SATA CONDEMNED FOR USING CHURCH FOR POLITICAL MILEAGE

Northern Province MMD chairman Steven Mukuka has condemned Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata for using the Catholic Church in Mporokoso as his campaign centre for the March 3, Mporokoso by-election.
Speaking at a campaign rally addressed by Vice President George Kunda in Mporokoso yesterday, Mr. Mukuka said it is morally wrong for Mr. Sata to use the church for his political expedience.
He urged all peace-loving Zambians to condemn Mr Sata’s lack of respect for the Catholic Church in the District by holding political campaigns within its premise.
Mr. Mukuka said many people with different political affiliations were congregating at the Church, and as such it is irresponsible for Mr. Sata to hold campaign activities at place of worship.
He advised the Catholic Church to disassociate itself from the PF campaigns taking place at the church premise in Mporokoso or risk people questioning their impartiality in political matters.
And Mr. Mukuka has castigated Fr. Frank Bwalya for engaging in partisan activities by aligning himself with the PF in the Mporokoso by-election set March 3, this year.
He charged that it was embarrassing for Fr. Bwalya to bless PF aspiring candidate in the by-election, Maynard Misapa at a political rally.
Mr. Mukuka said the MMD has stopped regarding Fr. Bwalya as a priest but a politician who is allegedly disguising as a Catholic Father.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mukuka has charged that PF candidate in the Mporokoso Central by-election is a factor in the area.
He said Mr. Misapa had failed to deliver development when he was Member of Parliament in the constituency, and wondered what development he will spearhead if elected on the PF ticket.
Mr. Mukuka accused the PF candidate of insulting people of Mporokoso Central constituency after they held him accountable for lack of development in their area.
He has since urged the electorates in Mporokoso Central to vote for MMD candidate Dominic Musonda in the March 3 parliamentary by-election.
In another development, over 50 members from the opposition defected to the ruling party at a campaign rally addressed by Vice President George Kunda in Levy area of Mporokoso District.
Four candidates are contesting the Mporokoso Central by-election slated for March 3.
These are MMD’s Dominic Musonda, PF’s Maynard Misapa, UNIP’s Antony Nkonde and National Restoration Party’s Joyce Mukando.
ZANIS

UNSC REFERS SITUATION IN LIBYA TO ICC, SANCTIONS GADDAFI & AIDES

British Ambassador to the United Nations Mark Lyall Grant and

American Ambassador Susan Rice vote during a Security Council

vote on a resolution during a United Nations Security Council

diplomat meeting on Libya at U.N. headquarters in

New York February 26, 2011 (AP)

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted unanimously on Saturday night to impose an arms embargo, asset freeze and travel ban on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi along with his family members and close aides.

Furthermore, the UNSC decided to refer the situation in Libya since February 15th to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation into possible crimes committed against civilians.

The Libyan uprising that began Feb. 15 has swept over nearly the entire eastern half of the country, snatching entire cities in that region out of the government’s grasp. Gaddafi and his backers continue to hold the capital Tripoli and have threatened to put down protests aggressively.

It is believed that at least 1,000 people were killed in the violent crackdown with multiple reports saying that Gaddafi utilized African mercenaries to quell the uprising.

Many videos have been posted on YouTube to what was claimed to be scenes of violence during the protests.

On Wednesday, the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo issued a statement saying he cannot investigate crimes in Libya unless the country’s authorities accept the court’s jurisdiction or the UNSC refers the situation to the court.

This week, Libya’s ambassador to the United Nations Mohammed Shalgham appealed to the UNSC to “save” his nation from the violent route orchestrated by Gaddafi’s regime.

“Please UN, save Libya,” Shalgham said in an emotional speech "I tell my brother Gaddafi, leave the Libyans alone.”

The former foreign minister who is a longtime friend of the Libyan leader had broken ranks with Gaddafi to join scores of diplomats worldwide.

On Saturday, U.S. president Barack Obama called on Gaddafi to quit saying that he has lost his legitimacy by using mass violence against his own people.

Obama’s statements came as the UNSC was locked in intense negotiations over the ICC referral clause in the draft text tabled by France and Britain.

Some countries including ICC members such as Gabon, Brazil and Portugal wanted a two-step approach allowing the UNSC to address the accountability issue at a later stage. India which is not a signatory to the court’s statute, was also supportive to this position.

China was the only country that voiced complete rejection to the ICC referral explained by some for fear of setting a precedent.

Diplomats say that a letter from the Libyan envoy to the UNSC president seen by Sudan Tribune supporting the referral helped soften opposition within the council.

A last minute compromise was reached on the text by making a preambular reference to Article 16 which allows the UNSC to freeze ICC investigations for a period of 12-months that can be renewed indefinitely.

All countries afterwards dropped their reservations but China said it will consult with Beijing for instructions on how to vote which turned out to be a yes.

This is the second time the UNSC makes an ICC referral with the first being in the situation of Darfur in March 2005. At the time China and the U.S. abstained from voting>

Sudan has slammed the resolution then, saying it is illegal because some of the council members are themselves not signatories to the Rome Statute.

The ICC has charged several people in connection with the Darfur case including Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

Ironically, it was Libya that has been a staunch critic of Bashir’s indictment calling it a "tool of international terrorism". Gaddafi has lobbied the African Union (AU) successfully in July 2009 to adopt a resolution barring any country in the continent from apprehending Bashir even if they were under a legal obligation to do so.

Sudan has hailed the AU’s position as victory against the ICC and some countries that have signed up to the court such as Kenya and Chad have used it as an excuse to receive Bashir on its territory despite being required to apprehend him.

Libya also led efforts along with Eritrea, Djibouti and Senegal to have African countries withdraw en masse from the ICC in protest of Bashir’s arrest warrant but without success.

Today’s resolution deals a big political blow to Khartoum which has sought relentlessly to discredit the court particularly within Africa. Nigeria, South Africa and Gabon were sitting on the council today.

The African Union (AU) has asked the UNSC to freeze investigation into Bashir’s case but was met with resistance from Western members of the council.

The French-Libyan lawyer Hadi Shalluf described the council’s decision as "historical" because it referred the case without waiting for findings of an international commission of inquiry as it did with Darfur.

"This is a victory to people around the world a strong message to those in power who think they can commit crimes with impunity," Shalluf said.

Shalluf who was appointed by ICC judges as an ad-hoc defense counsel in preliminary proceedings in Darfur case said that today’s resolution "gives new push" to the Hague tribunal.

He noted that Gaddafi as a sitting head of state faces same arrest prospects as Bashir who has limited his travel since the warrant.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) also hailed today’s resolution.

“The Security Council has risen to the occasion and given notice to Gaddafi and his commanders that if they give, tolerate, or follow orders to fire on peaceful protesters, they may find themselves on trial in The Hague,” said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch.

“The Security Council action shows that justice awaits Libyan security commanders who unlawfully attack people to stay in power,” said Dicker. “It is the clearest possible directive to Gaddafi and his cohorts to end the killing.”

Sudan Tribune

FATHERS-IN-LAW FROM HELL

Everybody the world over knows a joke or two about mothers-in-law, some funny, but most of them not at all complimentary at all. One would be forgiven for thinking that the father-in-law is an insignificant in-law who prefers to remain in the background even as his wife makes life hell for their son.

Talk about having problems with your in-laws and it is automatically assumed that it must be your spouse’s mother giving you grief; after all, they are seen as the ‘ogres’ in any marriage, their main job being to meddle in affairs that otherwise do not concern them.

The father-in-law on the other hand, is usually seen as the quiet authority who never shouts, never works too hard to assert himself, but leaves no doubt that he is in charge.

Fathers-in-law having open disagreements with their children-in-law would be frowned upon, with everybody wondering why he is usurping his wife’s role. This is, however, not always the case. There are numerous cases of fathers-in-law trying to take over the day-to-day running of their children’s homes and some even going as far as having affairs with their sons’ wives.

In most cases, these fathers-in-law are rich, arrogant, and any opinion apart from his own is considered unimportant. They run their families the same way they run their businesses; to them, their children are an extension of their successful businesses and just like in business, something that does not work is quickly discarded.

*Julia could tell a thing or two about such fathers-in-law, because she has one. “My father-in-law is a monster – in fact, he is the patriarch monster. He hated me from the day he met me, without even giving me a chance to show him what kind of a person I am.”

According to Julia, the fact that she came from a different tribe was reason enough to be disqualified. Besides, he had already chosen a wife for his son, unaware that he was already dating Julia.

“I got pregnant with our first born, and that was when we decided to see both sets of parents with our intentions. My father-in-law was unfriendly and not interested in anything to do with me from the word go. To him, I was an imposter – he did not know me, I did not fit into the plans he had for his first born son. You see, the girl he had in mind is from a well off family, not to mention the fact that she was from the same community as them, and I suppose, had they married, that would have been like bringing two dynasties together.”

Julia agreed to go ahead with the marriage only because her husband-to-be supported her. “After all, I was getting married to him, not his father, and I had no reason to suspect that my fiancé’s allegiance would ever change – I also hoped to win his father over with time.” But that time never came for Julia.

“Eight years later, he hates me as much as the first day he saw me – in fact, I would say he hates me more now. Before we got married, my husband lived in a house his father owned, for free of course, and we moved into this house after the wedding. One time, when my husband had travelled out of the country, his father kicked me and my daughter out – I was pregnant with our second child; just because he had found out that I had come home at 10 pm after a company dinner. To him, this was proof of infidelity.”

She did not put up any resistance and moved to her mother’s house while waiting for her husband to come back. The father would not let us move back into the house as long as his son was still married to me, so we had to move to another house and start paying rent.

“For that, I was accused of turning his son against him and he swore never to rest until we were apart. His son’s happiness did not seem to matter. Now, he seems to know my every move, which leads me to believe that he has me followed. When my husband travels, his father seems to know every step I make, the exact time I get home, who drops me home etc. It is unbearable. When we go for family gatherings, he makes sure he invites the girl he still hopes his son will one day marry because she never got married. He takes every opportunity to make me feel unwanted and an outsider, and unfortunately, because he holds the purse strings, everybody else is afraid of him so I have no support.”

The pressure, however, seems to be getting to her husband who seems to have changed of late. He insists that I stop seeing my single friends. But these are my best friends and he knows how much they mean to me. Of course, I won’t let him take away my friends, my job, or the little freedom I have.”

But what happens if the husband does not change? “I will leave. I know his father has threatened to disinherit him if he does not leave me and because of late, he has not been doing very well financially, he has probably decided to sacrifice his family for the money.”

Given a choice of what sort of father-in-law she would like, *Carol would easily pick Julia’s father-in-law because her own husband’s father, simply put, is a modern day Casanova who will chase anything in a skirt, including his son’s wife.

“My husband and I have had to move out of town and if it gets to that, we will move country, just to be as far away from his father as possible."

What could the man have done to deserve such wrath?

“I have been married for seven years, but things only became bad three years ago.” When Carol was dating her husband, he used to tell her how he would not be introducing her to his father anytime soon because he was afraid his father might steal her from him.

“I used to think it was just an excuse not to introduce me to his family, I got very upset and threatened to leave if he did not introduce me – I mean, what kind of father steals girlfriends from the sons?” Reluctantly, he took her to his parents. “His father was an older version of her boyfriend, only more distinguished. I remember him complimenting his son on choosing beautiful bride.”

At the time, Carol had laughed at the statement, thinking the father was a jester, but a look at her then fiance told her it was the wrong time to laugh.

The next time she saw him was on their wedding day.

“During the evening party, he asked to dance with me, holding me very close which I thought was improper, and then he went on to dance with all the small girls in the party. I thought it weird that a father would attend his son’s evening party, but I excused him because he is only 20 years older than my husband who was only 25 when we got married.”

By the end of the party, however, Carol saw him walk out with a girl who could have been his daughter – how disrespectful was that.

Three years ago, Carol’s father-in-law visited their house – I was alone, my husband was out of the country.

“I welcomed him respectfully, offering him refreshments, but he told me he would rather drink me. I almost fainted. It got worse as when I told him I thought that was out of line, he told me to stop playing hard to get, that he knew I was attracted to him – I panicked, especially because he kept following me around. I am a petite woman, he is strong, I could smell rape, so I ran to the bedroom and locked myself in.”

For 10 minutes, he kept trying the lock, telling me that it would be our little secret and that my husband didn’t have to know. I was in tears, and I was lucky when my house help, whom I had sent to shops, came back. He left soon after.

To tell husband or not to? “I knew if I told him, he would probably try to kill his father – he used to tell me the day his father hits on me he would kill him. If I didn’t tell, my father in law might misinterpret it as a signal to try again. So I suggested we move out of town. I was lucky because Nairobi was getting too congested for my husband too, so we moved away and told no one where we moved to, except our close friends and my family. I do wish I could be closer to my mother-in-law, she is a lovely woman, but how could I face her, and how could I be her friend without bumping into her husband? I never told my husband about his father’s indecency, but I think he is happier that we are far from his father. So far, so good, but if he ever finds us, I will campaign for us to move further.”

According to Rev John Kamau of PCEA church, when a couple ties the knot, they must always protect each other from respective families. Here are a few pointers on how to maintain good in-laws relationship:

Establish independence:– Move a respectable distance from them, it creates boundaries

Demonstrate oneness: Do not criticise your partner in front of your in-laws, do not allow him/her to be criticised either, and do not take sides against your partner. If you disagree with your partner’s behaviour towards your family, wait until you are alone.

Accept your partner’s parents as your own and give due respect, but if they are like Carol’s father-in-law, keep your distance without being disrespectful.

If, for instance, a wife wants to give her own mother some money, it would be better if she asked the husband to do it, and vice versa. This way, the respective in-laws get the message that there are no secrets in that union. 

Daily Nation - Kenya

AFRICAN GOVTS HAVE FAILED LIBYAN PEOPLE – ACTIVISTS

By Globe Reporter
CIVICUS secretary general Ingrid Srinath has observed that African governments' appalling lack of pressure to force Libyan Leader, Col Muammar Gaddafi, to halt the violence and step down, reflects persistent inadequacies in the African Union (AU).
Addressing the press in Johannesburg, South Africa, Srinath stated that African government’s failure to act decisively threatens progress towards democracy and respect for human rights on the continent.
"The response from African governments and the African Union took so long and was so feeble that it emboldens Gaddafi in clinging on to power by any means possible, and permits him to claim the protests are a Western or Al Qaeda conspiracy," said Srinath. "African leaders must realise that their failure to speak clearly and act promptly has real consequences and costs lives. Such apathy in the face of atrocities cannot persist.”
Article 3 of the Constitutive Act of the AU lists the promotion of peace, security and stability on the continent as one of its key objectives. Despite this, civil society believes the AU and African governments have been slow to react.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Congress of South African Trade Union joined Srinath and more than 40 other signatories from civil society in a joint statement demanding action from the AU.
"The carnage in Libya must stop. A leader who crushes his own people does not deserve that name - or position," said Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
South Africa, Nigeria and Gabon currently represent Africa on the UN Security Council and as such have a special responsibility to ensure the protection of the Libyan people.
Rajesh Latchman, Convenor of the Global Call to Action against Poverty in South Africa, singled out the South African Government's need to act as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council since January 2011, despite their aspirations for a permanent seat.
"While an immediate and decisive response to the bloodshed in Libya is needed right now, the South African government needs to have a rapid response system to ensure diplomatic action when faced with such a crisis is not dependent on the push factor from civil society but driven by the values of our Constitution," he said. "For president Zuma in particular, this is not a call for you to imitate the out of office behaviour of your predecessor, it is rather a call to bring together a broad based but small collective of business, civil society and government leaders to act as a thought collective for the way our country acts when the rights of people outside our borders are violated."
Noel Kututwa, Special Advisor with Amnesty International said that Amnesty International has accused the international community of failing the Libyan people in their hour of greatest need as Colonel Gaddafi threatened to "cleanse Libya house by house".
"The response of the UN Security Council fell shamefully below what was needed to stop the spiralling violence in Libya," Kututwa said.
Amnesty International has called for an immediate arms embargo and assets freeze and the African Union and its member states to immediately investigate reports that armed elements are being transported from African countries to Libya, acting to secure the land borders into Libya and monitor suspicious flights.
While the situation in Libya is of immediate priority, it is also serving to highlight inadequacies on the part of the AU and African governments to respond when the security and human rights of people across the continent are threatened.
The joint statement from civil society will be distributed to the AU and African governments. It is one step in an ongoing campaign from civil society to support and protect the people of Libya as they strive to assert their democratic and human rights.
Civil society leaders pledged solidarity with all those struggling for freedom across the globe.

VIOLENCE IN LIBYA WORRIES AU

By Globe Reporter
AFRICAN UNION (AU) Commission chairperson Jean Ping has expressed his great concern with the continued violence in Libya.
In a statement released on Friday (February 24), Ping condemned the disproportionate use of force against civilians and deeply deplored the many human lives lost so far.
“The Chairperson of the Commission, who is in contact with the Libyan authorities and other actors, will pursue his efforts for an end to the spilling of blood,” read the statement in part. “The Chairperson of the Commission reiterates the appeal made by the Peace and Security Council for an immediate end of the repression and violence.”
Ping stated that dialogue and consultation will enable the Libyans to find appropriate solutions to the challenges facing their country and to embark upon the necessary reforms to fulfill the aspirations of their people.
He urged all the actors concerned to favour dialogue in order to open new prospects for Libya in peace, security and democracy.
Meanwhile the AU Observer Mission sent to Uganda to observe the Presidential and Parliamentary elections held on February 18th 2011 has released its preliminary report.
The AU Observer Mission was led by Gitobu Imanyara, Member of Kenyan and Pan-African Parliaments. Other members were drawn from the Pan-African Parliament, Ambassadors / the Permanent Representatives Committee, Election Management Bodies, prominent individuals and members of Civil Society Organizations drawn from various African Countries. The Mission consists of 29 members with a support team of the African Union.
The Mission arrived in Uganda on February 14th 2011, and in accordance with the African Union Election Observation Guidelines, proceeded to meet and consult with various stakeholders of the election process, such as the Election Commission of Uganda (ECU), officials of the competing political parties, civil society, academics, media and members of other national and international election observer groups.
According to a reported released by AU Observer Mission Office in Kampala, the AU Observer Mission was deployed to all regions of Uganda and observed the following:
•       The elections were preceded by robust campaigns by candidates across the nation;
•       The people of Uganda were enthusiastic about exercising their democratic right and indeed, there was a reasonable voter turnout;
•       The Electoral Commission deployed human and material resources to Polling Stations in all the regions, and
•       Voting was conducted in a generally peaceful and orderly manner compared to previous elections;
•       Counting of votes at Polling Stations was done in full view of the voting populace and other stakeholders;
However, there were several shortcomings:
•       Many Polling Stations did not receive voting materials on time, therefore, voting did not start at 7AM as stipulated in the Electoral Law;
•       Many voters with voters’ cards were turned away from Polling Stations because their names could not be found on the Voters’ Register;
•       A good number of Polling officials did not seem to have adequate training or confidence to perform their responsibilities and as a result procedures were not properly followed;
•       The elderly, people with disabilities, expectant mothers and mothers with children were not given priority during the voting process as specified in the Electoral Law;
•       Voters’ comprehension of the voting procedure was inadequate, especially in the rural areas;
•       The open air setting, the marking of ballot paper in an open bowl as against an enclosure and the exposure of ballot boxes without appropriate lids and seals in some cases opened the materials to the vagaries of the weather and limited the secrecy of the voter;
•       The deployment of the armed forces, the police and militias for security was intimidating and could have impacted negatively on the process of the election;
•       The general dissatisfaction expressed by different stakeholders on the composition of the Electoral Commission of Uganda undermined the credibility of the process;
•       The use of inflammatory language by politicians created unnecessary tension and fear;
•       The national electronic and print media fell short of living up to its responsibility of providing access and level playing field to all contesting parties, and
•       Allegations of vote buying and open material promises to electorates have undermined the integrity of the electoral process;
“It is our considered opinion that there is need to review the Electoral Laws including the appointment of the Electoral Commission of Uganda with the involvement of all stakeholders. There is need for effective and well resourced civic and voter education in future elections,” read part of the report. “The capacities of Polling officials and political party agents could be greatly enhanced with regular and adequate training. The Mission noted significant improvement in the conduct of the 2011 Elections compared to 2006. We congratulate the people of Uganda for a conclusive and generally peaceful election. This election highlighted the areas of improvement for future General Elections.”

IDASA REACTS TO SA 2011 BUDGET, AN ANALYSIS BY

Len Verwey
Both the 2009 and 2010 Budgets can rightly be called crisis budgets .They were released during a recession and its is immediate aftermath, amidst large-scale job-losses in the South African economy and a great deal of uncertainty around the pace of global and domestic recovery. Though we are not yet out of the woods, the economic backdrop to the 2011 Budget does look more favourable, and a note of cautious optimism seems appropriate now. The latest numbers suggest that the South African economy grew by slightly under 3% in 2010, and the forecasts of growth rates between 3% and 4% for the next two years seem realistic.
However, the continued slow recovery of tax revenue does mean that deficit-financing remains necessary, with a deficit outcome of 5.3% of GDP now estimated for 2010/11, and deficits declining from around 5.3% in 2011/12 to around 3.8% in 2013/14. These deficits are necessary not to fund a huge increase in spending, but simply to maintain government spending increases at a very moderate rate over the medium-term. Indeed, notwithstanding deficit-financing, consolidated expenditure in fact declines as a share of GDP from 33.6% in 2010/11 to about 32.6% in 2013/14. This is not a decline in absolute resources available to the government budget, but rather reflects the fact that government spending will increase at a slower rate than GDP as the economy recovers from recession.
Essentially, the underlying narrative of the budget has not changed over the last two years: we need to do more with less, and the era of large annual real increases to departments has come to an end. The proposed deficits over the medium-term generate a debt stock of around 40% of GDP by 2014. This is, within the current global paradigm on fiscal prudence, a sustainable debt burden, and could not have been avoided without worsening the contraction of the economy. The trajectory of deficit reduction over the medium-term is also balanced in our view. Nevertheless,  in nominal terms the cost of debt-servicing will double from its 2007/08 value to 2013/14, and debt service costs will increase by an annual average of around 16% from 2010/11 to 2013/14, or at more than double the proposed rate of increase of allocated expenditure of 7.2%. Debt servicing, in other words, is by far the fastest increasing budget item over the medium-term. In such a context, efficiency and effective reprioritisation become even more important than usual, particularly if the objectives of the New Growth Path regarding higher and more inclusive growth are to be realised.
Though economic recovery in the narrower sense appears to be moderately underway, job-creation as well as tax revenue will continue to lag significantly. As the Budget Review notes, the South African economy lost a particularly large number of jobs for the degree of output contraction that occurred during the recession. This also implies that the social impact of the recession was particularly pronounced in South Africa, and intensified the pre-existing structural unemployment. It is therefore essential that job creation initiatives succeed. Whilst some jobs will be created simply by virtue of the recovery of the global and domestic economy, the targeted interventions are particularly crucial in addressing youth unemployment. It will also be necessary to learn from the failures of past policy and implementation. To date support for small business, for example, has not been adequate, despite their potentially key contribution in creating jobs. Similarly, the training layoff scheme, which allocated more than R 2 billion to provide training allowances as an alternative to retrenchment for workers during the recession, has fallen significantly short in its aims.
These and similar experiences suggest that better partnership-building between government and other stakeholders is needed if we are to address the jobs crisis. They also point to the informational and administrative challenges of effective labour market intervention. The proposed R 9 Billion Jobs Fund is certainly a necessary intervention, but it is imperative that no undue delays hamper the requests for proposals from implementing organisations, that appropriate organisations be selected quickly, and that adequate oversight ensures achievement of the desired impact.
In addition to the continued emphasis on familiar budgetary priorities, the Budget also introduced new sectoral measures and, in the case of some sectors, signals of policy shifts. These measures are all intended to give effect to the objectives articulated in the New Growth Path.
Regarding health reform there was a further commitment to the gradual introduction of a system of National Health Insurance for South Africa. As with the potential youth wage subsidy measure, however, the Minister emphasised that further consultation would be embarked on in assessing the best financing options for such a measure. The Budget also allocated funds directly to specific aspects of the Ten Point Plan for Health Reform. A continued move towards a Primary Health Care approach will be further supported by fund allocations for the introduction of family health care teams. The upgrading of hospitals with specific focus on infant and maternal health will help to attain the Millennium Development Goal target, and expanding training of doctors and nurses together with management reform within hospitals could go a long way towards improving the efficiency and access of health care throughout the country and eliminating the inequality of the current
 two-tiered system.
Of the total revenue to be equitably split among the three spheres over the MTEF period municipalities are to receive 9% compared to 57% and 44% for national and provincial departments respectively. These proportions are not surprising given past trends and the own-revenue powers assigned to local government. National transfers to local government are set to amount to over R70 billion in budgetary assistance and infrastructure grants in 2011/12. It is hoped that such budgetary assistance will help enhance municipality’s capacity to efficiently and effectively spend their capital grants given the extent to which they struggle in this regards. This is of particular importance given the extent to which slow delivery of capital projects hinders infrastructure investment and consequently both job-creation capacity and economic growth nation-wide.
Budget 2011 reaffirms the government’s commitment to promoting innovation through “green economy” initiatives as a key strategy for fostering growth and job creation. As a first step, the question boils down to whether budget allocations are in fact aligned with these desired policy outcomes. Notable is that South Africa will be hosting the 17th United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change, where South Africa will be under particular scrutiny regarding mitigation initiatives and ways of reducing the dangers associated with a hotter future. Whilst funding is allocated for renewable energy, environmental protection and “green” economy initiatives, it is disappointing that funding amounting to R800 million that has been set aside over the next three years for “green economy” initiatives will only be allocated in the Adjustments Budget. This tends to reinforce the current thinking that there is no urgency in tackling the imminent danger poised by climate change.
Over the medium term, there is a steady growth in transport sector funding with a real annual growth rate of 4.3% between the 2010/11 to 2013/14 fiscal years. This is in line with the New Growth Plan’s identification of investment in infrastructure as a key driver of job creation. There has in the past been substantial growth in the transport sector in the form of public transport investment, especially leading up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup. However, the challenge has been that these jobs have been short to medium term jobs. A key challenge for the national government is to ensure that infrastructure investment in the transport sector translates into long term job creation and contributes to overall growth.
The Department of Human Settlements is one of the key departments in South Africa and receives a large share of the national budget after education and social development. The housing budget is projected to increase from R102 billion to R116.3 billion between the 2010/11 and the 2011/12 fiscal years.  Allocations to the sector will experience a real growth of 5.4% in the period between 2010/11 t0 2013/14. While the increase is welcomed, the department will need to continue to look at the quality of housing delivery, capacity of municipalities and local government to deliver and to ensure that there is value for money in housing delivery.
In his Budget speech, the Minister of Finance indicated that spending on housing remains a priority, and that R3,6 billion will be allocated to water and sanitation, and R21,8 for the new urban settlements development over three years. It is clear that government is honouring its commitment to increasing the allocations to this sector. However, it is also clear that the idea should not only be about increasing the share allocations but rather to assess the capacity of the department, the provinces and municipalities to provide services and spend the allocated resources.
As a key contribution to enhancing the skills base of the South African economy, Government is intent on increasing its investment in the further education and training colleges sector by setting additional funds over the medium-term. R9.5 billion is provided for expanding further education and training colleges and skills development. This follows a three-year recapitalisation programme intended to address infrastructure, human resources and IT facilities at these institutions. Such spending was intended to boost the effectiveness, efficiency and relevance of these institutions in an attempt to produce high-quality medium-level skills for the economy.  Given the incentives to foster small businesses, the additional spending on FET colleges should be able to contribute directly to the production of medium-level skills and the tantalising possibility of establishing a stronger base of small businesses in the manufacturing and service industries.
In conclusion, Budget 2011 gives effect, a across a range of sectors, to the objectives of the New Growth Path, and does so within a fiscal framework which finds an appropriate balance between medium- and long-term sustainability and the urgency of present challenges. However, in the wake of the recession many more South Africans have become poor, unemployed and vulnerable, and this challenge requires both short-term measures and fundamental structural change. Strong leadership, responsive institutions, and effective partnerships will be necessary to decisively move towards a transformed society.
Both the 2009 and 2010 Budgets can rightly be called crisis budgets .They were released during a recession and its is immediate aftermath, amidst large-scale job-losses in the South African economy and a great deal of uncertainty around the pace of global and domestic recovery. Though we are not yet out of the woods, the economic backdrop to the 2011 Budget does look more favourable, and a note of cautious optimism seems appropriate now. The latest numbers suggest that the South African economy grew by slightly under 3% in 2010, and the forecasts of growth rates between 3% and 4% for the next two years seem realistic.
However, the continued slow recovery of tax revenue does mean that deficit-financing remains necessary, with a deficit outcome of 5.3% of GDP now estimated for 2010/11, and deficits declining from around 5.3% in 2011/12 to around 3.8% in 2013/14. These deficits are necessary not to fund a huge increase in spending, but simply to maintain government spending increases at a very moderate rate over the medium-term. Indeed, notwithstanding deficit-financing, consolidated expenditure in fact declines as a share of GDP from 33.6% in 2010/11 to about 32.6% in 2013/14. This is not a decline in absolute resources available to the government budget, but rather reflects the fact that government spending will increase at a slower rate than GDP as the economy recovers from recession.
Essentially, the underlying narrative of the budget has not changed over the last two years: we need to do more with less, and the era of large annual real increases to departments has come to an end. The proposed deficits over the medium-term generate a debt stock of around 40% of GDP by 2014. This is, within the current global paradigm on fiscal prudence, a sustainable debt burden, and could not have been avoided without worsening the contraction of the economy. The trajectory of deficit reduction over the medium-term is also balanced in our view. Nevertheless,  in nominal terms the cost of debt-servicing will double from its 2007/08 value to 2013/14, and debt service costs will increase by an annual average of around 16% from 2010/11 to 2013/14, or at more than double the proposed rate of increase of allocated expenditure of 7.2%. Debt servicing, in other words, is by far the fastest increasing budget item over the medium-term. In such a context, efficiency and effective reprioritisation become even more important than usual, particularly if the objectives of the New Growth Path regarding higher and more inclusive growth are to be realised.
Though economic recovery in the narrower sense appears to be moderately underway, job-creation as well as tax revenue will continue to lag significantly. As the Budget Review notes, the South African economy lost a particularly large number of jobs for the degree of output contraction that occurred during the recession. This also implies that the social impact of the recession was particularly pronounced in South Africa, and intensified the pre-existing structural unemployment. It is therefore essential that job creation initiatives succeed. Whilst some jobs will be created simply by virtue of the recovery of the global and domestic economy, the targeted interventions are particularly crucial in addressing youth unemployment. It will also be necessary to learn from the failures of past policy and implementation. To date support for small business, for example, has not been adequate, despite their potentially key contribution in creating jobs. Similarly, the training layoff scheme, which allocated more than R 2 billion to provide training allowances as an alternative to retrenchment for workers during the recession, has fallen significantly short in its aims.
These and similar experiences suggest that better partnership-building between government and other stakeholders is needed if we are to address the jobs crisis. They also point to the informational and administrative challenges of effective labour market intervention. The proposed R 9 Billion Jobs Fund is certainly a necessary intervention, but it is imperative that no undue delays hamper the requests for proposals from implementing organisations, that appropriate organisations be selected quickly, and that adequate oversight ensures achievement of the desired impact.
In addition to the continued emphasis on familiar budgetary priorities, the Budget also introduced new sectoral measures and, in the case of some sectors, signals of policy shifts. These measures are all intended to give effect to the objectives articulated in the New Growth Path.
Regarding health reform there was a further commitment to the gradual introduction of a system of National Health Insurance for South Africa. As with the potential youth wage subsidy measure, however, the Minister emphasised that further consultation would be embarked on in assessing the best financing options for such a measure. The Budget also allocated funds directly to specific aspects of the Ten Point Plan for Health Reform. A continued move towards a Primary Health Care approach will be further supported by fund allocations for the introduction of family health care teams. The upgrading of hospitals with specific focus on infant and maternal health will help to attain the Millennium Development Goal target, and expanding training of doctors and nurses together with management reform within hospitals could go a long way towards improving the efficiency and access of health care throughout the country and eliminating the inequality of the current
 two-tiered system.
Of the total revenue to be equitably split among the three spheres over the MTEF period municipalities are to receive 9% compared to 57% and 44% for national and provincial departments respectively. These proportions are not surprising given past trends and the own-revenue powers assigned to local government. National transfers to local government are set to amount to over R70 billion in budgetary assistance and infrastructure grants in 2011/12. It is hoped that such budgetary assistance will help enhance municipality’s capacity to efficiently and effectively spend their capital grants given the extent to which they struggle in this regards. This is of particular importance given the extent to which slow delivery of capital projects hinders infrastructure investment and consequently both job-creation capacity and economic growth nation-wide.
Budget 2011 reaffirms the government’s commitment to promoting innovation through “green economy” initiatives as a key strategy for fostering growth and job creation. As a first step, the question boils down to whether budget allocations are in fact aligned with these desired policy outcomes. Notable is that South Africa will be hosting the 17th United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change, where South Africa will be under particular scrutiny regarding mitigation initiatives and ways of reducing the dangers associated with a hotter future. Whilst funding is allocated for renewable energy, environmental protection and “green” economy initiatives, it is disappointing that funding amounting to R800 million that has been set aside over the next three years for “green economy” initiatives will only be allocated in the Adjustments Budget. This tends to reinforce the current thinking that there is no urgency in tackling the imminent danger poised by climate change.
Over the medium term, there is a steady growth in transport sector funding with a real annual growth rate of 4.3% between the 2010/11 to 2013/14 fiscal years. This is in line with the New Growth Plan’s identification of investment in infrastructure as a key driver of job creation. There has in the past been substantial growth in the transport sector in the form of public transport investment, especially leading up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup. However, the challenge has been that these jobs have been short to medium term jobs. A key challenge for the national government is to ensure that infrastructure investment in the transport sector translates into long term job creation and contributes to overall growth.
The Department of Human Settlements is one of the key departments in South Africa and receives a large share of the national budget after education and social development. The housing budget is projected to increase from R102 billion to R116.3 billion between the 2010/11 and the 2011/12 fiscal years.  Allocations to the sector will experience a real growth of 5.4% in the period between 2010/11 t0 2013/14. While the increase is welcomed, the department will need to continue to look at the quality of housing delivery, capacity of municipalities and local government to deliver and to ensure that there is value for money in housing delivery.
In his Budget speech, the Minister of Finance indicated that spending on housing remains a priority, and that R3,6 billion will be allocated to water and sanitation, and R21,8 for the new urban settlements development over three years. It is clear that government is honouring its commitment to increasing the allocations to this sector. However, it is also clear that the idea should not only be about increasing the share allocations but rather to assess the capacity of the department, the provinces and municipalities to provide services and spend the allocated resources.
As a key contribution to enhancing the skills base of the South African economy, Government is intent on increasing its investment in the further education and training colleges sector by setting additional funds over the medium-term. R9.5 billion is provided for expanding further education and training colleges and skills development. This follows a three-year recapitalisation programme intended to address infrastructure, human resources and IT facilities at these institutions. Such spending was intended to boost the effectiveness, efficiency and relevance of these institutions in an attempt to produce high-quality medium-level skills for the economy.  Given the incentives to foster small businesses, the additional spending on FET colleges should be able to contribute directly to the production of medium-level skills and the tantalising possibility of establishing a stronger base of small businesses in the manufacturing and service industries.
In conclusion, Budget 2011 gives effect, a across a range of sectors, to the objectives of the New Growth Path, and does so within a fiscal framework which finds an appropriate balance between medium- and long-term sustainability and the urgency of present challenges. However, in the wake of the recession many more South Africans have become poor, unemployed and vulnerable, and this challenge requires both short-term measures and fundamental structural change. Strong leadership, responsive institutions, and effective partnerships will be necessary to decisively move towards a transformed society.
Len is manager of the Budget Unit, Idasa’s Political Information & Monitoring Service.

MONGU COUNCIL TO DISAPPROVE BUILDING PLAN WITHOUT RAMPS

By Globe Reporter
MONGU Municipal Council will not approve building plans without ramps, Mongu Town Clerk, Frank Kalenga has announced.
Meanwhile, Persons with Disabilities in Mongu have resolved to request the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to establish a polling station at Sefula School for the Blind in Mongu to enable them vote in this year’s tripartite election, introduce Braille voter education materials for the blind and sign language for the deaf.
Speaking during Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) organized stakeholders’ meeting on persons with disabilities in Mongu, Kalenga said: ““We have made it rule that no building plans that have no ramps will be approved by the council.”
FODEP executive director MacDonald Chipenzi said the move by Mongu Municipal Council not accept and approve any building plans without provisions for ramps would go a long way in improving persons with disabilities’ (PwDs) access to public buildings.
He commended Mongu Municipal Council for its efforts aimed at improving accessibility of persons with disabilities to public buildings.
Chipenzi urged all councils in the country to follow suit.
“It is undeniable fact that most public buildings such as schools, shops, clinics, government offices among others are inaccessible by persons with disabilities especially those on wheelchairs. Since some of the buildings are used as registration and polling centres during elections, many of the PwDs are unable to access them thereby denying the enjoyment of their universal right to register as voters and also vote,” he said.
The PwDs in the province noted that Senanga Special Unit for the deaf is always left out on ECZ voter education programmes because the ECZ Voter facilitators do not know how to use sign language to communicate to them.
The PWDs asked Zambia Agency for Persons with Disability (ZAPD) and government to quickly address the issue of transport for the PwDs in the country as they were made to pay twice due to the presence of guides for them to be mobile.
They called for special bus fares for PwDs.
The PwDs also challenged political parties to adopt PwDs candidates in this year’s elections and safeguard the safety of PwDs during rallies by avoiding violence because violence is a recipe for poor participation of PwDs in the electoral process. They urged election-monitoring organisations such as FODEP to recruit PwDs as monitors during elections.
The meeting which was organised by the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) with support from the British High Commission (BHC) under the project dubbed “Improving access and participation of persons with disabilities in the electoral process in Zambia”, was attended by political parties, CSOs, disability organisations and police.

RB RE-LAUNCHES HIS WEBSITE

By Globe Reporter
President Rupiah Banda’s has re-launched his personal website.
Special Assistant to the President for Press and Public relations Dickson Jere announced in a statement released in Lusaka.
According to Jere, President Banda’s new website would boast of a new design and brand new content.
He stated that the site would also include more useful information and personal details about President Banda, the First Lady and Zambia as a nation.
“The website provides a crucial channel to help President Banda reach the Zambian people. It comes as part of his pledge to drive forward progress and development and so help Zambia to achieve a better place in the world,” read Jere’s statement in part. “The website, www.presidentbanda.com, was first launched in September 2010. In that short time over 8,000 people from 115 countries across the world have visited the website, leaving messages of support for President Banda and love for Zambia.Many of those messages contained requests for more information about President Banda and the work he is doing to build the Zambia of tomorrow.”
Jere stated that the new website would address the people’s request, along with the images, videos and news updates that have proved so popular.
He further announced that President Banda’s official Face book page would also be launched within the next few weeks.

BUDGET 2011: ARE WE GETTING BETTER AT ACHIEVING MORE WITH LESS?

By Len Verwey,
The 2011 Budget will be released against a more favourable economic backdrop than the 2009 or 2010 Budgets, which were drawn up amid recession and job-loss.
But the current degree of economic recovery and the slightly more favourable fiscal position we are in should not blind us to the continuing unemployment crisis in the wake of the recession.
Active industrial policy has to be a cornerstone of the effective developmental state, but we simply do not have the required common front between government, labour, business and civil society to achieve it.
After a contraction in output of around 1.87% in 2009, available information suggests that the South African economy grew by a little less than 3% in 2010. In recent remarks, the Governor of the Reserve Bank indicated that the Bank anticipates growth of around 3.5% for both 2011 and 2012.
These rates of growth are moderate and remain lower than pre-recessionary ones, and suggest that the now familiar challenge of how to achieve more with less will remain with us for some time. Equally importantly, however, they remain aligned with the growth rates anticipated in the 2010 Budget and MTBPS for 2011.
In other words, the 2011 Budget will not have to contemplate further cuts and austerities as a result of unanticipated shocks.
Furthermore, since the 2010 Budget and 2010 MTBPS were particularly cautious in their assumptions about the recovery of tax revenue, it is likely that government will in fact have some extra revenue at its disposal now, even after allowing for an accelerated reduction of the deficit and therefore a reduction of the future debt burden.
The broad parameters of budget policy are likely to remain unchanged over the medium-term, with a continued focus on social allocations, including the social grants, and the continued large allocations going to education and health. We can, however, expect further emphasis on the ‘social contracts associated with these allocations: thus, for example, the Minister is likely to follow the President in requiring more commitment and discipline from teachers, and there may be more emphasis on linking child support grant eligibility to school attendance and other requirements.
South Africa is not necessarily in an institutional position to ensure that the use of tax incentives actually leads to decent jobs being created. The New Growth Path calls for “solidarity, sacrifice and partnership” in achieving higher and more equitable growth. But too many experiences suggest that these are precisely the non-technocratic, intangible but crucial ingredients that hamper delivery in many instances. The failures of local government, of the National Skills Development Strategy, of small-business support, amongst others, justify a degree of scepticism regarding a new growth path if it is not accompanied by decisive leadership and institutional change.
These failures are not the fault of government only, of course, and they point to continued problems in achieving the kind of multi-stakeholder consensus which is required if we are to move forward, and which has characterised, without exception, successful developmental states. What we may hope for, though, is a renewed urgency in finding solutions, a recognition that the failure to do so will have serious implications. The solution, furthermore, must be based on a shared willingness to work at finding a consensus, which in turn requires a degree of pragmatism in economic debates rather than conflict from polarised, entrenched positions.
Len  is Manager of the Budget Unit of Idasa’s Political Information and Monitoring Service.

PUBLICISE VOTER REGISTRATION EXTENSION, FODEP TELL ECZ

By Globe Reporter
Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) has asked Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to publicise the extension of voter registration exercise.
 FODEP executive director MacDonald Chipenzi asked ECZ to consider to addressing some of the challenges that affected the previous exercises.
“FODEP would like to welcome and commend the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) for the resumption of the Mobile Voter Registration exercise. However, the Electoral Commission of Zambia should consider addressing some of the challenges that affected the previous exercises such as; Publicity due to lack of effective synergies between the Commission, Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS Ministry of Broadcasting and Information Services, Ministry of Community Development and Social Services and Area Development Committees (ADC). These institutions must own the process and help the Commission effectively reach out the public especially that this is a farming period,” Chipenzi said. “Charges slapped on people who are overage who want to obtain their NRCs and those who want to replace the lost NRCs by the Department of National Registration and Passport Cards (DNRPCs) and Zambia Police Force respectively. Address the attitude of some of the
 Voter Registration and NRC officers. Our field visits have revealed that the attitude of some of officers needs much to be desired.  Involvement of the political parties in the exercise. “
Chipenzi urged all political players not to politicise the exercise but encourage their members to turn en masse to register as voters.
“We also pray that the exercise will pay special attention to schools and persons with disabilities,” he said.
Meanwhile FODEP has welcomed the impending reappointment of former ECZ Chairperson, Justice Irene Mambilima,  as ECZ Chairperson.
Chipenzi said the move is a step in the right direction and coming at the right time.
“FODEP would like to express its gratitude that the vacancy has been filled with the consideration of the gender aspect,” he said. “FODEP also hopes and is confident that the filling of the position of the Chairperson at the Commission will help restore stability, trust and confidence in the Commission and normalize its operations.”
Chipenzi, however, said there was an urgent need for the Commission to ensure that the position of the ECZ director was normalised so that the country does not go into elections preparations with an acting director of elections.
“This is one way of ensuring that the director performs her/his duties without fear and favour as she/he will have the security of tenure,” he said.

SLM’S MINNAWI SAYS DARFUR AIRPORTS ARE NOW MILITARY TARGETS

Minni Minnawi (AFP)

The rebel Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minnawi today warned the hybrid peacekeeping operation UNAMID and other international organizations to evacuate the airports in Darfur.

Minnawi troops are designed as military target by the Sudanese government since last year and they clash regularly with the Sudanese army which accuses Juba of supporting him.

In a statement released on Sunday, Minni Miinawi who denounced officially earlier this month a peace agreement he signed with the Sudanese government in May 2006, said these airports are now "strategic military targets" for his forces.

"The SLM warns the UNAMID forces and other international organizations deployed in Darfur and other parts of Sudan to evacuate the airports in Darfur or elsewhere immediately because these sites are strategic military target for the forces of the SLM/A," said a statement signed the rebel leader.

Minnawi said Sudanese warplanes use these airports to commit atrocities against innocent civilians and to transport ammunition and weapons to Darfur.

"The Air force forms 60% of the government war effort in Darfur, while the role of the government army and militia on the ground is limited to 40% of crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide committed in Darfur," he stressed.

The head of the joint peacekeeping mission Ibrahim Gambari said alarmed by the recent increase of fighting in the restive North Darfur between the government army and the rebels groups.

Gambari "is particularly disturbed about reports of the most recent recrudescence of violence between Government of the Sudan soldiers and a combined group of elements from several rebel movements, in the region of Shangil Tobaya, 66 kilometers south west of El Fasher" said a statement released by the UNAMID.

An official from the hybrid operation told the AFP on condition of anonymity that low-flying Antonov aircraft and helicopters were seen in the area, with loud explosions heard throughout the day, and gun battles between government soldiers and different rebel groups, thought to include the Sudan Liberation Army factions of Abdelwahid Nur and Minni Minnawi,.

The chief of the peacekeeping mission urged all belligerents to stop hostilities and refrain from further armed confrontation, and allow unfettered access by the humanitarian community and UNAMID to areas and population in need.

Sudan Tribune