Africa scores 7 of 'Top 10' Crises Spots in the World.

Corrupt African politicians, their cronies, the business elite and the well connected, have hijacked and exercise full control over all resources including land, labour, capital and revenues from all economic activities in Africa today. In this alarming 'top 10' crisis spots in the world, alongside Iraq and Pakistan, Of the 'Top 10' list of most needy countries judged by violence, poverty and medical needs, Africa holds 5 out of 8 on the list, plus a further 2 for 'out of control situations', thanks to these corrupt African politicians and their associates who are holding the people captive with their ill-conceived economic policies and programmes. Poverty in Africa today is the modern version of the slavery that took place five centuries ago. See also Slavery in Africa today

The annual ranking from Doctors Without Borders of the world's Top 10 Humanitarian Crises. They've looked at violence, grinding poverty and unmet medical needs in 70-plus countries -- more than a third of the global total -- where desperate conditions prevail, and they've come up with a list of eight, plus two out-of-control situations that are as bad as it gets.

They are:

- Somalia: With more than a million people forced from their homes, many in the face of extreme danger, this country has "seemingly limitless humanitarian needs," says the Doctors Without Borders website. Yet targeted attacks, including assassinations and kidnappings, against aid workers "make it an almost impossible place to administer aid." So unmet needs continue to multiply, as does the death toll while people take greater and greater risks to try to flee.

- Myanmar: Maybe Cyclone Nargis did one good thing when it devastated the country last May. It finally put Myanmar into the international spotlight. With a government that annually spends just 70 cents per capita on health care, and with foreign aid totalling just $3 a head, it's about time. But with a suspicious government interfering with aid delivery, problems -- especially health problems -- abound. In particular, HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria -- all treatable, and often preventable -- run rampant.

- Zimbabwe: Rampant HIV/AIDS and other killer diseases, a dysfunctional economy with inflation running at 231 million per cent, a population desperate to flee the country, repression of political opposition and outside humanitarian groups -- the bottom line is reflected in one horrifying statistic: Life expectancy in the country that was once Africa's bread basket has plummeted to just 34 years.

- DR Congo: Failure of yet another ceasefire in North Kivu region means more of the fighting that has gone on for years, more violence directed at civilians, and hundreds of thousands more refugees. They flee in all directions, but most don't even find a place to provide clean water, food or basic health care. The International Rescue Committee estimates that, throughout the Congo, violence and deprivation have killed 5.4 million since 1988.

- Ethiopia: Caught between warring rebels and government troops, and beset by drought, the nomadic people of Ethiopia's Somali region are losing their livelihoods, if not their lives. Treatable diseases run rampant in the absence of medical help. They are worsened by malnutrition, especially in children. Meanwhile, too few aid workers are further hampered by bureaucratic hurdles.

- Pakistan: Fighting between government and anti-government forces combined with U.S. bombing of suspected terrorist strongholds have resulted in massive displacement of refugees. "In just a few days, hundreds of thousands of people fled fighting that broke out in the tribal area of Bajuar Agency," said Fabien Schneider, the Doctors Without Borders head of mission in the region. "In the camps we visited, we were told about bombings and people who died."

- Sudan: "Media attention and political involvement in Darfur means that everyone knows about conflict here," says Banu Altunbas, the agency's head of mission in South Darfur. "But in the last four years, the situation has not improved. In fact, for most people, things are worse." There's also a continuing, decades-old civil war in the south of the sprawling country.

- Iraq: Since the U.S. invasion in 2003, Doctors Without Borders maintains, "Various military and political actors have sought to use and abuse humanitarian action for political purposes and in so doing have made humanitarian organizations a target for violent attacks." This has complicated the always-difficult task of addressing acute civilian needs in the country. It got so bad that Doctors Without Borders withdrew from violence-affected regions of the country, but it is now cautiously starting to return.

- Childhood malnutrition:

Food riots early in 2008 put a spotlight on the impact of price increases on the world's poor. But a less visible disaster -- 178 million malnourished children worldwide -- continues largely under the radar. The World Health Organization estimates that malnutrition contributes to the deaths of 3.5 million-5 million children a year. UNICEF also reports that child hunger is getting worse in 16 countries around the globe.

- HIV/AIDS and TB:

TB is on the rise -- nine million new cases and 1.7 million deaths a year. Most of the new cases and the deaths are in the regions and among the populations that are hardest hit by HIV/AIDS. TB can kill an AIDS patient in just a few short weeks, and people with suppressed immune systems are 50 times more likely to develop TB. Yet less than one per cent of the people living with HIV/AIDS are tested for TB.

So there you have it -- a distressing Top 10 list, if ever there was one.

Ref;
UNAIDS 2008 Report of the global AIDS epidemic
'Nigeria 3rd Highest Infested Country' ... after South Africa and India,

33 countries face "alarming" levels of hunger
The index measures global hunger by ranking countries on prevalence of child malnutrition, rates of child mortality, and the proportion of people who are calorie deficient. The Democratic Republic of Congo scored the worst on the Index, followed by Eritrea, Burundi, Niger, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ethiopia.

Zim's horror on film .....millions of impoverished, half-starved Zimbabweans fearing their own drinking water...... what Zimbabwe's autocratic leader does not want seen: the stark reality of life and death.......

EC Dept of Education boss runs up R1.4m hotel bill

THE head of the provincial Education Department has racked up an astonishing bill of R1.4million for a hotel stay that stretches back to 2007.

Mthunywa Ngonzo has enjoyed the comforts of the local Holiday Inn since November 2007, where he has lived while occupying the posts of acting deputy director-general (DDG) and acting education superintendent-general (SG). His full- time job is education director for Cofimvaba district and he owns a home in Queenstown.

A spreadsheet leaked to the Dispatch shows that he cost the department R783 000 from April to September 2008 for accommodation. That amount would buy a three-bedroom family home in Amalinda, with change to spare for transfer fees.

But education officials said his bill was at least R1.4million, taking into account the full duration of his stay at the Holiday Inn.

His hotel room costs R1149 a night on a bed and breakfast basis; laundry R500 a month; dinner R120 a day; and a daily lunch pack, R95.

Several travel agencies are used to make the bookings and facilitate payments.

The expenditure is despite the financial problems facing his department, including under- equipped schools, insufficient teachers and a disastrous school nutrition feeding programme.

Ngonzo confirmed the expenses and said he had grown weary of hotel life. “Yes, I am staying in the Holiday Inn and as a visitor in town one has to book a hotel. I am not full-time employed in these positions so the employer should find me accommodation.” Ngonzo was asked if he thought the expenditure was justified. “Well, I am also tired of staying in hotels. I am talking to the Public Works Department to see if they can assist me in finding a house. Otherwise my employer is the right person to speak to.”

Departmental spokesperson Loyiso Pulumani said the arrangement was in line with standard department policies regarding the accommodation of seconded officials.

He said the policy allowed the department to use hotels with no higher than three star grading to ensure that “proper and equitable accommodation is secured for all seconded officials”.

“The department had previously advertised the positions, but because of legal disputes lodged by some of the applicants, it was felt that, in line with practices of good governance, equity and fairness, the process be started from scratch.

“That process is now at an advanced stage, in fact shortlisting will be finalised by next week.”

One concerned senior official said a DDG was only entitled to annual accommodation and travelling expenses limited to R260 000. “Where is this budget coming from, because all we know is that not a single official qualifies for such expensive accommodation from any financial year budget? In a few months Ngonzo has used close to a million rand.”

Another official said the money would have been better spent elsewhere. “This money is supposed to build schools, feed hungry school children and educate the poor but a person who is supposed to be looking after corruption as the SG in the department doesn’t care.”

Insiders said MEC Mahlubandile Qwase was aware of the situation but had failed to address it. “This is happening under his own nose. He knows about this. Millions of rands will vanish if Ngonzo remains in these expensive hotels,” said one official.

SA Democratic Teachers’ Union’s Mxolisi Dimaza said they were aware of the vacant positions currently being filled in an acting capacity by Ngonzo. “We know quite well what is happening and we’ve proposed to the MEC to quickly come up with a plan of employing people in those positions,” he said.

Everything paid for Ngonzo

HOW Mthunywa Ngonzo’s bill at the Holiday Inn in East London is made up:

• R1149 a night for a room and breakfast;
  
• R500 a month laundry;
  
• R120 for dinner every night;
  
• R95 for a daily lunch pack; and
  
• R24 for a soft drink.
  
  

490 People Died in Police Action during 2007/2008

The South African Police Service has always endured harsh criticism for being ineffective, but lately, that seems to be changing. Have they had enough? We track the gory trail of dead perpetrators.

According to Business Day, 108 police officers were killed during the 2007-2008 financial year. Many people questioned the competency of the police, while simultaneously decrying the cold-heartedness of the killers.

Some are fortunate enough to escape, but many aren't so lucky, such as 38-year-old police officer Oupa Masilela, who was gunned down outside his home in December 2008. His 7-year-old daughter said he had instructed her to lie down in an attempt to shield her.

Taking back the streets

This year has seen a turnaround, however, with many suspects being blasted in a hail of gunfire.

On 21 January 2009, five suspected robbers were killed and four arrested after they reportedly opened fire on police in KZN. The Western Cape was not exempt from these incidents. On 28 January 2009, two robbery suspects were killed and one wounded in Kraaifontein following a police chase.

The most recent shooting to raise eyebrows was that of eight robbery suspects killed in a shoot-out with police in KwaZulu-Natal on 30 January 2009. This shoot-out also resulted in three bystanders being wounded.

A tough question

Reactions are strongly divided, with one group supporting the killing of criminals and the other condemning it. But one has to ask the question: is this justice? Is this gung-ho approach, as advocated by Deputy-Minister of Safety and Security Susan Shabangu in April 2008, worth it? In a country where 20 000 people are murdered each year, it's easy to see why this approach is being advocated.

Criminals get away on technicalities and sentences are short, resulting in many criminals spilling into society once again.

The ineffective justice system, high incidence of violent crime and poorly-resourced police force results in spiralling crime rates – so perhaps this really is the only solution to the problem.

In the age of criminal lawsuits against the Saps, many police officers are asking, "Why should I follow the rules if criminals have more rights than what I do?" This raises the issue of criminal rights – why should police officers have to fire a warning shot when criminals can get away with shooting a cop in the head? Is a criminal's life really more important than an officer of the law?

A complicated situation

But it is not as clear-cut as you may think – Sure, you could "shoot the bastards" but doing so raises a number of not-easily-ignored ethical questions.

One concern is that the police force could become judge, juror and executioner all rolled into one. While many people are desperate enough to rely on this strategy, questions will undoubtedly be raised when their children are killed whilst "resisting arrest" or are caught in the cross-fire. An incident in Mpumalanga where a pupil was killed by a policeman's ricocheting bullet on 30 January 2009 serves as an unfortunate example of this.

The 30 January shooting in KwaZulu-Natal also serves as a stark reminder that not everyone is an enemy. In this particular instance, the eighth suspect is believed, by forensic experts, to have been an innocent worker.

More eyebrows would be raised if would-be shoplifters were found riddled with bullets as a result of police abusing the declaration. Giving police carte blanche to kill opens society up to the potential of brutality reminiscent of the Apartheid security forces.

This directive could also potentially create a more favourable breeding-ground for corruption and violence within the police force, with officers potentially silencing each other and civilians over money, drugs and information. Surely there are more viable solutions to this issue…

Questions are often raised about the possibility of alternative solutions. Non-lethal weaponry is often no match for the high-powered assault rifles and pistols employed by these pseudo-paramilitary thugs. Perhaps police officers need to be better equipped and trained. Perhaps paying police officers and security guards more than what they're currently earning will reduce the need for them to seek cash elsewhere.

After years of enduring their colleagues being killed, the South African Police Service has turned the tables on criminals. With 490 people dying in police action during the 2007/2008 financial year, according to the Sunday Tribune, it looks like the current solution simply leads to more bloodshed.

SAA staff 'offered huge amounts of money' to swop flights

Staff of South African Airways tried to warn management of suspicious activities involving flight crew before the recent drug bust in London, but their bosses "just shrugged their shoulders".

The staff's warning was given to management after some of them had been offered huge amounts of money to swop flights with others.

This has been disclosed by the Aerospace Aviation Sector manager of the United Associations of South Africa, which represents SAA staff, Willie van Eeden.

Van Eeden made his disclosures when taking part in SAfm Radio's After Eight Debate on the recent arrests of SAA flight crews in London and the steps now being taken to improve airport security.

He said: "We have evidence our staff were offered huge amounts of money to change rosters to ensure other employees, crew members, got on to aircraft flights."

Van Eeden said this was reported to management. "They just shrugged their shoulders and said it was not their problem. We feel that is serious and should be investigated."

He said this swopping of crew could have been going on for some time. "But they have never offered this amount of money to swop a flight."

There was, he said, a serious lack of trust between cabin crew and their employers, the management of the company.

Van Eeden said his staff were extremely proud of SAA and had been greatly upset by the arrests in London. "This sort of thing had not happened in the past. And suddenly in the past couple of months it has occurred twice."

He said he was pleased to hear that the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) had now taken over the security checking of SAA flight crews. This had previously been done in the local crew centre by security staff appointed by SAA. "I found it a little strange that you would appoint your own security, saying you can check all people but us as a crew. We are privileged not to be checked."

Acsa's director of operations, Bongani Maseko, said his company's core mandate was to check on the security of the aircraft and its passengers, but it had co-operated with the authorities in the search for drugs.

Maseko said drug smuggling was very common at airports. "At the Johannesburg Airport just in 2008 we had more than 500 incidents of drug smuggling detected, that is about 1.5 incidents a day."

He said some of the drug hauls taken in Johannesburg made the 5kg detected at Heathrow - however distressing - look small. "We had an incident of 132kg of cocaine detected, coming from Brazil."

He said people of many nationalities had been arrested in Johannesburg. "We have had British nationals. We have had Brazilians, Indians, Thais, Portuguese, Kenyans, Ruandans, Russians, Bolivians, all caught at OR Tambo Airport.

"It is internationally accepted that airline crew are targeted by drug dealers to smuggle drugs just because of their ability to handle them."

Maseko said security at all airports had been tightened. "We have started with the practice of sniffer dogs. Unfortunately we do not have enough sniffer dogs, but we have procured equipment that will help us to identify narcotics."

A third panellist, Annette Hubschle, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, said smuggling on air routes was one of the most common forms of drug trafficking. "SAA is not the first airline affected by flight attendants being involved in such activities," she said.

Hubschle believed the information that led to the Heathrow arrests had come from the authorities in South Africa.

See also SAA staffer faces hearing over shift bribe

Regular American traveller to S.Africa writes about horrific experiences on SAA

Letter from Dr Brown in California about his experiences on SAA

I have been coming to South Africa since 1994 and in all cases of travel; I have used South African Airways (SAA) exclusively.

On the 30th April 2007, I travelled in the New First/Business class on flight, SAA 208 from Washington DC to Johannesburg at the huge sum of R47,110.00 + receiving THE MOST HORRIFIC SERVICE I HAVE EVER RECIVED on any airline in any class of service – EVER! In spite of prior notice through their authorized Travel Agency and myself directly, SAA served me food that I’m deadly allergic to that required immediate medical attention. To date, SAA refuses to take any responsibility for it.

This incident required that the on board medical kit to be opened and medication taken and used or I could have died. I suffered a raw throat, as if I had swallowed molten metal for three days after and have suffered indigestion for my entire trip. The seriousness of this incident has been belittled and ignored by SAA Customer Service and NO responsibility or jest of regret has been forthcoming. It was left to me to seek medical attention while in South Africa, from an injury caused at the hands of SAA staff. Yet, I have to pay and there wasn’t even a gesture of concern to ever come from SAA, nor a follow-up call to even ask how I was doing or if there was something they could do. Customer Service totally absent- A Joke!

Additionally, male cabin crew attendants on this flight (at least in the Business class galley behind row 7) did not seek to assist passengers, choosing rather to sit or eat behind the curtain the entire flight – making other-more diligent staff less able to assist the needs of the passengers. In one case when I got up to seek assistance going behind the curtain, I was grabbed by one of these male attendants by both of his hands at my shoulders and told “I should have rung the bell rather than coming there”. He then proceeded to speaking to me in a language I did not understand but the tone and inflection was other than cordial. I was truly fearful of what else these “Cabin Crew Thugs” could and would do. I therefore choose at that time to keep quite, knowing that I had to retune on SAA and did not want to set myself up for an ambush from the same crew or other cabin crew friends.

I’m now home and have no fear of reprisal.

A few realities from this SAA experience are noteworthy. In that I have family in flight crew status, I have an advantage in assessing crew performance over the average tourist.

1. Incompetent and unqualified staff are working on SAA flights, chosen by
who they are and not their ability!
2. How dramatic has the in-flight service with SAA declined in four years!
3. How insensitive and unconcerned have customer service reps. become!
4. What will service be like in the next four years?
5. Will the World in 2010 have similar experiences?

Upon my exiting of South Africa, I needed to go to the SAA counter. While waiting, I observed the following poster on the wall behind the counter. How ironic it reads.

SAA – Our Values
People First
Safety & Security
Proudly South African
Accountability
Integrity
Reliability

In relation to my flying experience, there was “People First”, how-be-it only when it applied to the Cabin Crew. And as to pride, there was a lot of it articulated at the Customer service office. They were so proud that they could not conceive the need to assist me or believe that there was a problem from their staff. In fact, all they did say was that I could write Ballai Mabena to voice my complaint - but that was what I was doing at the time, wasn’t it? Could it be that this meant that they did not want to handle my complaint? After repeated call to customer Service there was no “Accountability” and “Integrity” was on vacation!

In reflecting on this posted - yet hollow value statement, even this is very flawed.

In the aftermath of 911, Safety and Security should always be at the top of any list for an airlines company. And though I understand the need for pride in one county it should never come at the expense of or before accountability, integrity or reliability.

By their actions or rather - lack of, SAA doesn’t get it!!! AND BTW Never to Fly SAA again!

Dr. Ron Brown
Oroville, California

National Library of South Africa going up in smoke

The management and finances of the leading national library and information centre of excellence in Africa and the world (the National Library of South Africa) are in such utter shambles that two prominent members of the board's finance committee have resigned in protest.

Employees tell a disturbing story of neglect and abuse at one of the prime symbols of South Africa's intellectual heritage. They tell of a chief executive who spends every possible moment travelling the world on freebies and proclaims that he is 'not an operational man'. They tell of a marketing manager who does almost no marketing, and simply disappears on an important day from his institution; of a chief financial officer who does very little financial management.

The two board members who have resigned are its former chairperson Andrew Mestern, BP South Africa's treasury manager, and Dr Martie van Deventer of the CSIR. Mestern had served on the board for five years. The two confirmed that they have written to Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan, giving reasons for their resignations, but refused to discuss the affairs of the National Library any further.

Minister Jordan's office tells noseweek that, after receiving the two resignation letters, the minister intends launching an investigation into the affairs of the NLSA.

Approached for comment on criticism made by staff at the Library, chief financial officer Khehla Moloi says the allegations could only come from “white racists” (in fact most of noseweek’s sources are not white). Says Moloi: “People who make this allegation represent the old order which subjected our people to iron rule and discrimination, but since the arrival of the new CEO, management of the NLSA has been transformed to represent the demographics of SA. There are some people who think if an institution is run by Blacks everything collapses. These sinister forces have tried unsuccessfully to sabotage the normal operation of the Library but have failed; they have now run to the media as dying horses.”
HO-Moloi Khehla

In terms of the National Library of South Africa Act, the Library is controlled by a board, whose members are appointed by the Minister of Arts and Culture, from a shortlist drawn up by an advisory panel after a call for public nominations.

Its chief executive officer, known as the National Librarian, is an ex officio member of the board. Minister Pallo Jordan appointed the present board for the period 1 October 2006 to 30 September 2009.

According to the Act the board has a large degree of autonomy; it formulates the policies of the Library (in consultation with the minister); approves its budget; appoints the chief executive officer, management team and other employees; and determines the remuneration and benefits of its employees.

Yet, despite the central role envisioned for it, and a huge responsibility for ensuring the Library’s efficient functioning, the board did not meet at all between July 2007 and August 2008. (There was a meeting in December 2007, but not enough members attended to form a quorum.) Before the present board was appointed, the National Library was without a board for a full eight months.

When the board finally met in August 2008, Mestern and Van Deventer had resigned in protest. Noseweek was told that board members spent most of the meeting discussing backdating honoraria, and new cell phones and allowances for senior managers.

The new chairman of the board, Professor Gessler Moses Muxe Nkondo, is the disgraced former vice-chancellor of Venda University, who was forced to pay back money he spent on a credit card he had obtained illegally. He also lied about his PhD.

The National Library consists of two “campuses” that became one entity in 1999 – the former State Library in Pretoria and the National Library in Cape Town. The huge new R375m Pretoria library building, opened by Minister Jordan on 1 August 2008, can accommodate 1300 visitors at a time and houses two million books, with the capacity for another three-and-half million. Presently only half of the building is operational, and it is seriously understaffed.

HO-Tsebe John, former librarian at the University of the North, became the National Librarian, as the CEO is called, in 2004. “He came charging in on his shining horse, proclaiming how things were going to change,” a senior employee tells noseweek.

“He told staff we were going to do great things. ‘My door is open, the buck stops with me’, he said. But that horse broke all its legs. Tsebe has become a self-important man, more interested in scoring free trips to China, Iran, Malaysia and elsewhere than in running the NLSA. He is outside of the country more than at his desk.”

Another senior employee adds: “Tsebe likes to say he is responsible for the vision and strategies and not for operational issues. We now know what that means – he hobnobs with the elite and jumps on a plane whenever he can. He has taken the concept ‘hands-off management’ to new extremes.”

Staff at both campuses of the National Library complain of the almost complete collapse of administrative structures over the past two years. Things have fallen apart to such an extent that management meetings hardly ever take place, a staff member tells noseweek. Absenteeism is rife, and an outrageous number of people at managerial level are on sick leave at any given time.

“The staff morale is at an ultimate low; people clock in and out, simply waiting for their pay cheques. One can see it in service delivery. There is a culture of fear among employees – no-one wants to make a stand: we know what Tsebe, Andrew Malotle (head of marketing) and their cabal will do if we speak out.”

Staff and library users tell of more and more books, documents and papers (some extremely valuable) simply disappearing – either stolen or misfiled (among millions of books, wrongly filing one means it goes more or less permanently missing). And the vitally important procurement department is no longer ensuring that all books published in the country are deposited with the library – researchers are increasingly having to visit university libraries to consult new works.

It’s apparently the financial mismanagement of the National Library that led to the recent resignations. One of chief financial officer Khehla Moloi’s own colleagues says that, for 2007/2008, Moloi didn’t even draw up a proper budget with new financial forecasts – he simply used the previous year’s budget and added 10%.

When the financial committee complained about his work, Moloi sent an angry email to board members and senior management saying the chairman of that committee had an axe to grind. He asked the board chairman’s “protection” from the committee and declared defiantly: “I own and drive this process.”

National Librarian John Tsebe (left) and minister Pallo Jordan

The Auditor General’s report in the Annual Reports of the National Library since 2004 proves that all is not well. Each year since 2003/2004 the AG has reported that “an accounting policy addressing the classification, disclosure and valuations of the book collections has not been approved by the board.” The AG also declared that “...an audit of the book collections at the National Library revealed that books are in a poor condition and that the storage facilities utilised for book collections appear to be inadequately equipped to ensure proper preservation of book collections”.

In 2006/07 the AG declared that he couldn’t express an opinion on certain expenditure as some documentation was missing. The AG also pointed out that the National Library did not have the required level of funds to match the liability of post-retirement medical aid benefits, which amounted to R14.8m. The annual report for 2007/08, which includes the Auditor General’s report, has been given to the minister but not released for public consumption.

In 2006 a senior member of the financial management team was accused of stealing R25,000 by transferring Library funds into his own account and drawing the interest on it. The matter is still being investigated by the police.

Senior employees are also scathing about the performance of Andrew Malotle. He barely changes his annual marketing reports from year to year: he only changes the dates, they say – and then tell the bizarre story of how a man employed as a driver had to stand in for him at an official function.

Andrew Malotle

Dear Pallo

When we met 21 years ago, you were still in exile and I thought that one day you would make a brilliant minister in charge of our arts and culture.

Well, with the evidence before me, I have to say I was wrong. I have to say you have become just another arrogant politician who rewards his cronies with jobs – to the detriment of the people of this country. I’m sorry to say it, but you have been a lousy guardian of our arts and culture.

When I started investigating the decay at the National Library, I was certain that if you knew what was going on you would be shocked into drastic action. But then I began to see that you were part of the problem: it was you, after all, who allowed this precious asset and storehouse of our country’s intellectual and literary heritage to operate without a board for eight months; it was you who then appointed a totally discredited and dishonest man as chairman of that board...

And, as my investigation progressed, I discovered that you had learned about the gross mismanagement of the National Library in July – but have yet to do anything about it. What exactly are you waiting for?

I wouldn’t be surprised if, like the men who have mismanaged this precious resource, you round on the whistleblowers as “racists”. But I have news for you, my dear comrade. The people who came to me and asked me to investigate the National Library were not “old-order whites”. It’s time for you and your party to wake up to the fact that there is no “racial” slant as to who is concerned about our heritage, and good governance.

I hope you can still fix things at the National Library. I have spent hundreds of stimulating hours at the two libraries, tracking down stories of our people and our history for my books. I know how precious these spaces are.

By the way, when I approached you and your office for comment on the allegations I report on in these pages, the apparatchik who poses as the “spokesperson of the Ministry of Arts and Culture”, Sandile Memela, refused my request. Instead of giving you a chance to comment on the situation, Memela sent me a confused lecture on my journalistic ethics and capabilities.

The man was clearly incapable of understanding that the allegations of National Library staff that I had forwarded to your office were not my own report on the matter, and declared: “It is blatantly obvious that this is a one-sided story with preconceived ideas. As a result, we distance the Ministry of Arts & Culture from anything to do with the said story until we are convinced that you have engaged in an exhaustive investigation, site visit and one-on-one interviews with some of the people who will be adversely damaged by the allegations you raise in your story.”

Memela concluded that the quotes from library staffers that I had forwarded, “makes us wonder about what has happened to the quality of journalism in the country. There are, always, two sides of the story. Until you demonstrate that you have done your homework to get the ‘failed National Library’ side, it will be difficult for us to help. Thus the office of the Minister of Arts & Culture will not have nothing (sic) to do with scurrilous poorly researched journalism”.

In other words, a civil servant refuses to do the job he’s paid for because he doesn’t accept the questions asked.

I then had a telephone conversation with Mr Memela, during which I asked him whether he had consulted you on the matter, or if you were aware of his response to my request for your official comment on these very serious allegations. All he could do was tirelessly repeat that he wrote to me in his “official capacity”, and declare that he couldn’t understand that I didn’t know what that meant.

Fire the fool, Pallo. This is banana republic bullshit.

Better; why don’t you do the honourable thing and fire yourself. It’s time to ride into the sunset with that other great intellectual who appointed you.

Yours sincerely
Max du Preez

A fish rots from the head

Senior managers at the National Library have strongly denied every allegation by a whole range of people about the leadership and management of the institution.

The National Librarian, John Tsebe, was recovering from hospital treatment when noseweek approached him, so the head of marketing, Andrew Malotle, spoke on his behalf: “Since Mr John Tsebe joined the National Library of South Africa, much has been achieved, including realisation of the dream to build the new National Library.
Minister of Arts & Culture, Pallo Jordan

“Mr Tsebe focused on strategic plan and diversity management workshops in order to turn the staff into a unified force. Staff of the old dispensation who resisted change became disgruntled and started trying to destroy the National Library with malicious statements to the media.”

Malotle’s reaction to criticism that Tsebe regards himself as above operational issues? “Indeed, there is a strong executive management team responsible for operational issues in their own respective divisions.”

Regarding accusations that instead of writing new annual reports each year all he does is change the date on the old one, Malotle says: “Not true, although the Library units do not change their key performance areas, activities change from time to time and the contents of the Annual Report therefore changes accordingly.”

The chief financial officer, Khehla Moloi, responded to allegations of mismanagement thus: “The financial management and control of the Library are in a sound position wherein monthly expenditure is controlled against the budget per each division. The surplus for 2006/2007 amounted to R4.6m with committed funds amounting to R2.8m, leaving us with a sound liquidity of around R1.8m. There has not been any cent which the AG found unaccounted for. The AG could not express an opinion on balance sheet items which they audited in the previous year and gave a thumbs up but lost documentation to that effect to verify their carried out audit the next year.”

On the allegations that there was no proper financial forecast and comprehensive budget for 2007/2008 budget: “There is a fully-fledged comprehensive budget which managers use to allow them to operate on daily basis. Managers obtain their financial reports monthly or anytime they want them.”

Concerning management collapse and allegations that management meetings are not held regularly: “Management meet regularly, not even monthly as is the norm, to discuss and plan operational and strategic issues.”

Track-record of disgrace

When will South Africans learn not to appoint people who have already blotted their copy books?

The current chairperson of the board of the National Library, Professor Moses Gessler Muxe Nkondo, is the disgraced former vice-chancellor of Venda University. As far back as 2000, six years before he was appointed to the Library board, the Heath Special Investigating Unit found that Nkondo, without permission, had a credit card issued to him in the university’s name – and then spent some R200,000 on it. Some of the transactions were cash withdrawals.

In 2000, an investigative reporter at the Dispatch, Eddie Botha, revealed that Nkondo was lying when he made a sworn statement on 1 September 1993 that he had graduated with a PhD in English and literature at Yale in 1979. The thesis for his doctorate was “Nature, God, Man”. Botha quotes Yale spokesperson Tomas Appelquist as declaring: “Moses Gessler Nkondo was awarded the PhD following acceptance of his dissertation. The PhD was withdrawn by formal action of the Yale Corporation in 1990, with Mr Nkondo’s acquiescence.”

DA throws the book at the minister

The official opposition’s representative on the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture, Desiree van der Walt, says the department has failed dismally to look after and preserve the country’s national assets.

“The minister keeps ducking his responsibilities with regard to the management of various entities under his jurisdiction, including the National Library of South Africa.

“It is high time Minister Pallo Jordan replaced his personal political appointees with qualified people who can look after all these important entities belonging to all the people of South Africa, and of which he is only a temporary custodian.”

Source - Noseweek

Blue-light terror on the highway

Despite a stern warning from police top brass, the blue-light brigade continues to terrorise motorists on Gauteng highways.

The latest incident saw a cavalcade of Mercedes Benzes and BMWs try to push a Pretoria woman driver off the road. She was also allegedly threatened with a firearm.

Police management have reacted with outrage at the latest incident, barely a week after VIP Unit national commander Mzondeki Tshabalala issued a directive with strict guidelines for the use of blue emergency lights, warning of retribution for those who failed to adhere to the rules.

On Tuesday afternoon shortly after 3pm attorney Kim Lovegrove was travelling along the N1 towards Pretoria after seing a client in Sandton when she saw the blue lights approaching fast in her rearview mirror.

Lovegrove told the Pretoria News she could not move over as there was no gap in the adjacent lane and traffic was really busy. Instead she was forced to pick up speed, now travelling above the 120km/h limit.

She finally managed to force her way into the next lane, eliciting a furious response from another motorist.

The lead VIP car, a black Mercedes Benz, pulled up beside her and made as if to ram her vehicle, she said. Alongside Lovegrove, the passenger and driver of the VIP protection vehicle both hurled profanities at her - "telling me to get the f*** out the way" - before the passenger pulled back his jacket to reveal a holstered gun. "I was shaken. They were brash and very rude," said Lovegrove.

She said the second car in the convoy was also a black Mercedes with tinted windows and it was followed by two big black BMWs, all with lights on and travelling at 140 to 160km/h.

The VIP Protection Unit, which protects the President, cabinet members, MECs and a host of other dignitaries has repeatedly been cited for abuse of power with motorists at times forced off the road even when the principal was not in the vehicle.

In an incident along the N12 last year Chase van der Walt was allegedly shot by an officer when he drove too close to the presidential motorcade.

On February 1 this year a vehicle escorting ANC president Jacob Zuma allegedly hit and killed a pedestrian in Ulundi.

In November last year a driver for KwaZulu Natal MEC Meshack Radebe was arrested and charged after he allegedly shot out a tyre of a motorist on the N3 highway. The driver is currently facing eight counts of attempted murder and one of malicious damage to property.

Last month Safety and Security Minister Nathi Mthethwa admitted there were 111 charges faced by members of the VIP Protection Unit, including murder, attempted murder, rape, armed robbery and the abuse of power over the past four years. Over the past five years two members of the unit were dismissed and five suspended.

Over the past two weeks Tshabalala has held meetings with the top management of the VIP Protection Unit, bodyguards and drivers, making it clear that the abuse of the blue light will not be tolerated.

The DA plans to lay a charge with the Independent Complaints Directorate. They have also called on the immediate dismissal of Tshabalala, describing his recent directive to VIP protectors as "nothing more than window dressing".

"Tuesday's incident reveals a simple, tragic truth; that instead of protecting people, officers in the VIP Unit are actively putting lives at risk'," said DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard.

Senior Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo said the police would not hesitate to institute criminal or disciplinary action against members of the VIP Unit who abused their position.

"Our members are not encouraged neither do we condone or tolerate such behaviour by our members across the board in the police," said Naidoo.

"I don't want to know who it was or what the vehicle registration is. I am not even interested in who was being transported. It's not important," the superintendent added.

The bottom line was that a meeting had been held by Tshabalala to address the matter and had now seemingly been ignored, he said.

Related Articles

Deal with VIP driver: FF+
Blue-light car blamed as pedestrian killed
Zille slams 'blue-light bullies'
Scolding for blue-light drivers?

390 Air Crash Reports Incomplete

Although there were a total number of 190 reported flying accidents during 2008, including a total of 94 fatalities, no final reports into any of them have been completed as yet.

Transport Minister Jeff Radebe revealed this in a written answer to a Parliamentary question on Wednesday.

He added a note from his department which explained that in addition to the 190 accidents in 2008, there are another approximately 200 reports from previous years which are still not completed.

Backlog dates back to 2000

"There is a serious challenge to the SACAA (Civil Aviation Authority) to overcome," the note says. "This backlog dates back to the year 2000."

The department adds that medically related issues cannot be excluded as a possible cause in any fatal accident, so there is a need for the investigator to review the relevant post mortem and toxological report of the autopsy.

"A fatality in an aircraft accident is classified as an unnatural death which requires an autopsy to be conducted by a pathologist of the Department of Health," it continues.

"The results of the autopsy are formally made available to the investigator through the South African Police Services office dealing with the unnatural death investigation.

"Lack of a speedy process in the provision of the autopsy is the major cause of the delay of the completion of the final report."

Five investigators employed

Another five investigators have been employed during last year to diminish the backlog, and the department adds that good progress is being made in the process of completing the outstanding reports.

Radebe told his questioner that a preliminary review of the 2008 accidents identifies human factors as the primary cause.

"These can be categorised as mainly poor decision making, error of judgement and lack of skill and experience," he said.

"Mechanical defects and maintenance are involved as a minority causal factor."

In Defense of the White Man

By Selwyn Duke
NewsWithViews.com

While many believe that prejudice has diminished over time, it’s not really true. Prejudice is much like the wind: Its direction changes, and the sheltered and well-situated may not sense it, but it’s always blowing on some people somewhere. Put literally, every age has its fashionable biases – and unfashionable people.

This was obvious during the presidential inauguration benediction, given by the Reverend Joseph Lowery. While making a supplication to the Lord, he made the following anachronistic plea:

“. . . help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right [emphasis mine].”

Well, I wonder if the reverend has ever asked the Lord why He scourged the world with white people in the first place.

It isn’t surprising that caucaphobia is in fashion. You can demonize any person, group or place; all you need do is focus on the object’s failings to the exclusion of its/his accomplishments. It isn’t even hard to do. To bastardize one of Abraham Lincoln’s lines, if you look for the worst in a group, you’re sure to find it. It’s just as with a person. If I repeatedly disseminated your sins and mistakes among the town folk while downplaying your good points, how long would it be before they were chasing you with pitchforks?

So it has been with whites for a long time now. It is not correct to say that history textbooks, documentaries and entertainment inundate us with stories about slavery and civil rights abuses; no, they inundate us with stories about whites’ practice of slavery and abuse of civil rights. There are movies such as “Roots” and “Mississippi Burning” but none of note about the Aztecs’ or Shaka Zulu’s domination of neighboring peoples, or the current African slave trade or Zimbabwean “president” Robert Mugabe’s persecution of whites and political opponents. Then, relating the American history guidelines of a prominent textbook publisher, the author of The Language Police, Diane Ravitch, writes:

“European Americans, the guidelines suggest, were uniquely responsible for bigotry and exploitation in all human history.”

This philosophy imbues school textbooks. While featured prominently are the sins of whites, others’ sins are whitewashed. For instance, due to special-interest-group pressure – such as that applied by Moslem activists – examples of slavery perpetrated by non-whites are in short supply or are sanitized. This, despite the fact that Moslem North Africans did at one time capture young boys of both the white and black races, castrate them and sell them into slavery. And this bias is a continuation of decades of anti-white propaganda of the kind embodied in Susan Sontag’s famous 1967 line, “The white race is the cancer of human history.” It’s an idea that has taken hold.

Thus must I mount a defense of the white race. But I want to preface it with a few remarks. First, don’t ask why I undertake such an endeavor. When the president has a preacher talking about the black, brown, yellow, red and white, it’s silly to ask why I speak of race. I’m not initiating such a discussion, I’m responding. I’m not throwing punches, I’m blocking.

Second, because of this – since I’m refuting those who assign blame by highlighting the sins of whites – it’s necessary that I trumpet whites’ accomplishments. Unlike those I’m refuting, however – who often ascribe the evils they feature to something inherent in whites – I don’t claim there is an innate quality in the race that should be credited with all these triumphs. On the contrary, I believe the force primarily responsible for Western civilization’s glories is Christianity, but that is grist for a different day.

It’s not hard to figure out where a defense of whites must start: Slavery. It’s the most odd of issues, in that we all thoroughly agree on the wrongness of it yet it is thoroughly divisive. It is the defining grievance of black America, something that imbues millions of black psyches. As an example, I attended a gathering a few years ago at which there was a certain guest, a rather emotive and outgoing black fellow who was very good at relating every topic of discussion, from the meaningful to the mundane, to America’s slavery. It was as if he could channel Kunta Kinte in every conversation.

Yet the reality of slavery is that, along with prostitution, it is one of the world’s oldest institutions. It is mentioned in the Bible and Koran, and, to the best of my knowledge, every major civilization has practiced it. And, if we’re to believe history and Afrocentrists (and I suppose you cannot believe both), the ancient Egyptians were black and enslaved Jews.

Moreover, the Islamic slave trade took at least as many Africans into bondage as did the European variety, and African tribes themselves had slaves and sold them to both civilizations. Additionally, while the word “slave” conjures up the image of a black person in the typical American mind, the term itself is derived from the word “Slav.” This is because great numbers of Slavs were once sold into slavery by conquering peoples. In other words, no group ever cornered the market on slavery – it touched ever corner of the Earth.

Yet, in the history of involuntary servitude, something else should be noted. It is a startling fact:

While whites weren’t the first ones to practice slavery, they were the first ones to abolish it.

Let’s be clear about this. Slavery was accepted. It was the status quo. It was an institution whose origin was shrouded in the mists of time. It was unquestioned.

That is, until Europeans said “No more.”

It was not Asians who effected this bold and unprecedented social change. It was not South Americans. It was not Africans. It was not American Indians. It was not Aborigines. It was Europeans, that cancer of human history, and they were just as white then as they are today. They gave the world change you can really believe in.

People will try to explain away this historical fact, saying that this striking example of man’s humanity to man has nothing to do with race. I will simply reiterate that the why of the matter is a discussion for a different day. For now, I’m content to say that if whites can be demonized without explanation for being one of many groups to enslave Africans, they can be credited without explanation for being the first group to outlaw the enslavement of anyone.

One of the reasons we fixate on slavery that ended more than 150 years ago concerns the effects many believe it has today. This is called the “legacy of slavery,” which, actually, seems not nearly as big a problem as the legacy of obsessing on legacies. Be that as it may, what is the real legacy of slavery?

Well, let’s think about it: Many lament blacks’ economic state in America, claiming it’s part of slavery’s legacy. But where would blacks be were it not for slavery? The answer is Africa, where people’s economic state is far, far worse than that of American blacks.

In other words, there is no reason to agonize over an event – even an evil one –responsible for your presence in a country that has offered its citizens unprecedented rights and standard of living. (Of course, to be precise, most blacks currently in the U.S. would not actually have been worse off absent slavery. This is because they wouldn’t have “been” at all, as ancestors whose procreation led to their existence would never even have met. The big picture is a funny thing, isn’t it?)

The point is that most people who arrived on American shores were driven here by some kind of persecution. Whatever the reason, however, thank God we’re in the land of opportunity and not languishing in a slum in Asia, South America, Africa or Eastern Europe. So, it’s ironic, but that some blacks were brought here in chains yesterday ensured that their descendants wouldn’t have to wear chains today.

Now we come to prejudice, another supposedly characteristic white fault. Yet the truth is quite the opposite. In reality, racial prejudice is probably found least among whites, due to political correctness.

Most white children are raised today with the idea that it’s profoundly immoral to be prejudiced (I discussed this here). This isn’t to say there aren’t some Archie Bunker types extant, but they certainly aren’t in fashion. Remember, it was mainly white people who originated, promoted and funded sensitivity-training classes, tolerance programs and multiculturalism (come to think of it, I may start hating white people myself). Now, while I consider these abominations to be worse than what they ostensibly remedy, this brings us to a relevant question: Can you think of another group that has gone to the point of self-flagellation to purge prejudice from its ranks? Heck, with how we beat each other up over this, no one really has to worry at all about whites. We’re all black and blue.

Then we have the matter of white achievement. The vast majority of what makes the lives of all races better today – modern science and medicine; our luxuries; Western art, literature, legal institutions; etc. – is the handiwork of whites. Oh, this is simply a matter of circumstance, of opportunity, of a twist of fate, you say? Perhaps. Again, this is not the time to discuss the ways and whys. Suffice it to say for now that if President Obama (PBUH) can frame matters in terms of race at his inauguration (and in his books and everywhere else, it seems), I can in an article. And if whites can be ridiculed for their transgressions, they can be recognized for their triumphs.

Yet, despite all this and more, caucaphobia is still not only accepted but often encouraged. And the hypocrisy is stark. The left admonishes against making even valid generalizations or entertaining intellectual discussions about group differences. And indulging stereotyping – that specter of egalitarian nightmares – can fast earn one pariah status in addition to a place on the unemployment line. Why, even the positive variety is off limits. We cannot say blacks are better athletes, even though the sports arena may bear witness to this; we cannot say Asians are more intelligent, even though they have the highest average I.Q. of any major racial group; we cannot say Latinos are good dancers (not sure about that one). The idea is that such beliefs can lead to stigmatization or resentment or, or . . . whatever the theory du jour may be.

But when the matter is whites, even baseless negative stereotypes aren’t thought cause for alarm. A Reverend Lowery can imply that whites are uniquely flawed and immoral, they can be portrayed as the bane of man, as “the cancer of human history,” and it’s ho-hum.

Yet, are we to believe that such demonization magically becomes harmless when whites are the targets? What does history teach about the plight of consistently scapegoated and dehumanized groups? It’s that they almost invariably end up suffering persecution. And given that current demographic trends indicate whites will becomes a minority in America during the lifetimes of many reading this, and given that even majorities sometimes are tyrannized – as Sunnis’ domination of Shiites under Saddam Hussein and the Spartans’ enslavement of the Helots proved – it’s foolish to dismiss the peril posed by mainstreaming caucaphobia. (In fact, whites already suffer the sting of persecution; I documented some cases here and here).

Yet, that increasingly-maligned dead white male Ben Franklin knew whereof he spoke when he said, “You cannot reason a man out of a position he has not reasoned himself into.” Prejudice is a function of emotion, not logic, and emotion is like darkness, in that it can be blinding. A person who sees only color – and through colored glasses – will have a powerful immunity to facts. Thus, I only expect caucaphobia to intensify.

So what can we do? Well, prayer is always good, so I’ll conclude with one of my own right now. Lord, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will cease the attack, brown will no longer frown, white will be all right – and rhymes will fit the times.

Website: selwynduke.com

ANC caught peddling hoax DA pamphlet

DA Lays Criminal Charge Against ANC - MAS536/02/2009

On Saturday, 21 February 2009, the DA became aware of a fake DA pamphlet being distributed (click on image to enlarge) by the ANC in the Steve Tshwete Municipality. According to the DA's information a Ms Jaenette Mahlangu, an ANC candidate in a coming by-election, distributed the pamphlet to learners at the Middelburg Mine Combined School on Friday last week.

In the pamphlet, the DA is portrayed as a racist party, claiming that the DA wants to bring back the days of 'permits', in order to fight the 'Swart Gevaar'. The pamphlet ends with the words 'Warning: Do not show this pamphlet to your maids and garden boys ... we need their votes'.

This kind of Mugabe-style propaganda is unacceptable and illustrates the extent to which the ANC will go to cling to power. The ANC knows that the only way they can maintain dominance over the electorate is by playing race politics. They are a disgrace to our society.

The Electoral Act prohibits persons from 'impersonating' other parties and or candidates and prohibits the distribution of false information. As such the DA has laid criminal charges against the ANC and has submitted a formal complaint to the Provincial Electoral Officer, Mr Steve Ngwenya.

It is becoming more and more apparent that the ANC are resorting to intimidation tactics to secure votes in this election and are clearly threatened by the growth that the DA has shown in traditional ANC strong-holds. The DA wont be intimidated and neither must the community be intimidated, we will defend our democratic space with all our worth.

Hospital staff in criminal probe

At least 10 of Mahatma Gandhi Hospital's most "influential" staff face suspension - with immediate effect - following a two-year investigation into various criminal activities.

KwaZulu Natal acting head of department Yoliswa Mbele on Monday said a presiding officer and an investigating officer would be appointed to handle the disciplinary hearings of officers working for the department who would be charged with fraud, corruption and defeating the ends of justice.

Provincial health spokesperson Chris Maxon said they were ready to take the Health Department employees to court and institute internal disciplinary proceedings against them. Their files would be sent to the Commercial Crime Unit.

The allegations against them included bribery, asking sexual favours for jobs, the abuse of authority and nepotism, fraud which included lying about their qualifications, as well as wrongly granted remuneration in which "ghost employees" - or people no longer employed there - were still on the payroll.

Maxon warned that investigations were continuing and that it had taken two years to reach this stage because of the complexity of the matter.

However, The Star has learnt that many of the hospital's workers who might have information were afraid to give evidence against their "bosses" as they felt they could lose their jobs.

Mahatma Gandhi Hospital is not new to controversy. In 2005, 22 newborn babies died of klebsiella, a bacterial disease, prompting a high-level investigation.

Meanwhile, Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni is expected to stand trial in June on a corruption charge relating to the procurement of a mammogram machine.

Report calls for Mugabe to be charged

BOSTON — The mounting movement for Robert Mugabe to be charged with crimes against humanity will be boosted this week by a report that finds the Zimbabwean dictator is responsible for criminal neglect that caused the country’s deadly cholera epidemic.

Mugabe is culpable for dismantling Zimbabwe’s health and sanitation services and thereby provoking the cholera outbreak that has killed more than 2,000 people to date and could kill as many as 5,000 people if left unchecked, according to a new report by Physicians for Human Rights to be released this week.

The doctors’ damning report, provided exclusively to GlobalPost, adds momentum to the growing international campaign for the Mugabe regime to be charged with crimes against humanity.

Mugabe should be charged with crimes for “presiding over the destruction of a health system and an economy. It is not mismanagement, it is calculated. It is criminal,” said Frank Donaghue, chief executive of the Massachusetts-based Physicians for Human Rights, which will issue its report Jan. 13 in Johannesburg and New York.

“Mugabe spends money on the military and intelligence services that keep him in power instead of on the medical and sanitation services essential to the health of the population,” said Donaghue.

“The Mugabe government created the grounds for the cholera epidemic by allowing the water supply system to break down, by not repairing broken sewer pipes and allowing public water to become contaminated, by closing hospitals and allowing the entire health system to collapse,” he added.

“Cholera is not just a disease, it’s a crime,” said Donaghue, who was part of the investigative team that visited Zimbabwe at the end of December.

If a United Nations tribunal on Zimbabwe were launched, observers in southern Africa believe it would bring crucial international pressure that could speed the end of the Zimbabwean president’s 28-year rule. The International Bar Association, Amnesty International, the anti-torture group Redress, the South African Council of Churches and the South African Catholic Bishops Conference have all urged the United Nations Security Council to investigate Mugabe for crimes against humanity.

The physicians’ report includes a statements of support from South African Nobel-winning archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson, formerly the United Nations commissioner for human rights and Irish prime minister. While in Zimbabwe the team of medical experts interviewed more than 90 people, ranging from doctors and health specialists to ordinary Zimbabweans seeking health care.

Human Rights Watch has documented numerous actions and policies by the Mugabe government that it says constitute crimes. “There is no question that the Mugabe government has committed serious crimes for which Mugabe and other officials must be held accountable,” said Tiseke Kasambala, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch.

“There is ample evidence of the crimes and there are international conventions which make it possible to bring them to justice,” said Kasambala, from her office in Johannesburg.

Some experts in international law question whether there is enough evidence to indict Mugabe and point out that the International Criminal Court has not established a strong track record of convictions.

“It will not be easy but it is necessary,” said Kasambala. Mugabe could be charged by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands or by a special United Nations tribunal, according to Kasambala. Human Rights Watch has a legal team that is investigating the best way to bring Mugabe to justice.

Zimbabwe has not signed the convention on international crimes but once there is a new government in Zimbabwe, it could ask the ICC to investigate and charge Mugabe.

The United Nations Security Council can order an investigation into crimes in Zimbabwe and form a special tribunal. “A U.N. tribunal would have more powers and scope to look at violations that constitute crimes against humanity,” said Kasambala.

Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association, agrees that Mugabe should be investigated for crimes against humanity. “The legal basis for holding Mugabe accountable is straightforward,” said Ellis. He said the UN Security Council should immediately authorize the ICC to investigate Mugabe and serious crimes committed in Zimbabwe.

Crimes against humanity are defined as a widespread attack against a civilian population, usually as part of a government plan. These crimes include killing, sexual violence, torture, displacement and using the distribution of food as a political weapon or depriving housing and medical care to those who oppose the government.
A UN tribunal brought former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor to trial. Taylor is currently on trial for crimes against humanity and war crimes before a UN special tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Taylor is the first ex-African head of state to appear before an international tribunal.

“Mugabe has a history of crimes that go back to the 1980s in Matabeleland,” said Kasambala, referring to what is known as the Matabeleland Massacres, in which a special army brigade under Mugabe’s command went on a four-year campaign in southern Zimbabwe in which an estimated 10,000 people of the Ndebele ethnic minority were murdered, according to a report by the Zimbabwean Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace.

In addition to direct state violence against opposition groups, the Physicians for Human Rights report says that Mugabe should also be charged with policies calculated to cause the deaths of thousands of Zimbabweans. The dismantling of Zimbabwe’s once excellent health and sanitation services, which brought about the current cholera epidemic, is one example, report the Physicians for Human Rights. Another example is Mugabe’s 2005 campaign in which the army bulldozed tens of thousands of homes in urban townships, which are bastions of support for the opposition. More than 700,000 homes and businesses were destroyed, affecting more than two million people, according to a UN investigation. Many of those made homeless later died of disease or malnutrition, say human rights activists in Zimbabwe.

In the current cholera epidemic, more than 40,000 Zimbabweans have been infected with cholera and it is expected that 60,000 will fall ill with the disease before the epidemic is brought under control, according to the World Health Organization, which issues weekly bulletins on the situation. The disease has spread to all 10 of the country’s provinces and to neighboring countries of Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. The cholera bacteria is so rife in Zimbabwe that it has contaminated the main reservoir for Harare and also the Limpopo River, which forms the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Ordinarily cholera is fatal to about one percent of those who contract the disease. But Zimbabwe’s death rate is five percent because of the shortage of clean water, medical facilities and the high levels of malnutrition and disease already prevalent among the population.

As a result of disease and malnutrition, the average life expectancy of Zimbabwean women has dropped from 61 to 34 years, which is the lowest in the world, according to WHO.

The Mugabe government has closed three of Zimbabwe’s four major public hospitals. The hospitals in Harare and Bulawayo until recently were among the best in Africa. Without money, the hospitals ran out of drugs and doctors and nurses were not paid. In November the hospitals had no running water and by December they were closed.

“The cholera that we see in Zimbabwe is a symptom of a much broader problem, the collapse of the country’s health system, the closure of hospitals, growing levels of malnutrition and the collapse of the economy,” said Donaghue, who has visited Zimbawe several times in the past year.

“Unquestionably Mugabe and his officials must be held accountable for the destruction of the health care system and the drop in life expectancy,” said Donaghue, who will be in Johannesburg to release the report. He called on the United Nations to take action to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis. Donaghue said it is “tragic” that China, Russia and South Africa have prevented the United Nations Security Council from considering the Zimbabwean crisis.

“We are seeing Zimbabwe’s people die in very high numbers,” said Donaghue. “International bodies must act to stop the ongoing massacre.”

Source: Report calls for Mugabe to be charged

Scores of Zimbabwe farms 'seized'

Scores of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe have been invaded since the country's national unity government took office, a union chief has told the BBC.

Commercial Farmers Union President Trevor Gifford said 77 properties had been occupied in the last fortnight.

MPs, police, the military and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe officials had taken part in the invasions, he said.

Many of the farmers targeted recently mounted a successful legal challenge to government land reforms, he added.

The BBC attempted to contact a number of officials from President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party - including the ministers of agriculture and lands - but no-one was available to comment on the farmers' union claims.

Attempts to contact the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister earlier this month, were also unsuccessful.

The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Tribunal ruled in November the Zimbabwe government's programme of seizing white-owned property for redistribution to landless black farmers was discriminatory and illegal.

The government said at the time that it would not comply with the ruling.

'Ethnic cleansing'

The power-sharing deal between Zanu-PF and the MDC was eventually agreed after disputed elections and months of talks, during which the economy slid into a deepening crisis.

Mr Gifford told the BBC News website the recent spate of invasions was focused on the provinces of Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland West, Masvingo and Midlands.

The CFU president blamed the invasions on a minority of figures close to Zanu-PF who were "using their offices to ensure ethnic cleansing can take place before the prime minister is able to stabilise the country".

"This is being led by members of the old regime in Zanu-PF who are not willing to see the transition take place to a new unity government," Mr Gifford added.

"Zimbabwe is facing a severe food crisis and we're in the midst of the agricultural season so the impact of this will worsen the catastrophe."

More than half Zimbabwe's population is in need of food aid and inflation - estimated by some economists at 10 sextillion per cent - has left its currency almost worthless.

Mr Gifford said there were about 400 functioning white-owned farms left in Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, Roy Bennett - the MDC's nominee for deputy agricultural minister - faces a bail hearing on Tuesday after he was arrested this month accused of terrorism on charges his supporters say are trumped-up.

Source Scores of Zimbabwe farms 'seized' BBC News

Corrupt Zanu-PF loots SA R300 million Aid to Zim

IN CASE anyone is concerned about what happened to the R300m worth of agricultural inputs SA gave to Zimbabwe at Christmas, your worst fears have been realised. Yes, Zanu (PF) got its hands on the goodies. And perhaps a few farmers with party cards.

SA entrusted the operation to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which cobbled together the Zimbabwe Humanitarian and Development Assistance Framework (ZHDAF) to undertake the distribution of farm inputs.

However, the inputs arrived in Zimbabwe while ZHDAF was still being put together and it appears that due to the urgency of getting the inputs out, the Zimbabwean government was entrusted with the operation.

Corrupt Zanu-PF Members of Parliament have been implicated in a massive inputs scandal involving a syndicate that looted maize seed and fertilizer that were procured under the South African R300 million aid to Zimbabwe to bail out Zimbabwe’s crippled agriculture sector.

The inputs were brought into the country recently but unfortunately fell in wrong hands of Zanu-PF members in influential positions.

The revelations show that corrupt Zanu-PF members are abusing the South Africa's R300 million agriculture aid meant to support Zimbabwe's ailing farming sector.

The MDC warned South Africa against handing over the aid to the Zanu-PF government before the conclusion of the inter-party talks. see South Africa does U-Turn Gives R300 Million Aid Direct to Zanu PF

The eight corrupt Zanu-PF legislators, who are close allies of Mugabe, believed to be Mugabe's henchmen, were working cohorts with some farmers and members of the public to swindle large quantities of the ammonium nitrate, Compound D and maize seed.

Mugabe’s henchman, Brigadier General Douglas Nyikayaramba, handles the inputs that were sourced by South Africa.

Nyikayaramba’s inputs committee has denied to name-and- shame the Zanu-PF thieves but sources in Parliament have promised to let the cat of the bag.

However the four accused Zanu-PF supporters are Shingirai Mawere, Simon Machiri, Simbarashe Benhura, Paddington Mutasa.

The other fraudsters are two Malawians who acquired 30 tonnes of Urea Fertilizer and 160 litres of diesel under unclear circumstances.

The inputs committee says Mashonaland East Province tops the list of corruption cases, with 22 while six cases happened in Mashonaland East, and Matabeleland North has four cases. Mashonaland West and Masvingo have three cases each, while two cases were recorded in Harare.

The process has lacked transparency and accountability. A key player in the distribution process is the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), a parastatal with a record of being a political agent of the state in Robert Mugabe’s food-for-votes schemes. GMB’s general manager, Albert Mandizha, who appears on Australia’s sanctions list, was senior assistant police commissioner . His predecessor was a former soldier.

During the Zanu-PF conference in December, party members stole nine beasts, mealie-meal and other foodstuffs, as thuggery in the regime reared its ugly head.

Zimbabwean farmers have failed to plant the summer crop due to a biting inputs shortage. Once Africa's breadbasket, the southern African nation has low agricultural outputs because of poor farming preparations.

The UN says more than 5.5 million Zimbabweans require food aid this year.

SA's R300m aid gift to Zim a 'waste of money' Independent online (SA)

Cape Argus February 08 2009 (Do these boons have any clue about anything??)

South African taxpayers' gift of R300-million to Zimbabwe was a waste of money and was misused for the benefit of President Robert Mugabe's cronies in Zanu-PF.

The donation - or aid - was announced late last year by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, who pledged the gift would only be handed over after an internationally-recognised government of national unity was formed.

see South Africa does U-Turn Gives R300 Million Aid Direct to Zanu PF

President Kgalema Motlanthe repeated this assurance.

An instant SADC foundation, the Zimbabwe Development Assistance Framework, was formed to channel agricultural inputs to Zimbabwean farmers.

This framework is still not yet fully operational and its impartiality has been questioned.

The aid began moving into the country before Christmas.

It is mostly seed, fertiliser and fuel from South African companies and was sent despite warnings from Zimbabwean agriculturalists that most of it was too late for this summer season, and unless distributed carefully would be abused.

Most of the seed arrived months too late to plant and is being eaten, and the wrong fertiliser was ordered for this time of year in the maturation cycle of annual crops like maize.

Before Christmas, 60 000 litres of diesel was also sent into Zimbabwe for distribution.
A senior civil servant, working in the depleted technical support network for farmers, Agritex, in the fertile Mashonaland West province, confirmed that South African aid was often only available to Zanu-PF supporters in parts of the country, particularly Mashonaland West, Mugabe's home province, and Mashonaland Central where Zanu-PF is also in control.

The senior Agritex officer from Mashonaland West, who spoke on condition that he was not identified, said SADC had tried to provide for fair distribution by not using civil servants such as those from Agritex to disperse it.

"The South Africans don't know how the system works. Not all of us are Zanu-PF. There are still a few professionals left in Agritex and we could have stopped this. The chiefs have to obey Zanu-PF even if they don't want to."

In theory the monitoring of the South African-sponsored SADC aid was done by three church groups, seen by many Zimbabweans as aligned to Zanu-PF; the Evangelical Fellowship, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Johannes Masowe Apostolic Church.

At the height of the distribution last month the Catholics, cited as monitors in the department of agriculture circular, were supposed to have joined but had not yet been invited.

Abdenico Bhebe, Movement for Democratic Change MP for Nkayi, one of the driest parts of Zimbabwe in the south west, said on Thursday his constituency had received no SADC aid packages.

"Nothing, nothing, and there is also not enough food aid coming in either because the government is not fulfilling its part of the memorandum of understanding it signed with the NGO sector by providing 40 percent of food.

"There is only Western food aid coming in, and people are hungry. We have received none of the SADC seeds and fertiliser but it would be too late now anyway."

A hostile Agritex official at its head office in Harare denied that it was possible to misuse the aid, because he said a SADC official, whom he called Mr Whale, attended many of the distributions.

But he conceded Whale couldn't be everywhere when the aid was handed out.

Each village head was given - to dole out to seven or eight farmers in his precinct - three packs of South African seeds, 25kg of maize, 20kg of beans and 5kg of Rapoko, ground nuts, sorghum and cowpeas, and 50kg of fertiliser.

Experienced seed growers for both commercial and communal farmers said the deadline for planting maize, sorghum and groundnuts passed in November, and that if seeds were sent to Zimbabwe after this, when so many people were hungry, they would all be "consumed as food".

According to the latest Ministry of Agriculture circular, distribution began on January 19, although maize seed had arrived in Zimbabwe a week earlier.

Most of the rest of the inputs arrived a week later.

The World Food Programme has upped its estimates of Zimbabweans needing food aid from 5.2 million to more than 7 million and it says it does not have enough donations to buy food for those in need and so it cut rations again this month.