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‘We Want Zimbabweans To Work In SA’: Malema

admin — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 22:30:01 +0000

‘We Want Zimbabweans To Work In SA’: Malema

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admin Mon, 02/21/2022 - 22:30

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

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Diaspora Archives - NewZimbabwe.com

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‘We Want Zimbabweans To Work In SA’: Malema

TimesLIVE

EFF leader Julius Malema has appealed to employers to give South Africans preference as the country faces an all-time high youth unemployment rate of 66.5%.

“We want to make an emphasis to the owners of restaurants that no-one should stop employing Zimbabweans and say the EFF said they don’t want them,” he said on Wednesday.

“We want Zimbabweans to work in SA. It is their home. They should make no apologies about hiring Zimbabweans or any other African brother or sister. In doing so, they must be considerate that there are locals who must at all times be given preference.”

He was speaking to journalists after visiting restaurants in the Mall of Africa in Midrand.

Shortly after arriving with a handful of supporters, he was declined entry at Kream restaurant.

A manager told Malema he would not be allowed inside and handed him a letter. Malema, however, would not take no for an answer and stood at the door until he was allowed inside.

“Kream leadership apologised for their misbehaviour and blamed it on their legal department, that someone gave them a legal letter not to engage us. But after engaging us outside the restaurant, they realised there is no need not to engage,” said Malema.

“I don’t understand why they were refusing to engage because they all had their facts in order. They were ready to prove to us they are indeed compliant, trying to employ as many South Africans [as possible].”

Malema said Kream’s conduct was unfortunate, but he accepted their apology.

“Ours is to ensure the rights of workers are protected and South Africans are given priority when it comes to employment. But that does not mean our Zimbabwean, Lesotho, eSwatini and fellow African brothers and sisters should not be employed.”

He also visited Ponto and Doppio Zero restaurants and expressed satisfaction with their levels of compliance in employing as many South Africans as possible.

The party also raised the issue of compensation, particularly around tips. Malema was thrilled to learn all three restaurants were paying workers more than the minimum national wage.

“Workers must be guaranteed a salary. They must know how much are they earning.”

The party vowed to visit more businesses to ensure fair representation in the workplace.

Malema said, though they were pro-African, the party had a responsibility to ensure the interests of their electorate were prioritised. In the event where African nationals were not hired, Malema said he would intervene.

“We will be the first [to intervene] if we hear Zimbabweans are not being hired in SA, but there cannot be an exclusive situation which excludes South Africans. That point has been received well, and we all agree we have a problem of high unemployment and poverty and it can only be resolved through employment.

“We are highly encouraged that we are singing from the same hymn book and we have our eyes and ears on the ground to inform us when things are not going accordingly.”

The post ‘We Want Zimbabweans To Work In SA’: Malema appeared first on NewZimbabwe.com.

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Taekwondo athlete glitters gold for Malawi

admin — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 03:30:01 +0000

Taekwondo athlete glitters gold for Malawi

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admin Sat, 12/11/2021 - 03:30

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

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Malawi Nyasa Times – News from Malawi about Malawi

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Taekwondo athlete glitters gold for Malawi

A taekwondo female athlete Veronica Manda was the toast of the day for Malawi after winning the first gold medal for the country at the African Union Sports Council Region 5 Under-17 Games, in Maseru, Lesotho. She won gold after overcoming athletes from Swaziland, Botswana and hosts Lesotho, respectively. According to a statement from Malawi […]

The post Taekwondo athlete glitters gold for Malawi appeared first on Malawi Nyasa Times - News from Malawi about Malawi.

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How COVID-19 undermines democracy in Africa

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 03:50:01 +0000

How COVID-19 undermines democracy in Africa

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Monday, July 19, 2021

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Illicit financial flows an ethical, legal challenge

admin — Sat, 27 Feb 2021 13:00:01 +0000

Illicit financial flows an ethical, legal challenge

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admin Sat, 02/27/2021 - 13:00

Saturday, February 27, 2021

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The Zimbabwe Independent

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Illicit financial flows an ethical, legal challenge

Esther Dzviti Mapungwana economist

Illicit financial flows have been a major problem for most countries, especially developing countries. Cross-border capital movements for the purposes of concealing illegal activities and evading taxes continue to pose major challenges to developing countries. These activities deny the country concerned desperately required resources for private and public investment and in so doing, hamper potential economic development and growth. Some research has shown that illicit financial flows are also directly linked to dominant party-political interests resulting in failing compromised state institutions and increasing corruption.

The definition of illicit financial flows (IFFs) has been varying but the general sentiment is that IFFs refer to cross-border movements of capital associated with illegal activity or more explicitly, money that is illegally earned, transferred or used that crosses borders. Some argue that a definition for illicit financial flows that is less contentious especially among international institutions excludes tax avoidance out of IFF definition. According to the World Bank, the concept of IFFs are emerging as a powerful and constructive umbrella to bring together previously disconnected issues. The term emerged in the 1990s and was initially associated with capital flight. The concept of IFFs has been largely looked upon as a legal matter but recent arguments have observed the concept also as an ethical issue.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) earlier this year published a report titled — Tackling Illicit Financial Flows for Sustainable Development in Africa. One of the sections in the report focused on the analysis of export under invoicing (that is, a positive trade gap) as it is the most relevant conduit for IFFs in the context of primary commodity exports from Africa. The report stated that trade under invoicing is often motivated by exporting Multinational Enterprise (MNE) incentives to shift foreign exchange abroad to settle foreign transactions, to pay for smuggled goods or to avoid foreign exchange controls (Uneca, 2015; Unctad, 2016). Global Financial Integrity (2019) notes that globally, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest propensity for trade under-invoicing and is the only region in which outflows exceed inflows. In 2015, IFFs (as reported in United Nations Comtrade) were estimated at US$45 billion and illicit outflows were equal to US$23 billion. The present report’s estimate of US$40 billion in export under-invoicing is based on the net export gap and is the sum of all positive individual country estimates in 2015 (covering 21 African countries and the eight selected commodity groups). Despite significant differences in methodologies for trade-related illicit outflows from the continent, some convergence on findings exist; IFFs are large, have increased over time and trade in primary extractive commodities is a major contributor.

The report added that trade statistics reported by developed countries are generally more accurate and thus discrepancies in partner-country trade statistics are mainly driven by trade-related IFFs from developing countries. Therefore, the mirror trade gap is usually calculated vis-à-vis developed countries only and then scaled up by their share in total trade. This does not allow for the analysis of intra-African discrepancies nor account for the fact that although primary commodities are still traded in Europe, the latter is no longer the largest consumer. Another concern is attributing partner-country trade gaps as being directly linked to illicit flows, which has been widely criticised in the literature for being too simplistic. Other sources of error being of a purely logistical nature have gained insufficient weight in recent discussions.

The average trade value, meaning the sum of all trade values divided by the number of observations, of extra-continental African trade is seven times as large as intra-African trade, US$63 million versus US$8,5 million. The maximum trade value for extra-continental African trade is seven times as large as for intra-African trade. Imports recorded by the rest of the world stemming from the continent are on average larger than exports recorded by African countries.

“Some general trends emerge. First, the trade gap for gold from South Africa (since 2011) has a significant impact on the overall African trade gap. South Africa has a distinctive trade recording system, as illustrated by the observed gold trade reporting. Gold from South Africa, for historic reasons, had no trading partner country assigned before 2011. Since then, gold has been reported in the United Nations Comtrade, and therefore included in this report, even though the reporting of this commodity remains special (Ndikumana and Boyce, 2019). Second, all high-value commodities, gold, platinum and diamonds (for example, from Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania) tend to have a positive trade gap, whereas petroleum and copper exports tend to exhibit a negative one. In fact, all major petroleum exporting countries (Algeria, Angola, Nigeria and Tunisia) to some extent have large negative export trade gaps, with the exception of Egypt, which has a large positive gap. On average, iron, aluminium and manganese also have positive export gaps,” the report stated

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African Covid deaths top 100,000

admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 11:10:01 +0000

African Covid deaths top 100,000

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admin Fri, 02/19/2021 - 11:10

Friday, February 19, 2021

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Kenya – Capital News

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African Covid deaths top 100,000

Johannesburg, South Africa, Feb 19 – Africa on Thursday recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, a grim milestone likely to understate the real toll, as the continent of 1.2 billion people battles a second wave of infections.

The 54 countries in the region have a death toll of 100,000 from 3,793,660 reported cases, according to an AFP tally.

The continent, relatively spared by the pandemic, is the last except Oceania to reach the threshold of 100,000 deaths, which Europe crossed in April 2020.

South Africa — the worst hit African country — rolled out a mass testing campaign at the start of the pandemic.

To date, the country has recorded nearly 1.5 million cases and more than 48,000 deaths.

But those figures, based on daily reports communicated by health authorities, only reflect a fraction of the actual case load, health specialists say.

“The cases are clearly under-reported because of poor access to healthcare facilities and under-reporting of milder cases,” South African virologist Barry Schoub, also a member of the Scientific Council at the South African Ministry of Health told AFP.

Understaffed health facilities and lack of means have meant many African countries have been unable to do mass testing.

“Many countries have mainly PCR tests in the capitals. And the further one moves away from the urban centres, the less there are tests,” explained French epidemiologist Emmanuel Baron from Doctors Without Borders.

“It is a disease that can go unnoticed with asymptomatic patients, or with symptoms that can be confused with others,” he added.

– Covid found in pawpaw –

In Zimbabwe, a country with a devastated economy and mismanaged health system, hospitals are filled with Covid patients, exhausted doctors and overwhelmed nurses. But the official number of cases remains low.

Tanzania stopped testing in May 2020 after claiming it had found a positive Covid case in a pawpaw, a quail and even a goat. The Tanzanian government last released official figures in April.

“If someone had told me a year ago that we, as a continent, would see 100,000 deaths from this infection, I probably would not have believed it,” John Nkengasong, the Africa Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC), told reporters on Thursday.

Breakdown of Covid-19 deaths by country in Africa, which on Thursday reached the threshold of 100,000 deaths © AFP / Maryam EL HAMOUCHI

The toll in Africa is, however, significantly lower than in Europe, the world’s most affected region, with 818,912 deaths recorded so far. The other regions that are badly hit are Latin America with 649,006 deaths and the United States and Canada 512,295 deaths.

After a sharp increase in January, Africa’s figures have fallen sharply in the past few weeks. Over the last seven days, the continent recorded 3,054 deaths, a drop of 18 percent from the previous week.

At the height of the pandemic in January, the continent had 906 deaths per day.

– No disaster –

While coronavirus figures are clearly underestimated, “we have not seen a health disaster in Africa to date”, said Baron.

Several studies on antibodies, which make it possible to detect whether a person who is recovered has previously been exposed to the virus, are underway in many African countries and should provide a better idea of the impact of the pandemic in the region.

South Africa, where almost all of the latest cases are attributed to a variant of the virus known to be more contagious and which has spread widely, represents nearly half of the deaths and reported cases on the continent.

The 54 countries on the African continent have a death toll of 100,000 from 3,793,660 reported cases, according to an AFP tally © AFP / LUCA SOLA

The other African countries that are most affected are Egypt (10,150 deaths from 175,677 cases) and Morocco (8,524 deaths from 480,056 cases).

South Africa is also the country with most Covid-19 fatalities on the continent, counting 82 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, ahead of Tunisia (65 deaths) and Eswatini (55).

Lagging behind in the vaccination race, the continent’s leading industrial powerhouse administered its first vaccines on Wednesday.

Globally, Covid-19 has caused more than 109 million infections and over 2.4 million deaths since the start of the epidemic in Wuhan in China in December 2019.

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Cancer cases in Africa doubled in last 20 years – WHO

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 16:19:56 +0000

Cancer cases in Africa doubled in last 20 years – WHO admin Thu, 02/04/2021 - 16:19

Thursday, February 4, 2021

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Cancer in Nigeria

Data from the Global Cancer Observatory (GCO) shows that 124,815 new cases of cancer were recorded in Nigeria in 2020 alone and over 78,000 cancer-related deaths.

This is a slight increase from the estimated 116,000 new cases of cancer and 41,000 cancer-related deaths recorded in the country in 2018, according to the WHO.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide as new cases and deaths from the disease keep rising.

In Nigeria, the painful disease has continued to claim many lives due to high cost and inadequate radiotherapy treatment which has been the bane of cancer patients.

The COVID-19 pandemic which has disrupted lots of other health services has further contributed to the plights of cancer patients in the country.

Africa region

According to Ms Moeti, many African communities have limited access to cancer screening and early detection, diagnosis and treatment.

She noted that only about 30 per cent of African children diagnosed with cancer survive, compared to 80 per cent of children in high-income economies.

She explained that the rising cancer burden will place additional pressures on resource-constrained health systems and on patients and their families who incur catastrophic costs to access services.

READ ALSO: INTERVIEW: How Nigeria can reduce cancer-related deaths – Health Expert

“Challenges in access to cancer care are further compounded in times of crisis, like the current COVID-19 pandemic,” She said.

The Regional Director also noted that the African Region bears the highest burden of cervical cancer among WHO regions.

She said the World Health Assembly’s adoption in 2020 of the Global strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem was of key relevance to African countries.

“As part of the first wave countries implementing this strategy, Eswatini, Guinea, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia are scaling-up comprehensive cervical cancer programmes,” Ms Moeti said.

She appealed to African leaders to introduce the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine needed to boost prevention of cervical cancer.

“So far 17 African countries have introduced HPV vaccination nationwide, including Rwanda and Zimbabwe, who are both achieving high national HPV vaccine coverage with the commitment of their governments and partners,” she said.

She said provision of cancer services, including pain relief, should be integrated in benefits packages and social insurance schemes as part of efforts towards achieving Universal Health Coverage.

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Nigeria among six African countries leading in GM crop adoption

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 21:20:01 +0000

Nigeria among six African countries leading in GM crop adoption admin Mon, 12/07/2020 - 21:20

Monday, December 7, 2020

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News || 30-11-2020 || Eswatini: Partial Lockdown

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Tindzaba || 30-11-2020 || Eswatini: Partial Lockdown

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COVID-19SD Special Coverage || 30-11-2020 || Eswatini: Partial Lockdown

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