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Swaziland Goes to South Africa for Bailout

Swaziland has asked neighbouring South Africa for an emergency bailout to patch over a national cash crunch that has sparked rare political unrest against King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Swazi dissident groups have suggested Mswati, who has at least a dozen wives and an estimated personal fortune of $200 million, is looking for a 10 billion rand loan from Pretoria.

However, Deputy Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene told Reuters this was probably too high.

“I’m not sure where the 10 billion rand figure comes from and I don’t foresee assistance amounting to that much,” he said. “It is too early to put a figure to it until such time as the review and the assessment of Swaziland’s problems are done.”

The sums of money are a drop in the ocean for South Africa, far and away the continent’s biggest economy, but, in a curiously African echo of the euro zone debt crisis, Pretoria fears it may be simply the first of a series of bailouts for Swaziland.

Like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it will also balk at lending anything to the landlocked nation of 1.4 million people until its government takes the carving knife to what is Africa’s most bloated civil service.

The IMF said last month the tiny southern African country was near financial collapse, with a budget deficit of 14.3 percent of GDP – similar to Greece – and an economy stuck in the doldrums. Swaziland’s public wage bill amounts to 18 percent of GDP, more than any other country in Africa.

The IMF identified $87 million in immediate state spending cuts but described the general commitment to reform as “mixed”, rendering immediate budgetary assistance impossible for now.

“DICTATOR NEXT DOOR”

South African aid is also complicated by the loathing felt towards Mswati’s notoriously inept and unaccountable rule — cabinet posts are dished out on the whim of the king — by the ruling ANC’s allies in the unions.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), which accuses the ANC of being soft on the likes of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, will also use the crisis to weaken Mswati’s grip on power by, say, pushing for an end to his ban on political parties and dissent.

“South Africa must be very firm and say we want to see some action, and not just give the South African taxpayers’ money away when we are not happy with the fact that right next door we have a dictatorship,” DA finance spokesman Dion George said.

Swaziland’s fiscal troubles stem from a sharp decline in revenues from the regional Southern African Customs Union (SACU), which has historically accounted for two-thirds of the government’s budget.

The SACU drop-off, caused by a 2009 South African recession, is equivalent to 11 percent of Swazi output although the IMF says profligate state spending is just as much to blame.

So far, the government has just about managed to keep its head above water by eating into central bank reserves and running up $180 million in domestic arrears.

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Malia, Sasha in Media Spotlight During Africa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A weeklong trip to Africa with their mother has offered a rare look at Malia and Sasha Obama, sisters who are largely kept out of public view.

Malia, who enters her teenage years when she turns 13 next month, and Sasha, her 10-year-old sibling, have been two steps behind first lady Michelle Obama on practically all her stops in southern Africa this week. It has given both the American and African media a long look at the sisters whose private lives their parents have tried to keep private.

When they moved into the White House, the Obamas asked the news media to keep a respectful distance from the girls and refrain from photographing them at school, at weekend soccer games or at times when they weren’t with their parents. The White House even objected to coverage of their daughters at official events in the White House.

But there was no such restriction on Mrs. Obama’s good-will visit to Africa, which began Monday night when her plane, dubbed “Brightstar,” landed on a chilly night at Waterkloof Air Force Base in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa.

The girls joined their mother, as well as their grandmother and two cousins who are traveling with the first lady, on well-documented public outings to Nelson Mandela’s foundation and several museums.

They met living heroes of the movement against South Africa’s system of racial separation, including Mandela himself, who spent 27 years in prison for conspiring to abolish apartheid, and former Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, another elder of the movement. They met Mandela’s wife, Graca Machel, and Antoinette Sithole, whose 13-year-old brother, Hector Pieterson, became a symbol of the fight against apartheid when he was gunned down by police in the black township of Soweto in June 1976 as students protested peacefully against the white government.

Malia and Sasha painted and played dancing games with children at several other stops. At a day-care center in the Johannesburg shantytown of Zandspruit, they and their mother took turns reading Dr. Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat” to a group of 3- and 6-year-olds. Many people were surprised to hear the girls’ voices; they almost never talk aloud in public. Both read their parts with gusto.

Mrs. Obama acknowledged that her daughters are on the world stage this week.

“It’s a balance, but our priority will always be protecting their privacy,” she told ABC News in an interview Thursday. “It won’t be often that you see them reading ‘The Cat in the Hat,’ but I think this was an important exception for them.”

Aides say that there’s been no change in policy toward media treatment of the girls and that Mrs. Obama remains determined to help them have as normal a childhood as possible.

Mrs. Obama often talks to young people about the importance of traveling and experiencing other parts of the world. Her daughters apparently are no exception.

Malia and Sasha have listened intently as researchers explained Mandela’s personal writings and as guides led them around museums that explored painful chapters in South Africa’s past as a country that separated its blacks and whites. And as if to say, “Stick with me,” they stayed close to two cousins who traveled with the family, Leslie and Avery Robinson, 15 and 19, respectively. The Robinsons live in Oregon with their father, Craig, who is Michelle’s brother. Unlike their cousins, the Robinson siblings aren’t growing up in a fishbowl.

Kristina Schake, Mrs. Obama’s communications director, said the first lady wanted her girls on the trip with her because she didn’t want them to miss out on a remarkable experience because of who they are. She also knew her daughters could handle a full week in the media glare because they are poised, polite and smart.

“This was a unique week,” Schake said.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

Darlene Superville can be reached at www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

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Two Former Presidents, Including Ghana’s Kuffour, Win World Food Prize

Washington — The foundation that gives the prize has honored John Agyekum Kufuor, president of Ghana from 2001 to 2009, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leader of Brazil between 2003 and 2009, for putting into place policies to alleviate hunger and poverty in their countries.

“President Kufuor and President Lula da Silva have set a powerful example for other political leaders in the world,” said Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, which gives the award. Quinn spoke at a June 21 ceremony at the State Department.

“Both Ghana and Brazil are on track to exceed the U.N. Millennium Development Goal – to cut in half extreme hunger before 2015,” Quinn said.

In 2000, 189 nations pledged at a United Nations summit to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.” They committed to act in concert to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015, including promoting gender equality, combating AIDS, ensuring environmental stability and eradicating poverty.

Kufuor and Lula will accept the World Food Prize at the Borlaug Dialogue international symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, on October 13. The World Food Prize was founded in 1986 by Norman Borlaug, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in agricultural research, for whom the Iowa symposium is named.

“President Kufuor and President Lula da Silva have set the gold standard for presidential leadership in tackling the global challenges of poverty and hunger,” said USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged African heads of state at a recent meeting of the African Union to follow Kufuor’s lead and make a priority of agriculture, and allow partners like the United States and multilateral institutions to work with them to fight hunger and poverty.

The two leaders “have advanced food security for their people by pursuing innovative policies and programs,” added U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

“Today, we need another Green Revolution … that includes to a greater degree Africa and extends all the way from farmer to market,” said Robert Hormats, undersecretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs.

BOOSTING FARM YIELDS IN GHANA

Former President Kuffour of Ghana

Born in Kumasi, Ghana, in 1938, Kufuor began his education at one of the few schools in Ghana at the time. He went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oxford University and a law degree at Lincoln’s Inn in London.

As president, Kufuor made a priority of national agricultural policies. During his term, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to cut in half the proportion of people suffering from hunger and the proportion living on less than $1 a day. The country used its entire $547 million grant from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, awarded in 2006, to teach farmers improved growing practices and increase their incomes. (The Millennium Challenge Corporation is a U.S. aid agency that grants money to countries that focus on good policies, country ownership of development plans and results.)

As a result, Ghana’s cocoa production doubled between 2002 and 2005 and production of livestock, maize, cassava, yams and plantains increased significantly. By 2008, the country’s national economy had quadrupled. Kufuor also launched a program to give schoolchildren ages 4 to 14 at least one meal a day. By the end of 2010, more than 1 million schoolchildren had benefited from the program.

PUTTING THREE MEALS ON THE TABLE

Lula was born in 1945 into a working-class family in Garanhuns, Brazil. He began working at age 12 as a factory mechanic and metalworker. That led him to a leadership position in Brazil’s labor movement beginning in 1969, which in turn propelled him into national politics.

When he became president, Lula said his mission was to make it possible for all people in his country to eat three meals a day. His Zero Hunger initiative brought together government, civil society and the private sector to focus on giving people greater access to food, boosting rural family incomes, increasing primary school enrollment and empowering the poor. The initiative quickly became one of the most successful food and nutritional security policies in the world, according to the World Food Prize Foundation.

Under Zero Hunger, the Bolsa Família (Family Allowance) Program has benefited more than 12 million families by guaranteeing them a minimum income. The initiative’s Food Purchase Program makes locally produced food available at schools, community restaurants and facilities aiding the oldest and youngest members of the population. The School Feeding Program provides meals to Brazil’s schoolchildren. Today, 93 percent of children eat three meals a day. And the More Food Program mitigates the impact of rising food prices and boosts family farm production.

Established in 1986, the World Food Prize recognizes individuals who have made breakthrough achievements to improve the quality, quantity and availability of food throughout the world. It has been awarded to 30 people from all over the world working in areas such as plant breeding, soil science, early childhood nutrition, livestock health, famine relief and establishing government policies favorable to agricultural development.

Latest estimates show the world’s population growing to 9 billion by 2050, and currently one in eight people are hungry, according to the World Food Prize Foundation.

Kathryn Mcconnell, allafrica

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Michelle Obama Africa Trip: U.S. First Lady Visits Cape Town’s District Six Museum

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Michelle Obama on Thursday toured a museum that memorializes the forced segregation of a once vibrant and racially mixed area of this South African coastal city.

The visit to District Six Museum was a consolation prize to replace a long-planned ferry ride to Robben Island for the first lady and her traveling family members. The first lady’s aides blamed the decision to abandon the half-hour ferry ride into the Atlantic Ocean on high winds that made the waters too rough to cross.

Former president Nelson Mandela was jailed on Robben Island for 18 years for his role in the movement to abolish apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial separation. Apartheid ended in 1994, when Mandela was elected president several years after he again became a free man.

A tour of the closet-sized cell that housed Mandela also those years was expected to be an emotional high point of the trip. Aides said Mrs. Obama was looking forward to the visit.

Instead, she and her family spent about an hour at the museum being led on a tour by the director and a former District Six resident.

They also heard stories from Ahmed Kathrada, a former political prisoner and apartheid icon who was jailed on Robben Island with Mandela.

The museum memorializes a sector of Cape Town that was established in 1867 as a racially mixed area but was forcibly segregated in 1965. Non-whites were removed to barren outlying areas and their homes in District Six were destroyed.

Mrs. Obama has been traveling with several family members, including daughters Malia and Sasha; her mother, Marian Robinson; and a niece and nephew. President Barack Obama stayed in Washington.

The first lady and her entourage arrived in South Africa late Monday and were to fly to Botswana on

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Ghana Midfielder Derek Boateng Joins Ukraine’s Dnipro

Ghana midfielder Derek Boateng has joined Ukrainian side Dnipro, signing a four-year deal.

The 28-year-old moves from Spanish side Getafe for a transfer fee of US$8.5 million.

Boateng was being courted by English side West Brom but opted for Dnipro in search of European competition.

“I was in London last week to speak to a Premier League side but the deal with Dnipro gives me the chance of playing in Europe,” Boateng told BBC Sport.

“It is the reason why I chose Dnipro and I know they are an ambitious club and I am also ambitious.”

Dnipro signed the Ghanaian to augment their squad ahead of their participation in a Europa League play-off.

They finished fourth in the league last season and Boateng is confident he can win laurels in Ukraine.

Boateng joins his Black Stars team-mate Samuel Inkoom at the club, coached by former Tottenham coach Juande Ramos.

Boateng played 36 matches in his two-year stay with Getafe, scoring two goals.

He has played for several clubs in Europe including Greek side Panathinaikos, FC Cologne, and AIK Solna of Sweden.

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Treatment of Civilians in Southern Kordofan ‘Reprehensible,’ says UN official

22 June 2011 –

The United Nations humanitarian chief says the way civilians are being treated in the Sudanese state of Southern Kordofan is “reprehensible” and called for unfettered access to the tens of thousands displaced by the recent fighting between northern and southern troops.An estimated 73,000 people have been displaced since 5 June when fighting broke out in Southern Kordofan between the northern army known as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) of Southern Sudan.

“The treatment of civilians in South Kordofan, including the reported human rights abuses and targeting of people along ethnic lines, is reprehensible,” Valerie Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

She also called for an end to insecurity and movement restrictions, which are continuing to limit the ability of humanitarian personnel to assess the situation, to provide people the aid they urgently need, and to re-supply stocks.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), aid agencies are still unable to freely access the civilian population, despite the fact that the security situation in and around Kadugli, the main town in Southern Kordofan, has been generally calm.

“The threats to aid workers and peacekeepers need to stop immediately,” added Ms. Amos.

Last week, the UN strongly condemned the detention and abuse by the SAF of four of its peacekeepers who were on patrol in Kadugli, noting that the world body’s staff are critical to providing humanitarian aid to vulnerable populations.

OCHA is also reporting that all of the displaced people who had taken refuge near the Kadugli compound of the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan (UNMIS) have returned to the town after being advised by local authorities that it was safe to do so.

Ms. Amos also voiced concerned that the overall security situation in Sudan is deteriorating at an “alarming rate,” and that civilians are increasingly bearing the brunt of the volatile and uncertain political climate.

The conflict has also prevented sowing at the beginning of the agricultural season which will cause food shortages, her statement noted.

“We could be facing a worst-case scenario, with millions of civilians in both North and South Sudan in need of protection and critical humanitarian assistance,” said Ms. Amos.

The violence comes as the semi-autonomous region of Southern Sudan prepares to become an independent State on 9 July, after a referendum held at the start of this year in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the long-running north-south civil war.

UN News Center
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Ghana Striker Asamoah Gyan Says he is Staying at Sunderland

Gyan made 33 appearances for Sunderland last season

Sunderland striker Asamoah Gyan has rejected reports linking him with a move away from Wearside, saying he is “fully committed” to the club.

“I am not leaving Sunderland and I am not interested in these rumours in the newspapers and the internet,” Gyan told African website MTNFootball.com.

The Ghanaian scored 11 goals in his debut season on Wearside last term.

Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn recently described reports suggesting Gyan was for sale as “embarrassing”.

“I am fully committed to Sunderland because I love the institution and traditions of this club,” Gyan added.

“I am staying at Sunderland next season and the foreseeable future as I am looking forward to meeting my team-mates and Sunderland fans when we return next month.”

Gyan is Sunderland’s record signing, having joined from French club Rennes for a fee in excess of £13m in August 2010.

The 25-year-old has endeared himself to Black Cats supporters with his enthusiastic style and some important goals, including an injury-time equaliser in the Wear-Tyne derby against Newcastle in January 2011.