Category: Rubrique

{In this photo taken Tuesday June 4, 2013, protesters toss human waste at a vehicle carrying opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader and Western Cape premier, Hellen Zille, unseen, in the Khayelitsha township, Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday, June 4, 2013. This week, protesters tossed human excrement at a convoy carrying the leader of South Africa’s main opposition party, who seeks to drain support from the ruling African National Congress ahead of national elections next year. Tuesday’s unsavory salvo did not hit Helen Zille, head of the Democratic Alliance who is also the premier of the Western Cape, the only one of nine South African provinces that is not run by the ANC. (AP Photo)}

{{This week, protesters tossed human excrement at a convoy carrying the leader of South Africa’s main opposition party, who seeks to court followers of the ruling African National Congress ahead of national elections next year.}}

Tuesday’s unsavory salvo did not directly hit Helen Zille, head of the Democratic Alliance who is also the premier of the Western Cape, the only one of nine South African provinces that is not run by the ANC.

On Monday, protesters dumped the contents of portable toilets on the steps of the Western Cape legislature in a backlash against the sanitation policy of Zille’s administration, which, in the absence of sewage facilities in some poor and crowded townships, offers portable flush toilets to shack dwellers at no cost.

The harshest critics of Zille — whom she dismisses as political grandstanders — say this policy smacks of apartheid, the system under which the best resources were reserved for the minority whites and blacks were confined to areas with inferior services.

Politicians on both sides of the political divide say they are still dealing with the legacy of “apartheid geography,” though critics say official incompetence is also slowing progress.

In a statement, the ANC’s youth league condemned the dumping of excrement at the Western Cape legislature, and said it would investigate a report that at least one member was involved.

It said, however, that grievances over the quality of services in the Western Cape are genuine and that some people there are compelled to use what it described as a “dehumanizing ‘glorified bucket system,’ which was said to replace the notorious open toilets.”

The bucket system, whereby people use buckets to dispose of excrement, is associated with the indignities of apartheid, which ended in 1994. All-race elections in that year brought anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela to the presidency, opening an era of mostly peaceful politics but they seem to be becoming more barbed with so many in this nation of more than 50 million still lacking decent living conditions and opportunities.

Zille’s convoy was splattered with feces when she was departing an event in Khayelitsha township in Cape Town, one of more than 200 settlements around Cape Town, to promote environmental living.

A protest allegedly including at least one member of the ANC’s youth league had been building outside the venue before the incident.

“What can I say? Another day at the office,” Zille said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. She said such protests are part of a campaign by ANC supporters to make the Western Cape seem “ungovernable” in the run-up to national elections next year, and ignore data showing the province has a leading sanitation record in the country.

Zille defended the sanitation policy, saying the city picks up the waste from the toilet tanks two or three times a week, making the service safe and hygienic.

“Because land gets occupied at such a rate, and so densely, it is almost impossible to retrofit the land with proper services,” said Zille, noting that Cape Town had grown by 30 percent between the censuses in 2001 and 2011.

But Magasela Mzobe, national coordinator of the ANC youth league, said the Western Cape administration was not collecting waste on time as it had promised.

Zille, 62, was a muckraking journalist who helped expose evidence of a police cover-up in the death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in 1977, and received death threats for her work.

In her new David-versus-Goliath venture, she hopes to capitalize on creeping discontent with the ruling party, whose credentials as a liberation movement once led by Mandela have been tarnished by corruption, unemployment and other problems.

Toilets are a hot-button issue in South Africa, which is struggling to provide services to many frustrated citizens in a country with a wide gap between rich and poor, despite expectations that the end of apartheid would improve the quality and dignity of life for all.

Some reports about open latrines and other dismal privies in South Africa’s townships have drawn the scrutiny of the country’s human rights commission, which considers poor sanitation to be a violation of basic rights.

According to census data, the proportion of households with flush toilets connected to the sewage system increased from 49.1 percent in 2001 to 57 percent a decade later. During the same period, the households using the bucket toilet system halved to 2.1 percent.

Last month, Tokyo Sexwale, South Africa’s minister for human settlements, said it is unacceptable that some government entities and municipalities have failed to provide proper sanitation even after receiving funds. He cited “recent scandalous cases” in the Western Cape and the Free State, which is run by the ruling party to which Sexwale belongs.

“There is a serious stench of the bucket system in some parts of the country,” he said.

{{Guinean President Alpha Conde said on Saturday he could delay this month’s legislative elections if authorities found technical problems, a possible concession to opposition groups who have demonstrated against alleged flaws in the vote.}}

More than 50 people have been killed in three months of rallies by activists who accuse Conde of preparing to rig the poll, scheduled for June 30, in the world’s largest bauxite exporter.

Protesters want the elections postponed until their complaints are met.

“For me, the date is the right one but I have informed the CENI (the national electoral commission) that these elections must be completely without technical problems,” Conde told France’s TV5.

“The only thing which could push back the election is if the CENI has not put everything in place, because I do not want elections where there is the slightest technical problem,” he added.

It was the first time Conde had publicly acknowledged there could be a delay. He has dismissed all accusations of fraud.

Political instability following a military coup in December 2008 has deterred some investors, despite the country’s large deposits of iron ore, bauxite, gold and other minerals.

Conde won power in a 2010 election that was marred by violence. The long-time opposition leader promised to turn the page on decades of authoritarian rule in the West African state.

Said Djinnit, a U.N. envoy mediating talks between government and opposition in the coastal capital Conakry, said on Friday the sides had already agreed to some concessions.

“There are indications of progress which may come,” he said. Negotiations were due to restart on Sunday.

The opposition has demanded the replacement of South African company Waymark, charged with updating the voter register. Activists say the electoral roll has been stuffed with the names of Conde’s ethnic Malinke supporters.

The company denies this and the government has said there is not enough time to find a new firm.

The opposition is also calling for Guineans overseas to be allowed to vote.

{{Egypt’s highest court ruled on Sunday that the nation’s Islamist-dominated legislature and constitutional panel were illegally elected, dealing a serious blow to the Islamists’ hold on power and prolonging the political instability that has gripped the country since the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak two years ago.}}

But the ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court also said that the legislature’s upper house, the only one currently sitting, would not be dissolved until the parliament’s lower chamber is elected later this year or early in 2014.

The same court ruled to dissolve parliament’s lower chamber in June, a move that led to the promotion of the toothless upper chamber, the Shura Council, to becoming a law-making house.

The Shura Council, long derided as nothing more than a talk shop, was elected by about seven percent of the electorate last year.

It was not immediately clear whether the ruling on the 100-member constitutional panel would cancel the charter it drafted. The constitution was adopted in a nationwide vote in December with a relatively low turnout of about 35%.

Associated Press

{{Infighting in MDC-T’s Bulawayo structures has turned racial with some members yesterday seeking to block an aspiring white candidate from contesting the polls on the party’s ticket. Ironically, MDC-T.}}

is bent on protecting white property rights and the party is unapologetic about being an appendage of Western countries which launched and funded it from inception.

But in a strange turn of events, its members in Bulawayo are against the candidature of Ms Nikki Brown who is set to square off against Ms Dorcas Sibanda in primary elections for the Bulawayo Central seat.

Officials from the party yesterday stormed The Chronicle newsroom alleging that party leaders sought to impose Ms Brown and kick out their chosen candidate, Ms Sibanda.
MDC-T disowned the protesting officials.

“A Mr Chibaya from Harare came for the verification exercise on Sunday. He worked with provincial leaders, Tsepiso, Sithabile Moyo, Sandra Moyo and Mulandu Ncube to cause confusion and exclude a majority of people who were supposed to vote from the process,” an angry party member said.

MDC-T officials said they had been told that Mr Chibaya had come for a verification exercise, but they were shocked to learn that a vote had taken place without their knowledge.

“We were waiting to be told the names of the people who were supposed to be voted for and we were shocked to hear that voting had already taken place and Ms Sibanda would have to square off with Ms Brown at the primaries,” said another official.

“We do not want this white woman. She has been imposed by party leaders. These are the people that we fought to remove in the liberation struggle and the party is returning them.

We have written a letter to the provincial leadership and the national leaders and they have chosen to ignore it. When the elections come, they shall see our importance because we shall take our vote elsewhere,” said one of the members.

An MDC-T official yesterday said the party leadership had lost confidence in Ms Sibanda.

“Instructions came from the top. The leaders believe that if Dorcas stands for the party, they will lose the Bulawayo Central seat. Subjecting her to primaries is a way of easing her out of the structures with minimum problems,” said the official.

Both Ms Sibanda and Ms Brown declined comment and referred questions to the provincial spokesperson, Mr Mandla Sibanda.

MDC-T national spokesperson, Mr Douglas Mwonzora said the officials who stormed the Chronicle did not belong to the MDC-T.

“They are not from our party. I have spoken to Honourable Sibanda and she says none of her supporters went to the Chronicle. It is also not true that the party is trying to push her out from her seat. She has not lost it yet as she might win the primary election,” said Mr Mwonzora.

In Matabeleland North, fissures within the party widened after candidates who defected from the Professor Welshman Ncube-led MDC won the right to represent the party, ahead of “loyal members” who have been with the party since the 2005 split.

Members were riled when Mr Abednico Bhebhe, who is the MDC-T organising secretary, Mr Njabuliso Mguni, Mr Maxwell Dube, Mr Thembinkosi Sibindi, and Mr Dalumuzi Khumalo were elected to represent the party.

In Bulawayo, in Pumula and Luveve constituencies, losing candidates have since appealed to the party leaders not to recognise the confirmation exercise.

In Matabeleland South, councillors aligned to defectors from the MDC lost in the primaries, leaving the defectors staring defeat in the House of Assembly primaries.

Meanwhile, a showdown is looming within the MDC-T structures in Beitbridge district following reports of disgruntlement among some members who are accusing Beitbridge East constituency aspiring legislator, Mr Morgan Ncube and some councillors of vote buying during the primary elections.

The other party officials who have been fingered include Councillors Danmore Dzokurasa (Ward 1), Nicholas Tsvanhu (Ward 3), Win Mutasa (Ward 4), Elliot Mamombe (Ward 5), Elliot Maveza (Ward 6) and Berrita Muleya (Ward 6 Beitbridge Rural).

The MDC T held its primary elections at Dulibadzimu Stadium on Monday and at Lutumba Business Centre. The internal polls were presided over by the party’s national executive committee members, Messrs Elias Mudzuri and Amos Chibaya.

Mr Ncube, who is the party’s provincial youth assembly chairman for Matabeleland South, was nominated to contest in the harmonised elections for the Beitbridge East Constituency after winning by 190 votes against Mr Enos Tshili who garnered 66 votes.

Local businessman, Mr Moffat Ndou was elected to contest the Beitbridge West constituency unopposed.

Party officials who chose anonymity accused Mr Ncube of leading a faction which allegedly bought voters by supplying them with party regalia, beer and drinks.

They also accused him of filling several posts in the ward and district executive with his stooges.

“We want the whole process nullified. There were a lot of irregularities in the process and if this is not addressed by the party we are going to mobilise people in the district to vote for Zanu-PF.

“Dzokurasa was rejected by the executive in Ward 1 but we were surprised to see him participating in the primary elections. He has pending disciplinary cases for corruption,” said an official.

The official said they were also worried that people without identity documents including those not in party structures were allowed to vote.

They also claim that some councillors such as Tsvanhu and Maveza were of no fixed abode in the border town.

Sources also alleged that Clr Dzokurasa bought some voters with residential stands which he reportedly intended to allocate to them in the event that he was appointed council chairman.

Some of the contestants arrived late resulting in the election of five aspiring councillors unopposed. The five are: Mr Phathisani Ndou (Ward 1), Mr Abhureni Mudau (Ward 2), Joseph Gumbo (Ward 3), Ms Siphiwe Mudau (Ward 5), Mr Shone Nguluvhe (Ward 13) and Mr Freddy Moyo (Ward 15).

Contacted for comment, Mr Ncube denied that he was involved in vote rigging.

“I know those people and they are cowards. In fact, they know the proper party channels and where to take such grievances to rather than rushing to the media. It is unfortunate that they are running out of time since the five-day window period for them to make representations is also ending,” he said.

There was chaos in Marondera East where MDC-T presiding officer Ms Lucia Matibenga was involved in a scuffle with two aspiring candidates after she declared that Ms Tracy Mutinhiri would stand in that constituency unopposed.

Marondera Central primaries were marred by violence that resulted in the arrest of MDC-T activist Peter Nyadembera for inciting violence. Incumbent Ian Kay won the confirmation process.
Police confirmed the violence and said Nyadembera paid an admission of guilt fine.

In Chikomba Central, incumbent Moses Jiri failed to retain his seat after he failed confirmation with 41 votes. He failed against 362 votes calling for his exit.

Mutoko East failed to hold the primaries because of logistical problems and 150 people who were gathered at Mutoko Centre left before the elections team arrived.

In Mudzi South, Milton Kanemakuyu was unopposed because there are no MDC-T structures in the Zanu-PF stronghold.

Makoni South aspiring candidate Mr Geoffrey Nyarota alleged that a kitchen at his homestead was burnt on Wednesday night. Police could not be reached for comment last night. MDC-T primary elections have been postponed to June 9.

{Herald}

{{Zimbabwe’s highest court on Friday ordered President Robert Mugabe to hold elections by the end of July, chiding the longtime leader for what it said was a “violation of his duties” in not proclaiming a date for the vote earlier.}}

Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku said the election date should be linked to the automatic dissolution of Zimbabwe’s parliament on June 29 at the end of its current five-year term.

A new constitution overwhelmingly accepted in a March 16 referendum requires amendments to electoral laws and voting procedures that lawyers’ groups say need about two months to complete.

Veritas, an independent legal research group, said Friday that the court’s July date is impractical.

A lawsuit was brought to the court on May 24 to force Mugabe to call early polls. The private court application claimed the country could not be run without the existence of the parliament, rendering the government illegal.

But Veritas said the constitution allows for the executive arm and government ministries to continue operating without a sitting parliament for up to four months after the legislature dissolves on June 29.

Judge Chidyausiku, sitting alongside eight senior judges in the Constitutional Court, said their ruling ordered elections to be held by July 31. He described Mugabe’s failure to announce the election date as “a violation of his duties.”

Two judges dissented.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader in a shaky coalition with Mugabe after violent and disputed elections in 2008, wants a vote that would end their power-sharing agreement to be held in September at the earliest.

Tsvangirai said in a statement Friday that the court had no power to set an election date and the judges had “overstepped their mandate.”

{Agencies}