decision finally announced this month, the sitting judge agreed the actions of the defendants amounted to a violation of the reporter’s right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment, the right to own property and the right to freedom of the press and expression as enshrined in the 1999 constitution.
 
Utomwen's victory represents the largest award for any journalist in Nigeria's 52-year history as an independent nation and sets a clear precedent for the country's beleaguered press.
 
MINERS UNMET WAGE DEMANDS TRIGGER CALL FOR BLOOD
 
Oct. 16 (GIN) – Saying he was not afraid of blood, one-time leader of the youth division of the African National Congress, Julius Malema, urged the recapture of South African mines from whites, while leaders of the country's largest labor federation offered non-violent support for the thousands of miners staging wildcat strikes across the country.
 
About 80,000 mineworkers, representing 16 percent of South Africa's mining workforce, are currently striking across South Africa. Gold Fields, one of the top producers of gold in South Africa, on Tuesday gave striking mineworkers until Thursday to return to work or be dismissed. At least 23,540 of the company's 35,700 employees have been striking since September.
Anglo American Platinum — the world's top producer of platinum — dismissed 12,000 workers whose strike brought its operations in Rustenburg to a standstill.

Cosatu, the labor group, warned it would take "action" if the mineworkers were not reinstated by Oct. 27, adding that the mining companies should "withdraw those dismissals and engage further to find a way of resolving the strikes."

Meanwhile, on a recent visit to Zimbabwe, ex-youth leader Malema repeated his demand that South African whites relinquish their control over the country’s natural resources.
 
"When they came from Europe they did not carry any land into South Africa,” he told young members of Pres. Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party. "What we are asking is for them to surrender our minerals because they did not come with any mineral.
 
“We want that land and those minerals for free because they never paid for those minerals."
 
Malema said whites committed murder to get land. "They killed people to get that land and those minerals. We are not going to give them money when we take the land back because it will be like we are thanking them with money for killing our people.
 
“We are not scared of blood,” he declared.  “… seeing blood is not what we are scared of as long as that blood delivers what belongs to us we are prepared to go to that extent."
 
A one-time supporter of President Jacob Zuma, Malema has in recent months become Zuma’s fiercest critic, a worrying factor as the party faces falling approval ratings ahead of its leadership conference in December. 

 

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