NEWS - The African Mirror

Sep

11

2021

Zambian president’s economic promises

NEWS

ZAMBIAN President Hakainde Hichilema has promised that his new government would implement policies to reduce the fiscal deficit, restore economic growth and review mining policies. In his first address to a new session of parliament since his election in August, Hichilema said officials would also review agricultural policies, revise electricity prices and reform state power firm Zesco. Last November Africa's second-biggest copper producer became the first country on the continent to default on its sovereign debt during the pandemic, after failing to keep up with payments on its more than $12 billion of international debt. "Rebuilding our economy is top…

Sep

11

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigerian state orders communications blackout

NEWS

NIGERIAN officials cut communication lines in multiple parts of Katsina state as a crackdown on banditry in the northwest of the country spreads. Katsina state security adviser Ibrahim Ahmed told Reuters by phone that the government directed a communications blackout in 13 local government areas to hinder criminality in the region. The affected areas border Zamfara and Kaduna states. Officials in the former state shut down communications networks earlier this week to help armed forces tackle armed gangs of kidnappers terrorising the area. Since that operation began, gunmen kidnapped 20 people in Sokoto state in what a local government source…

Jan

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Children as young as 11 arrested in Tigray

NEWS

ETHIOPIAN security forces have detained minors as young as 11 in their crackdown on a militant group in western Gambella region and have also repressed opposition politicians, according to a state-appointed human rights commission. The report also said about 90 mainly ethnic Tigrayans had been in custody in Gambella since early November - when a war began between federal troops and the former ruling party of Tigray - without any investigation starting. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government says it is quelling insurrection in various parts of Africa's second most populous nation, while some rights groups say the 2019 Nobel Peace…

Jan

26

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Intelligence paid Zuma R2.5 to R4.5-million per month’

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER SENSATIONAL and damning allegations that plans were made to bribe high court judges to rule in favour of the then South African president Jacob Zuma, in case he landed in court in connection with fraud and corruption charges that have been hanging over his head. These dramatic claims were made by Sydney Mufamadi, a former cabinet minister who chaired a presidential panel to review the work of the South African Security Agency (SSA). In his testimony before the Zondo Commission probing state capture, Mufamadi, said his panel was also told that Zuma was paid between R2.5-million and…

Jan

26

2021

By The African Mirror

At least 11 killed after fighting erupts in Somalia’s Jubbaland

NEWS

ABDIQANI HASSAN AT least 11 people were killed yesterday after fighting broke out between the Somali federal army and Jubbaland state forces in the Gedo region of southwestern Somalia, a local doctor told Reuters. Somalia's federal government confirmed there had been fighting, concentrated in the town of Bula Hawa bordering Kenya. But it and Jubbaland, one of Somalia's five semi-autonomous states, reported no casualties. Mogadishu accused Kenya of backing Jubbaland in the fighting, an accusation that Jubbaland denies. "Kenya and its guerrilla rebels attacked Bula Hawa town last night," Osman Dube, Somalia's information minister, told reporters in Mogadishu. "We overpowered…

Jan

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisia’s powerful union urges political, economic reform to head off crisis

NEWS

TAREK AMARA and ANGUS McDOWALL THE leader of Tunisia's UGTT labour union, widely seen as the country's most powerful political player with more than a million members, told Reuters urgent reform was needed to head off a social and economic crisis. "We need a national discussion on the political system ... the dialogue should include reforms to revive the economy," said Noureddine Taboubi, secretary-general of the union, a national movement that helped end colonial rule in 1956 and won a Nobel Peace Prize for its role calming tensions after the 2011 "Arab Spring" revolution. As the revolution's 10th anniversary arrived…

Jan

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Storm damage worsens in a warming world, hiking pressure to adapt

NEWS

MEGAN ROWLING MORE powerful storms are battering people and economies harder, with the poor suffering the worst losses, an annual climate risk index showed, as leaders were urged to ramp up their response to climate change impacts at a global adaptation summit on Monday. The index for 2019, from research group Germanwatch, showed that Mozambique and Zimbabwe were the two countries hardest-hit by extreme weather. Both were struck by Idai, the deadliest and costliest cyclone recorded in the southwest Indian Ocean. Just this weekend, central Mozambique was hammered again by another tropical storm, Eloise, which wrecked thousands of buildings, ruined crops…

Sep

09

2021

By The African Mirror

ANC military veteran Carl Niehaus to fight dismissal

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER CARL Niehaus, who has been fired by the ANC, South Africa’s governing party, has vowed to fight for his job and take the party to court. Niehaus, a former spokesperson for the ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe Veterans Association, which was disbanded recently, was fired for misconduct and violating the terms of his employment with the ANC. He has indicated that he will appeal his dismissal and fight it in court. Niehaus, a well known supporter of former ANC President Jacob Zuma, was fired for issuing a media alert in which he claimed that he was going to…

Sep

10

2021

By The African Mirror

Multi-million kickback scandal: man in court

NEWS

JONATHAN STEMPEL U.S. authorities have charged a former employee of Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson with scheming to bribe Djibouti government officials in order to win business with a state-owned telecommunications company. The U.S. Department of Justice said Afework Bereket, 53, a former employee of Ericsson Egypt, helped arrange $2.1 million in bribes to at least three Djibouti officials so Ericsson could win a 20.3 million euro (US$24 million) contract. Prosecutors said the scheme ran from 2010 to January 2014 and included bribes disguised as payments to a company with which Ericsson's branch office in Ethiopia had entered a sham…

Sep

10

2021

By The African Mirror

SA tribunal freezes billions linked to Chinese rail firm

NEWS

A South African tribunal has frozen R4.2-billion rand ($296.84 million) linked to the local unit of CRRC Corp as investigators probe the Chinese firm's deals with state-owned logistics group Transnet. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which investigates corruption at state entities, said in a statement it believes the funds are "proceeds of unlawful activity". "The SIU together with Transnet approached the Tribunal to freeze the accounts following an intensive investigation ... which raised the suspicion that CRRC paid kickbacks," it said. CRRC E-Loco Supply Ltd was not reachable on Thursday. Parent company CRRC Corp - the world's biggest train maker…