african countries 24

Weapons supplies to Libya gets Security Council’s attention

The Security Council has heard that weapons supplies being delivered to Libya by external actors in violation of an arms embargo are either falling into the hands of terrorist groups or being sold to them –with warnings that this was a recipe for disaster.

These were the words of the Secretary General’s Special Representative to Libya who gave a detailed analysis via video link from Tripoli of the precarious state of play on the ground.

Council also heard that there was an increase in the recruitment of foreign mercenaries with appeals to the Council to call on authorities to immediately close African migrant detention centres.

Special Representative Ghassan Salame proposed a triple action for Libya that would require Council consensus.

First, a truce to be declared for the Eid al-Adha which falls around August 10th, following the said truce a high level meeting of concerned countries to cement the cessation and an adherence to international law and third, a Libyan meeting to find a path forward that could lead to the much delayed National Conference.

“The recent uptick in violence may worryingly presage a new phase in the military campaign but I do not judge that this will fundamentally alter the strategic stalemate. The parties still believe they can achieve their objectives through military means. Prime Minister (Fayez) al Serraj and General (Khalifa) Haftar have publicly reaffirmed their commitment to a future political and electoral process but have yet to take practical steps to stop the fighting. The LNA (Libyan National Army) maintains that they will not stop their attack until Tripoli is conquered while the GNA (Govt of National Accord) forces insist they can push General Haftar’s forces back to eastern Libya,” says Salame.

Salame made reference to the July 2nd attack on a migrant detention centre near Tripoli in which 53 people killed and dozens more injured; urging the Council to pressure authorities to free the detainees and to follow a UN plan for an organized and gradual closure of all detention centres in the country.

While weapons continue to flow into Libya in violation of a Security Council arms embargo.

“Even more worrisome are the indications that the arsenal of weapons being delivered by foreign supporters to one side or the other is either falling into the hands of terrorist groups or being sold to them. Some extremist elements have sought to legitimize themselves by joining the battle. This is nothing short of a recipe for disaster, not only for the safety and security of Libyans themselves, but to Libya’s neighbors and international peace and security. It is high time the warring parties cease all hostilities, redeploy their forces, and focus on the common threat before Libya becomes more of a safe haven for terrorist organizations,” adds Salame.

South Africa pledged its support for the work of the UN mediator and reiterated calls for the Libyan National Conference to take place, through Ambassador Jerry Matjila.

“Military solutions may appear to have short-term benefits, but they often do not lead to the lasting peace that is needed. It is of concern that both sides have not agreed to resume the political process. It is South Africa’s belief that compromise from both sides is critical for the de-escalation of tensions to pave the way for the political process to resume as soon as possible,” says Matjila.

The armed conflict has left nearly 1100 dead while hundreds of thousands have fled their homes in the capital and neighbouring districts.

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) says the country’s official unemployment rate has jumped to 29% in the second quarter of the year.

The unemployment rate for females was 31,3% and remains higher than that of males.
The expanded #unemployment rate was up by 0,5 of a percentage point to 38,5% #StatsSA https://t.co/BaZw8eBfVn pic.twitter.com/5wjKYTCxIb

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) July 30, 2019

The unemployment figures were published by Stats SA on Tuesday morning.

South Africa’s #unemployment rate increased to 29,0% in Q2:2019, up by 1,4 percentage points from Q1:2019. This is the highest level recorded since the introduction of the QLFS in 2008. The highest level was 29,3% in March 2003 #StatsSA https://t.co/yyznAhpneT pic.twitter.com/noSNDr00dP

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) July 30, 2019

It’s the highest jobless rate in eleven years.

21 000 more people were employed in Q2:2019 compared with Q1:2019. 16,3 million of the working age population was employed in Q2:2019 #StatsSA https://t.co/BaZw8eBfVn pic.twitter.com/jhnivAV8Y3

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) July 30, 2019

The country’s unemployment rate was 27.6 in the first quarter of this year – from 27.1 in the previous period.

The trade, services & #construction industries recorded the biggest gains in employment while private households, transport & #mining recorded the biggest declines #StatsSA https://t.co/BaZw8eBfVn pic.twitter.com/6dtLDNagze

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) July 30, 2019

There are now 6.7 million unemployed people in South Africa.

The labour force participation rate increased by 0,7 of a percentage point from 59,1% in Q2:2009 to 59,8% in Q2:2019 https://t.co/BaZw8eBfVn pic.twitter.com/UMDinZ6G49

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) July 30, 2019

Eighteen people were killed when a small military plane crashed into a residential area in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi early Tuesday, officials told AFP.

The plane crashed into a poor village near an upscale neighbourhood in the garrison city that is home to the army’s headquarters, creating a fireball that lit up the night sky and terrified residents.

“We have taken 18 dead bodies to hospital… that included 13 civilians and five crew members,” said local rescue spokesman Farooq Butt, adding that a further 12 people had been injured in the accident near the capital Islamabad.

“All the bodies are badly burned, so DNA tests are required for identification,” he added.

One resident told AFP that the crash happened around 2am.

“I woke to the sound of a huge explosion. I stepped out of my house and saw huge flames and we rushed to the site,” said Mohammad Sadiq.

“People were screaming. We tried to help them but the flames were too high and the fire too intense,” he said, adding he believed seven members of one family were among the dead.

Another resident Ghulam Khan said he heard the plane as it buzzed over his house, adding the aircraft appeared to be on fire before it crashed.

“The sound was so scary,” he added.

The military’s information wing said the plane was on a routine training mission when the accident occurred, adding that rescue officials had extinguished the fire caused by the crash and moved the injured to a local hospital.

An AFP reporter at the scene said smoke was still rising from the wreckage and destroyed homes, while pieces of the plane were visible on a nearby roof.

Hours after the crash rescue workers could be seen combing through the smouldering site, gathering debris and inspecting the scene while ambulances swarmed the area.

Military officials had also cordoned off the crash site while a crowd of residents stood nearby, some of them sobbing.

Prime Minister Imran Khan offered his condolences to the affected families and wished a “quick recovery for the injured”, according to a tweet by the Pakistani government.

Pakistan has a chequered aviation safety record, with frequent plane and helicopter crashes over the years.

In 2016, a Pakistan International Airlines plane burst into flames after one of its two turboprop engines failed while travelling from remote northern Pakistan to Islamabad, killing more than 40 people.

The deadliest air disaster on Pakistani soil was in 2010, when an Airbus 321 operated by private airline Airblue and flying from Karachi crashed into the hills outside Islamabad while coming in to land, killing all 152 on board.

On a dusty patch of land on the outskirts of the capital Niamey, Niger’s most famous comedian Mamane shows off a site he says will host a drama school to promote African artists and freedom on a continent rife with corruption and strife.

Largely unknown in the Anglosphere, the performer is famous in French-speaking Africa for the satirical radio show “The Very, Very Democratic Republic of Gondwana” spoofing crooked regimes and the rich nations that prop them up.

Having spent a large part of his career in France, Mamane smiles with pride as he describes plans to construct a drama school that will offer comedy and other entertainment training to Niger’s youth.

“We are all Muslims, Christians — we are human beings — and it will be a school to really learn freedom, the love of life. Living together is what we want,” he said.

Rated by the United Nations as one of the world’s least developed nations, the push to open a drama school is an unusual step in a country better known for its entrenched poverty and jihadist insurgency.

“All that the jihadists don’t like is to see people live, enjoying their freedom to the full. They want to constrain people and lay down the law,” Mamane said.

“This (school) aims to provide jobs to young Africans, giving hope to these young people, telling them that we can create jobs here in Africa,” he said.

It is the latest step in a career that has already won over an international radio audience of some 30 million people, according to a Radio France International estimate, and a switch to the big screen with the 2016 satirical film ‘Bienvenue au Gondwana’ (‘Welcome to Gondwana’).

Like Mamane’s radio work, the movie made fun of an African state whose venal dictator is set on clinging to power.

“Policemen in Africa sometimes call me ‘Mr President'”, Mamane told AFP after being pulled over by a policeman during a routine check on the road and then saluted in jest by the cop who recognised him as the comedian.

“This is African second-degree humour, a way of laughing while criticising the system. It’s a kind of resilience.”

‘Project of my life’

Born in 1966, Mamane spent his formative years living in foreign capitals with six siblings as their father was a career diplomat.

He embarked on a scientific career and moved to France in 1991 to finish a master’s degree in plant physiology.

But once in Paris, the underbelly of power he observed as a child came to the fore as he took to the stage and honed an act known for tackling touchy topics and lambasting African rulers.

Now branching out, Mamane says he plans to take his irreverent stand-up act to the English-speaking world.

“I’m preparing a bilingual show with Anglophone humourists from Nigeria, Cameroon and Rwanda in October,” he told AFP.

“I haven’t played in Anglophone countries yet but it’s my next step.”

But his focus is still on the sandy patch of ground which he says one day will help develop a new generation of Niger comedians.

“This school will grow and it will really be the project of my life,” he said.

The Commission of Inquiry into impropriety at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) will continue to hear testimony on Tuesday from the corporation’s former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dan Matjila.

The commission postponed hearings on Tuesday due to Tshwane bus service employees striking in Pretoria CBD. It was last week granted an extension until the end of October.

Matjila is expected to give the sequence of events that led to the PIC giving Ayo Technologies Solution a R4.3 billion funding facility.

He will also detail the PIC’s involvement in VBS Mutual Bank, which illegally took deposits from municipalities and was looted, allegedly by politically connected people.

The commission has so far heard testimony from 70 witnesses, who have implicated Matjila in wrongdoing.

The commission was expected to have wrapped up at the end of April but was granted another extension until the end of July, which it failed to meet.

President Cyril Ramaphosa instituted a Commission of Inquiry into the PIC to investigate alleged improprieties with the aim of restoring confidence in the corporation.

This will be the fourth week Matjila will continue to give evidence.

Watch a related video below:

[embedded content]

Deadly violence marred the start of Afghanistan’s election season on the weekend after President Ashraf Ghani insisted “peace is coming” to the war-torn nation.

At least 20 people were killed and 50 others wounded on Sunday in an attack targeting the Kabul office of Ghani’s running mate, Amrullah Saleh.

The violence came on the first day of campaigning for the upcoming presidential elections, serving as a grim reminder of Afghanistan’s woeful security situation and the sort of mayhem and murder that have beset previous polls.

The attack began around 4:40pm (1210 GMT), when a huge blast struck near the office of Green Trend, a youth and reform-focussed civil society organisation Saleh heads. He escaped without serious injury, his office said.

The interior ministry said the assault began when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car at the entrance to the building, then three attackers ran inside.

After about six hours the siege ended with all attackers killed and the rescue of about 150 people who had been trapped in the building, according to the interior ministry, which also provided the toll of 20 dead and 50 wounded.

No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Earlier on Sunday, a buoyant Ghani kicked off his campaign by insisting “peace is coming,” after nearly 18 years of conflict, and that pivotal talks with the Islamist extremist Taliban would take place.

He is hoping to fend off challenges from 17 other candidates to score a second term at twice-postponed presidential elections now slated for September 28.

On Saturday Ghani’s peace minister, Abdul Salam Rahimi, said direct talks would take place with the Taliban within two weeks as part of a larger, US-led push for peace.

Such a development could be crucial, as the Taliban – who now control or influence about half of Afghanistan – have so far refused to speak to Ghani’s government. They consider the Kabul administration illegitimate.

War aside, the country faces a host of major issues ahead of the election, including rocketing crime, a lacklustre economy, soaring unemployment, and crumbling infrastructure.

Voters are despondent about the prospects of a fair election. Many worry about a repeat of violent attacks on previous polling stations by the Taliban and other insurgent groups trying to undermine Afghanistan’s fragile democracy.

Ghani insisted this year’s vote would be “clean”, but distrust is rife.

Sayed Jan, a 27-year-old student, said he won’t be voting as he has lost faith since the 2014 election that was mired in allegations of fraud and ballot stuffing.

“We have been betrayed by the candidates in the past. We cannot trust them this time,” he told AFP.

“We need peace in Afghanistan instead of elections. Even if I vote, the election will be fraudulent.”

In Kabul, security forces fanned out across the city as leading candidates held rallies.

Ghani’s top rival is Abdullah Abdullah, who currently serves as the president’s chief executive under an awkward power-sharing arrangement brokered by the US after the 2014 election.

“It is our national and religious duty to take advantage of any opportunities for peace,” Abdullah told a campaign rally.

One crucial issue is that the elections happen at all: they were postponed twice this year and further delays could lead to more distrust.

Despite Ghani’s claim that a summit between his government and the Taliban would take place shortly, the insurgents said they would only talk to Kabul after the US had announced a timeline for a withdrawal of foreign forces – a major part of any deal.

“The Kabul administration will be considered a political side, just like others, and not a government,” Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen wrote in Pashto on Twitter.

Diplomatic sources have told AFP the Afghan-Taliban talks are scheduled to begin in Oslo on August 7.

US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said Saturday that new “intra-Afghan” negotiations would only take place after the US and Taliban had concluded their own agreements.

Washington is hoping for a political agreement with the insurgents ahead of the September presidential election.

Other presidential candidates include Ghani’s former national security advisor Hanif Atmar and former warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, nicknamed the “Butcher of Kabul” for his alleged role in the killing of thousands of people in the capital in the 1990s.

The head of a Sudanese investigation into the violent break up of a protest by security forces said on Saturday that 87 people were killed and 168 wounded in the 3 June incident in Khartoum, citing a higher death toll than previous official estimates.

Fath al-Rahman Saeed, the head of the investigative committee appointed by the public prosecutor, said some members of the security forces fired live ammunition at protesters who were holding a sit-in to demand the military cede power.

He told a news conference that three officers had violated orders by moving forces into the sit-in area outside the Defense Ministry, a focal point for protests that had led to the ouster of long-time President Omar al-Bashir on 11 April.

Saeed said 17 of those killed were in the square occupied by protesters in the worst bout of violence since Bashir was toppled, adding that 48 of the wounded were hit by bullets. An order was also issued to whip protesters, he added.

The Health Ministry had previously put the death toll at 61, while opposition medics have said 127 people were killed and 400 wounded in the dispersal.

“Some outlaws exploited this gathering and formed another gathering in what is known as the Columbia area, where negative and illegal practices took place,” Saeed said.

“It became a security threat, forcing the authorities to make necessary arrangements to clear the area,” he said.

There was no immediate reaction to his comments from the opposition coalition Forces of Freedom and Change, which is negotiating with the ruling military council to finalize an agreement for a three-year transition to elections.

The committee found that some members of the joint force tasked with clearing the Columbia area “exceeded their duties and entered the sit-in square … and fired heavily and randomly”, leading to the killing and wounding of some protesters.

Saeed gave the ranks and initials of eight officers he said had been charged with crimes against humanity, which is punishable by death or life imprisonment under military law. He did not give their full names.

A brigadier general, referred to only as A. A. M., mobilized a riot force of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, on the orders of two senior officers but not members of Sudan’s top leadership, and told them to whip protesters, Saeed said.

Saeed said the committee had not uncovered any incidents of rape, although the US-based Physicians for Human Rights cited local medics as saying women had their clothes torn off and were raped. It was not possible for Reuters to independently verify the reports of rape. Activists say Sudanese women are reluctant to publicly say they were raped to avoid any social sigma. Sudan’s military council, which took power after former military officer Bashir was deposed, has previously denied any rape took place.

Business strategist, Tawanda Dube, says boards at state-owned enterprises (SOE) earmarked for curatorship will become irrelevant once the Chief Restructuring Officers (CRO) are appointed.

Cash-strapped SOEs will now receive financial support from government but with strict conditions.

The Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni is expected to announce CROs for Eskom, Denel, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and South African Airways (SAA) this coming week.

Dube says the officers, who will play the role of a curator, could recommend the privatisation of the SOEs.

“Well the board will obviously have to be affected because it will no longer be the one in control. Once they appoint the curator, that curator now would have control over the boards and would have control over the management. The jobs that are on the line are the management and the boards, but the general employees are protected by the curator. The curator is there to investigate the company affairs and make recommendations, of which privatisation is one of the best possibilities for some of these SOEs.”

Conditions for financing cash-strapped entities

This week, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni told Parliament that Chief Restructuring Officers for several State Owned Enterprises will be announced soon and that government will work with management to ensure the entities get back on track.

National Treasury DG Dondo Mogajane says the revelation of the conditions for financing the cash-strapped entities including Denel and SAA is linked to the announcement of Chief Restructuring Officers to oversee these entities.

“The conditions as I indicated I think we have tied them with the announcement of CROs in terms of the original plan. ”

[embedded content]

Tensions in Indian-administered Kashmir rose Sunday over the weekend deployment of at least 10 000 paramilitary troops to the troubled region despite authorities’ assertions the move was routine.

India maintains a deployment of 500 000 soldiers in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region, which has been divided between the South Asian nation and Pakistan since their split in 1947.

The region has seen a resurgence of hostilities in recent years, while locals are fearful about the loss of special privileges after India’s Supreme Court last year began hearing a case challenging a constitutional provision.

Officials said the movement of troops — set to rise to 20 000 — was to relieve exhausted personnel deployed since local civic polls last year and now monitoring an annual Hindu pilgrimage.

“Troops have been working constantly for seven months. Some have to go on leave and some for training outside,” Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh told AFP.

“We have requisitioned for 200 companies (20 000 troops), more might arrive.”

A senior security official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the deployment was to guard against possible protests about a decision or event, without giving further details.

He added that India’s security set-up in Kashmir was “being re-oriented like never before”.

Locals told AFP they were worried Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government wanted to set aside a constitutional provision — Article 35A — which would allow Indians from outside the disputed territory to buy land there.

The deployment follows the uproar sparked by US President Donald Trump after he claimed during a meeting with Pakistani PM Imran Khan that Modi asked him to mediate in the Kashmir dispute.

India has long insisted the issue can only be resolved bilaterally, and strenuously denied Trump’s claims.

India and Pakistan have been fighting over Kashmir, a part of which is also controlled by China, for decades.

In February, a suicide bombing claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group killed 41 Indian troops in Indian-controlled Kashmir, prompting tit-for-tat airstrikes between the two countries.

India’s part of Kashmir was brought under New Delhi’s direct rule in June 2018 after Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew support for its local partner and dissolved the elected local government.

About 115 people are missing and feared to have drowned and another 134 were rescued by Libyan coast guards and local fishermen after a wooden boat carrying migrants capsized off Libya, a Libyan navy official said on Thursday.

Earlier, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said that up to 150 people were feared dead.

“The worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year has just occurred,” UNHCR head Filippo Grandi said in a tweet.

There were about 250 people on board, mainly from Eritrea and other sub-Saharan Africa and Arab countries, when the boat capsized off the coast near Komas, east of the capital Tripoli, Libyan navy spokesman Ayoub Qassem said.

Libya is a hub for migrants and refugees, many of whom try to reach Europe in unseaworthy boats.

The latest shipwreck takes the death toll of Mediterranean migrants to over 600 this year, putting 2019 on track to be the sixth year in a row with more than 1,000 deaths, UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley said.

“Until we address the reasons why people take these dangerous boat journeys, sadly, this is unlikely to be the last tragedy like this that we see,” he said.

Yaxley said survivors of the wreck were likely to be brought to two detention centers in Libya where they would face further risks, and he called for their immediate release.

“We know that inside these detention centers there’s insufficient food, water, often unsanitary conditions, there have been widespread reports of human rights violations taking place,” he said.

Libya says the migrants are illegally entering and leaving the country. It regularly detains them in centers that the UN says are effectively jails, exposing them to the added risk of being caught up in the country’s civil war.

One detention center in Tripoli was hit by an air strike earlier this month, killing more than 50 people. UNHCR subsequently said it had been closed, but rescued migrants have continued to be sent there.

Human rights activists have accused politicians in the European Union of turning a blind eye and letting people die rather than risk a voter backlash by appearing soft on immigration. Europe struggled to cope with an influx of more than one million refugees and migrants in 2015.

Italy, many African migrants’ intended first destination, has taken a tough line since a populist government took office in 2018, and immediately sought to close the nation’s ports to rescued migrants.

Rating agency Fitch has revised its outlook on South Africa’s credit rating from stable to negative. It, however, affirmed the country’s long-term foreign and local currency debt ratings at sub-investment grade of BB+.

Fitch has raised concerns about the country’s widening budget deficit due to lower GDP growth and increased spending. Market analyst Liston Meintjies says he’s more concerned about the next rating decision by Moody’s , which is the only rating agency that has kept South Africa on an investment grade.

Meintjies says,”When the Minister of Finance said that he was going to give money to Eskom, everybody said the downgrade is coming. The downgrade we should worry about is Moody’s not Fitch…..it places the pressure on Moody’s to say they are going to capitulate and keep us on sub investment grade. That will be really, the serious one.”

Government’s response to the decision below:

Saudi Arabia has banned entry to travellers coming from Democratic Republic of Congo over fears Ebola could spread during next month’s haj pilgrimage.

The decision, announced in a note issued on Wednesday by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, cited last week’s decision by the World Health Organization to declare the Ebola outbreak an international emergency.

The WHO committee, however, had urged countries not to restrict trade or travel.

“The granting of arrivals visas for people entering from DR Chas been stopped, to conserve the wellbeing of pilgrims,” the ministry’s note said.

The outbreak has killed over 1,700 people since it was declared nearly a year ago.

About 3% of Congo’s population is Muslim, according to polling by the New York-based Congo Research Group. People from sub-Saharan Africa make up about 10% of the more than 2 million annual pilgrims to the holy city of Mecca.

Saudi Arabia suspended pilgrimage visas for travellers from Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia during the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak, which killed more than 11,000 people.

Jihadists aligned with the Islamic State group released a video Thursday purporting to show a female aid worker and five male colleagues kidnapped in an attack in northeast Nigeria.

Aid group, Action Against Hunger, said earlier that one of its staff members along with three health workers and two drivers were missing after their convoy was attacked last Thursday near the border with Niger.

In the three-minute video, a woman wearing a bright blue hijab who says she is the abducted aid worker, addresses the camera in English while seated in front of five men she describes as her colleagues.

The footage seen by AFP was released through the same channels as previous videos from the IS-linked Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

An employee at another non-government organisation (NGO) confirmed the identity of the missing aid worker.

The hostages are believed to be held in the ISWAP enclave on the shores of Lake Chad.

Villagers told AFP the kidnapped aid workers were seen with their armed captors passing through the villages of Chamba and Gatafo on the day of their abduction.

ISWAP is a splinter group of Boko Haram that swore allegiance in 2016 to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

It has repeatedly attacked military bases and previously targeted aid workers in northeast Nigeria.

Two female aid workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were murdered by ISWAP last year and an aid worker with the UN children’s agency, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is still being held by the group.

Since 2009 more than 27 000 people have been killed and some two million forced from their homes by the Boko Haram conflict.

Reuel Khoza has been elected the new Public Investment Corporation chairman. This is after cabinet decided the position will no longer be filled by a deputy finance minister.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni earlier inducted the new interim board of the PIC.

The previous board resigned earlier this year following allegations of impropriety against some board members.

Sindi Mabaso-Koyana has been elected the new deputy chairperson.

Earlier, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni says the practice of having a deputy finance minister as the Chair of the PIC has been a bad one and it has now been dealt away with.

The Minister says there is nothing in law that says the Deputy Finance Minister should chair the PIC board of directors.

[embedded content]

Controversial AYO Investment

Meanwhile, the PIC Commission of Inquiry heard on Thursday that the controversial AYO Investment has not performed due to some aspects of the deal not materialising as well as negative media reports.

Former PIC CEO Dr Dan Matjila has refuted allegations that he came back from leave to approve the AYO Technology deal. He says he went back to the office to attend meetings.

He also says the selling of the Anglo shares to fund the AYO deal is nothing unusual nor irregular.

Matjila says he was shocked that after he left the PIC, two officials were suspended following an Internal Audit draft report.

Matjila says the meeting that was supposed to ratify the decision to invest in AYO Technology – instead approved the transaction that was already concluded which was incorrect.

The AYO deal was signed by Matjila and Lebogang Molebatsi, who was the acting head of listed investments before this meeting.

Matjila says he did not rectify this, as he did not think it would be an issue. He will continue giving testimony when the commission of Inquiry resumes next week.

Three bombs rocked the Afghan capital of Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 45, officials said, as the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff was meeting top U.S. and NATO officials in the city.

A suicide bomber blew himself near a minibus carrying employees of the ministry and mines and petroleum, killing five women and a child.

Video footage shared with reporters by security officials showed the bodies of the women and a child lying on the road in the eastern part of city as bystanders tried to help the wounded.

Health officials said at least 20 people were taken to hospital by civilians, some on wheelbarrows.

A second bomb exploded on a road parallel to the site of the bus attack, killing five people and injuring police who were trying to manage the traffic after the first blast. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the two attacks.

The third blast, about three km away, wounded at least 17 civilians. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

The Taliban, fighting to restore strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster at the hands of U.S.-led troops, said their fighters had used a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device to kill nine foreign forces and destroy two vehicles.

On Wednesday, a Croatian soldier serving in Afghanistan was killed and two were seriously wounded in a suicide attack on their convoy outside Kabul, Afghan interior ministry officials said the Taliban have killed or wounded more than 1,000 civilians since April,including more than 150 children.

The attacks came as U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Marine General Joseph Dunford met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the U.S. peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, who is leading talks with militants to end the 18-year-long war.

The United States is trying to negotiate a deal that would see foreign forces pull out of Afghanistan in return for security guarantees by the Taliban, including a pledge that the country will not become a safe haven for terror groups.

About 20,000 foreign troops, most of them American, are in Afghanistan as part of the U.S.-led NATO mission to train,assist and advise Afghan forces.

Some U.S. forces carry outcounter-terrorism operations. Col. Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said the Taliban, despite offering assurances during peace negotiations, continue to target innocent civilians.

Afghan security experts said the insurgents were increasing attacks to gain greater leverage in the peace talks. The eighth round is expected to begin this month in Qatar.

The Taliban also clashed with Afghan forces in northern province of Takhar to secure control over checkpoints and capture several districts. Both sides said that they have inflicted heavy damage on their opponents.

In the eastern province of Nangarhar, a roadside bomb hit a wedding party on Thursday. Six women and three children were killed in the blast in Khogyani district, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement. No group has claimed responsibility for that attack.

Fighting erupted Tuesday near South Sudan’s capital Juba between government forces and militants who have refused to sign a peace deal, a rebel group said.

Security was stepped up in Juba, according to an AFP correspondent, as the clashes broke out 50 miles (100 kilometres) away in Lobonok, the first such fighting so close to the capital since the signing of the peace deal in September.

The National Salvation Front (NAS), formed by ex-general Thomas Cirillo Swaka in 2017 who called for the toppling of President Salva Kiir’s government, said it had come under attack on Tuesday morning.

In a statement the NAS said it had killed eight “enemy soldiers”, which could not be independently confirmed.

“NAS command at Lobonok is expecting more attacks,” said the statement.

Lobonok is near Cirillo’s home town and has long been a stronghold for the rebel group. The last fighting in the area took place in June 2018.

“Since morning we didn’t access our commanders on ground (in Lobonok) and we have no latest information there,” Lul Ruai Koang, South Sudan’s military spokesman told AFP.

However soldiers were deployed in Juba, carrying out more security checks than usual, said AFP correspondent.

South Sudan’s government in September reached a peace deal with the main opposition unit of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement but the NAS rejected the deal.

While peace has largely held across the country, fighting has continued between government troops and the NAS in the Central Equatoria region, particularly around the city of Yei.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said earlier this month that civilians had been “deliberately and brutally targeted” in Central Equatoria since the agreement was inked in September.

At least 104 people had been killed in attacks on villages in the southern region, it said.

A roughly similar number of women and girls were raped or suffered other sexual violence between September and April, UNMISS said in its latest human rights report.

South Sudan descended into war in 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy and fellow former rebel leader Riek Machar of plotting a coup.

The conflict has been marked by ethnic violence and brutal atrocities, and left about 380,000 dead while some four million have fled their homes.

The report identified government forces, fighters allied to Machar and rebel groups who did not sign the peace agreement, as responsible for atrocities in their quest to take territory in Central Equatoria.

Under the peace deal, Kiir agreed to set up a unity government with Machar, who is to return from exile.

However, this new government, initially scheduled to take office on May 12, was postponed for six months.

Beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev said Thursday that profits rose in the second quarter as it achieved its best volume sales performance in five years.

The Belgian-Brazilian group, which owns some 500 beer brands including Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Corona, said in a statement that its bottom-line net profit rose by 14 percent to $2.47 billion in the period from April to June.

While revenues were stable at $13.96 billion, sales volumes grew by 2.1 percent, “driven by strong performances in many of our key markets including Mexico, Brazil, Europe, South Africa, Nigeria, Australia, and Colombia,” the statement said.

“In the second quarter of 2019, we achieved our best volume performance in more than five years, contributing to a strong top line and (operating) performance,” AB InBev said.

The beverages group, which acquired its nearest rival SABMiller in 2016, said its decision to focus on premium brands was paying off.

“Premiumization remains a significant opportunity and a critical component of our strategy to deliver sustainable top and bottom-line growth,” the group said.

“We continue to lead the way globally with our unparalleled portfolio of premium brands.”

Nevertheless, the purchase of SABMiller has left AB InBev with a lasting hangover – $104.2 billion in debt, which forced the brewer to announce the sale of its Australian activities last week to Japanese group Asahi Holdings for $11.3 billion.

“We expect to deliver further progress on our deleveraging path by the end of 2019,” AB InBev said.

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday told a dramatic US congressional hearing he had not exonerated President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice and indicated he would have sought his indictment were it not for a Justice Department policy against bringing charges against a sitting president.

Mueller, answering questions publicly for the first time on his inquiry, also defended the integrity of his investigation as he appeared for eagerly anticipated testimony at the first of two back-to-back televised congressional hearings that carry high stakes for Trump and Democrats who are split between impeaching him or moving on to the 2020 election.

The former FBI director, who spent 22 months investigating what he concluded was Russian interference in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” in the 2016 US election to help Trump and the president’s conduct, appeared first before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.

The committee’s Democratic chairman, Jerrold Nadler, praised Mueller and said no one, including Trump, is “above the law.”

But Trump’s Republican allies on the committee tried to paint Mueller’s investigation as unfair to the president, with Louie Gohmert heatedly telling him “you perpetuated injustice” and conservative congressman Guy Reschenthaler calling the manner in which the inquiry was conducted “un-American.”

Mueller’s 448-page report, released in redacted form on April 18, did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice in a series of actions aimed at impeding the inquiry, but did not exonerate him.

Democratic Representative Ted Lieu asked Mueller if the reason he did not bring a criminal indictment against Trump was the Justice Department’s longstanding policy crafted by its Office of Legal Counsel against bringing criminal charges against a sitting president.

“That is correct,” Mueller said. Trump has claimed that the Mueller inquiry resulted in the president’s “complete and total exoneration.”

“Did you actually totally exonerate the president?” Nadler asked Mueller. “No,” Mueller replied.

Mueller’s then-spokesman Peter Carr and Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec issued a joint statement on May 29 saying that Attorney General William Barr had previously stated that Mueller “repeatedly affirmed that he was not saying that, but for the OLC (Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel) opinion, he would have found the President obstructed justice.” Asked at the hearing whether he stood by that May 29 statement, Mueller said, “I would have to look at it more closely.”

Mueller, accused by Trump of heading a “witch hunt” and trying to orchestrate a “coup” against the Republican president,said his inquiry was conducted in “a fair and independent manner” and that members of the special counsel’s team “were of the highest integrity.”

Trump has accused Mueller of having conflicts of interest, including saying Mueller wanted the president to appoint him as FBI director after firing James Comey.

Mueller disputed Trump’s account, saying he had not sought the FBI job from Trump. Mueller noted that Justice Department ethics officials confirmed he had no such conflicts.

“Let me say one more thing,” Mueller said.

“Over the course of my career, I have seen a number of challenges to our democracy. The Russian government’s effort to interfere with our election is among the most serious.”

The interrogation of Mueller, a reluctant witness who appeared only after being subpoenaed, afforded an opportunity for Americans, who may not have pored over the lengthy and sometimes dense report, to hear his conclusions in a highly charged hearing scheduled by Democrats, with Trump running for re-election in 2020.

‘A LITTLE FAST’

Mueller, 74, was surrounded by news photographers as he took his place in the packed hearing room, showing little apparent emotion as he scanned the scene.

Mueller faced a series of rapid-fire questions from lawmakers in both parties, several times asking them to repeat their questions and often referring them to the text of the report itself. Some Republicans interrupted Mueller as he was trying to answer questions.

“That went a little fast for me,” Mueller told Doug Collins,the committee’s top Republican, at one point. Mueller avoided being drawn into arguments with Republicans who hammered away at his inquiry, often frustrating lawmakers with responses such as “I am not going to get into that.”

“And if I can finish,” Mueller told Republican Matt Gaetz after the congressman interrupted him. In a comment sure to disappoint Republicans, Mueller said he would not answer questions about the origins of the Russia probe in the FBI before he was named to take over the inquiry in 2017 or about a controversial dossier compiled by a former British intelligence agent.

Republicans have tried to portray the investigation as a politically motivated attack on Trump cooked up by Democrats and various enemies.

Mueller was set to testify later in the day before the House Intelligence Committee. Democrats control the House, while Trump’s fellow Republicans control the Senate.

Democrats entered the hearings hoping his testimony would rally public support behind their own ongoing investigations of the president and his administration.

Democrats are deeply divided over whether to launch the impeachment process set out in the US Constitution for removing a president from office for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Mueller’s inquiry detailed numerous contacts between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia at a time when the Kremlin was interfering in the 2016 US election with a scheme of hacking and propaganda to sow discord among Americans and boost Trump’s candidacy.

Mueller’s investigative report said the inquiry found insufficient evidence to establish that Trump and his campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia.

‘NOT EXCULPATED’

Democrats focused on five actions by Trump that Mueller had investigated as potential obstruction of justice, including atone point telling his White House counsel to remove the special counsel.

“Obstruction of justice strikes at the core of the government’s efforts to find the truth and to hold wrongdoers accountable,” Mueller testified.

Under questioning by Nadler, Mueller acknowledged that there port detailed “multiple acts by the president that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian interference and obstruction investigations.”

“Well, the finding indicates … that the president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed,” Mueller told Nadler.

Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee,subsequently cleared the president of obstruction of justice after receiving Mueller’s report.

In his opening statement, Mueller reiterated that his team had decided not to make a determination on the question of obstruction.

“Based on Justice Department policy and principles of fairness, we decided we would not make a determination as towhether the president committed a crime. That was our decision then and remains our decision today,” Mueller said.

Nadler said in his opening statement that Mueller conducted the inquiry with “remarkable integrity” and was “subjected to repeated and grossly unfair personal attacks.”

“Although department policy barred you from indicting the president for this conduct, you made clear that he is not exonerated. Any other person who acted in this way would have been charged with crimes. And in this nation, not even the president is above the law,” Nadler said.

Republican congressman John Ratcliffe accused Mueller of exceeding his authority in the report’s extensive discussion of potential obstruction of justice by Trump after the special counsel made the decision not to draw a conclusion on whether Trump committed a crime.

Ratcliffe agreed that Trump was not above the law, but said the president should not be “below the law” either.

Republican Collins said the facts of the Mueller report are that “Russia meddled in the 2016 election. The president did not conspire with Russians. Nothing we hear today will change those facts.”

“The president watched the public narrative surrounding the investigation assume his guilt while he knew the extent of his innocence,” Collins said.

“The president’s attitude towards the investigation was understandably negative, yet the president did not use his authority to close the investigation.”

Republican Representative Steve Chabot said Wednesday’shearing was the “last, best hope” by Democrats “to build up some sort of groundswell across America to impeach President Trump. That’s what this is really all about today.”

Chabot also told Mueller some people thought his report was “a pretty one-sided attack on the president.” Republican Representative James Sensenbrenner noted that Mueller’s report never referred to actions by Trump as potentially impeachable conduct.

Before the hearing, Trump complained on Twitter that Mueller had not investigated various of the president’s foes including 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and,referring to the former special counsel, “HIMSELF.”

During the hearing, Trump posted a tweet that quoted a Fox News anchor ascalling the hearing a “disaster” for Democrats and Mueller’s reputation.

Mueller’s investigation led to criminal charges against 34 people and three Russian entities. People who were convicted attrial or pleaded guilty included Trump’s former campaign chairman and other aides.

With a no-nonsense reputation, Mueller is a Marine Corps combat veteran from the Vietnam War who later served as a federal prosecutor and became the architect of the modern FBI after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Mueller served as FBI director from 2001 to 2013 under presidents in both parties.

Armed gangs have killed a soldier and 18 civilians, including two children, in machete and gun attacks in volatile northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), officials said Tuesday.

Overnight, nine civilians were killed and four injured at Oicha Mabasele near the city of Beni by attackers linked to the Islamist-rooted ADF militia group, regional administrator Donat Kibwana told AFP.

At the same time, three civilians were killed, also by suspected ADF members, in nearby in Eringeti, he said.

Dozens of militias operate in the North and South Kivu provinces of DRC, a vast country the size of western continental Europe.

The ADF, a group that arose in western Uganda in 1995, has been blamed for massacring hundreds of civilians, killing UN peacekeepers and DRC troops, and for a number of kidnappings of medical and other staff.

The army confirmed the attacks Tuesday and said it was hunting the assailants, but locals were critical.

“We alerted the authorities about the presence of the ADF near Oicha several weeks ago,” said local representative Noella Muliwavyio, adding the population has been “thrown into panic.”

Resident Pascal Soli, a nurse, said he fled with his four children to the local hospital to hide when the shots rang out, and later found out his neighbour had been “slaughtered.”

Several inhabitants of Oicha have fled their homes to the city of Beni, witnesses told AFP.

In neighbouring Ituri province, a soldier and six civilians were killed Tuesday in a machete attack by a militia fleeing an army offensive.

“Militia attacked the village of Fichama at dawn, killing seven people including a soldier,” military spokesperson Jules Tshikudi told AFP.

The attackers were armed with arrows and machetes, regional administrator Adel Alingi said.

President Felix Tshisekedi visited the volatile province earlier in July and ordered the army to launch a “large-scale” operation against militias there.

Local authorities say at least 160 civilians have been killed in Ituri since 10 June in clashes between armed groups.

The instability has forced more than 300 000 people to flee their homes, according to the UN refugee agency.

Ituri and neighbouring North Kivu province are also trying to roll back an epidemic of Ebola that has claimed more than 1 700 lives since August 2018.

National Treasury says the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has been given eleven conditions to comply with before it can get financial support from the government. Some of these conditions have been met.

Treasury’s Director-General Dondo Mogajane says the conditions were stipulated in a letter to the SABC in April. Those conditions include identifying non-core assets and getting rid of them and leasing non-performing assets, as well as filling vacancies on the board.

The SABC may be getting a financial lifeline to avoid a blackout. However, the public broadcaster must comply with eleven conditions.

Mogajane says the conditions included reducing expenditure, maximising revenue and reviewing costly content.

“For us to pass any portion of the R3.2 billion, we’ll have to be satisfied that they have met certain conditions and we know they are meeting some of them… Parliament has done that. As part of my 11 conditions, make sure you identify non-core functions and activities and get rid of them, stop them, including non-performing sectors of the SABC; list them. So all of those things are part of these things as we disburse, essentially it would be part of the R3.2 billion because the total is for R3.2 billion.”

Chief Restructuring Officers

On Eskom, calls for strict conditions for the disbursement of R59 billion to Eskom over the next two years.

DA’s Dennis Ryder says, “We as the Appropriations Committee are best placed to insist that some sort of conditions can be attached to these disbursements. And if there are conditions, it should be made clear to us so that we understand and we should be taken on board.

ANC’s Yunus Carrim says “We need a clearer set of conditions. We cannot understand why DG with due respect the Chief Restructuring Officers announced in the House yesterday, why does it have to take an extra day. I mean surely you knew for weeks now so I mean that’s not acceptable by any measure.”

Mogajane says the appointment of Chief Restructuring Officers is urgent.

“Unfortunately as Honourable Carrim said it’s unacceptable I agree. As the executive, we must firm up and make known the Chief Restructuring Officers, not only Eskom, but also these other state owned companies that are part and parcel of this list whether it’s Denel, SABC and SAA.

For Eskom, Mogajane says the Chief Restructuring Officer will have to oversee four issues. These include the unbundling of the power utility into three divisions, reviewing the funding model, rationalising top management and restructuring debt.

Click below for more on the story:

[embedded content]

President Donald Trump on Tuesday sued to block a U.S. House of Representatives committee from obtaining his New York state tax returns, with his lawyer accusing the Democratic-controlled panel of “presidential harassment.”

In a filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Trump’s lawyers argued that a law passed by New York state earlier this month that would give the House Ways and Means Committee access to the president’s state tax returns violates his constitutional rights.

New York’s law “was enacted to retaliate against the President because of his policy positions, his political beliefs, and his protected speech, including the positions he took during the 2016 campaign,” the filing said.

It cited a media report that the House panel’s chairman, Democratic Representative Richard Neal, is mulling making a request under the law, which New York could nearly instantaneously fulfill. “President Trump was thus forced to bring this lawsuit to safeguard his legal rights,” his lawyers wrote.

A spokeswoman for the committee did not respond to a request for comment.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement she was confident the state’s law was legal. “We will vigorously defend it against any court challenge,” she said.

A lawyer for Trump, Jay Sekulow, called the effort to obtain Trump’s state tax returns “presidential harassment” and accused the House committee and New York state officials of seeking “political retribution” against Trump.

Traditionally, U.S. presidential candidates have released their federal tax returns on the campaign trail. But Trump has repeatedly refused to do so, citing audits.

The House committee has sought Trump’s federal returns to shed light on his business dealings.

The Treasury Department has denied the committee’s request, despite a federal law that says the department “shall furnish” such records to the panel if requested. The Treasury Department said the committee had no legitimate purpose for reviewing Trump’s returns.

The committee filed a lawsuit earlier this month seeking to compel the department to hand over six years of Trump’s individual and business federal tax returns.

Neal has expressed caution about using the New York law to obtain Trump’s state returns, saying it could harm efforts to get the president’s federal returns through the lawsuit.

Zimbabwean Vice President, Constantino Chiwenga has been flown to China to receive medical treatment. He had receiving treatment in a South African hospital earlier this month.

The Zimbabwean government has not disclosed Chiwenga’s illness or his current state of being.

In a statement, the government says that medical experts from South Africa, India and now China will be attending to the Vice President Chiwenga. They say he will undergo further medical tests as part of his treatment.

Chiwenga, a former military general, led the 2017 military operation which led to the resignation of former President Robert Mugabe.

“Operation Restore Legacy” as it was called saw the army take over the capital city Harare and the state broadcaster.

Chiwenga led talks with Mugabe that convinced him to step down after 37 years.

The operation helped Emmerson Mnangagwa become President after he had been fired by Mugabe in 2017.

Mnangagwa then appointed Chiwenga as his Deputy President.

Watch video below:
[embedded content]

Delegates at the Allan Gray Investment Summit in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, have heard that South Africa still presents attractive investment opportunities despite the tough economic environment.

They also heard that South Africa’s subdued economic growth, the stubbornly high unemployment rate and government debt levels have resulted in a reluctance to investment.

However, these should be viewed as short-term challenges.

Experts have lauded the new administration under President Cyril Ramaphosa for its efforts to improve governance at key state institutions and say this will raise confidence among investors.

A Chief Economist at Stanlib Kevin Lings says corporate and government bonds are some example of alternative investments.

“There are investment opportunities. It’s not as if there’s nothing to invest in. If you invest in the South African bond, the yield of that sits at round 8,5 % which effectively means if you hold that to maturity, your return on that will be around 8,5%. If your Fund Manager is a little bit skilled maybe he can get that at round 9 percent. That is a very decent return and I think it suggest a low risk investment that you can put in your portfolio.”

[embedded content]

Hindrance for investment

However, Lings warns that the lack policy certainty still remains a hindrance for investment into the country.

“There are many areas that government has put on the table but not clarified, and a couple of them are fairly obvious. The land expropriation is probably critical, the way in which we deal with National Health Insurance is also key; the way in which we deal with spectrum is going to be quite critical. The way in which we finance and deal with Eskom, I think, is absolutely critical,” says Lings.

Lings puts the local economic growth at 0.4% compared to its emerging market pair China, which he says is growing at 15%.

According to him, the economic climate is going to remain challenging in the next two to three years. This as the country comes to grips with the extent of the damage inflicted over the last nine years.

Lings expects business confidence to improve over the coming years following the appointment of key individuals into cabinet. -Additional reporting by Mbalenhle Mthethwa

Theresa May had a mission to fight Britain’s “burning injustices” through strong and stable leadership, but her legacy as prime minister will be anything but.

The Conservative premier’s turbulent time in office was swamped and ultimately sunk by her legacy-defining battle to secure a Brexit divorce deal.

It eroded her authority and led her to step down as leader, with the keys to Downing Street set to be handed to Boris Johnson on Wednesday after a month-long contest to replace May.

May won praise for her determination and ability to survive a rolling three-year political crisis since the referendum vote to leave the European Union.

But her approach to the Brexit endgame, refusing to accept MPs’ trenchant opposition to her deal before belatedly opening ultimately futile negotiations with the Labour main opposition, left May politically adrift.

In a forlorn bid in March to appease the most ardent Eurosceptic MPs in her party, May, 62, offered to resign if they finally approved her deal.

But several dozen rebelled anyway, consigning it to a third defeat in parliament and leaving her premiership mortally weakened.

She was forced by her party to agree to set out a timetable for her departure, but asked for time to give lawmakers a fourth chance to vote on the agreement in early June.

However, her own MPs’ patience ran out and she was forced in May to name the date of her departure, triggering the fevered leadership race to replace her.

“She has failed,” said Simon Usherwood, from the University of Surrey’s politics department. “There’s very little to commend her. She doesn’t really have a legacy.”

May’s last major act as leader was to welcome US President Donald Trump on a state visit to Britain, but symbolic of their fractious relationship, the two still had time for one last falling out.

The president tweeted that May had made “a mess” of Brexit, while the prime minister slammed his recent controversial comments against US congresswomen of colour as “completely unacceptable.”

The daughter of a Church of England vicar, May was born on 1 October 1956 in Eastbourne, a seaside town in southern England where her father was a chaplain at the local hospital. She has described herself in interviews as a “goody two-shoes” whose Protestant faith defined her upbringing.

She listened to cricket matches on the radio with her father, watching from the stands last week as England won their first World Cup, and knew that she wanted to become a politician when she was just 12.

May studied geography and met her husband Philip at Oxford University before joining the Bank of England. The two never had children and May devoted herself to a life of public service that saw her become Conservative Party chairwoman in 2002.

May made her first splash by telling an annual conference that the Conservatives would have to shed their image as “the nasty party” if they wanted to unseat then-popular Labour premier Tony Blair. But a 2010-16 stint as home secretary saw May adopt isolationist rhetoric that included a vow to create “a really hostile environment for illegal migration.”

She became prime minister in the aftermath of the 2016 Brexit referendum which swept away her predecessor David Cameron. She took office pledging to fight the “burning injustices” in British society, but made little headway as her entire premiership became dominated by the Brexit drama.

Despite having made a cautious case to stay in the EU, May embraced the cause with the mantra “Brexit means Brexit.”

Her promise to leave the EU’s institutions and end free movement of workers delighted Eurosceptic MPs, but caused dismay among many pro-Europeans.

The splits in her Conservative Party became a serious problem after a disastrous snap election in June 2017, when she lost her parliamentary majority.

May was forced to strike a deal for support with Northern Ireland’s pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party and struggled to keep her party and its allies together.

Naturally reserved, she failed to engage with voters in the 2017 campaign and was dubbed the “Maybot” after churning out the same soundbites over and over again.

May was written off several times before announcing on 24 May that she would step down. Columnist Matthew Parris, a former Conservative MP, called her the “zombie prime minister” for her ability to stagger on despite multiple attacks.

She survived a no-confidence vote and the resignations of a string of high-profile Brexit supporters. But ultimately her closed style of leadership and Brexit gridlock in parliament doomed her premiership.

“It’s hard to think of a Tory politician who would have been the perfect PM in such circumstances,” Tim Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, told AFP. “But it’s just as hard to think of anyone who would have been much worse than her.”

At least seven fighters loyal to Libyan National Army (LNA) forces commanded by Khalifa Haftar were killed overnight in a drone strike in southern Tripoli, a military source said.

Eastern-based LNA had downed a drone on Sunday in Tripoli’s southern suburb of Ain Zara, it said without elaborating.

In the latest turmoil since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Haftar LNA has been unable to take Tripoli from the internationally recognised government despite fighting that has caused havoc in the capital’s southern suburbs and displaced tens of thousands of civilians.

South Korea’s largest automaker, Hyundai Motor, saw net profit pick up by almost a quarter in April-June thanks to its sport utility vehicles (SUV) and weak won.

Net profit during the period rose 23.3% on-year to 999 billion won ($847 million), the firm said in a statement, sustaining its earning streak from the first three months of the year.

The January-March reading marked a recovery for Hyundai after it posted its first quarterly loss in eight years.

The latest increase was “driven by improved product mix with new SUV models” and came despite “the sluggish global economic growth” fuelled by the China-US trade row, the company said.

The “currency impact” of the weaker South Korean won also contributed to the improved bottom line, it added.

“The company will further streamline production, sales and other capabilities in its regional headquarters to better tailor products and services,” it said, adding it will roll out the first SUV line-up of its Genesis brand later in the year to continue its “SUV-centred sales”.

The company’s operating profit jumped 30% on-year to 1.24 trillion won, while revenues rose 9.1%.

Shares in the firm closed down 1.1%.

Japan’s ruling coalition has retained its grip on the country’s upper house, but failed to secure a “supermajority” that would ease the path to constitutional reform, results showed on Monday.

The outcome of Sunday’s election means Shinzo Abe remains on track to become the country’s longest-serving Prime Minister later this year, and shores up his mandate ahead of a tax hike in October.

He fell short, however, of achieving a “supermajority” of two-thirds of the seats in the upper house, a result that could have helped him achieve a long-running goal of amending the country’s pacifist Constitution.

But, experts said that since many within Abe’s coalition are uneasy about the plans, the failure to secure a supermajority was unlikely to change the Prime Minister’s calculations significantly.

“Losing the supermajority is not necessarily a major setback for Abe,” wrote analyst Tobias Harris of the Teneo consultancy group in a note.

“Instead, by leading the ruling coalition to another national election victory – his sixth in his nearly seven years as LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) leader – Abe has cemented his status atop Japan’s political system,” Harris added.

Abe’s LDP and its coalition partner Komeito took 71 of the 124 seats up for grabs in Sunday’s vote, accounting for about half of the upper chamber.

The two parties already control 70 seats in the other half of the 245-seat chamber that was not being contested.

Analysts said Abe’s coalition has benefitted from a weak opposition, and voter turnout underscored apathy in the electorate, falling below 50 percent for the first time since a 1995 upper house election.

Abe has long harboured dreams of revising the constitution, which prohibits the country from waging war and maintaining a military.

But public support for revising the document is low and there is discomfort with the idea even among the ruling coalition.

Abe’s win is likely however to shore up his support ahead of a controversial hike of the consumption tax to 10 percent later this year, as well as trade negotiations with Washington.

Battle for change far from over for women in new Sudan

She may have spent 40 days in jail for demonstrating against President Omar al-Bashir who has since been toppled, but activist Amani Osmane says the battle for women’s rights in Sudan is far from over.

Women have been at the forefront of the revolt which led to Bashir’s overthrow by the military on April 11 after three decades of iron-fisted rule.

Osmane, who is also a lawyer, was detained on the evening of January 12 and escorted to “the fridge”, a grim room where interrogations are paired with extreme cold.

“There are no windows, nothing, just air conditioning at full blast and the lights on 24/7,” she told AFP.

The fridge is part of a detention centre run by the all-powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in a building on the Blue Nile that runs through Khartoum.

Dozens of activists and political opponents of Bashir’s regime have passed through what NISS agents cynically refer to as “the hotel”.

Osmane, who spent 40 days behind bars after a frigid seven hours of questioning, said she was arrested “contrary to all laws… because I stand up for women in a country where they have no rights”.

Another activist, Salwa Mohamed, 21, took part each day in protests at a camp outside the army headquarters in central Khartoum that became the epicentre of the anti-Bashir revolt.

Her aim was “to have the voice of women heard” in a Muslim country where she “cannot go out alone, study abroad or dress the way I want”.

Student Alaa Salah emerged as a singing symbol of the protest movement after a picture of her in a white robe leading chanting crowds from atop a car went viral on social media.

Portraits of Salah – dubbed “Kandaka”, or Nubian queen, online – have sprouted on murals across Khartoum, paying tribute to the prominent role played by women in the revolt.

Unrest which has gripped Sudan since bread riots in December that led to the anti-Bashir uprising left scores dead.

Doctors linked to the protest movement say that 246 people have been killed since the nationwide uprising erupted, including 127 people on June 3 when armed men raided the protest camp in Khartoum.

On Wednesday, protesters and the generals who took over from Bashir finally inked a deal that aims to install a civilian administration, a key demand of demonstrators since his fall three months ago.

The accord stipulates that a new transitional ruling body be established, comprised of six civilians and five military representatives.

A general will head the ruling body during the first 21 months of a transition, followed by a civilian for the remaining 18 months, according to the framework agreement.

“We will no longer wait for our rights, we will fight to obtain them,” said Osmane, stressing that women wanted 40 percent of seats in parliament.

Amira Altijani, a professor of English at the all-female Ahfad University in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city, said: “This movement is an opportunity for women to have their voice heard.”

For Osmane, Bashir “hijacked” sharia laws for three decades to oppress women.

“But a new Sudan is rising, with a civilian government that will allow equality,” she said.

British Airways has suspended flights to Cairo for seven days as a precautionary measure following a security review. The airline made the announcement on Saturday.

German carrier Lufthansa also said it was suspending flights to Cairo from Munich and Frankfurt just for Saturday without giving any reason.

A Lufthansa spokesperson said normal service should return on Sunday. The British flag carrier said it would not operate its aircraft unless it felt it was safe to do so.

“We constantly review our security arrangements at all our airports around the world, and have suspended flights to Cairo for seven days as a precaution to allow for further assessment,” the airline said in a statement.

“The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our priority, and we would never operate an aircraft unless it was safe to do so.”

Egypt’s civil aviation ministry said it was “coordinating” with the British embassy in Cairo and the local BA representative and starting an extra EgyptAir flight to London every day to carry stranded passengers.

Some affected passengers posted pictures on social media appearing to show a letter handed out by BA with a similar message.

A spokesperson for the airline said it could not immediately offer more information about the suspensions.

In its travel advice for British nationals heading to Egypt, the Foreign Office in London warns: “There’s a heightened risk of terrorism against aviation.

“Additional security measures are in place for flights departing from Egypt to the UK. You should co-operate fully with security officials at airports.”

Britain advises against all but essential travel by air to or from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai peninsula.

“Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Egypt. Although most attacks occur in North Sinai, there is a risk of terrorist attacks across the country,” Britons are warned.

“Terrorists in Egypt likely maintain the intent and capability to target aviation. The greatest threat is on the Sinai peninsula where Daesh operate with greater freedom, but terrorists are active in mainland Egypt, including Cairo.”

The Foreign Office warns that it “can’t offer advice on the safety of individual airlines”.

An estimated 415 000 British nationals visited Egypt in 2018.

Britain cancelled flights to Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh in 2015 after jihadists bombed a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from the Red Sea resort, killing more than 220 people on board.

A female suicide bomber killed six people, including two policemen, in Pakistan’s restive northwest on Sunday in an attack claimed by the Taliban, officials said.

The attack happened at the entrance of a hospital in Kotlan Saidan village on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan.

District police chief Salim Riaz told AFP that police were helping move the bodies of two of their colleagues who had been shot dead by militants on Saturday when the suicide bomber struck.

“The female bomber, aged around 28 years, came on foot and blew herself up, killing two policemen and four civilians and wounding 13 others,” he said.

The injured included eight policemen and five civilians.

Another local police official, Malik Habib, confirmed the attack and casualty figures and said officers later recovered the mutilated head of the bomber.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Muhammad Khurasani claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to local media.

Pakistan has seen an improvement in security in recent years, but low-level attacks are still carried out with devastating regularity – often targeting security forces in the northwest and the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Insurgents have kidnapped at least one person working for an international aid organisation, Action Against Hunger, in north-eastern Nigeria, sources said on Friday.

The abduction comes nine months after Islamic State’s West Africa branch executed a Red Cross aid worker who was kidnapped from another town in north-eastern Nigeria in March 2018.

The cases raise concerns about the targeting of humanitarian staff in the region’s decade-long insurgency, triggered by Boko Haram militants.

In the latest attack, the assailants killed a driver and abducted six or seven others travelling in a convoy on Thursday near the town of Damasak in the north-eastern state of Borno, the sources said.

The sources gave varying details on how many of the abducted were working for Action Against Hunger, with numbers ranging from one to four people.

It was not immediately clear whether any of those kidnapped were foreigners.

Action Against Hunger declined to provide immediate comment.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) will not be scrapped.

He was replying to a call by Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane to stop BBBEE during Thursday’s debate of the Presidency’s budget vote in the National Assembly.

Ramaphosa says while redress is slow, too many black people have benefited from this policy for it to be scrapped.

He says, “Honorable Maimane we are not going to scrap BBBEE, it has contributed to significant growth of black middle class, to improvement in equity and enabled black people and women to become owners of businesses.”

The fundamental objective of BBBEE is to advance economic transformation and enhance the economic participation of black people in the economy.

Click below to watch a discussion on BEE held earlier this year.
[embedded content]

Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi denied on Friday having lost any drone recently and hinted that the US could have downed their own “by mistake.”

“We have not lost any drone in the Strait of Hormuz nor anywhere else. I am worried that USS Boxer has shot down their own UAS by mistake!” Araghchi tweeted, after the United States claimed it downed an unmanned Iranian aircraft.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday an American naval vessel downed an Iranian drone that threatened the ship as it was entering the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Trump announced that the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, “took defensive action” against the Iranian aircraft as it was “threatening the safety of the ship and the ship’s crew.”

The drone was “immediately destroyed” after it approached within 1,000 yards (914 meters) of the Boxer, Trump said.

Tehran’s top diplomat, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told reporters Thursday he had “no information about losing a drone today,” as he arrived at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The apparent confrontation between the two foes comes after Tehran last month shot down an American surveillance drone it said was flying in its airspace, a claim denied by the United States.

We have not lost any drone in the Strait of Hormuz nor anywhere else. I am worried that USS Boxer has shot down their own UAS by mistake!

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) July 19, 2019

It’s the second day of the DELTAS Africa scientific conference in Dakar, Senegal.

On Wednesday, young African scientists and researchers spent the day presenting results of some of their work. The conference is showcasing Africa’s bid to train its health research experts.

While working as a nurse in a local hospital in Malawi, Kwanjo Banda noticed that patients with diabetes did not adhere to advice on healthy diets – key in controlling complications associated with the disease. She decided to conduct research on just the trend.

Researcher Kwanjo Banda says, “It’s because of the Westernisation, and coming from a background of food insecurity, where people find that fast foods or unhealthy foods as a sign of achievement in life. So, they want to eat all the unhealthy foods they have been admiring previously.”

Her research work was made possible by a grant provided by Carta Africa, a research consortium based in Kenya and South Africa, which is partly funded through Deltas Africa – a $100 million programme supporting Africa-led development of researchers from the continent.

“It’s not only the money, but the skills and expertise and research that has been impacted in me,” Banda added.

In Nigeria, Dr Adesola Olumide wanted to know if indeed the mobile phone was the best way of communicating health messages to adolescents. It turned out that unlike popular belief many did not have mobile phones.

“It shows that for very young adolescents you need of other methods of reaching them.”

While in Kenya, Dr. Sophie Uyoga, chose to look at the quality of blood that is used for transfusion in Sub Saharan Africa. Her work focused on Malawi, Kenya and Uganda.

“My interest in this is because there is no evidence from a local setting on who needs blood and what type of products we use and what is good for us. And also, there is very little research on the quality of blood. So, we hope that we will be able to generate evidence for transfusion services.”

[embedded content]

Previous research on the same has been conducted in developed countries. There is no data on the situation in Africa, according to Dr Uyoga.

“We need our own local governments to invest more in transfusion services and the only way we can convince local governments is by generating data that is relevant to us and we have to be the ones that generate that data because policymakers cannot make those decisions if they do not have evidence.”

In Dakar, the young researchers have a chance to share their research findings with their peers. For many, however, the Deltas Africa program is more than just a chance to conduct research. It is a chance to interact and learn from some of the best brains the continent has.

University of Wits PhD Candidate Somefun Oluwaseyi says, “The mentoring we have right now. We still have people from the north mentoring people here. Mentoring within Africa is not that big, which is why this research is important to draw the attention of young scholars, like me, that it is possible for us to mentor other people.”

[embedded content]

Former Public Investment Corporation (PIC) CEO, Dr Dan Matjila has denied receiving R5 million cash from VBS in return for facilitating funding for the now defunct mutual bank.

The claim was made in the Great Bank Heist report compiled on the looting that led to the collapse of the bank.

Advocate Terry Motau was the main author of the investigation, commissioned by the Prudential Authority of the Reserve Bank.

Motau said that he could not make any “definitive finding” whether the R5 million was paid to Matjila.

Matjila says the claim of the R5 million payment was made up by two VBS executives. He says he welcomes a further investigation as Motau recommended.

Despite the PIC having seconded employees, Paul Magula and Ernest Nesane, as board members to VBS, Vele Investment became a major shareholder without the PIC’s knowledge.

Matjila says by the time he left, the PIC had started setting up an investigation into employees’s role in the VBS collapse.

Matjila denies discussing or agreeing to an origination fee to be paid to Kholofelo Maponya of Matome Maponya Investments in the SA Homeloans transaction.

Maponya allegedly demanded R95 million if the PIC were to grant SA Homeloans’s application for credit facilities.

He claimed R45 million for facilitating the initial R9 billion was already granted and R50 million would be a percentage of the R10 billion requested by SA Homeloans.

Matjila will continue giving testimony next week. He’s expected to deal with issues involving the Sekunjalo group companies, including Ayo Technology, Sargamatha and Independent Media.

african countries 24

Weapons supplies to Libya gets Security Council’s attention

SA unemployment rate jumps to 29%

18 killed as Pakistan army plane crashes into residential area

African satirist Mamane plans drama school to promote ‘freedom’

‘Project of my life’

Dan Matjila to continue testimony at PIC Inquiry

20 dead as violence mars Afghanistan’s election season

Sudan says 87 killed when security forces broke up protest in June

Boards at SOEs will be irrelevant once CROs are appointed: Analyst

Deployment of 10 000 fresh troops sparks fear in Indian Kashmir

115 feared dead after worst Mediterranean shipwreck of the year

Fitch revises its outlook on SA’s credit rating from stable to negative

Saudi Arabia bans travellers from Congo before haj over Ebola fears

Nigeria jihadists release video of kidnapped aid worker

PIC gets an interim board

Bombs kill at least 11 in Afghan capital as U.S. general visits

Sudan government forces, militants break into fight in peace deal

Beer giant AB InBev toasts best volume sales in five years

Mueller says he did not exonerate Trump, US policy precluded charges

Gangs kill soldier, 18 civilians in DRC

SABC’s financial lifeline comes with certain conditions

Trump sues to block House panel from getting his state tax returns

Zimbabwe’s Chiwenga to receive medical treatment in China

SA presents viable investment opportunities despite tough economic environment

Theresa May: a legacy sunk by Brexit

Drone strike near Tripoli kills seven fighters loyal to Haftar -military source

Hyundai net profit soars with SUV product improvements

Japan’s Abe keeps upper house grip but no ‘supermajority’

Battle for change far from over for women in new Sudan

British Airways suspends flights to Cairo on security grounds

Female suicide bomber kills six in northwest Pakistan

Militants kidnap at least one NGO worker in Nigeria, sources say

BBBEE will not be scrapped: Ramaphosa

Iran deputy FM hints US downed ‘own’ drone ‘by mistake’

Dakar hosts DELTAS Africa scientific conference

Matjila denies receiving R5 million from VBS

alistarbot

Contact Form