April 2009 South Africa's general elections

South Africans go to the polls on 22 April in the fourth national and provincial elections since the end of apartheid in 1994. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) reports that more than 23 million people, including 16,000 of the South African diaspora, have registered to vote in what is being billed as the biggest election in the country's history. How do the elections work? The country has a bicameral parliament consisting of the National Assembly with 400 seats and the National Council of Provinces with 90 seats. Election to the National Assembly is based on proportional representation with half of the seats filled from regional party lists and the other half from national party lists. The lists are "closed" with voters casting a ballot for a single list, not individual candidates. Following the general elections, the National Assembly will elect the country's next president. What is different about this election? The advent of the Congress of the People (Cope) has reenergized South Africa's electoral landscape and placed the African National Congress's two-thirds majority in jeopardy for the first time since 1994. According to the privately-owned press, the formation of ANC breakaway Cope has acted as a strong catalyst in galvanising voters. Cope is reported to have struggled to launch an effective election campaign and maintain party unity, but surveys nonetheless suggest the party may gain up to 10% of the vote. What are the issues? Promises to fight corruption, poverty, crime and unemployment are the key planks of the main opposition parties' election campaigns. But pledges to reinstate the Scorpions, an elite crime-fighting force recently disbanded by parliament after accusations it tried to smear ANC leader Jacob Zuma with a corruption investigation, is also high on their lists. Other issues include the freedom of the press and judiciary. The ANC government is also promising to do more about tackling poverty and crime and has announced plans to speed up its land reform programme, while reassuring white farmers that it will not forcibly seize their land. Who are the main parties? The IEC says 156 political parties have registered ahead of the polls, 117 of them at national level and 39 at provincial level only. The most important parties are: African National Congress (ANC) The ANC is currently South Africa's ruling party and occupies 297 seats in parliament. It was founded in 1912 as an organisation that catered to black interests and has a membership of 621,000. The party's leader, Jacob Zuma, has recently and controversially had corruption charges against him dropped. Congress of the People (Cope) A breakaway from the ANC party, Cope was founded in November 2008 by former Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and former Gauteng Province Premier Mbhazima Shilowa in response to "threats to constitutional order emerging from the ANC". Its presidential candidate is Rev Mvume Dandala. Democratic Alliance (DA) The DA was formed in 2000 when the Democratic Party and New National Party merged and has grown to become the strongest opposition party with 47 National Assembly members. Its leader is Helen Zille. The DA has filed a legal challenge against the dropping of corruption charges against Mr Zuma. Independent Democrats (ID) The ID was founded by Patricia de Lille in 2003 and has a populist, anti-corruption platform. It is the first political party in South Africa to be led by a woman and has eight seats in parliament. The bulk of its support is in Western Cape Province. Registered Voters by Province Abroad - 16,240 Eastern Cape - 3,038,478 Free State - 1,384,177 Gauteng - 5,448,121 KwaZulu-Natal - 4,455,983 Limpopo - 2,248,044 Mpumalanga - 1, 690,034 Northern Cape - 553,645 North West - 1,653,234 Western Cape - 2, 682,506 Total - 23,170,462 Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) The IFP was founded in 1975 by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, but only became a political party in 1990. It draws its support largely from the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal and the migrant workers' hostels in the metropolitan areas of Gauteng. It currently holds 23 seats in the National Assembly. United Democratic Movement (UDM) Retired Maj Gen H Bantubonke (Bantu) Holomisa co-founded the UDM in 1997 and currently serves as its president. In 2004, nine members of this social-democratic party were elected to parliament. Have there been campaign violations? The IFP, DA, UDM and Cope have all accused the ANC of buying votes with government food parcels - a charge the party emphatically denies. In the Zulu heartland of KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC and IFP have been swapping allegations about interference with electioneering, intimidation of party workers and assaults. In an effort to avoid violence, the government has deployed 23,000 police and soldiers to likely flashpoints. And in Johannesburg, the ANC has called on the "mischievous forces of darkness" to stop putting up fake ANC posters. BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.

Uganda should better wake up and respect peoples' and human rights of assembly and association, or else the gimmickry of "deserving the governments

JATT tortured me - Hoima mayor PDF Print E-mail Thursday, 16 April 2009 Kampala/Hoima The Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force yesterday came into the spotlight again after it emerged that agents from the security outfit were allegedly responsible for the arrest and torture while in detention of Hoima Town Mayor Francis Atugonza. Hoima is district in western Uganda. Mr Atugonza said yesterday that he had been tortured while in Kololo detention. Mr Atugonza, who was reported missing at the weekend, was reportedly picked up by JATT agents on Saturday after he received a phone call from a one Hajj Twaha Lukwanzi inviting him to Kampala to pick some money. Image Dr Besigye (L), Mr Atugonza (C) and a sympathiser at Mwanga 11 Court. Frantic efforts to trace Mr Atugonza by members of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change party to which the mayor belongs, seemed to yield some fruit yesterday after he was presented and charged at Mwanga II Court before Magistrate Issa Sserunkuma on allegations of obtaining money by false pretence. Mr Atugonza was, however, released on a cash bail of Shs500,000 and Shs2 million non-cash. Daily Monitor has learnt that when Mr Atugonza arrived in Kampala, he was told to meet Hajj Twaha at Tal Cottages from where he was arrested and whisked away to a safe house in Kololo. In an interview with Daily Monitor, Mr Atugonza narrated his ordeal at the safe house and said he was tortured along with 40 other suspects by the security operatives. He said he was hit with an iron bar on his face and bled profusely before his alleged tormentors poured hot water on his face and later forced him to mop a pool of blood on a blood-drenched floor. “They hit me with something like a metal on my face and I started bleeding,” a tearful Mr Atugonza said, as the FDC president Kizza Besigye sat by his side. “They also hit all my ankles and poured hot water on my body. I started crying and they ordered me to mop the floor which was flooding with my blood and that of other victims,” he added. Mr Atugonza said during the torture, the security operatives reportedly questioned him over his links with Mr Twaha and demanded to know why he was picking money from him. Mr Atugonza also said of the suspects he met in detention, many had had their fingers plucked out by pliers. The arrest, alleged torture and detention of Mr Atugonza follows a report released last week by the International watchdog Human Rights Watch in which the JATT, a body comprised of agents from various security groups, is accused of wide-scale use of torture and illegal detention of suspects. That report formed the highlight of debate in Parliament yesterday after Aruu MP Odongo Otto tasked the government to respond to the eye-brow-raising claims. Image TORTURED: Mr Atugonza “This report is very disturbing; it states that there are safe houses in Kololo,” said Mr Otto, adding, “It reported 106 cases of illegal detention and instances of torture like electric shock on suspects.” Security Minister Amama Mbabazi rose to the government’s defence and dismissed the contents of the report. He said, “There are no safe houses for the purpose of illegal detention of Ugandans known to me.” It is a statement that sparked heated debate in the House. Mwenge North MP Tom Butiime asked, “May he [Mbabazi] therefore be knowing of a safe house in Uganda which can legally detain a Ugandan or other people? Is it also possible that there are safe houses that are illegally detaining people and he [Mbabazi] is not aware?” Confronted with Mr Atugonza’s claims about torture, Army spokesman Maj. Felix Kulayigye said by telephone yesterday, “We don’t believe and associate with torture. Those who did it were not under instruction from any one to do it. It was illegal and I would advise him to sue them.” Although the State says it has evidence that Mr Atugonza was trying to obtain money by false pretence, he denied the charge against him and requested court to offer him bail. Mr Jackson Wabyona, the FDC Deputy secretary in the party president’s office and Ms Anita Among, FDC deputy secretary general in charge of fundraising, stood as his sureties. Mr Atugonza’s charge and subsequent release has ended the gruelling search by party officials for the man who doubles as the party’s secretary for industry and trade. For five days, a search was mounted for the FDC official by relatives, Bunyoro kingdom officials and friends. The officer in charge of Old Kampala Police Station, Mr Opendi Osuna, said his officers did not torture Mr Atugonza but added that he was not aware of when and how Mr Atugonza was brought under his custody. “He came with all those wounds,” Mr Opendi said. “I also don’t know what happened. I received him yesterday. I don’t know who brought him here. In fact it’s us who have tried to get him treatment.” FDC leaders who spoke to Daily Monitor yesterday accused Minister Mbabazi of having a hand in Mr Atugonza’s arrest citing claims that Mr Mbabazi reportedly threatened the mayor during the President’s tour in Hoima. It is said that NRM cadres reportedly complained to Mr Mbabazi that Mr Atugonza was sabotaging government programmes and was a pain to the NRM’s mobilisation strategies. The same claims surfaced in Parliament and Mr Mbabazi said his hands were clean. “I didn’t have information about the arrest of Atugonza,” Mr Mbabazi said. “It is not true that I ordered his arrest because I was not aware and there was no reason. When I went to Hoima recently, it was a different matter and it had nothing to do with Atugonza’s arrest.” FDC lawyer Yusuf Nsibambi said, “We know that the Police didn’t arrest Mr Atugonza. He was arrested and tortured on orders of someone from above. They are now concocting cases against him. This government is rotting day by day but there is nothing we can do because this is the situation we live in, especially for us in the opposition.” Atugonza narrates his ordeal Hoima Mayor Francis Atugonza was yesterday released after spending days in custody at a safe house in Kololo. He spoke to Daily Monitor’s Gerald Bareebe about his ordeal: We bring you some excerpts. I left Hoima on Saturday to meet Hajj Twaha Lukwanzi, the proprietor of Tal Cottages in Kabusu, a Kampala suburb. At 2:30pm I arrived at the cottages only to be arrested by security operatives who blind folded me and dumped me in a glass window-tinted car. I was driven off to an unknown detention cell in Kololo but, somehow, I remember seeing the Korean embassy. So, I believe the safe house is near that place. Inside the cell, we were around 40 people, men and women. I was hit with a metal, which I suspect to have been a gun and I became unconscious. By the time I woke up, it was at around 11:00pm. The T-shirt I was wearing was full of blood and the whole floor was bloody. I noticed that many of the suspects did not have fingernails. Later as I was being taken out for a short call, I managed to look at the notice board and I read that Lt. Ck Asiimwe was in charge of this operation. On Monday I heard some officers saying that FDC knows that I was inside there. They wanted to charge me with terrorism but they later changed to obtaining money by false pretence. On Wednesday, I was put in a glass tinted Corona car and I was brought to Old Kampala Police Station I have witnessed with my own eyes the life inside a safe house and I don’t need more witnesses on this. Who is Atugonza? * He is a civil engineer by profession who pursued his studies at Sir Tito Winyi Secondary School and later shifted to Kenya. * Mr Atugonza, 40, was a construction project manager at Global Construction Company in the late 1990s. * In 2004, the Omukama of Bunyoro Kitara appointed him the Kingdom’s estate manager, a post he held till 2004. * He was also the head of the Omukama’s royal guards in early 2000. * He joined active politics in 2005 when he was elected the district FDC coordinator and later the party’s regional coor-dinator. * He was elected Hoima mayor in 2006 as FDC flag-bearer. * He was voted the party’s national secretary for trade and industry during this years FDC national delegates conference.

East Africa: Dar-Kigali-Bujumbura Railway to Be Ready by 2014

Kigali — The Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi railway, which starts this year is expected to be completed in 2014, according to experts. Construction experts said last week in Kigali that construction costs might drop by 30%. The Dar es Salaam-Isaka railway line will also be modernised to 1,435mm standard gauge railway. The new development comes after earlier studies had indicated that the project would cost US$3.5 billion. Rwanda's infrastructure minister Eng. Linda Bihire last week said costs have dropped to $2.450 billion. Rwanda is coordinating the project. The new figure was revealed at a donor round-table on the railway project held March 16-17, 2009. She said World Bank, financers, miners and other stakeholders found the project viable. The meeting was organized by the governments of Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. The three governments plan to construct a modern high-speed train, with a minimum speed limit of 120 kilometres per hour. This means that imports will be delivered in Kigali within a day, eight hours to be precise, contrary to the six days they have been taking from Dar es Salaam. The development will see most importers and exporters shift from Mombasa port to Dar es Salaam port. If introduced, this is going to be the fastest train in the East African region with capacity to haul several tonnes of cargo using 2,000 wagons. With the small gauge rail of 1,000mm in width, the average speed for a train on the Kenya-Uganda Railways can cruise is 40 kilometres per hour while that of the old Tanzania Railways is 20 km per hour. Pushing for the extension of railway line from the coast to Kigali comes at a time Rwandan importers who mainly depend on road transport are complaining that up to 40 percent of their capital is spent on transport. The costs have been further pushed up by the strict enforcement of the three-axle load limit, many roadblocks and the bad roads in the region. Records show that whereas a Rwandan importer spends between 40 and 50 percent of the value of the export on transport and insurance, the average for the world's developed countries is 8.6 percent and 17.2 per cent for the least developed countries. Bihire assured transporters that when completed; transport costs will drastically decline to less than 20 percent. When completed, Bihire said, about 4.5 million tonnes of minerals from Burundi and Tanzania will be hauled by the railway. Relevant Links * Central Africa * East Africa * Burundi * Economy, Business and Finance * Rwanda * Tanzania * Transport and Shipping Experts who carried out the feasibility of the railway project are optimistic that the line will spur development and exploitation of untapped natural resources in Burundi and the Congo which will provide the critical level of tonnage to support the railway. Bihire said the project will also see the Dar es Salaam ports modernised and the number of berths increased to ease congestion. Martime records show that the number of containers transiting Tanzania is expected to increase by as much as 1,200 % or about 3 million foot equivalent units (FEUs) in the next 20 years. Last year Dar es Salaam Port handled 350,000 containers over the planned 250,000 container

Blogger Buzz: Blogger & Google Reader Party @ SXSW

Blogger Buzz: Blogger & Google Reader Party @ SXSW

HOW SENIOUR EXECUTIVES STEER & SUSTAIN INNOVATION

Innovation leaders promote and address the innovation agenda in their company. Through personal conviction or competitive necessity they are obsessed with providing superior value to customers through innovation. They know how to mobilize their staff behind concrete innovation initiatives and do not hesitate to personally coach innovation teams. For innovation to occur leadership has to be collective. To create a momentum for innovation in their company, leaders from different functions need to team up, to build innovation networks. Innovation leadership is not just an innate talent that can be selected at the hiring level. It can be developed within an appropriate company culture through careful leadership development, typically achieved through career management and coaching. Innovation leaders also need to stay on board and it is the responsibility of the top management team to create an attractive climate to develop and keep its innovation leaders. There are plenty of books that deal with innovation, or with new product development, or with leadership; this is different in its focus on the specifics of innovation leadership – that particular form of leadership that stimulates and sustains innovation. This book maps the broad territory of innovation leadership and contributes new thinking on the focus of the emerging leadership role of the CTO; distinction between ‘front end’ and ‘back end’ innovation leaders; the concept of aligning leadership styles with strategy; and the chain of leadership concept. Combining practice-based and empirical research-based observations with simple conceptual frameworks, illustrated by many company examples and case stories from a broad range of industries in the US and Europe, this is a systematic presentation of innovation drivers and their implications in terms of what leaders need to do to make it work.

ENRICHING YOUR OWN POTENTIAL: OUR UGANDAN POLITICIANS

ENRICHING YOUR OWN POTENTIAL: OUR UGANDAN POLITICIANS