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Tag: Nelson Mandela

  • $2.5 bn arms deal: ‘I am innocent,’ Zuma tells cheering crowd

    Former South African president Jacob Zuma told thousands of supporters outside court in Durban on Friday that his opponents were telling lies and he would be proven innocent in a corruption case against him.

    Speaking in Zulu in his home province, Zuma said that the judiciary and politicians believed that he did not have rights.

    “The truth will come out. What have I done?” Zuma told the cheering crowd.

    “I am innocent until proven guilty.”

    The Durban High Court adjourned until June 8 the case of corruption in a 2.5 billion arms deal dollars, filed against Zuma.

    Zuma’s legal team and lawyers for the state agreed to the postponement to give both sides time to prepare their submissions relating to charges against Zuma including fraud, racketeering and money laundering.

    The 75-year-old, whose scandal-plagued nine years in office were marked by economic stagnation and credit downgrades, faces 16 charges including fraud, racketeering and money laundering.

    Zuma denies any wrongdoing and is challenging the decision to prosecute the case, a dramatic development on a continent where political leaders are rarely held to account for their actions before the law.

    Wearing a dark suit, a smiling Zuma waved to crowds of supporters and reporters as he mounted the steps of the High Court in Durban shortly before 0700 GMT.

    The speed with which prosecutors have booked his day in court is a sign of the loss of control Zuma has suffered since his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, became head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in December.

    Read Also: Zuma to appear in court April 6

    However, Zuma still retains some popular support, especially in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal, where the case is being heard.

    Heavily armed police in riot gear lined the square outside the court, as thousands of Zuma supporters gathered to express solidarity with a leader they say is the victim of a politically motivated witch-hunt.

    Marchers, many clad in the distinctive yellow, green and black of the ANC, carried placards reading “Hands off Zuma” and performed the high-stepping toyi-toyi protest dance made popular in South Africa’s decades-long struggle against apartheid.

    Businessman Siya Khoza said he admired Zuma’s determination to bring in economic policies that he said were designed to spread the wealth in what remains one of the world’s most unequal societies.

    “Whatever happens we will still support Zuma because we believe he brought us radical economic transformation and we still believe that him being in the ANC he will push for it,” said Khoza, wearing a waistcoat emblazoned in ANC colors.

    Zuma’ son Edward told supporters at nearby park where several thousand people held an overnight vigil that his father was not worried.

    “I would want to believe that as an innocent man, he is definitely not worried,” the domestic News24 agency quoted Edward Zuma as saying.

    Zuma, who was forced to resign by the ANC last month, was at the center of a 1990s deal to buy billions of dollars of European military hardware to upgrade South Africa’s post-apartheid armed forces.

    The deal was mired in scandal and controversy from the start, with many inside and outside the ANC questioning the spending given the massive social issues, from health to education, Nelson Mandela’s party had to address after coming to power in 1994.

    Fallout has cast a shadow over South African politics ever since.

    Zuma was deputy president at the time. Schabir Shaikh, his former financial adviser, was found guilty and jailed in 2005 for trying to solicit bribes for Zuma from a subsidiary of French arms company Thales.

    The company is facing charges in the same case.

    Charges against Zuma were filed but then set aside by the National Prosecuting Authority shortly before he successfully ran for president in 2009.

    The charges were re-instated in 2016.

    Since his election nine years ago, his opponents have fought a lengthy legal battle to have the charges reinstated.

    Zuma countered with his own legal challenges.

    NAN

  • S. Africa’s Malema says no fewer than 60 ANC MPs will turn on Zuma

    S. Africa’s Malema says no fewer than 60 ANC MPs will turn on Zuma

    Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party (EFF) said 60 African National Congress (ANC) members in South Africa’s parliament will back a no-confidence vote against President Jacob Zuma if the ballot is secret.

    Toppling Zuma requires 50 of the 249 ANC Members of Parliament (MPs) to support the no-confidence motion and some have said publicly they want him removed, including former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, whose sacking in March triggered damaging debt ratings downgrades.

    South Africa’s national assembly has 400 members.

    Malema, a firebrand politician known for his colorful language, said in an interview, he had received personal commitments that ANC MPs would dump Zuma.

    Malema, a former head of the ANC’s Youth League before his expulsion from the party, could plausibly still have plenty of contacts in the organization.

    “I personally spoke to more than 60 MPs of the ANC who have committed that if we give them a secret ballot they will deliver,” Malema told Reuters in his office.

    “They’ve asked that this thing must be secret. They are not happy themselves,” said Malema, seated in front of an EFF sign featuring a clenched black fist holding a spear, super-imposed over an African map.

    Zuma faces the no-confidence motion on Aug. 8, the ninth time the opposition will have tried to unseat him by peeling off dissidents from the ruling party, whose majority has so far protected him.

    Unlike previous attempts, this time the vote may not be open.

    The Constitutional Court has cleared the way for the Speaker to allow a secret ballot, though it remains unclear she will.

    The ANC’s official line is that the party will close ranks and back Zuma.

    Party officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Malema’s remarks.

    ANC MP Makhosi Khoza chose Nelson Mandela’s birthday on Tuesday to denounce Zuma, making clear she would break party ranks.

    “If you see one person doing that under such a hostile environment you must know that she must have powerful backing.

    “She has a lot of backing,” Malema said.

    One ANC MP has told Reuters they would vote for Zuma’s removal and the South African Communist Party, whose 17 MPs back the ANC in parliament, said in April Zuma should resign.

    Tens of thousands of people took part in marches in April calling for Zuma, 75, to step down over a string of graft scandals and missteps as the economy is in recession and unemployment rising.

  • Nelson Mandela Day is for all

    Nelson Mandela Day is for all

    A Nigerian lawyer and entrepreneur has said that Nelson Mandela Day does not only celebrates Nelson Mandela’s life, but it is also a Universal call to action for people to recognize their ability to affect their community positively.

    The day hopes to inspire people to embrace the values that Mandela shared. These values include freedom, equality, reconciliation, and democracy etc.

    I regard Madiba as the most reputable African Leader. You can see from South African to other parts of the Globe, people from different race and culture are celebrating our African Icon.

    We need African leaders to emulate our ICON. Nelson Mandela not only became the great example of a leader that Africa needed, he became a respected figure across the Globe  He also became a personal example to me.

    His legacy on peace and forgiveness should be a Global template for both citizens and leaders. Without his amazing personal leadership and ability to inspire people to forgive and reconcile, the world would not celebrate Him on this day. He is in deed a great example to emulate.

    From Libya to Nigeria, from Somalia to Congo, Africa has been devalued and belittled with the Western media mockingly looking on and pretentiously aiding and abetting our constant leadership challenges.

    Let our leaders pay adroit attention to African troubles and restore the pre-colonial pride and éclair of yesteryears.  Let our leaders find wisdom and inspiration in the immortal words of Franz Fanon when he said that, ‘We are nothing on earth if we are not first of all slaves to the cause of the people, the cause of justice, the cause of liberty’.

    If our leaders believe and act on these words, then, a new dawn of positive actualization, accountability and development will smile on our Africa. Let us take back our Continent; others are taking back theirs!”

    Idaminabo, the founder of African Achievers Awards, a set of annual awards bestowed on Africa’s most accomplished achievers who devote their time and talents toward improving Africa’s international profile and building stronger, integrated communities in Africa, summed saying, “We celebrate you Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela our African ICON.”

    Written By Tonye Rex Idaminabo, who in 2015 was ranked by Forbes Magazine among leading Young African Entrepreneurs. He is also an Executive Director of Reputation Poll International (a Global Reputation management Agency that focuses on creating, profiling and promoting brands. 

    He is a winner of several Awards including 15th GAB Award London (for his contributions to the promotion of the positive image of Africa and Africans through Leadership), National Heritage Awards, British Award for African Development  (It was a Private Parliamentarian Award Ceremony which was hosted by Pauline Latham MP and Jeremy Lefroy MP, UK Parliament, (He was decorated with the honour for his significant role in promoting African and Diaspora entrepreneurial developments as well as setting good models of business and development in the UK and Africa and has been nominated for several Awards which includes the All African Business Leaders Award (Organised by CNBC Africa). Most recently, The Mayor of Cambridge in England presented him with an award for His contribution for the Cambridge Leadership Academy.
    @rexidaminabo

  • Itel mobile donates school bags, learning materials to schools

  • Expert advocates proper funding for health sector

    A medical expert, Dr Oso Taiwo, on Monday called for proper funding of Nigeria’s indigenous health sector as an alternative to foreign medicare.

    Taiwo, who is the Executive Director of Ibukun Oluwa Hospital, Osogbo, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

    He said that only well-funded and standardised health sector can make the society better for the purpose of improving the well-being of the people and happy at all time.

    According to him, “If the healthcare system is being developed and adequately funded, there will be no need for Nigerians to go abroad to treat simple headache.

    “The case of former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, is a practical example for the rest of African countries, most especially the ruling class to have a re-think and do the right thing.

    “It has been established that those who go abroad for treatment are those who have easy access to national resources, which is seriously killing the economy,’’ he said.

    He stressed the need to commit more resources to the sector and make it a priority in the consideration of governmental policies.

    Taiwo also called on the practitioners in the health sector to stand up to their professional ethics in order to fulfil their obligation of service to humanity without blemish.

    He urged them to be rooted in the modern trend of the profession in order to face the challenges of the moment in the face of global warming, which is seriously threatening the human race.

    The physician implored the government to pay more attention to the sector and adequately make funds available.

    He said that practitioners without facilities are like army generals without weapons. 

  • One year of education under change agenda

    According to the great Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” I cannot agree less with Madiba. If Nigeria must witness change in the real sense the most potent weapon to be deployed is education.

    There is no doubt that the current government was bequeathed with a decayed education sector. Graduates from our universities are considered not employable by many multinational companies in the country, not their fault though. I have been privileged to sit in an interview session once and I was shocked at the quality of graduates produced by our universities. I saw graduates who could hardly write or speak a complete sentence correctly in English.

    We should not be surprised that we are here already, several years of neglect, nepotism, and corruption couldn’t have produced a different result. Today, we have many certified uneducated graduates roaming the country. Nigerians not only send their children to Europe and America to study, they are sending them to Ghana and Togo as well. This is happening in a country whose once upon a time, our premier universities were great citadels of learning that could compare with any in the world. Foreign students trooped into our universities because of the quality of learning they offered.

    All of that became history; our citadels of learning became the den for all sorts of vices, such as cultism, hooliganism, prostitution, exam malpractices, plagiarism, sexual harassment etc.

    Lectures no longer serve as the eggheads of society, many now engage in sex for grades and selling of handouts to students. I cannot recall lately any research innovation from our Ivory towers that helped solve a national problem the nation was faced with. Rather than research, lecturers are now more of businessmen. The secondary and primary levels are not any better save that the private sector is heavily involved at those levels. Government over the years has simply adopted a very mediocre approach to the provision of quality education at all levels.

    The Buhari administration has promised to fix the decay in the education sector. The government in its first budget sent in a N403.16 billion for the education sector. This amount is only lesser than that of three ministries namely the ministries of Interior, Power, Works and Housing and the Ministry of Defense. The government through the Minister, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has promised to ensure that all funds allocated to the Ministry of Education will be judiciously used unlike what obtained in the past. This is quite reassuring.

    Those who know will tell you that some of the biggest frauds carried out in the last government was carried out in the ministry of education and agencies under it. Many funds that could have gone into providing infrastructure in our various institutions were simply diverted to private pockets. Fortunately, the close watch Mallam Adamu has kept on the ministry has given effect to President Buhari’s zero tolerance for corruption as the ministry is now a trailblazer on how to make government transparent.

    Nonetheless, the government must further intensify efforts at stamping out corruption in our education sector. Quality educational standards can never be achieved in a corrupt environment. The government must act to sanitize the processes of appointing heads of agencies of parastatals and agencies under the ministry of education. Since the minister is already on the right track in this regards, I can only urge him to do more.

    The government has promised to build six new universities of technology in the six geo-political zones of the country. This is in furtherance of its commitment to promote the growth of science and technology in the country. This is a welcome development and it is quite commendable. I am however amazed when some people criticize the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) in its efforts to introduce computer based examination systems.

    Adamu must see to it that this progress is not rolled back and it is commendable that he has already thrown his weight behind the innovation. Government cannot be seen as claiming to encourage science and technology on the one hand and then on the other hand withholding support for innovative technological processes within its agencies. The government should support JAMB in its effort to improve the quality and processes of its exam. Anyone who chooses to study at the tertiary level in the year 2016 must at the least be able to operate a computer to take a test.

    I am constantly impressed by the rate of computerization of the processes at JAMB. From the purchase of forms, to registration, the unification of admission processes, to checking of results – all these processes are computer based. For this reason I believe the government should back the recently introduced computer based examination system. The computer based system will reduce exam malpractices drastically and further improve the quality of students being admitted into our higher institutions.

    I want to commend the Dibu Ojerinde-led JAMB for being innovative and leading in deploying technology appropriately to solve our educational challenges. Prof Ojerinde, will definitely be leaving behind a visible mark of excellence and innovation like no other in this organization that he has led for close to a decade now. If other agencies of government are as pragmatic and as innovative as JAMB has been in the last decade, I am sure our education sector will not be where it is today. I singled out JAMB to prove that transforming our education sector is not impossible; it however requires men of vision and character to lead such transformations.

    Also now that the budget has been passed the government should begin work on its plans to recruit 500,000 graduates to help with teaching at the primary school level. This will go a long way in improving the quality of education at the foundation level, which is the most important part of any building.

    Training and remunerations of teachers is also key. If teachers are not happy with their working conditions they may teach but just halfheartedly. If any job requires full dedication it is that of teachers.

    Agbese is a civil rights activist. He contributed this piece from the United Kingdom.

  • Wines of South Africa celebrates Nelson Mandela Day in Lagos

    Wines of South Africa celebrates Nelson Mandela Day in Lagos

    Trade businesses and wine enthusiasts gathered to savour great tasting wines at the Wines of South Africa Grand Tasting event held to commemorate Nelson Mandela Day at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

    The event afforded guests the opportunity to enjoy new wine releases, lively music and a feast of finger-licking canapés, while networking and meeting with people of great minds. The experience was comparable to any wine tasting event in the world. The tasting event is a prelude to the Cape Wines showcase and fair in Cape Town, South Africa later in the year.

    The Wines of South Africa Grand Tasting,now in its third edition was in partnership with Spronks Creation Limited; organisers of Nigeria International Wine and Spirit Fair (NIWSF). It aimed to showcase quality wines from over wine producers and over 200 wine brands from different regions in the Cape Wineland of South Africa. The event brought more than 20 wine producers from South Africa to Nigeria to interact with consumers, distributors and wholesalers as well as people in the hospitality and tourism industry.

    This year’s event started with a professional wine course training session led by Wine Advisor, Brad Coetzer, from renowned education company ‘Under the Influence’ in partnership with Beverage Intelligence.  The course which came with a professional certificate was opened to trade businesses such as hospitality and tourism operators like restaurants, pubs, lounges and food and beverages managers,portfolio managers, gourmet and a business-to-business session with wine distributors and wholesalers.

    Speaking at the event, South African Consul-General in Nigeria, Ambassador MokgethiMonaisa, remarked that, “This is indeed a great day and we are happy to celebrate Nelson Mandela this way. Today is his birthday. Remember that when he died he was 95 years old. So he would have been 97 years today. For the past four years, we’ve brought Wines of South Africa to Nigeria. I have been here for four years; I hope you will remember me as the man who brought WOSA to Nigeria. WOSA has made us proud. This is a clear message from South Africa that our agro industries are real alive. We don’t only produce vegetables and end there but our industry is so advanced that we do produce wines. And we do compete with the greatest in the world.”

    “Today we are celebrating Nelson Mandela. Since 2010, the United Nations declared this day an international Nelson Mandela Day. They also called upon everybody in the world; individual, companies and organisations to spend 67minutes of their time on this particular day to acknowledge the 67years that Nelson Mandela spent fighting for the right of the people. And indeed, we have been spending today in history; all of us we have done something for 67minutes. Now this particular 67minutes we lived to drink wine. Let’s drink to that”, he enthused.

    Wines of South Africa (WOSA) represents all South African wine producers who export their products. WOSA, was established in its current form in 1999, has over 500 producers on its database, comprising all the major South African wine exporters. It is constituted as a not-for-profit company and is totally independent of any producer or wholesaling company. It is also independent of any government department, although it is recognised by government as an Export Council.

    WOSA’s mandate is to promote the export of all South African wines in key international markets. Traditional markets include the United Kingdom, Germany Sweden and the Netherlands. More recently, WOSA has also been developing markets for South African wines in the United States, Canada, Russia, and Asia. WOSA is funded by a levy per litre on all bottled natural and sparkling wines exported.

  • World’s largest African shirt on Mandela unveiled

    World’s largest African shirt on Mandela unveiled

    As the world prepares for the Nelson Mandela International Day on 18 July 2015, the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Lagos in collaboration with Femi Arts Warehouse, has commenced a week-long exhibition of arguably the world’s largest Africa shirt, ‘Dansiki’ with hand-finished quotes of Nelson Mandela.

    Some of the quotes on the shirt included, ‘Live life as though nobody is watching, and express yourself as though everyone is listening’; ‘Courage is not the absence of fear, it is inspiring others to move beyond it’; ‘Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished’; and ‘There are a few misfortunes in this world that you cannot turn into a personal triumph, if you have the iron will and the necessary skill’; among others.

    Mounted on the Nelson Mandela’s effigy, the larger-than-life African shirt called ‘Dansiki’ in Yoruba Language of South-West Nigeria, and which measures 12 feet wide and 16 feet in length, is to edify the ideals, thoughts, philosophy and values of Nelson Mandela. His words on Marble, a few of which were inscribed all over the shirt, formed a veritable educational tool for students and people of all ages.

    The exhibition which opened on Wednesday 15 July 2015 at the premises of UNIC Lagos, will end on Wednesday, 23 July 2015.

    Already, students, NGOs, media, and other members of the public have visited the exhibition ground where the National Information Officer, Oluseyi Soremekun, acting as the Curator, shared the message of the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon and explained the rationale behind the exhibition.

    The Secretary General had in his message, called on people around the world to make a difference in the communities where they live and work by taking time to serve others.

    ‘The theme behind the Day – “Take action, Inspire change” – highlights the importance of working together to build a peaceful, sustainable and equitable world,’ he added, ‘Let us all continue, each day, to draw inspiration from Nelson Mandela’s life-long example and his call to never cease working to build a better world for all.’

  • From Mandela to de Klerk

    Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s outgoing president, is on the prowl again, on church pulpits.  The last time, he shopped for votes for a doomed second term.  But this time, he shops for pity in a looming post-power jungle.

    Before his first “pulpit tour of duty”, the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) compared Jonathan to Nelson Mandela, and a triad of other great world leaders.  But that rude supposition only inflamed the electorate and Jonathan got so TANned at the polls that his party, hitherto, the self-named “largest party in Africa”, shrivelled to largest party in Nigeria’s South East and South-South geo-political regions.

    Now, President Jonathan is likening himself to Frederik de Klerk, the last white ruler of apartheid South Africa.  In a logic peculiarly his own, the outgoing president credited himself with “hard decisions”, among which was losing an election and conceding defeat.  Was he supposed to do otherwise?

    If he suggested he would or should have, then is he saying he had the divine right to rig elections; and if that failed, he reserved the right to shunt aside the mandate of the people and impose himself?  Pray, under what form of government would that be — still democracy?  Ha!

    It is Freudian slips, like this, that expose the dirty recesses of the president’s mind, which seem to suggest a living form of the Biblical whited sepulchre, gleaming outside, but rotten and smelly within.

    For deservedly losing an election and conceding, Jonathan therefore beatified himself as Nigeria’s de Klerk. As de Klerk ruined himself by ending minority rule in South Africa, Jonathan also ruined himself by being voted out — a gracious democratic emperor ungratefully ousted by the ignorant and ungrateful rabble, perhaps?

    And as de Klerk’s wife divorced him after his wilful self-ruin, so would Dame the Game divorce Jonathan after his own wilful power suicide?  By thank God — praaaaaissseee the Loooorrrddddd, Halleluyah!!! — Herself the Dame vigorously rejected such a supposition, sending the church hall into a thunder of applause!

    But even then, the embattled president is not at all assured of post-power bliss.  His Excellency and his brave ministers would be persecuted!  “So, for minsters and aides who served with me, I sympathise with them because they will be persecuted.  They,” he insisted, “must be ready for persecution.”!

    The President even went the literary historical way by quoting the late Tai Solarin’s famous, if unconventional, New Year’s wish:  “May your road be rough, may you have a hard time this year!”  Jonathan gamely told his soon-to-be-persecuted aides and ministers: “May your ways be rough, I say to my ministers, I wish you what I wish myself.  They will have hard times, we will have hard times.  Our ways will be rough.”!

    What’s this?  The President doesn’t know the difference between persecution and prosecution?  Or he was being satanically mischievous and cynical?

    But why is Jonathan so sure?  A case of the guilty being afraid?  An infantile ploy to crave sympathy, knowing that his presidency has big queries, the way it has spectacularly collapsed the economy, even if the Breton-Woods ambassador and economic viceroy insists Nigeria couldn’t be better, economically?  Or yet another Freudian slip showing what he would have done, were he in Muhammadu Buhari’s shoes?

    By the way, Jonathan should count himself lucky, quoting Tai Solarin so glibly.  The no-nonsense Tai, who does not tolerate fools gladly, would have mercilessly pounced on Jonathan for his presidency’s unadulterated incompetence  — on the missing Chibok girls, for one!

    As May 29 draws nigh, Jonathan and his presidential cry babies should just hold their peace.  They have done enough harm already.  So, they can save the polity their gratuitous barrenness they call parting shots.

  • Obama renames programme for Nelson Mandela

    Obama renames programme for Nelson Mandela

    President Barack Obama welcomed the inaugural class of young African leaders to Washington yesterday, drawing cheers as he announced their program is being expanded and renamed after former South African President Nelson Mandela.

    The youngsters are participating in the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, part of the broader Young African Leaders Initiative that Obama launched in 2010 to support a new generation of leadership there.

    “We have to make sure that we’re all seizing the extraordinary potential of today’s Africa – the youngest and fastest-growing continent,” Obama said. He said the world’s security and prosperity depends on “a strong, prosperous and self-reliant Africa.”

    Obama announced the fellowship during a stop in South Africa last summer. It connects young African leaders to leadership training opportunities at top U.S. universities.

    Obama singled out some fellows in his remarks for their inspiring accomplishments, including a Nigerian woman who distributes sterile kits for delivering babies after a friend died in childbirth, and a woman from Senegal who started an academy to fight trafficking of young girls. “One of the things we’ve got to teach Africa is how strong the women are and to empower women,” Obama said.

    Obama said the spirit of the group reflects the optimism and idealism of Mandela, who died last December at age 95. Mandela spent 27 years in jail under apartheid, South Africa’s former system of white minority rule, before eventually leading his country through a difficult transition to democracy. In 1994, he became the first democratically elected leader of a post-apartheid South Africa.

    This week’s events with the next generation of young African leaders are a lead-in to the inaugural U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, being held Aug. 4-6 in Washington. About 50 African leaders are expected to attend what the White House says will be the largest gathering any U.S. president has held with African heads of state and government.