Category: Politics

Tear gas, water cannons and batons used to disperse rally in capital Harare with unconfirmed reports of injuries.

Zimbabwean police have used tear gas, water cannons and batons to disperse an opposition rally protesting against police brutality in the capital Harare.

More than 200 supporters, mostly youths, of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), took to the streets on Wednesday.

Many protesters were reported to have been injured, but police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said she had no information on that.

Riot police blocked streets around the MDC headquarters and used water cannon against some youths in downtown Harare.

Some protesters threw back tear gas canisters, as well as rocks, towards the police, who fired more tear gas outside the MDC offices.

The demonstrators had marched through the streets of the capital denouncing the police for beating up protesters and called on President Robert Mugabe to step down, accusing him of running a dictatorship.

The rally came two days before a planned march by all opposition parties to try to force Mugabe to implement electoral reforms before a general election in 2018.

“We have been seeing a deliberate attempt by the police to intimidate, harass and silence the people of Zimbabwe,” Lovemore Chinoputsa, the MDC Youth Assembly secretary-general, said during the march.

Chinoputsa said police had refused to sanction the march, saying that it would degenerate into violence.

Over the past few months, Zimbabwean police have crushed demonstrations against high unemployment, acute cash shortages and corruption.

The police routinely deny charges of brutality and instead accuse the opposition of using “hooligans” during protests to attack officers.

A trauma clinic in Harare last month compiled a list of cases of people who had been caught up in a police crackdown during anti-government protests.

The MDC’s leader Morgan Tsvangirai and former vice president, Joice Mujuru, are expected to lead Friday’s march.

Riek Machar, who was sacked as South Sudan’s vice-president last month, is in Sudan to receive “urgent medical attention”, the state news agency says.

Sudan is hosting Mr Machar on “purely humanitarian grounds”, it said.

Mr Machar has not been seen in public since July’s clashes between his supporters and those of President Salva Kiir which killed some 300 people.

South Sudan has suffered more than two years of civil war, since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011.

Riek Machar’s condition was now “stable” and he would “stay in Khartoum under full medical supervision until he leaves… for a destination of his choice,” the Sudan News Agency (Suna) said.

The governments of both Sudan and South Sudan have accused each other of backing rebels in a bid to destabilise their countries.

Mr Machar’s presence in Khartoum will give Sudan influence. It is likely to try and present itself as a mediator in the conflict, although many South Sudanese will be suspicious of its intentions.

Taban Deng Gai, Mr Machar’s successor as vice-president, has also been in Khartoum this week.

He is likely to have sought assurances that Sudan is not planning on siding with Mr Machar, as well as requesting help to overcome his country’s economic crisis.

Mr Machar demanded a neutral force be deployed in July to keep peace and guarantee his safety after his bodyguards and President Kiir’s presidential guards fought each other, sparking days of violence.

Political differences between Mr Machar and Mr Kiir ignited the civil war in December 2013 – and they only agreed to settle their differences under intense international pressure, signing a peace deal last August.

Mr Machar returned to Juba in April to take up the post of vice-president, but President Kiir dismissed him in the wake of the latest violence.

This month, the UN authorised a 4,000-strong African protection force for Juba with a more robust mandate than the 12,000 UN soldiers already in the country.

But South Sudan’s government said it opposed the deployment and it is not clear how the mission can go ahead without its co-operation.

South Africa’s governing ANC party has lost control of the country’s largest city and economic centre, Johannesburg.

The city council elected as mayor Herman Mashaba from the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).

The ANC had run the city since the fall of apartheid more than 20 years ago. It lost its council majority in local elections, although it is still the largest party.

The party has also lost control of the capital Pretoria and Cape Town.

It follows local elections earlier this month that produced no outright winner in most districts, resulting in hung municipalities and forcing parties to form coalitions to govern.

Of the country’s six biggest cities, the ANC only won an outright majority in Durban, seen as a stronghold for South African President Jacob Zuma.

There was drama at Monday’s Johannesburg council meeting, which lasted 11 hours.
A scuffle broke out between opposition party members and electoral commission officials and an ANC councillor who was sworn in earlier in the day collapsed and died shortly after Mr Mashaba was elected.

The ANC had won 44.5% of the vote, more than the DA’s 38.4%. But the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 11% found itself in the position of kingmaker and refused to give its votes to the ANC.

Mr Mashaba, a 56-year-old businessman, has promised to reform the city administration.

“As of this evening, corruption is declared public enemy number one in this city,” he told cheering supporters.

“Public monies that have been misspent, misused, over the last five, 10 years or so … we’re going to take this money, we’re going to look after it, so that we can provide basic services to our people.”

Mr Mashaba also pledged to tackle unemployment.

“Over 800,000 of our residents, one-in-three, are today unemployed. We need to address this and we need to address this as a matter of urgency.”

Vote by parliament in Tobruk is major setback for Government of National Accord in Tripoli.

Libya’s UN-backed government in the capital, Tripoli, has suffered a major setback following a vote of no confidence by the country’s eastern parliament.

The vote on Monday by members of the House of Representatives, which is based in the eastern city of Tobruk, rejected the Tripoli administration’s proposed line-up for a government of national unity.

“The majority of lawmakers present at the parliament session voted no confidence in the government,” Adam Boussakhra, parliament spokesman, told the AFP news agency.

A Government of National Accord (GNA) – led by prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj – was the result of a UN-brokered power-sharing deal struck in December.

Monday’s vote was the first since January, when the parliament rejected an initial list of ministers put forward by the GNA’s leadership, and the first since the UN-backed government began installing itself in Tripoli in March.

But the GNA, which had been seeking the Tobruk parliament’s endorsement for months, has struggled to unite the country and assert its authority beyond the capital city.

A rival government in the country’s east has refused to cede power until the House of Representatives passes a vote of confidence.

A total of 101 deputies attended Monday’s session, with 61 voting against the GNA, 39 abstaining, and only one voting in favour, according to officials.

Parliamentary sessions in Tobruk have been repeatedly delayed or blocked as opposition to the GNA has hardened.

GNA supporters, many of whom did not attend Monday’s vote, have previously complained that opponents of the UN-backed government have used physical force and threats to prevent voting from taking place.

Western powers have been counting on the GNA to tackle Libya’s security vacuum, revive oil production, and stem the flow of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

While forces aligned with the GNA have largely recaptured the coastal city of Sirte from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, it has struggled to assert control in other areas, losing support because of its inability to resolve a liquidity crisis, widespread power cuts and other problems.

The conflict has turned the country into a nexus for people-smuggling to Europe and has enabled ISIL, also known as ISIS, to gain a foothold on the southern shore of the Mediterranean.

South Sudan is pleading with Kenya and Uganda for economic support to avert a humanitarian crisis after a fresh conflict brought the country to its knees.

Mid last week, a delegation of Transitional Government of South Sudan officials led by First Vice-President Taban Deng Gai was in Kenya on a mission seeking a bailout.

The EastAfrican has learnt that Juba will also be reaching out to Uganda later this month to craft a bailout package that will see Kampala pay its traders the $35.2 million Juba owes them in a bid to have them resume supplies to the country.

“The vice president will go to Kampala to request the Ugandan government to pay traders who supplied cereals to Juba but haven’t been paid. The money will then be converted into a loan, for which Juba and Kampala officials will work out a repayment plan,” a diplomatic source with the knowledge of the matter said.

The delegation to Nairobi, which included four ministers, met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Amina Mohamed and a number of Kenya government officials.

A source privy to the discussions told The EastAfrican that Mr Gai informed President Kenyatta that the country’s economy was in a perilous state and needed urgent help.

Mr Gai implored the Kenya government to give his country a soft loan to help it deal with its current problems.

“We have been facing difficulties in delivering services to the people and we briefed President Kenyatta about the current economic difficulties the country is facing. We are experiencing severe inflation because of the civil war, poor oil production and the low oil prices, which have basically drained us as we are not making money. We asked Kenya for help so that our economy does not grind to a halt,” Mr Gai said when he addressed a press conference at the Nairobi Intercontinental Hotel after a meeting with President Kenyatta.

The delegation also requested Kenya’s support for implementation of the peace agreement by the Transitional Government as currently formed. This would mean excluding former first vice president Riek Machar.

“The President’s view was that he would not act outside Igad,” said the source.

Economic bailout

On the requests for a soft loan and food supplies, President Kenyatta is reported to have advised the group to send their finance minister, their Central Bank Governor and agriculture minister to Nairobi with a clear proposal, including the amounts needed and the modalities for repayment.

Kenya can then determine its level of commitment “cognisant of the fact that we have interests in South Sudan and cannot be aloof to the suffering of its people.”

The loan, the source said, could be worked out along the same lines as the economic bailout of Zimbabwe by South Africa a while back. South Sudan relies on Kenyan traders for key supplies including food, edible oils, pharmaceuticals, electronic products and manufactured goods.

Uganda is South Sudan’s biggest trading partner and exports maize, vegetables, sugar, iron and steel, cement, beer, motor lubricants and detergents. However, following fresh fighting in the country in July, most foreign traders have returned to their countries for security reasons.