27 October

A N C D A I L Y N E W S B R I E F I N G



MONDAY 27 OCTOBER 2008



PLEASE NOTE: This News Briefing is a compilation of items from South

African press agencies and as such does not reflect the views of the

ANC. It is for reading and information only, and strictly not for

publication or broadcast.



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@ ZIM-TALKS



HARARE 24 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



ZIMBABWE OPPOSITION LEADER TO ATTEND SUMMIT: SPOKESMAN



Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will attend a summit

next week aimed at saving a troubled power-sharing accord, his party's

spokesman said on Friday.



"We are not boycotting Monday's meeting," Movement for Democratic

Change (MDC) spokesman Nelson Chamisa told AFP.



"It is our hope that this meeting will bring closure and finality

to this issue of power sharing and enable Zimbabwe to respond to the

dire situation which the people are facing," he added.



Tsvangirai had refused to go to Swaziland for a meeting with

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and four other regional leaders on

October 20, in protest that he was only given emergency travel

documents at the last minute.



Earlier in the week, Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change

(MDC) party had hinted he could also skip next week's summit in

Harare.



The two rivals on September 15 agreed on the outlines of a

power-sharing accord that would keep 84-year-old Mugabe as president

and make Tsvangirai the prime minister.



But negotiations over who is to control key ministries have

stalled, with the MDC accusing Mugabe's party of insincerity in the

talks.



Chamisa said the opposition hopes the summit will be able to break

through the deadlock.



"Monday's platform gives us a special window of opportunity to

state our compelling case for the equitable distribution of key

ministries under the power sharing agreement," he said.

@ SCORPIONS-COSATU



JOHANNESBURG Oct 24 Sapa



PARLIAMENT HEEDS "VOICE OF MAJORITY"



The Congress of SA Trade Unions on Friday applauded parliament for

responding to the "voice of the majority" and quickly passing the ANC's

resolution to have the Scorpions disbanded.



The Directorate of Special Operations (DSO or Scorpions) had become

"a separate elite force which was not subject to adequate public

accountability and became a law unto themselves", said spokesman

Patrick Craven.



"This led to individuals' rights being compromised and Scorpions

officers being diverted from the fight against crime to political

campaigns against certain individuals."



The Scorpions' methods of investigation and prosecution "also

contradicted the necessary separation of functions between

investigating crime and prosecuting the criminals".



Cosatu would insist that the SAPS step up the war on crime in a more

co-ordinated way and do more to involve the communities and civil

society after the Scorpions had been incorporated into the police.



"Cosatu is 100 percent committed to the fight against crime,

particularly organised crime," Craven said.



Cosatu accused the Scorpions of "bad habits and political bias".



Cosatu would continue to monitor the members of the unit in the

police and criticise them if it found any "abuse of human rights", said

Craven.



@ RIGHTS-EXTENTION



JOHANNESBURG 24 October 2008 Sapa



DATE FOR COMMISSION NOMINEES EXTENDED



The SA Human Rights Commission has extended the closing date for

nominations for a full-time commissioner to fill a vacancy.



Commission chair Advocate Carol Johnson said on Friday that the

advertisements had appeared in various national newspapers since

October 10 and that the closing date was October 21.



The SAHRC had been inundated with calls from individuals and

organisations wishing to nominate candidates, but requesting more time

in which to do so.



Given the importance of the position and in the interest of wide

public participation, the closing date for nominations had been

extended until close of business on Friday, October 31.



The nominee must be a South African citizen,



@ CONVENTION-HOLOMISA



JOHANNESBURG 24 October 2008 Sapa



HOLOMISA CONDEMNS 'KILL LEKOTA' CHANTS



United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa condemned on Friday

reports that ANC members tried to disrupt a public meeting hosted by

former ANC chairman Terror Lekota.



Holomisa said ruling party leader Jacob Zuma should speak to his

supporters who chanted "kill Lekota" outside the venue of a meeting in

Orange Farm near Vereeniging on Thursday.



"South Africans are not ready to see him [Zuma] ascending to the

corridors of power by jumping over the corpses of South Africans," said

Holomisa.



The UDM leader called on the Independent Electoral Commission to

hold a meeting with all political parties, the heads of security forces

and the SABC to discuss how to "level the playing fields" ahead of

general elections next year.



@ ACDP-CALL



CAPE TOWN 24 October 2008 Sapa



MOTLANTHE MUST SPEAK OUT ON KILL CALL: ACDP



African Christian Democratic Party leader Kenneth Meshoe has called

on President Kgalema Motlanthe to speak out against calls by supporters

of ANC president Jacob Zuma to kill those who oppose their views.



Outside a rally at Orange Farm in Johannesburg on Thursday, convened

by suspended African National Congress veteran Terror Lekota, groups of

Zuma supporters chanted "kill Lekota" and "kill Shilowa", referring to

former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa, another organiser of the

event.



"[President Motlanthe] must censure those individuals guilty of what

is surely criminal incitement, and quite contrary to the peace we

desire for prosperity in South Africa," Meshoe said in a statement.



The ACDP condemned, "in the strongest possible terms", calls by ANC

members to kill.



"Threats to kill people because of their political persuasion or

their differing opinion should not be tolerated in any democratic

country," Meshoe said.

The fact that the ANC had allowed members to get away with talk

about killing the opposition and those that did not agree with them

showed they did not embrace democracy.



"[We] commend Terror Lekota for urging restraint and non-violence in

response to taunts and bullying from ANC members," Meshoe said.



In her weekly newsletter on Friday, Democratic Alliance leader Helen

Zille also condemned what she called the "drift of the ruling party

into political thuggery".



In the same week two DA activists were brutally attacked by ANC

supporters in the Mogoba informal settlement near Daveyton, ANC

loyalists had threatened to kill Lekota and Shilowa.



"This week I visited two DA activists in the Mogoba informal

settlement who had been violently attacked by a gang of men known to be

members and supporters of the ANC.



"They had been hacked with axes and bludgeoned with shovels, and one

of their homes was burned to the ground.



"Yesterday [Thursday], ANC supporters tried to disrupt a rally held

by the former minister of defence, Mosiuoa Lekota, who plans to launch

a breakaway party from the ANC. The ANC thugs chanted "Kill Shilowa,

kill Lekota".



Zille said that by resorting to thuggish tactics against its

opponents, the ANC was showing its true colours.



"The ANC is growing increasingly intolerant of opposition, and its

intolerance is manifested both in the militarisation of its discourse

and the brutal behaviour of its supporters," she warned.



@ YCL-MALEMA



JOHANNESBURG 24 October 2008 Sapa



YCL CONDEMNS PUBLICATION OF MALEMA'S MATRIC RESULTS



The Young Communist League has condemned the publication of ANC

Youth League president Julius Malema's matric results in a daily

newspaper on Friday.



"The YCL is concerned [about] the continued venomous and systematic

attacks directed against the ANC Youth League president Julius Malema,

" the YCL said in a statement.



The Star newspaper published the youth leader's results where he

allegedly scraped through matric with an H in Maths and a G in

Woodwork, both on standard grade.



The YCL said it was disgusted by the leaking of the results to the

media, and "this undermines the confidentiality of academic records

between the student and educational authorities".



It said this provided a prima facie case which needed to be answered

by education authorities in "malicious attacks aimed at destroying the

political career of the ANCYL president".



According to the Star report, Malema obtained Es in Sepedi HG

(higher grade) and second language Afrikaans HG, an F in Geography HG,

a D in History SG and a C in second language English HG.



"The publication of these results are nothing else, but a political

strategy to implant the notion that to be a good leader you must be

'certificated'," said the YCL.

The league said it believed "firmly" in the view that a leader's

educational intellect was organically cultivated and linked with his

practical experiences and interactions with the ordinary people on a

daily basis.



Malema has previously admitted that he had failed both grades 8 and

9, but said this was because he could not contain his excitement about

joining the Congress of SA Students.

Sapa



@ ANC-SCORPIONS



CAPE TOWN 24 October 2008 Sapa



RALLY BEHIND SAPS: ANC



The ANC has called on South Africans to "rally behind" the new

proposed SA Police Service directorate that will replace the Scorpions.



In a statement on Friday, the ruling party welcomed the passing of

two bills in the National Assembly the day before, which will see the

Directorate of Special Operations, popularly known as the Scorpions,

replaced by an SAPS crime investigation directorate.



"The ANC would like to assure South Africans that the amended bills

are the beginning of a long process to out-root crime and corruption.



"Having a united police force will ensure proper co-ordination and

management to deal with organised crime.



"The ANC calls upon all South Africans to rally behind the new

proposed police service and ensure that criminals find it unbearable to

commit crime in South Africa," it said.



@ NIGERIA-TELECOMS-UAE



LAGOS 24 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



UAE'S ETISALAT BEGINS OPERATION IN NIGERIA

Etisalat, the main telecoms operator in the United Arab Emirates,

entered Africa's biggest cellphone market Friday when it launched

mobiles services in seven Nigerian cities.



Etisalat became the fifth mobile phone network on the Nigerian

market after winning the 400 million dollar (282 million euro) licence

to operate telecoms services last year.



Four other operators - including South Africa's MTN, the market

leader - have a combined subscriber base of around 60 million.



@ MALAWI-FARM-FERTILIZER



BLANTYRE 24 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



MALAWI TRIPLES SPENDING ON FARM SUBSIDIES



Malawi, one of Africa's poorest nations, has more than tripled its

spending on subsidies this year to help 1.7 million impoverished farm

families buy fertilizer, agriculture authorities said Friday.



The southern African nation has spent 183 million dollars (145

million euros) to offer the country's poorest farmers a nearly 90

percent discount on fertililzer, deputy agriculture minister Frank

Mwenifumbo told AFP.



The same programme cost about 50 million dollars last year, but

authorities fear that without the subsidy, farmers might not be able

to produce enough food to guarantee the nation's food supply.



Beneficiaries will receive 10 kilogrammes of free maize seed and

pay eight dollars for 50 kilos of fertiliser, which would cost 72

dollars at market rates.



That puts fertiliser far out of reach for the majority of

Malawians, who live on less than one dollar a day.



Malawi needs 2.2 million tonnes of its staple grand maize to feed

its 13 million people each year, but its crops have only produced that

much since 2006 - the year after the subsidy programme began.



Before that, shortfalls in local crops meant that chronic hunger

was a normal part of life here.



But last year Malawi produced enough to sell about 400,000 tonnes

to troubled Zimbabwe.



@ ESKOM-DEVELOPERS



PRETORIA 24 October 2008 Sapa



ESKOM ANNOUNCES DEVELOPER LIST



Power utility Eskom on Friday released a list of names of developers

to be involved in its electricity programme.



The 23-member list includes AES Energy Developments, International

Power, Independent Power Southern Africa group, and Aviva

Corporation/GDF Suez.



According to Eskom the developers have been unconditionally

pre-qualified to produce electricity under the utility's multi-site

independent power producer (IPP) programme.



The list contains both national and international developers.



"Eskom has been designated as the single buyer of power from IPPs in

South Africa; successful IPPs will sign long-term power purchase

agreements with the utility," said the company in a statement.



The developers would be issued with a request for proposals by the

end of November while final bidding will end in May 2009.



@ ANCYL-FINANCE



JOHANNESBURG 24 October 2008 Sapa



ANCYL OWES CREDITORS R14 MLN: REPORT



The ANC Youth League owes R14 million to creditors who supplied

services and goods for functions, including two conferences this year,

the Mail&Guardian reported on Friday.



The newspaper also reported there were questions relating to the

whereabouts of the league's R2 million share of a R20 million payout by

Nedbank for its part of a stake it had held in People's Bank through

Lembede's associate company, the Progressive Youth Investment Company.



These dealings reportedly fell under the previous board of Lembede,

which has since commissioned an audit by Gobodo. Lembede is the

league's investment arm.



The league's spokesman Floyd Shivambu could not immediately comment.



@ TELEVISION-KGALAGADI



JOHANNESBURG 24 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



RURAL SOUTH AFRICANS GET FIRST TV BROADCASTS FOR WORLD CUP



Nearly 85,000 South Africans in the remote Kgalagadi region will

receive their first television broadcasts Saturday, as the government

boosts its networks' coverage for the World Cup.



"The minister of communications, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri will for

the first time, switch on the newly installed low-power transmitters

that will extend television services" to Kgaladadi, the government

said in a statement.

Kgalagadi, near the border with Namibia and Botswana, is home to

many Bushmen, descendents of the first people to live in southern

Africa.



Communities in the region from Saturday will be able to watch South

Africa's three public television stations and receive radio stations.



"This means that come 2010, the people of these afore-mentioned

areas will be able to watch the World Cup on television and listen to

commentaries on radio," the statement said.



Other parts of rural South Africa remain without television

coverage, but the government plans to boost its TV signals before 2010

so that people will not have to travel great distances to watch the

first World Cup held in Africa.



South Africa only introduced national television in 1976. The

white-minority apartheid government had feared that television would

weaken its control over society.



@ MOTLANTHE-DRCONGO



KINSHASA 24 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



MOTLANTHE TO VISIT DRC NEXT WEEK



South African President Kgalema Montlanthe will visit the Democratic

Republic on Congo next week for talks with his counterpart Joseph

Kabila, the foreign ministry said on Friday.



Montlanthe will meet Kabila on October 30 as part of a mixed

bilateral commission, foreign ministry spokesman Claude Kamanga told

AFP.



Montlanthe, who succeeded Thabo Mbeki as South African president

last month, will be making his first visit to the DRC.



The last meeting of the mixed commission was held in April in

Pretoria, when Kabila met Mbeki.



Since Kabila's election in the DRC's first democratic vote in 2006,

the two countries have strengthened their military cooperation,

signing in August last year an agreement under which Pretoria will

assist in the reform of Kinshasa's armed forces.



Pretoria is also providing assistance in the energy sector, South

African company MagEnergy overseeing the renovation of turbines at the

Inga hydro-electric dam in western DRC.



Once the restoration is complete, the Inga plant will have the

potential to produce almost 40,000 megawatts of power, enough to

provide electricity to the entire southern African region.

@ ANC-SCORPIONS



CAPE TOWN 24 October 2008 Sapa



ANC MPs SUPPORTED SCORPIONS VOTE: CAUCUS



The ANC Parliamentary Caucus has rejected reports that 20 party MPs

either abstained or stayed away from voting on the bills that disbanded

the Scorpions.



"We wish to place on record that all ANC MPs present in the House

cast their votes in favour of the two Bills," the caucus said in a

statement on Friday.



"The 20 MPs in question were not present in the House due to

unavoidable circumstances, such as poor health, family bereavements or

ministerial commitments."



The assembly approved the South African Police Amendment and the NPA

Amendment bills on Thursday night.



ANC MPs who were not absent at the time presented apologies that

were accepted by the party's chief whip, the caucus said.



In a statement earlier in the day, the ANC called on South Africans

to "rally behind" the new proposed SA Police Service directorate that

will replace the Scorpions.



"The ANC would like to assure South Africans that the amended bills

are the beginning of a long process to out-root [sic] crime and

corruption," the party said.



"Having a united police force will ensure proper co-ordination and

management to deal with organised crime."



@ MAURITANIA-OIL-TOTAL



NOUAKCHOTT 24 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



FRANCE'S TOTAL SIGNS ROADS DEAL WITH MAURITANIA'S JUNTA



French oil giant Total agreed a deal with Mauritania's military

junta to enlarge highways to allow access to oil fields in the

northeast of the country, the official AMI news agency reported

Friday.



The agreement signed on Thursday mainly concerns the widening and

strengthening of a road in the Adrar region, in order to take Total's

heavy drilling machinery.



Total has an ongoing oil exploration programme in the adjoining

Taoudenni basin.



France is among a number of countries which condemned the military

coup in Mauritania which overthrew President Sidi Ould Cheikh

Abdallahi in August. Paris said on Tuesday that it would not send a

minister to visit the country until the president is freed from

prison.



The European Union, of which France holds the rotating presidency,

and the African Union have both threatened sanctions if the junta

headed by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz refuses to restore

constitutional order.



The road works, which will take six months, will focus in

particular on "the Naoutil and Ain Ehel Taya passes" which Total's

heavy vehicles are currently unable to get through, AMI reported.



Total and the Mauritanian government already have an agreement to

share oil production from bloc 7 and bloc 8 of the basin, where the

company is to begin drilling in mid-2009, the agency said.



"This road will be useful for the exploitation of the oil and for

the people and the development of the Adrar region," Total's general

manager Pierre Desvoyes said at a signing ceremony with

junta-appointed oil minister Dy Ould Zeine.



@ ANC-RESIGNATIONS



CAPE TOWN 24 October 2008 Sapa



W-CAPE REGIONS PLAN 'RESIGNATION RALLIES'



Three "mass resignation" rallies from the ANC are to be staged in

the Western Cape this weekend, local party members said on Friday.



They said branches in the Boland, Southern Cape and West Coast

regions of the province plan to meet in Citrusdal, Paarl and

Plettenberg Bay to hand in their membership cards in advance of next

weekend's national convention in Bloemfontein, called by former defence

minister Terror Lekota.



A spokesperson for Moegamat Matjiet, former Boland regional

secretary of the ANC, said Matjiet and other leading local ANC figures

would head the rally at a local sports ground in Paarl at noon on

Saturday.



Former deputy defence minister, Mululeki George is billed as a guest

speaker at a similar rally in the Southern Cape region of Plettenberg

Bay, scheduled to start at noon on Sunday.



Local ANC leader, Zamile Xiphula, who describes himself as an

"expired" local councillor, having already resigned from the ANC,

maintains the "every ward" in the area will be represented at the

rally.



Similar confidence is expressed by former Western Cape provincial

ANC executive member Ornel de Beer, who is in charge of the West Coast

rally to be held in the Vicky Zimry community hall in Citrusdal on

Sunday, starting at noon.



"We expect a really big turnout," he said.



@ AFRICA-LITERATURE



ADDIS ABABA 24 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



KENYAN, NIGERIAN AND ANGOLAN WIN AFRICAN LITERATURE PRIZE



Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiang'o, along with Nigerian Ben Okri and

Angolan writer Ondjaki won an inaugural African literature prize here

on Friday.



The ceremony for the first-ever Grinzane For Africa Prize was held

on the sidelines of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the

UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa.



"I'm very glad to receive this prize and more so in Ethiopia, with

its thousands of years of independence," Ngugi said after receiving

the prize.



Ngugi, 70, whose vast experience includes journalism and

playwriting, wrote his first novel, "Weep Not, Child," in 1964. The

book was one of the first to be published in England by a black

African author.



He received the award's Heritage Prize, while 49-year-old Okri

received the Mainstream Prize. Angola's Ondjaki, 31, was named the

young author of the year.



The prize, which is sponsored by an Italian foundation, will honour

African writers every year and enable their works to be published in

the Italian language.



@ ETHIOPIA-MEDIA



ADDIS ABABA 24 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



ETHIOPIAN POLICE ARREST JOURNALISTS FOR MISIDENTIFYING JUDGE: WATCHDOG



An Ethiopian editor faces prosecution and two colleagues are in

custody after their publication accidentally misidentified a judge in

the trial of a popular singer, a media watchdog said Friday.



The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on

the authorities to drop criminal charges of "inciting the public

through false rumours" against editor-in-chief of the Enbilita

newspaper Tsion Girma and to release journalists Habte Tadesse and

Atenafu Alemayehu.



Tadesse and Alemayehu were arrested on Wednesday after reporting to

police for questioning, said CPJ.

Girma was given bail on Thursday but her colleagues remained in

custody and their case is due to be heard by a court on Monday.



"This is nothing but a flimsy pretext to crack down on a critical

paper," said Tom Rhodes, CPJ's Africa coordinator.



"We call on Ethiopian authorities to release Habte Tadesse and

Atenafu Alemayehu immediately and drop these bogus charges against

Tsion Girma," he said in a statement.



@ NIGERIA-FINANCE-ECONOMY



LAGOS 25 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



THE CRISIS ISN'T HERE YET BUT NIGERIA'S PREPARED



The credit crunch has not really hit Nigeria yet but the West

African oil producer, already weakened by a fall in crude prices and

few days ago the government's economic team trooped into the

Senate to go through all the possible worill stable but a tsunami

could happen any time.



"The first question is: do we have a crisis here, and the response

is no. Now are we sheltered from the global financial crisis? And the

response is no, we are not," warned Finance Minister Shamsudeen Usman.



After years of "wasting oil revenues", to use the expression of the

head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who

was in Nigeria briefly in February, the trend is now for sensible

money management.



One of the first measures, announced last week, was to cutdrop in oil

prices.



Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and the second largest

exporter of crude, bases its budget on a benchmark crude oil price.



Crude prices have more than halved in value since striking record

highs above 147 dollars per barrel in July, slashing the revenues of

oil producing countries.



"There has been a number of serious measures taken to reduce

expenditure and improve efficiency," Usman said after an extraordinary

cabinet meeting in the administrative capital.



He said cabinet discussed next year's budget in detail and it was

being fine tuned before President Umaru Yar'Adua presents it to

parliament within days. He gave no further details.



On Wednesday Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said the 2009 budget

would be based on a "very conservative" 45 dollars per barrel, lower

than the 59 dollar benchmark used as the basis for last year's budget.

"We want to be able to meet our budgetary requirements for 2009. As

a result of that, we have advocated a reduction in the benchhe minister

told reporters.



"We are realistic as to what the price will be. The benchmark is

now 45 dollars per barrel which I think is very conservative," he

added.



Algeria on Friday based its budget on 37 dollars a barrel.



If the chief economist with financial daily Business Day Ogho Okiti

wrote "this is the first sign that the crisis really is here", the

World Bank representative in Nigeria, Onno Ruhl, said the government

made the right move.



In the space of a few months Nigeria has seen its oil revenue

reduced by half.



Moreover, the national oil company Nigerian National Petroleum

Corporation (NNPC) is unable to keep up with its share of investments

in the joint ventures it has established with multinational oil

companies.



And crude production is seriously affected by instability and

violence in the Niger Delta, with output down to between 1.8 and 2

million barrels a day aginst 2.6 mbd two years ago.



The finance minister admits that the global economic crisis could

"lead to a reduction in our exports, particularly of our oil".



For paradoxically Nigeria's Achilles heel today is oil, the very

commodity around which it built its economy in the years of global

growth, notably in China and India



"Lower demand for oil = lower prices = lower revenues for the State

= a drop or a levelling-off in reserves," writes Okiti.



Sanusi Daggash, who heads the Senate Planning Commission, say

economic crisis elsewhere.



Central bank governor Chukwuma Soludo meantime tries to reassure

the public on the health of the banking sector, which had a thorough

overhaul in 2006.



"No bank will fail", the currency is strong and foreign currency

reserves are in a very good position (at around 63 billion dollars),

he says.



Onno Ruhl backed him up recently, saying that the local banking

system has practically no exposure to the risks coming from the US.

Moreover, he emphasised, Nigeria does virtually no borrowing on

international capital markets.



@ ZAMBIA-VOTE-OPINION

LUSAKA 25 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



OPPOSITION LEADER LEADS AHEAD OF ZAMBIA'S PRESIDENTIAL VOTE



A Zambian opposition leader has taken a wide lead in a new opinion

poll ahead of next week's presidential election which was previously

expected to be neck-and-neck, a survey group said Saturday.



Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front (PF) garnered 46 percent of

support while his closest rival, acting President Rupiah Banda, polled

32 percent, said Benson Bwalya of Steadman Group, a respected research

outfit.



Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development

(UPND) captured 20 percent support while Godfrey Miyanda of the

Heritage Party was trailing at one percent.



Another 12 percent of the respondents were undecided in the group's

survey conducted between October 10 and 15 of 1,062 people from

Zambia's nine provinces, Bwalya said.



But the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) dismissed

the poll as biased, arguing the survey sample was too small.



"The outcome is totally of the

ground," said MMD spokesman Benny Tetamashimba.



The poll does recognise that the ruling party has a nationwide

membership spread which can boost its numbers ahead of the October 30

election.



The winner will replace former president Levy Mwanawasa, who died

in August after suffering a stroke.



@ SUDAN-CONFLICT-DARFUR



KHARTOUM 25 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



DARFUR ATTACKS 'DISPLACE THOUSANDS, KILL MORE THAN 40'



Violence around a south Darfur flashpoint displaced 12,000 people

and killed more than 40 civilians when Arab militia attacked a string

of Sudanese villages, aid workers and a rights watchdog said on

Saturday.



But precise details on who was behind the fighting, the extent of

damage and casualties remain elusive because humanitarian missions can

not access the area around Muhagiriya, east of the South Darfur state

capital of Nyala.



"At least 15 villages were attacked and burnt, and about 12,000

people displaced," one international aid worker told AFP on condition

of anonymity.

The US-based organisation, Human Rights Watch, said more than 40

civilians were killed between October 5 and 17, and thousands fled

their homes.



It quoted unnamed local sources as saying that government-backed

Arab militias attacked more than 13 villages and settlements around

Muhajariya, burning homes and stealing livestock in operations against

rebel forces.



"I've seen reports of between 40 and 70 dead. There has been some

assessment down there but probably not enough to be sure about how

many were killed," said an aid worker, speaking on condition of

anonymity.



Arab militia attacks around Muhagiriya were reported on October 12

by members of the deeply fractured rebel group the Sudan Liberation

Movement.



Human Rights Watch said ongoing fighting, which has also been

reported for many weeks in North Darfur, underscored the inability of

the African Union and United Nations peacekeeping operation to protect

civilians.



@ IFP-EDUC



JOHANNESBURG 25 October 2008 Sapa



EDUCATION SYSTEM IN SHAMBLES: IFP



The South African education system is structurally dysfunctional and

fails to prepare learners for the work environment, the Inkatha Freedom

Party (IFP) said on Saturday.



"Education is in a sorry state... The present system does not

address the shortage of educators in the fields of mathematics, science

and technical subjects," national party chairman Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi

said.



"Many of our educational institutions have become havens of drug

abuse, violence, teenage pregnancies and immoral behaviour."



kaMagwaza-Msibi was addressing a gathering of civil servants in

Durban Manor.



He said the country was in need of an all encompassing, "diversified

education system".



"In order to achieve quality education, we must develop and nurture

a highly qualified, highly motivated and adequately remunerated

profession of educators."



kaMagwaza-Msibi criticised the health and security services in the

province as well, saying the government failed the people.

"Our government has so far failed to provide all South Africans with

quality education, health care and security. I believe a lot more must

be done to address inherited inequities," he said.



To achieve this, he said the IFP would consult with health care

practitioners to better understand obstacles faced by patients on a

daily basis, as well as communities with regards to police visibility

in their areas.



@ IFP-ANC



JOHANNESBURG 25 October 2008 Sapa



PUBLIC SERVANTS VICTIMISED FOR POLITICAL LOYALTIES: IFP



Public servants should not be victimised on the grounds of their

personal political loyalties, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said on

Saturday.



Speaking at a voter registration campaign hosted by party's national

chairperson Zanele Msibi, IFP leader in KwaZulu-Natal Lionel Mtshali,

accused the ANC of firing and suspending professionals because of their

political affiliation - particularly to the IFP.



"All in all, since its inception in 2004 hundreds of qualified,

competent, loyal and deserving civil servants have been forced to

resign by means of attrition or by being bluntly told that they had no

hope of promotion or job satisfaction on account of having previously

worked closely with IFP ministers or declaring their allegiance to the

IFP," Mtshali said.



He said such professionals should not be replaced

with "ruling party loyalists of dubious professional credentials",

because the consequences result in mismanagement, fraud and corruption.



@ SUDAN-JOURNALIST



KHARTOUM, Sudan 25 October 2008 Sapa-AP



PUBLISHER: DARFUR JOURNALIST HELD INCOMMUNICADO



The publisher of a Sudanese daily says one of his journalists in

south Darfur has been held incommunicado by the government for two

weeks.



Salah Kajam, publisher of Freedom Bells, says the government

detained Nurredin Braima after he translated the comments of a

displaced Darfurian woman into Arabic for a visiting Qatari diplomat.



The woman's comments are not known. But Kajam believes the detention

is part of a government crackdown against journalists and Darfurians to

prevent them from speaking about the crisis.

Government officials say Braima was detained for causing a commotion

in the room, without providing additional details. The officials spoke

on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to

the media.



@ ZIM-TALKS-TSVANGIRAI



HARARE 25 October 2008 Sapa-dpa



TSVANGIRAI: MBEKI MUST SHOW IMPARTIALITY OR ZIMBABWE DEAL WILL FAIL



Zimbabwe's prime minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday

said former South African president and mediator Thabo Mbeki had to

show impartiality or the political power- sharing deal being negotiated

would not materialize.



Addressing a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally in a farming

town of Marondera, about 70 kilometres east of Harare, Tsvangirai said:

Mr Mbeki, there is only one message: when you have started a job finish

it well."



Tsvangirai warned that "... the danger is that quite diplomacy has

its limits," adding, "We will abandon it if we see that quite diplomacy

is leading to quiet approval of wrong things."



The power-sharing deal for a government of unity entered between

Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe on September 15 is deadlocked

because of disagreements on the distribution of cabinet posts in the

planned unity government.



Tsvangirai accuses Mugabe of taking all the 'key' ministries such as

defence, information, home affairs, finance and foreign affairs.



Last week, Tsvangirai stayed away from a meeting in Swaziland of the

security troika of the Southern African Development Community (SADC),

saying he did not have the required travel documents.



The meeting has since been moved to Monday in Harare. Mbeki, the

SADC mediator, was due to report back to the 15-member regional

grouping on his failed attempt last week to end the deadlock.



Confirming that he would attend the meeting, Tsvangirai told his

supporters: "When it comes to negotiations we fear no one. We have

serious respect for SADC and African institutions, but they must learn

to reciprocate that respect."



"We want this issue not to be solved beyond Africa. When they (SADC

leaders) come on Monday we will show respect for them. We want to bring

finality to this stupid thing. We want this deal to work for the people

of Zimbabwe," he added.



The power-sharing deal is seen by many as the only way of rescuing

Zimbabwe from economic meltdown. The once-prosperous nation now faces

acute shortages of all essentials such as fuel, electricity, cash, food

and drugs.



Inflation officially stands at more than 200 million per cent,

though independent analysts put it at more than 1 billion per cent.



Tsvangirai also said at the rally that those responsible for the

violence in the run-up to the controversial presidential election in

June must face the wrath of law. Tsvangirai eventually withdrew from

the race, allowing Mugabe to win an uncontested run-off vote.



The MDC says it lost more than 200 of its supporters to violence

perpetrated by Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and its security agents.



@ BENIN-FINANCE



COTONOU 25 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



BENIN LEADER ATTACKS G20 FOR EXCLUDING POOREST NATIONS



Benin's President Boni Yayi Saturday blasted the 20 of the world's

richest nations and biggest emerging economies for excluding the

poorest countries from a November summit on the financial crisis.



"This meeting excludes the poorest countries, which are in reality

the main victims," Yayi said, referring to the G20 summit in

Washington.



"The short time does not give us an opportunity to team up to form

a common position... So we can only expect very stereotypical answers

to our problems," he added.



Yayi, who was addressing representatives from around 30 countries

at the continent's first forum of the African Mechanism of Evaluation

by its Peers (MAEP), said there were lessons to learn from the

finanical crisis.



"The rich countries' answers and interest in this crisis shows us

they can find an immediate solution to any problem if, and only if,

the political will is also there," he added.



MAEP was set up in 2003 to evaluate African countries democratic,

political and economic governance in accordance with the African

Union's principles.



The G20 summit will take place on November 15.



@ UGANDA-REBELS



YAMBIO, Sudan 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



ANALYSTS FEAR UGANDAN REBEL CHAOS SPREADING



Renewed brutal attacks and forced recruitment by Uganda's Lord's

Resistance Army (LRA) have raised fears that the rebels are

destabilising terrain straddling three African nations, analysts say.



Since September, a series of raids in the Democratic Republic of

Congo (DRC) and southern Sudan has been blamed on the rebels, and

analysts say their forces could also threaten areas of the Central

African Republic (CAR).



A UN report this month accused the northern Ugandan fighters of

serious human rights abuses in attacks in northeastern DRC that killed

more than 200 people.



The rebels "conducted a campaign of killing, systematic abduction

of children and burning of almost all houses," the report said.



Fleeing refugees said the rebels have returned to their trademark

pattern of surprise attacks and abductions, after mostly minor raids

during the last three years of peace talks.



"This time was different: they were killing, burning the huts,

destroying the food, and they took the children with them from the

school into the bush," said Denangwa John, a Congolese farmer who fled

to Sudan.



Local officials say at least 100 children were snatched from

southern Sudan and another 100 from DRC, with thousands displaced. The

attacks follow earlier raids along the eastern jungles of the CAR,

local authorities say.



LRA rebel chief Joseph Kony began his battle 20 years ago, claiming

to fight against the marginalisation of the people of northern Uganda.



But the LRA's ferocious attacks, in which rebels chopped off the

limbs and lips of their victims, often seemed more aimed at civilians

than the military.



In the 1990s, the rebels began moving into neighbouring south

Sudan, reportedly backed by Khartoum as a proxy force against southern

rebels.



Since 2005, when Sudan signed a peace deal to end its long-running

north-south civil war, the rebels slowly shifted to remote jungles in

DRC.



"The LRA has gone from Uganda, but with this wave of abductions it

is consolidating its forces in isolated areas of south Sudan, CAR and

the DR Congo," said Francois Grignon of the International Crisis Group

think-tank.



With oil-rich south Sudan due to vote on independence in 2011, some

fear the LRA may reprise its role as a proxy force for those keen to

block the emergence of a fully autonomous south.



"They are a force that could be used in future against south

Sudan," Grignon warned.

A renewed LRA campaign could have a major impact on the region,

causing instability in nations still trying to recover from their own

civil wars.



"The LRA is seeking a role in the conflicts affecting the area, and

has also sustained links with groups in Sudan," said Tim Allen, an

expert on the LRA at the London School of Economics.



"The LRA has long had a role in Sudan - linked to the antipathy of

groups in the far south towards the Dinka," he added, referring to the

ethnic group dominant in much of the southern leadership.



Despite three years of peace talks, Kony - who is the subject of

an International Criminal Court warrant for massacres and the rape and

mutilation of civilians - has repeatedly failed to appear to sign the

final peace deal.



"The LRA has received various resources in the course of the peace

negotiations from a variety of actors," Allen said.



South Sudan provided food and basic supplies to the LRA during the

talks to stop them raiding areas around their bases.



However, many fear the potential involvement of Khartoum, although

analysts admit there is no direct evidence.



"It has been able to re-arm and reorganise," Allen added. "It is

also the case that it has always retained a significant military

capacity."



LRA spokesman David Nyekorach-Matsanga insists Kony remains

"committed" to peace, blaming recent attacks on other unnamed

militias. "The LRA is not recruiting new soldiers or making a new

offensive," Matsanga told AFP.



But the refugees in southern Sudan say they know the fighters are

LRA.



There is talk of military pressure mounting against the rebels,

with troops from the DRC, backed by UN peacekeepers, reported to be

planning a crackdown.



Southern Sudan says it has beefed up forces along its stretch of

the border, and raised the possibility of offensive action against the

rebels.



But a direct assault is unlikely on guerrillas with years of jungle

experience who are able to slip across borders with apparent ease.



Allen warned that current forces - including those from south

Sudan, Uganda, the DRC and the UN peacekeepers - would be "unlikely

to achieve a military victory or solution without significant external

assistance".

Those in affected areas are gloomy for the future.



"The peace talks never addressed the main point: what can anyone

offer Kony so that he would want to come out of the bush?" said John

Patchanize, smalltime trader whose business between Sudan and the DRC

is blocked by fear of attacks on the border.



"The truth is that Kony is a warlord who understands one thing -

war."



@ SAFRICA-TOURISM



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



TOURISTS SEEK SOUTH AFRICAN NIP AND TUCK, WITH SAFARI ON THE SIDE



Forget Africa's big game or unspoiled scenery. More and more

foreign tourists are coming to South Africa for a little nip and tuck

at the country's private hospitals, with safari on the side.



Joy Kramel-Cox travelled 12 hours from London to undergo a tummy

tuck, a nose job, and eyelid surgery at a private Johannesburg clinic,

which cost her about 154,000 rand (15,200 dollars/11,400 euros).



"After a lot of research on the Internet, I settled for South

Africa. I loved the rates and the recuperation deal offered to me,"

said the 54-year-old high school drama teacher.



"It is no doubt that I would have paid more in my home country, and

I got a chance to see the country while recovering. I also liked the

feeling of coming back home after a holiday and people notice more

than just my tan," said Kramel-Cox, mother to a 13-year-old boy.



Tour operators say luxury retreats in the popular Cape winelands,

safari hide-outs in the Kruger National Park region and secluded

coastal resorts are favourite recuperation spots among foreign

patients.



The long holiday lets them recover in seclusion, returning home

only once the bandages are off.



"Medical safaris are a growing phenomenon, thanks to the country's

private hospitals that offer quality services that are on par with

other hospitals in Europe," said Lorraine Melvill, founder and owner

of Surgeon and Safari in Johannesburg.



South Africa's reputation for affordable, specialised medical care

has steadily risen since the mid-1990s.



The handful of medical tourism companies operating are reporting an

increased market share from both overseas and domestic patients.



According to Melvill, the patients receive extensive consultations

before making the trip, and their price tag includes flights, visas

and accommodation as well as the hospital fees.



"A lot of Europeans choose five-star luxury lodges where they can

have game drives and enjoy the African sun while recovering," said

Melvill, who also runs an exclusive hotel.



She said South Africa was competing with other emerging economies

like India, Malaysia, Brazil, Thailand and Costa Rica, which are

already major players in medical tourism.



"South Africa is a long-haul destination, so we are facing stiff

competition from other countries which are closer to Europe, but our

medical service and our package deals make it worthwhile," she said.



The lures of such lucrative private practise have raised fears that

doctors and nurses will leave the public health system that serves

ordinary South Africans to cater to wealthy foreigners.



But Melvill said medical tourism is becoming an important cottage

industry for South Africa, drawing in patients from other parts of the

continent that lack medical facilities.



Doctor Tshepo Maaka, founder of Serokolo Health Tourism, quit her

full-time medicine practice five years ago to tap into the demand for

medical safaris.



Maaka said the company receives an average of 20 inquiries a day,

with most of his patients coming from Germany, Canada, the Netherlands

and Australia.



"We do do not operate like normal travel agencies. We hire highly

trained staff with medical profession backgrounds as consultants," she

said.



Her seven-day packages offer a selection of two surgical procedures

such as lip enhancements, tummy tucks, eyeid surgery, facial laser

resurfacing or liposuction at 41,000 dollars, excluding the five-star

hotel.



"Having your surgery done in South Africa is like killing two birds

with one stone," said Kramel-Cox. "You lose the flab and experience

one of the most awesome safari escapedes in the world."



@ ZAMBIA-VOTE-ADVANCER



LUSAKA 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



ZAMBIA GEARS UP FOR PRESIDENTIAL RACE THAT'S TOO CLOSE TO CALL



Zambians vote Thursday to name a successor to the late president

Levy Mwanawasa, in a nail-biting contest between a retired diplomat

vowing stability and a populist seeking to aid the poor majority.

Acting president Rupiah Banda took over the reins of government in

early July, after Mwanawasa suffered the stroke that led to his death.



Considered a political outsider, Banda had been plucked from

retirement to become Mwanawasa's vice president in 2006. He's

outmanoeuvred a dozen contenders within the ruling Movement for

Multiparty Democracy to secure the nomination, and now wants to win

the presidency himself.



His main opponent is Michael Sata, staging his third presidential

bid with a promise to use Zambia's financial windfall from years of

booming copper exports to help the poor in a country where more than

60 percent of the population lives on less than two dollars a day.



"It looks like the race will be very close between the top two

candidates," said Neo Simutanyi, a respected pollster and political

science lecturer at the University of Zambia.



"It is too close to call at the moment," Simutanyi said.



Banda and Sata are grey-haired 71-year-olds who worked together

under Zambia's first president Kenneth Kaunda, before they parted

company in 1991 when Sata quit to seek his own political fortunes in

the opposition.



Banda is a western-educated economist and experienced diplomat.

Sata has had little formal education but is a shrewd political

operator who rose from the ranks to become a key minister in earlier

governments.



Banda has campaigned largely on a vow to maintain the policies that

have led Zambia through years of sustained economic growth, due mainly

to soaring prices for copper, which accounts for 80 percent of export

earnings.



But the country's economic outlook has soured since Mwanawasa's

stroke, as world copper prices have plunged by 50 percent from their

July high, raising fears of inflation and a new downturn in the local

kwacha currency.



That seems to favour Sata, whose Patriotic Front won strong support

in Lusaka and the copper belt in the 2006 polls by pledging to run out

Chinese investors and to use Zambia's mineral wealth to help the poor

with improved housing and better jobs.



He's since toned down his anti-Chinese rhetoric, saying he will

work with all foreign investors, but now says he will force foreign

firms to have a 25 percent stake held by locals.



Sata has already accused electoral authorities of tampering with

ballots in a bid to rig the election, warning he will not accept the

results if he believes the vote was fixed.



Opposition parties have also complained that the voter roll was not

updated after the 2006 race, and includes only 3.9 million names in a

nation of 12 million people.



But they lost a legal battle seeking to force authorities to

register new voters, after a judge ruled that the short electoral

timetable after Mwanawasa's death in August made new registrations

impractical.



Zambia suffered days of rioting by Sata's supporters after he lost

to Mwanawasa two years ago. He insists that he never condoned the

violence, but his posturing has raised fears of new unrest if the

outcome this week is disputed.



"We are worried that the post-election period may be violent. It

appears both parties may not accept the results if their candidates

are declared losers," said Lee Habasonda, executive director of the

Southern African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes. "There

is an urgent need of finding ways of reducing the tension which is

rising ahead of the elections," Habasonda said.



Two other candidates are potential spoilers for either side in a

close race.



Hakainde Hichilema, 46, of the United Party for National

Development, is seen as a dark horse contender, while former vice

president Godfrey Miyanda of the Heritage Party is seen largely as an

also-ran.



@ ZAMBIA-VOTE-BANDA-PROFILE



LUSAKA 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



ZAMBIA'S ACTING PRESIDENT BANDA SEEKS HIS OWN VICTORY IN POLLS



Veteran diplomat Rupiah Banda was thrust into Zambia's highest

office when president Levy Mwanawasa died of a stroke. Now the

71-year-old is campaigning to win the job on his own in Thursday's

election.



Mwanawasa had plucked 71-year-old Banda from political obscurity to

become his vice president in 2006. He had retired from active politics

a decade earlier, after serving in a string of top diplomatic posts

and in parliament.



After Mwanawasa's death in August, he out-manoeuvred a dozen other

potential candidates within the party to secure the nomination of the

ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD).



He's now locked in a neck-and-neck race with the main opposition

candidate Michael Sata, a charismatic populist campaigning on pledges

to transform a country where almost 64 percent of the population lives

on less than two dollars a day.



Banda is also trying to portray himself as a man of the people,

despite his overseas education and his diplomatic postings in

Washington, Cairo and at the United Nations.



He's helped by a long-standing public image as the country's most

prominent sports fan. For years he appeared on television at Zambian

soccer matches - the country's most popular sport - and has helped

place local athletes at European clubs.



"I will fight for what is best for Zambians. My country comes

first, you have my word on that. I know what it takes to fight for the

expectations of all Zambians," he told AFP in an interview.



"I will continue to make sure that all in Zambia can improve their

living conditions. I will continue the policies that mean ever more

Zambians can enjoy the fruits of an expanding economy," he said.



"In addition to my political experience I am also a farmer. I am a

man of the land," Banda said, hinting that agriculture will top the

agenda of his presidency.



"I know what it is like when the rains are late and when a crop

fails," Banda said before announcing huge government subsidies on

fertilizer ahead of the crucial vote.



Banda was born on February 19, 1937, in neighbouring Zimbabwe,

where his Zambian parents had gone to find work. He returned to Zambia

for his schooling, and continued his studies in Ethiopia and Sweden,

where he received a degree in economics.



His first wife, with whom he had seven children, died after falling

ill in 2002. He has since remarried.



He served as foreign minister and minister of mines, and also led

several state-run companies under Zambia's first president Kenneth

Kaunda.



His critics say he has no programmes of his own, arguing that it

was only by luck that he suddenly found himself in the presidency

after Mwanawasa died.



"He has no plans for the country. He can't think on his own," said

main challenger Sata.



But many Zambians believe Banda will provide stability in a country

that has enjoyed sustained economic growth due to high commodities

prices and growing demand for copper, the country's main export.



Over the past seven years, Zambia's economy has grown steadily

while fiscal discipline improved greatly prompting the World Bank and

the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to hail the country's economic

record under Mwanawasa.



"These policies have made us one of the most stable countries on

the African continent. We must continue with policies that will

deliver prosperity for all," Banda said.



"Now is the time for a wise head and cool hand," Banda said.



The government has already been forced to trim back its growth

projections due to the global economic crisis, which has dented demand

for copper and other base metals.



@ ZAMBIA-VOTE-SATA-PROFILE



LUSAKA 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



ZAMBIA'S 'MAN OF ACTION' MAKES NEW PRESIDENTIAL BID



Zambia's controversial opposition leader Michael Sata, a leading

contender in Thursday's presidential race, brands himself as a "Man of

Action" who will transform this poor country's fortunes.



At 71, Sata's age is showing but his support remains as strong as

ever among the urban poor and unemployed youths who call him "King

Cobra."



"Lower taxes and more money in your pocket," has become a chorus

among poor Zambians who flock to huge rallies to listen to Sata, seen

by many as a potential saviour in a country where almost 64 percent of

the population lives on less than two dollars a day.



His campaign symbol is a boat that looks like Noah's Ark, and he

tells Zambians to jump on board if they are to be saved from poverty

and under-development.



With little formal education, Sata presents himself as an

experienced leader who served with distinction in various government

ministries before he resigned to form his own Patriotic Front party in

2001.



"My record of achievements in government speaks for itself," said

Sata, a former chain-smoker who quit the vice after suffering a heart

attack this year.



Sata thrives amid controversy, and he has already raised dust by

promising to force foreign companies to grant a minimum 25 percent

stake to local investors as a means of empowering locals.



The announcement alarmed foreign investors, with Sata vowing to

implement the order within 30 days of taking office and threatening to

rescind the licenses of companies that don't comply.



"The statements are undermining investor confidence and already our

currency kwacha is slipping as investor confidence is tested," the

ruling party said in a response to Sata published in the local press.



Still, he has toned down some of his rhetoric from the last

campaign in 2006, when he threatened to expel Chinese investors and

pledged to grant diplomatic recognition to Taiwan if elected.



Now he says he'll work with Chinese investors if elected.



"But I will not accept investors who bring their own people to push

wheelbarrows instead of hiring local people," Sata told a campaign

rally last weekend.



"I will clean this country within 90 days after being elected

president," Sata told a campaign rally.



An open admirer of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, he has had a

distinguished career in government, serving as minister of local

government, labour, and health.



He eventually became minister without portfolio, the third-highest

post in government.



He also served as governor of the capital Lusaka under Zambia's

first president Kenneth Kaunda, but he quit in 1991 when the country

introduced multi-party politics.



He has a large family with his wife Christine Kaseba.



This is his third presidential bid, having been trounced twice by

Levy Mwanawasa in 2001 and 2006. He claims the last election was

rigged.



@ ZAMBIA-VOTE-CHRONO



LUSAKA 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



KEY DATES FOR ZAMBIA SINCE INDEPENDENCE



Key dates in the post-independence history of Zambia, which holds a

presidential election on Thursday:



October 24, 1964: The country, known under British rule as Northern

Rhodesia, becomes an independent state within the Commonwealth.



Kenneth Kaunda, head of the main nationalist party, becomes its

first president.



1965: The white-minority government in neighbouring Rhodesia

unilaterally declares independence from Britain in order to prevent

majority rule.



Along with other "frontline states" opposing white minority rule in

both Rhodesia and South Africa, Zambia provides support to black

nationalists in the two countries.



1968: Kaunda is re-elected president, a position he is to hold

until 1991.

1969: Copper mines and other key sectors are nationalised.



1972: Zambia officially becomes a one-party state, under Kaunda's

United National Independence Party (UNIP).



1973: Neighbouring Rhodesia closes the border, causing hardship in

Zambia. Low world prices for copper also hit the economy.



1980: After a bitter nationalist war, neighbouring Rhodesia becomes

independent under black-majority rule, and is renamed Zimbabwe. But

Zambia continues to suffer from wars in two other neighbours: Angola

and Mozambique, as well as from the situation in South Africa.



1986: Widespread hunger in the country's northern Copperbelt region

sparks riots.



1986-89: Troops from white-ruled South Africa launch attacks into

Zambia, targeting bases of the African National Congress.



1990: Kaunda organises a referendum on multi-party democracy, which

is adopted by the end of the year.



Riots fuelled by economic hardship claim 45 lives.



1991: Frederick Chiluba and his Movement for Multiparty Democracy

win elections, marking the end of Kaunda's reign.



The Chiluba administration launches a privatisation programme.



1996: Chiluba and the MMD win a new mandate in elections, but the

results are contested by the opposition, which includes Kaunda.



October 28, 1997: A group of military officers launches a coup

attempt, which fails. Around 100 people, including Kaunda, are

arrested.



2001: Chiluba's chosen successor, Levy Mwanawasa, wins election,

but gets only 28 percent of the vote, one percentage point more than

his rival. The poll is marred by accusations of fraud.



2003: Former president Chiluba goes on trial for corruption and

theft during his decade in power.



2004: Sweeping strikes against a wage freeze and tax increases.



2006: Mwanawasa wins a new mandate despite failing health and

strong opposition from voters in the country's mining heartland.



2007: The Zambian president is one of the few African leaders to

overtly criticise Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, likening his

country to "a sinking Titanic".



August 19, 2008: Mwanawasa dies in a Paris hospital. Vice President

Rupiah Banda steps in. The following month, the MMD elects Banda as

its candidate to succeed him.



October 30: The country holds a presidential election.



@ ZAMBIA-POLITICS-FACTS



LUSAKA 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



ZAMBIA AT A GLANCE



Zambia, which goes to the polls on Thursday to elect a replacement

for the late President Levy Mwanawasa, is a landlocked country in the

heart of southern Africa.



GEOGRAPHY: Zambia is ringed by the Democratic Republic of Congo

(DRC), Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. It

spans 752,614 square kilometres (301,068 square miles).



POPULATION: 11.7 million, (World Bank, 2006). It also hosts more

than 100,000 refugees, most from Angola and the DRC.



CAPITAL: Lusaka



LANGUAGES: English (official), several local languages.



RELIGION: Mainly Christian with a small Muslim community.



HISTORY: Zambia came under British control in the 1889 and became a

protectorate in 1924 as Northern Rhodesia. It was renamed Zambia when

it gained independence on October 24, 1964 and was ruled by founder

president Kenneth Kaunda for 27 years.



Elections in 1991 brought to power Frederick Chiluba and his

Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD).



Chiluba was re-elected in 1996 but the results of the elections

were contested by the opposition. His attempts to change the

constitution in 2001 to win a third term failed due to public pressure

and in April 2001, Levy Mwanawasa won the presidential elections as

the MMD candidate, winning 28 percent of the vote. He was elected to a

second term in 2006.



On August 19, 2008, Mwanawasa died in Paris, where he had been

hospitalised for a stroke.



ECONOMY: Agriculture - sugar cane, maize, tobacco, groundnuts,

cotton. Mining - copper, cobalt, lead, gold, silver, emeralds. Copper

is the country's main export earner.



Another is tourism, thanks notably to the Victoria Falls, on the

border with Zimbabwe.



Since 1992, the majority of state enterprises have been privatised

and in 2004, Zambia introduced economic austerity measures under

pressure from international donors.



Almost 64 percent of the population lives on less than two dollars

a day.



Gross domestic product per capita was 640 dollars per person in

2006 according to the World Bank.



In late 2007 the central bank governor estimated that growth should

stand at 6.2 percent in 2008.



ARMED FORCES: 15,100 troops (International Institute of Strategic

Studies, 2008).



@ ZUMA



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



ZUMA TO RETURN TO SA SUNDAY EVENING



African National Congress president Jacob Zuma is scheduled to

arrive back in Johannesburg on Sunday evening following a week-long

visit to the United States, according to an ANC news release.



Zuma led an ANC delegation that included Treasurer General Mathews

Phosa and National Executive Committee (NEC) members Zweli Mkhize,

Siphiwe Nyanda and NomaIndia Mfeketo.



The delegation visited the country at the invitation of the US

government.



It met administration officials and representatives of other sectors

in Washington and New York.



The purpose of the visit was to further strengthen relations between

South Africa and the US, and to discuss areas of further cooperation.



Zuma met with President George Bush during a visit to the White

House, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security

Advisor Stephen Hadley.



During their discussion, Bush and Zuma touched on a number of

matters, including South Africa's priorities in the current period, the

situation in Zimbabwe, and the need to conclude the Doha round of trade

negotiations.



The delegation also met with USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore and

US Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Mark Dybul.



@ AF-CONGO-FIGHTING



KIBUMBA, Congo 26 October 2008 Sapa-AP



REBELS SEIZE EAST CONGO ARMY CAMP, THOUSANDS FLEE

Rebels and U.N. officials say fighters of renegade Gen. Laurent

Nkunba have seized a major army camp in eastern Congo in heavy fighting

that sent thousands of civilians fleeing.



Refugees say an unknown number of soldiers, rebels and civilians

have been killed.



Government troops raced to reinforce a counterattack Sunday morning,

and one tank careened into a group of fleeing civilians and killed

three teenage boys.



Associated Press reporters who watched the fathers burying their

sons in a cabbage patch at Kibumba could hear bombing from army tanks

about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Rumangabo army camp.



It is the second time rebels have seized the army base since

fighting resumed Aug. 28 in North Kivu province.



@ ZIM-MOTLANTHE



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



MOTLANTHE, MBEKI IN HARARE MONDAY



South African president Kgalema Motlanthe will attend the SADC Organ

Troika meeting in Harare Monday, Department of Foreign Affairs

spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said Sunday.



The SADC Organ Troika meeting takes place against the background of

ongoing efforts by SADC to help the people of Zimbabwe in their

endeavour to find a lasting solution to their political and economic

challenges.



Ex-president Thabo Mbeki in his capacity as the SADC facilitator is

expected to brief the SADC Organ Troika on his efforts to assist

Zimbabwe's political leadership in their efforts to form a new

government.



@ NPA-EXHUME



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



NPA TO EXHUME BODIES AT MAKHADO



The National Prosecuting Authority’s Missing Persons Task Team will

be conducting exhumations at Tshikota cemetery, near Makhado in

Limpopo, on Monday.



NPA spokesman Tlali Tlali said investigators were looking for the

bodies of four African National Congress uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) members

who were shot dead in an encounter with the former South African

Defence Force (SADF) on 10 November 1983 near Alldays.

Tlali said the four were buried at Tshikota cemetery by a local

undertaker as unidentified paupers.



The exhumation will be attended by family members of the deceased as

well as government and political representatives from the province.



The identities of the deceased will only be finally confirmed

following DNA testing after the exhumation.



Investigations indicate that Leslie Moatshe (MK Vusi), Joseph Ditaba

Tshinga (MK Stoney or Thabo Mopedi), and Geoffrey Tholi Ramokopelo (MK

Daniel April) were among the deceased.



The identity of the fourth deceased will be confirmed at a later

stage.



After the exhumation, the remains will undergo forensic examination

by forensic anthropologists and DNA testing at the DNA laboratory at

the University of the Western Cape (UWC).



This process will take several months to complete.



"This will establish the cause of death and provide

scientific confirmation of the identities of the deceased persons,"

said Tlali.



@ NAIR



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



OFFICIAL FUNERAL FOR BILLY NAIR



KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele has announced that the

funeral of the late Billy Nair, anti-apartheid activist and former

Member of Parliament, will be an official provincial funeral.



The funeral will take place on Thursday 30 October at the Exhibition

Centre in Durban.



Nair died last Thursday.



@ CONGO-FIGHTING



NAIROBI 26 October 2008 Sapa-dpa



NKUNDA REBEL FIGHTERS TAKE OVER VIRUNGA NATIONAL PARK IN EAST CONGO



Forces of rebel Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda Sunday captured the

headquarters of eastern Congo's Virunga National Park, forcing 50 game

wardens to flee into the jungle, park director Emmanuel de Merode said.



"We thought we were all going to be killed," said one of the wardens

contacted by telephone. The road between the headquarters and the

provincial capital Goma 45 kilometres away was blocked by rebels.

What is Africa's oldest wildlife park - home to 200 rare mountain

gorillas - has repeatedly been the scene of fighting between government

troops and Nkunda's rebel forces over the past year.



There is particular concern among conservationists over the

gorillas, ten of which were known to have been killed either in the

fighting or by poachers taking advantage of the conflict to hunt them.

Only 700 of the gorillas are known still to exist worldwide.



Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) and

other groups in January signed to peace accords designed to end

sporadic clashes that occurred in 2007, four years after the war in the

Democratic Republic of Congo officially ended.



However, the CNDP and government soldiers have been involved in

repeated firefights in the eastern North and South Kivu provinces since

late August.



Nkunda's troops have until now confined their operations to the east

of the nation, which borders Rwanda, purportedly to protect Tutsis from

armed Hutu groups.



Many of the Huus fled to DR Congo after the 1994 massacre in

Rwanda, when Hutu militia and military massacred 800,000 Tutsis and

moderate Hutus in the space of a few months.



Aid agencies and observers are concerned that the clashes could

reignite a wider conflict and plunge the DRC back into chaos.



Over 5 million people are estimated to have died as a result of the

long conflict in the resource-rich Central African nation.



The conflict is often referred to as the African World War owing to

the large number of different armed forces involved.



@ ZUMA



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



ZUMA EXPECTED TO SPEAK IN WITBANK



Hundreds of people have gathered at the Atlantic Stadium in Witbank

on Sunday to celebrate the 64th anniversary of the African National

Congress Youth League, the SABC reported.



ANC president Jacob Zuma, who has just returned from his week-long

visit in the United States, and ANCYL president Julius Malema are

expected to address the crowd, the broadcaster reported.



ANC national chairperson Baleka Mbete, ANCWL president Angie

Motshekga, former ANCYL president Malusi Gigaba and deputy secretary of

the party Thandi Modise are among the dignitaries attending the

celebrations.

@ ANC-DA



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



ANC MUST ABANDON CADRE POLICY: DA



The actions of the ANC in the Free State, Northern Cape and Limpopo

as reported in the media represent the logical and disastrous

consequences of the ruling party's cadre deployment policy, the DA said

Sunday.



Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Sandra Botha said in a

statement: "The party comes first and the people a very distant second.



"This 'higher law of the party' doctrine represents a fundamental

assault on the Constitution and the principles of good governance."



By directing from Luthuli House that party insiders and cronies be

placed in key positions within the organs of state, the ANC had shown

yet again that it did not consider itself beholden to the distinction

between party and state, essential in any well-functioning democracy,

said Botha.



"The reality is that the ANC believes in a closed patronage society,

where one's access to opportunity is defined not by your ability, but

by the strength of your ties to the governing party."



@ ANC-CONVENTION



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



ANC REJECTS INVITATION BY PARTY FACTION TO CONVENTION



The ruling African National Congress will not attend a convention

by a dissident faction aimed to launch a rival party to contest next

year's elections, a newspaper reported Sunday.



The invitation was floated by Mbhazima Shilowa, former head of the

country's richest province, Gauteng, and one of several influential

ANC members to quit office after the party ousted Thabo Mbeki from the

presidency last month.



"The new party is expected to take the social democrat route and to

exploit technology to the full in its campaign and recruitment

process," Mbhazima, who resigned from the ANC earlier this month, told

the Sunday Independent.



"Mobile phone text messages, websites including Facebook and other

social forums would be used for discussions and recruiting," he added.

All parties would be invited to the faction's convention next month

to launch the new party, Mbhazima said, which "would target young,

upwardly mobile professionals but at the same time focus on the poor

and the working class."

But ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe told the newspaper his party

was not willing to accept the invitation.

"We can't be invited by some faction. We can't legitimise a faction,"

he was quoted as saying.



Former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota, who is leading the

dissidents' faction, has been holding meetings around the country to

mobilise support for the November 2 convention.



The meetings have been disrupted by angry ANC members who accuse him

of being a power hungry rebel.



@ POLITICS-KZN-CONVENTION



DURBAN 26 October 2008 Sapa



KZN TO SEND DELEGATES TO CONVENTION



The ruling African National Congress' hopes of a united front in the

home province of its leader Jacob Zuma were dashed on Sunday when it

was announced in Durban that at least 50 delegates from KwaZulu-Natal

would attend the national convention to be held in Bloemfontein.



At a press conference held in Durban Siphelo Nkinkqa, a former

deputy chairman of the ANC Youth League in KwaZulu-Natal, said: "We are

not the leadership of this process of the convention that is going to

take place. We are just volunteers in preparation of the convention."



Nkinkqa, who held the press conference along with former SACP

provincial executive council member Nhlanhla Buthelezi, said that the

majority of "dissident" ANC members attending the press conference were

from Durban, but that there was support from across the province.



About 30 other ANC members were present at the press conference.



Former SACP provincial executive council member Nhlanhla Buthelezi

said the actual numbers of delegates from KwaZulu-Natal would be

finalised by Thursday. "It is not going to be less than 50," he said.



Buthelezi said that there had been several "consultative" meetings

held with the ANC, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the

South African Communist Party.



While he did not provide details of the meetings or who attended, he

said those attending the convention were concerned about the lack of

discipline within the party, the failure to address organisational

problems and corruption.



Buthelezi highlighted the heckling former president Thabo Mbeki by

alleged Jacob Zuma supporters at the reburial two years of former

African National Congress stalwart Moses Mabhida as an indication of

the indiscipline within the party which was not being dealt with.

He said: "Levers of our constitutional democracy have been

threatened, ridiculed and made toothless by yesterday's democrats. The

legislature, judiciary and executive have been subjected to these

threats without exception."



Earlier, a statement released by the ANC's provincial secretary

general Senzo Mchunu said that the ANC did not have any reason for

concern.



"It (the ANC) has long discounted those fellows. Their absence will

not be felt, and they will not be missed as they have for a long time

not contributed anything within the organisation. Their departure will

rid the organisation of people with self serving egos."



@ CONVENTION-WCAPE



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



POLICE REINFORCEMENTS CALLED INTO DISSIDENT MEETING



Police reinforcements were called in after African National Congress

members and dissidents clashed at a meeting in Gugulethu, Cape Town on

Sunday afternoon.



Scuffles broke out when a small group of ANC members, one waving an

ANC flag, tried to force their way into the Ikwezi hall where

supporters of Terror Lekota's convention movement had called a meeting.



Police intervened, forming a barricade in blue across the doorway,

and reinforcements arrived soon after.



The ANC group sang and danced in the parking lot outside the hall as

the meeting, which was to be addressed by former SA Communist Party

treasurer Phillip Dexter, continued inside.



@ GENDER-WORKSHOP



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



GENDER EMPOWERMENT WORKSHOP HELD



A two-day workshop for National Gender Machinery (NGM) was held to

strengthen women's empowerment and gender equality, the Government

Communication and Information System (GCIS) said on Sunday.



The workshop which was held in Pretoria over the weekend was lead by

the Minister in the Presidency, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.



During the workshop it was recommended that the NGM must be

strengthened in order to effectively implement a national strategy to

get more women into the mainstream economy.



It was also agreed that the NGM will continue to engage in the

India-Brazil-South (IBSA) processes through the IBSA women's forum.

The national anti-poverty strategy was discussed and a

recommendation was made that the policy unit of the Presidency should

be approached and engaged about gender issues within anti-poverty

strategies.



It was decided at the workshop that research would be done to

evaluate women's unvalued labour in domestic and care-giving roles.



The workshop was attended by representatives of the commission of

gender equality, non-governmental organisations and various ministers

and deputy ministers including Land Affairs and Agriculture minister

Lulu Xingwana.



@ SUDAN-DARFUR-CHINA



KHARTOUM 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



CHINA WANTS SUDAN WAR CRIMES CRISIS 'SOFT LANDING': ENVOY



China's special envoy to Darfur on Sunday called for a "soft

landing" to a crisis sparked when the world court prosecutor demanded

a formal indictment of the Sudanese head of state for war crimes.



International Criminal Court judges are looking at evidence

presented in July to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for

President Omar al-Beshir on 10 counts of genocide, war crimes and

crimes against humanity in Darfur.



Sudan, whose most powerful ally is China, is campaigning to stall

any possible ICC proceedings and convince a sceptical West that it is

serious about unblocking stalled peace efforts in Darfur.



"I am here for consultations with the government of Sudan and to

give them our advice and to make a few concrete suggestions," said

China's special envoy, Liu Guijin, fresh from talks in London, Paris

and Washington.



"I used those opportunities... to have consultations with our

partners there in the West as to how could we work together to seek a

kind of soft landing of the charge," he said.



He said the West would like Sudan to do more to speed up the

deployment of a UN-led peacekeeping operation in Darfur and move

forward with a political process to resolve the nearly six-year

conflict.



"Anyhow things are moving towards a good direction," Liu said.



He praised Sudan for cooperating with the peacekeeping deployment

and for indicating a willingness to resume political talks -

stressing that other "political forces" would also have to agree to

sit down at the table.

@ ANCYL-RALLY-MALEMA



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



'DESPERATE' PROPHETS OF DOOM RUBBISH THE ANC: MALEMA



The levels at which prophets of doom have stooped to rubbish the ANC

demonstrates their level of desperation, said ANCYL leader Julius

Malema on Sunday.



Speaking at the African National Congress' Youth League's 64th

anniversary rally in Witbank, Malema said this could only be countered

through maximum unity in ANC structures.



"Those who stand on dark corners and proclaim that the ANC has lost

its moral compass and has abandoned the Freedom Charter are merely

spreading lies to advance their narrow, self-serving political

agendas," he said.



"We must not be hoodwinked into believing lies and half-truths the

prophets of doom are spreading about our revolutionary movement."



Malema said it was time to educate the "political imbeciles" who

have bad things to say because they have "unfettered access" to the

media.



He said the recent campaigning by Terror Lekota, who has since been

suspended together with Mluleki George, was the most "idiotic"

political performance the country has ever seen.



"What makes their dramatic performance more amazing is the

shallowness of their approach based on the belief that the masses will

believe them when they claim that the ANC has lost its soul

post-Polokwane."



The Polokwane conference was held 10 months ago.



Malema said any rot in the ANC would have accumulated over a number

of years, when some of these ANC dissidents were among the highest

ranking officials of the ANC.



"Surely the rot they allege has enveloped the ANC would have settled

in on their watch," he said.



Paying homage to the party's founding fathers, including Oliver

Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and many others, Malema said

their foresight and impatience for change created the ANCYL.



He said the league must recommit itself to the ideals these leaders

embodied and the vision they articulated.



"Ours is a grand vision that aims to achieve a society where poverty

is eradicated, our people live in peace side-by-side, free from any

form of discrimination and all are equal before the law."

Malema said it was more relevant today than it ever was to mobilise

young people behind the vision of the ANC.



He said if Lekota and other ANC dissidents want to present

themselves to the nation as "messiahs and saviours" from an ANC that

they claim to be "drunk with power", the least they can do was "to tell

the truth and take the nation into [their] confidence."



@ ANC-MEDIA



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



NO ABUSE OF POWER: ANC



The African National Congress on Sunday dismissed a newspaper report

that it was abusing its power by interfering with certain state

administration.



"We will not destroy fruits of our hard-earned democracy by abusing

power as the Sunday newspaper report wants people to believe," said

party spokesman Brian Sokutu.



On Sunday, the City Press reported that the ANC was allegedly

abusing its authority by running three provinces from party offices,

keeping top posts for party members and dictating on procurement.



The newspaper said the ANC provincial executives of Limpopo,

Northern Cape and the Free State had taken control of state

administration.



"This means that the ANC, as a poltical party, is not only

effecting political appointments in the provincial legislatures and in

municipalities, but is also indirectly determining the awarding of

tenders and the appointment of senior bureaucrats."



Responding to the report, Sokutu said at no stage had the ANC

mandated any of its provincial structures to run provincial governments

from the organisation's office.



"We believe in the highest standards of integrity from our elected

representatives and appointed public officials."



He said there were key laws in place and which the ANC adhered to

about how financial management must be governed in the local government

sphere.



"Government is required by law to advertise tenders and jobs.

Qualifying companies or individuals are normally shortlisted and go

through a panel before any contract is awarded," said Sokutu.



"These are rigorous processes and no one - not even an ANC leader -

can attempt [to] flout any of these laws by dictating to government how

to run its business."

Sokutu said as far as deployments were concerned, it was "an

internationally accepted norm" for a ruling party to deploy its cadres

into government positions.



"South Africa is no exception," he said.



Earlier on Sunday the Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader

Sandra Botha said the City Press allegations indicated: "The party

comes first and the people a very distant second."



"The reality is that the ANC believes in a closed patronage society,

where one's access to opportunity is defined not by your ability, but

by the strength of your ties to the governing party," she said in a

statement.



@ SOMALIA-TALKS-ETHIOPIA



NAIROBI 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



ETHIOPIAN TROOPS TO PULL OUT OF SOMALIA BY EARLY 2009: UN



Ethiopian troops are to pull out of Somalia by early next year

under a deal signed Sunday in Djibouti by the Somali government and

the Islamist opposition, a UN spokeswoman said here.



@ LAND-MOTLANTHE



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



BIOFUELS MAY RESULT IN LESS LAND FOR FOOD: MOTLANTHE



The increasing demand for biofuels may result in less land available

for food production as farmers are enticed to switch to biofuel crops,

President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Sunday.



Speaking at the African Peer Review Forum in Benin, Motlanthe said

considerations of land hunger and opportunities that could derive from

using land for other productive purposes were excluded.



"This scramble is taking place in partnership with sections of

African interests, promoted as foreign direct investment, foreign aid,

bringing job creation opportunities, utilisation of otherwise "fallow"

land and providing clean energy - to the exclusion of considerations

of land hunger," he said.



He said projects to supply such production should be located within

a broader land reform strategy, developed and driven by African

governments and the people.



"In this regard, we will be able to find appropriate balances and

competing imperatives between the poor and authorities with

responsibility over land, native populations and the descendants of

colonisers and the need and obligations for maintaining bio-diversity."

Moltlanthe said the land issue was very complex and that there was a

need to recognise the diversity of Africa and land struggles that have

taken place in different parts of the continent.



"Land reform programmes should be designed and financed to impact

positively on agrarian and production systems in order to enhance the

agricultural sector of the economy."



@ UGANDA-MEDIA-GOVT



KAMPALA 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



UGANDA'S STATE NEWSPAPER EDITOR QUITS



The editor of Uganda's state-run New Vision newspaper has resigned

complaining of the lack of editorial independence, an official

statement said Sunday.



"When I took this job, I was given a written contract assuring that

I and the newspaper would have editorial independence," Belgian

journalist Els De Temmerman, the chief editor of the New Vision, said

in statement.



"Reluctantly, however, I have concluded that I can no longer count

on the assurances I received when I accepted the job and so I must

resign," he said.



De Temmerman took over as editor at Uganda's government paper in

December 2006.



New Vision Chief Executive Officer, Robert Kabushenga said De

Temmerman had notified of him of her resignation in a letter that

explained she could no longer guarantee the independence of the paper.



But he said that if De Temmerman wanted to publicly allege that the

government interfered with the paper's coverage, she should give

specific examples.



"I'll explain in each and every case why decisions were made,"

Kabushenga added.



Before running New Vision, De Temmerman, a former Belgian

journalist, wrote extensively about Uganda, specifically about the

conflict with the Lord's Resistance Army.



Kabushenga previously ran the Uganda Media Centre, the publicity

organ of president's office.



@ FINANCE-ARAB-AFRICA



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



DEVELOPING COUNTRIES TO BE HIT HARD BY FINANCIAL CRISIS

The recent global financial crisis will lead to a shifting paradigm

which can adversely affect developing countries, said the Association

of Senates, Shoora and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab World

(ASSECAA) on Sunday.



"African and Arab countries through joint efforts at the regional

level should participate effectively within the international community

and create measures for new international financial system," said the

association in a statement following their meeting, in which SA

participated.



It said this would prevent adverse effects of such crisis on the

economic development of the two regions.



The meeting sought to enable the chambers of commerce and industry

in Africa and the Arab world to establish a strong institutional

framework for organising effective economic cooperation.



"This is in response to the ravaging effects of globalisation on the

economies of developing nations," said the ASSECAA.



Both regions resolved to take cognisance of the mobility of foreign

direct investment.



On globalisation, the association said there was a need to put in

place policies to assist national businesses to enhance their

competitiveness at regional and international levels.



@ MOTLANTHE-LEKOTA



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



MOTLANTHE CONDEMNS DISRUPTIONS AT LEKOTA MEETINGS



President Kgalema Motlanthe strongly condemned the disruption of

political meetings organised by former ANC chairperson Terror Lekota by

some ANC members, SABC reported on Sunday.



"When you create chaos and anarchy deliberately, you undermine the

confidence of the people of South Africa. You also dent the image of

the country as a stable, growing democracy," he told the SABC.



"I would really appeal to all those concerned to calm down and act

in a responsible manner.



"We are going into elections, if you whip up emotions you could very

well lay down the foundation for a number of problems," said Motlanthe.



Lekota has been holding meetings around the country in preparation

of a convention he plans to hold on November 2.



Earlier this week, Zuma supporters, some chanting "Kill Lekota"

were prevented by police from entering an Orange farm rally in Gauteng.

On Sunday, police were also called to keep in to keep the peace at

when ANC dissidents scuffled with party loyalists at a meeting in

Gugulethu in Cape Town.



@ ZIM-POLITICS



HARARE 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



ZIMBABWE'S ZANU-PF WARNS TSVANGIRAI AHEAD OF TALKS



Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF chief negotiator in the power-sharing talks

issued a stark warning to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai ahead of

key talks Monday on a unity government.



"If Tsvangirai does not stop campaigning for sanctions against

Zimbabwe to further cripple the country's economy, then we are headed

for trouble," Patrick Chinamasa told AFP.



And he warned Tsvangirai against a boycott of the talks, after he

failed to attend last Monday's meeting of the Southern African

Development Community (SADC) in Swaziland.



"We trust that Tsvangirai will not treat Monday's troika meeting

with the same contempt and utter disrespect that he did with the

Swaziland meeting,"



Another boycott by him will irreversibly strain ZANU-PF's patience

and will be the last straw that broke the camel's back," said

Chinamasa.



Tsvangirai stayed away from the SADC meeting in protest at the

government's failure to issue him a passport. This obliges him to seek

emergency travel documents, valid for a single trip, each time he

leaves the country.



The southern African leaders agreed to hold new talks between the

rivals in Harare this Monday in the hope of salvaging an agreement on

power-sharing between ZANU-PF and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic

Change (MDC).



Despite his warning Chinamasa added: "With respect to prospects of

Monday's meeting we are cautiously optimistic that the meeting will

yield a positive outcome."



Monday's talks are aimed at breaking the stalemate over the

allocation of key cabinet ministers between the two parties in a unity

government, which in principle had been agreed in a power-sharing deal

on September 15.



The deal, brokered by former South African president Thabo Mbeki,

was hailed as a breakthrough in ending months of political deadlock

and long-term economic melt-down in the former regional breadbasket.

@ SOMALIA-UNREST



MOGADISHU 26 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



SOMALI GOVERNMENT, ISLAMISTS AGREE ON ETHIOPIAN PULLOUT



The Somali government and the Islamist opposition agreed Sunday to

implement a dormant ceasefire deal, paving the way for pro-government

Ethiopian troops to quit the country.



The accord calls for the ceasefire - which had been signed in June

but never respected - to begin November 5, said Susannah Price,

spokeswoman for the top UN envoy to Somalia.



The deal also calls for Ethiopian troops to pull out of areas in

Mogadishu and the central town of Beledweyne on November 21, leaving

them under the control of African Union troops in Somalia (AMISOM),

said Price.



The agreement said that "the second phase of Ethiopian troop

withdrawal should be completed within 120 days," though Price was

unable to say when exactly the 120-day countdown would begin.



The deal was signed by the government and the Alliance for the

Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) at UN-sponsored talks in Djibouti.



The agreement resurrected a June 9 ceasefire deal agreed between

the government and the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia ARS.

The ARS is an opposition umbrella group dominated by Islamists and

based in the Eritrean capital of Asmara.



The implementation of the agreement had been delayed after fighting

flared up across the Horn of Africa nation.



Radical Islamists have refused to accept the accord until Ethiopian

forces withdraw from the country, with one leading Islamist, Hassan

Dahir Aweys, rejecting the June agreement.



Aweys, who the United States has accused of links to Al-Qaeda, did

not immediately react to Sunday's deal.



A string of previous peace initiatives and truce deals have failed

to stabilise the country, which has been plagued by an uninterrupted

civil war since the 1991 overthrow of president Mohamed Siad Barre.



Ethiopian forces have been in Somalia since they deployed alongside

beleaguered Somali government troops in 2006 and succeeded in ousting

Islamists from south and central Somalia where they had imposed Sharia

law.



Islamists insurgents have waged a guerrilla war since then, which

according to international rights groups and aid agencies has left

thousands of civilians dead and displaced hundreds of thousands,

mainly in the capital Mogadishu.

On Sunday, at least 13 people were killed in southern Somalia as

insurgents battled Somali and Ethiopian forces in separate clashes,

while a roadside bomb exploded near a police checkpoint, witnesses and

officials said.



Under Sunday's ceasefire accord, both sides agreed "to stop waging

hostile campaign against each other by using the media both in the

country and abroad."



They also agreed "to call on supporters of the two parties and the

Somali population to adhere and support this cessation of armed

confrontation for the interest of Somalia," the text read.



African Union troops would replace the Ethiopian forces due to pull

out from areas in Mogadishu and Beledweyne, while the government and

ARS are to assemble a 10,000-stong police force for Mogadishu and

other regions.



The African Union has 3,400 troops in Somalia, far short of the

8,000 AMISOM force it pledged to deploy to protect the government and

humanitarian operations in the Horn of Africa nation.



"To avoid a security vacuum in areas vacated by Ethiopian forces,

security will initially be the responsibility of AMISOM troops with

the assistance of the TFG (transitional federal government) and ARS

security, until the deployment of UN forces," the agreement said.



It said that "the second phase of Ethiopian troop withdrawal should

be completed within 120 days," but did not indicate when the countdown

starts.



The agreement said the feuding sides would "prepare a police force

of 10,000 to maintain peace and security in Mogadishu and other

regions. UNPOS (UN political office for Somalia) is requested to cover

the financial needs of the force starting November 5."



@ CRIME-MTHATHA



JOHANNESBURG 26 October 2008 Sapa



ECAPE UNIVERSITY STUDENT SHOT AFTER ELECTION DISPUTE



A Walter Sisulu university student was shot in Mthatha after a fight

apparently broke out over student election results, police said on

Sunday.



Superintendent Mzukisi Fatyela said the student died after being

shot at the university campus at about 3pm.



He said the student was apparently trying to stop a fight amongst

students after dissatisfaction over student representative council

elections.

He was allegedly shot by a campus security guard.



A security guard was arrested and is being detained by police.



An investigation into exactly what happened is being conducted.



Fatyela said the situation at the university remained tense

throughout Sunday.



"The situation was very tense and we had to deploy a number of

police [there] to keep things under control," he said.



@ VATICAN-AFRICA



VATICAN CITY 27 October 2008 Sapa-AP



POPE TO VISIT 2 AFRICAN COUNTRIES IN MARCH



Pope Benedict XVI announced he will make his first papal pilgrimage

to Africa - a continent where the Catholic Church is growing - with

visits next year to Cameroon and Angola.



The 81-year-old Benedict gave the surprise news at the end of his

homily in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday, during a ceremony closing

three weeks of discussions by bishops from around the world about the

Bible.



Benedict did not give specific dates for the trip, which

traditionally are first announced by local Church officials in the host

countries. The Vatican usually gives details of papal pilgrimages

closer to departure.



"Next March, I intend to go to Cameroon" as part of preparations for

an October 2009 bishops' meeting at the Vatican dealing with Africa,

Benedict said at the end of his homily.



"From there, God willing, I will go on to Angola, to celebrate

solemnly the 500th anniversary of the evangelization of that country,"

Benedict said.



The Catholic Church has been growing in parts of Africa and Asia,

with those continents sometimes supplying priests for parishes in parts

of Europe and North America where vocations have steadily declined in

the last few decades.



While the Vatican has been concerned about the flagging faith of

some Catholics in the affluent West, Church officials are heartened by

the vibrancy of churches in parts of Africa and Asia.



When the pope visits Cameroon, representatives of Africa's bishops

conferences will be meeting there to prepare for next year's Vatican

synod on Africa.



Cameroon, formed in 1961 from western African territories governed

by the French and British, has an 18 million population that is about

40 percent Christian.



Angola's history as a former Portuguese colony has given the country

Christian roots. The southern African country was lacerated by a civil

war that started with its 1975 independence and ended in 2002.



Since being elected pontiff in 2005, Benedict has visited several

European countries, including France in September, his latest foreign

trip. He has also traveled to Brazil, the United States and Australia

earlier this year.



His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, visited Africa several times in

his 26 1/2 years as pontiff.



On Sunday, Benedict paid tribute to the Church in another distant

part of the world - China - where Catholics loyal to him worship in

clandestine churches and have sometimes suffered harassment, or in the

case of clergy, even imprisonment.



The pontiff noted that bishops from China had been unable to attend

this month's gathering at the Vatican. The Vatican and Beijing do not

have formal ties, largely due to China's insistence that it make

appointments of bishops, a right claimed by the Holy See.



Benedict said he was thankful for the Chinese bishops'

"faithfulness" to the pope, and he prayed that they receive the

"strength and zeal to guide, with wisdom and far-sightedness, the

Catholic community of China that we love so dearly."



@ ZIM-POLITICS-SUMMIT



HARARE 27 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



AFRICAN LEADERS TO MEET IN HARARE TO RESCUE UNITY ACCORD



Leaders of a Southern African bloc will meet Monday in Zimbabwe to

try and salvage the country's agreement to form a unity government

which has been deadlocked over the allocation of key ministries.



The Southern African Development Community (SADC) troika summit

comes after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai boycotted the last meeting

Monday in Swaziland, in protest at receiving his travel documents at

the last minute.



"The issue is not just about home affairs, there are about ten

ministries which need to be clarified, we will negotiate through the

facilitator on Monday," said Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)

spokesman Nelson Chamisa.



"We have long rejected co-sharing, once we start to share it would

be messy and chaotic," said Chamisa.



Talks to form a power-sharing cabinet had been stalled since the

signing of a landmark September 15 unity deal brokered by former South

African president Thabo Mbeki.



More than a month later and despite several meetings, President

Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara who leads an MDC

faction have failed to reach an agreement on allocating key ministries

including defence, home affairs, finance and local government.



Earlier in September, the three rivals agreed to call the mediator

to break the impasse, but after four days of marathon meetings Mugabe

and Tsvangirai locked horns over the ministries of home affairs and

finance, prompting Mbeki to refer the matter to SADC.



Under the deal, the 84-year-old Mugabe retained his position as

president while Tsvangirai assumed the role of prime minister.



The deal left unresolved the formation of a cabinet, except to

declare how many posts each party would receive, and that ambiguity

threatens to sink the entire deal.



The ZANU-PF was allotted 15 portfolios, Tsvangirai's MDC 13 and

three for the smaller MDC faction led by Mutambara.



Mbeki is expected to brief the summit which is currently chaired by

Swaziland on developments of the talks.



Swaziland king Mswati III, who last week dispatched a jet to fetch

Tsvangirai from Zimbabwe after he failed to arrive for the talks, will

be represented by his Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini.



At least three key leaders from the 15-nation bloc are set to

attend the summit.



Newly appointed South African President Kgalema Motlanthe and

Foreign Minister Nkosazana Zuma will be part of the meeting.



"The meeting takes place against the background of ongoing efforts

by SADC to help the people of Zimbabwe in their endeavour to find a

lasting solution to their political and economic challenges," the

foreign ministry said in a statement.



After initially threatening to skip this Monday's summit as well,

Tsvangirai has agreed to attend, but warned that his party will not

accept a bad deal for the sake of furthering Mbeki's so-called "quiet

diplomacy."



"We have a high respect for SADC and regional leaders," Tsvangirai

told a rally Saturday. But he warned: "Quiet diplomacy has its

limits."



Analysts said that Tsvangirai has little choice but to push ahead

with the deal, if the MDC hopes to have any chance of reforming the

government or salvaging the economy, which is beset by the world's

highest inflation rate, believed to be at least 231 million percent.

"By attending the summit, this is a realisation by the MDC that

despite all the obstacles being put in place by ZANU-PF hardliners, it

is important to change things from within," said political analyst

Bornwell Chakaodza, a respected former newspaper editor.



@ MADAGASCAR-FINANCE



FORT-DAUPHIN, Madagascar 27 October 2008 Sapa-AFP



MADAGASCAR'S PERILOUS MINING GAMBLE



Madagascar is throwing its all into the mining sector to vanquish

poverty but the environmental and social risks are high and the

guarantee of returns is doubtful.



The Indian Ocean island is one of the world's poorest countries yet

its subsoil is riven with mineral riches and holds some of the world's

largest deposits of sapphire, nickel, bauxite and ilmenite, among

others.



Mining accounts for only four percent of Madagascar's gross

domestic product and its vast unexploited reserves have become

attractive to many foreign companies since the commodities markets

soared.



British-Australian firm Rio Tinto and Canada's Sherritt,

respectively building the world's largest ilmenite and nickel mines,

are only some of the mining giants converging on the "Great Red

Island".



Modern-day Klondikes are sprouting all over Madagascar, turning a

very traditional society upside down and threatening to disfigure an

island whose biodiversity earned it the name of the "Noah's Ark of the

Indian Ocean".



In Moramanga, in the east of the island, a 20-metre-wide scar

slashes right through the primary forest.



Bulldozers are busy establishing Sherritt's four-billion-dollar

nickel mine - one of the world's five largest mining projects - and

building a pipeline, ripping through the shrivelling natural habitat

of the endangered indri lemur.



"This is the heart of the primary forest, very close to the future

protected area decreed by the government," said Leon Rajaobelina,

vice-chairman of Conservation International's Madagascar branch.



Yet in 2006, the government approved Sherritt's Ambatovy project,

which will is also to exploit cobalt and ammonium sulphate from 2010

for 27 years.



According to a survey, between 1,300 and 1,700 hectares of primary

forest sheltering 1,378 flower species will be sacrificed to the mine.

No fewer than 47 species are found only there.



"This flora in Ambatovy was among the most endangered in

Madagascar's wet forests," said Rainer Dolch, of the Madagascan

environmentalist organisation Mitsinjo.



The government insists that a suitable balance has been found

between the preservation of biodiversity - also the island's main

tourism asset -and the aggressive development of the mining industry.



"Considering the extent of deforestation, conservation will be

better ensured with those mining projects," director general of mining

Gerard Rakototafika said.



Sherritt turned down AFP's interview requests but says on its

website that it is committed to preserving biodiversity and ensuring

that the mine generates a positive impact on the environment.



Amid question marks over the impact unbridled mining can have on

the island's environment and increasingly crucial tourism sector, some

residents are also expressing doubts over the viability of this new

economy.



Until recently, Fort-Dauphin, a lobster fishing port on the

island's southernmost tip, was a sleepy and picturesque town flanked

by three bays of bright blue water and abutting a spectacular

mountain.



The idyllic landscape was shattered in 2005 when Rio Tinto started

building a massive floating mining plant to extract ilmenite - a

mineral used in pigment production - from the sands.



The sheer size of the 850-million-dollar project has knocked the

town sideways. The population has doubled in three years to reach

70,000 and flashy new hotels now cosy up to the old colonial-style

buildings.



The project is managed by the QMM corporation, 80 percent of which

is owned by Rio Tinto to the Madagascan government's 20 percent.



"QMM undeniably brings with it a lot of opportunities but only part

of the population can benefit," said Jean-Philippe Jarry, local

coordinator of the aid organisation CARE. "Fort-Dauphin was a fishing

village and simply wasn't ready for all this."



Such a huge investment in one of the country's poorest regions has

generated immense hope among the population.



"Before QMM arrived, this town was dormant, in a state of economic

coma," said chamber of commerce chief executive Liva Randriamilamina,

citing the development of transport networks, urban maintenance and

the hotel industry the mine has brought to Fort-Dauphin.



But some have expressed doubts as to whether many of the small

businesses will survive the upcoming completion of the initial

construction phase and also argue that the mining boom has attracted

many expatriate workers and inflated the cost of living.



"For the moment, the project does not generate wealth nor does it

allow people to improve their living conditions," said opposition MP

Josuah Randrianantenaina.



Coplan Andrianarijaona, a cook in Fort-Dauphin, said the prices of

rice, meat and vegetables have shot up by 40 percent and her rent

increased threefold in two years.



Leading the chorus of protests against the colossal project are the

fishermen who have seen their subsistence destroyed by the floating

mine.



"Life was acceptable before. Over there, we used to be able to fish

all week, there were lots of fish and shells," said Christophe Mbola.

"Now we only go out twice a week."



Some fishermen like Mbola were given compensation packages but they

insist their income has shrunk.



"Let them keep their millions and allow us to fish in peace because

at least we know the sea will always be there," said Marcel, another

fisherman in the coastal village of Ambinanibe, 10 kilometres (six

miles) from Fort Dauphin.



The risks are also there for the government, which granted the

foreign mining companies conditions that few other nations would

offer.



The contracts signed with Rio Tinto and Sherritt do not stipulate

any percentage to be paid to the government and the companies' profits

are tax free during the first five years of commercial activity.



"We're being criticised for being too lenient and maybe it's true,

looking back from the current global context in which many countries

are renegotiating their old contracts," mining chief Gerard

Rakototafika said.



But he pointed out that the deal with Rio Tinto was sealed in 1998.

"Madagascar had nothing to offer back then in terms of infrastructure

and we could not afford to ask for too much."

_____________________________________________________________



Prepared by: Unwembi Communications on behalf of the ANC

Dept Information & Publicity



PO Box 23469 Tel: (+27 21) 683 4515

Claremont 7735 Fax: (+27 21) 683 4104

Cape Town E-mail: info@anc.org.za

South Africa

_____________________________________________________________