Africa News Update
Africa News Update offers news, background and feature articles from African sources twice weekly. The newsletter is free of charge and is edited by the Norwegian Council for Africa. Some of the articles may be shortened.
South Africa: As Gold Fields simmers, Marikana roils
Johannesburg (South Africa) - Real negotiations that could lead to a return to normality at Marikana are unlikely to take place on Tuesday, various groups involved say, and barring a significant change there is no reason to believe a deal could be struck this week. Instead, concerns about violence are once again mounting. Read >
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Mail and Guardian (South Africa)
South Africa: Journalists fail to report on poverty
Cape Town (South Africa) — The lack of investment in journalism is one of the key challenges hindering the ability of South African media to report on poverty and inequality. Read >
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Inter Press Service (IPS)
Zambia: Tensions between workers and management behind the death of Chinese mining boss (analysis)
Lusaka (Zambia) - Confusion about the new minimum wage law and tensions between workers and management lie behind the death of a Chinese mining boss in August. Read >
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Africa-Asia Confidential (UK)
Kenya: Water wars kill scores
Nairobi (Kenya) - Water scarcity is fuelling deadly inter-ethnic wars that continue to claim lives in Kenya, according to government officials. And if nothing is done to educate communities on how to conserve the valuable resource, the situation will escalate, governance experts and environmentalists warn. Read >
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Inter Press Service (IPS)
Central African Republic: International community must maintain pressure for lasting peace (analysis
On 25th and 26th August, headlines revealed a newly reached agreement between the Conventions of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP) and the government of the Central African Republic (CAR). As part of the accord, the rebel group agreed to join the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programme (DDR) and to transform into a political party. Read >
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
African Arguments, by Jean-Simon Rioux*
Comoros: Support for recovery after intense and frequent rain and floods
Pretoria (South Africa) - In April, the archipelago nation of Comoros was lashed by its heaviest rains in decades, uprooting families and destroying the crops and incomes of its poorest people. At a donor conference last week, the country, backed by the UN and the South African government, made an appeal for just over US$19 million to help the country get back on its feet. Read >
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
Swaziland: State TV airs critical report on King
Mbabane (Swaziland) - Two journalists at the state-censored Swazi TV were suspended from work for allowing an unauthorised item about King Mswati III to appear in a news bulletin. Read >
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Swazi Media Commentary (Botswana)
South Africa: Economic outlook dims after mining unrest
Johannesburg (South Africa) - A Reuters poll on Thursday showed economists kept their median forecast for growth of 2.5% this year, after trimming it in last month's poll, but some in the poll of 17 analysts were more bearish, projecting only a 2.2% expansion. Read >
Thursday, 06 September 2012
Mail and Guardian (South Africa)
South Africa: A racist, racist country (opinion)
Johannesburg (South Africa) - In the wake of the Marikana massacre, information is trickling into the public domain, which suggests that the police killing of workers was more premeditated than initially thought. Workers who were released from police custody have confirmed accounts of unjustified police violence against protestors, and these accounts have challenged the dominant narrative of the police having acted purely in self-defence. Read >
Thursday, 06 September 2012
South Africdan Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS), by Jane Duncan*