Eight people died Monday in Zambia’s north eastern fishing town of Mpulungu during a job search stampede. Dozens were left injured. Emmanuel Mwamba, permanent secretary for the country’s Northern Province, told a state radio station that 38 injured people, six of them in a critical condition, were treated at a hospital in Mpulungu, after the fateful job search at fish wholesaler firm, Great Lakes Products. Some 5,000 job seekers had gathered outside the company’s premises following rumours that the owner was in town.
Mswati embarrasses Africa: SSN
The Swaziland Solidarity Network this week described King Mswati III of being an embarrassment to the whole of Africa. Mswati last week stressed the acute need for intellectual capital in the continent during the Global African Summit in Sandton,
Johannesburg. He begged Africans living in the Diaspora to use their experience, skills and expertise in Education, Information and Communication Technology, Health and Business to help African countries to develop.
However, the SSN said this week that the network was extremely disappointed in the king’s speech and feels that he should be called to order. “While our network feels that Africa, and Swaziland in particular, can be well served by the intellectual support of well-educated and experienced people from all backgrounds, races and countries, it is folly to expect this help when African countries like Swaziland are not making concerted efforts to develop their own human resources,” said SSN spokesman, Lucky Lukhele.
“It is not lost to us that while his majesty was making this speech, Swaziland’s only University of creative technology had been closed for two days due to a strike inspired by the government’s failure to provide learning material to its students. His dear child, however, roams the world gaining higher education credentials at the nation’s expense just so she can come back and be a policewoman.”
Gay marriage article: journo arrested
A Malawian journalist was languishing in police custody this week for writing a story on an alleged engagement ceremony involving two women. Clement Chinoko, who writes for one of Malawi’s major publishing houses, Blantyre Newspapers Limited, was arrested on Saturday for penning a story that appeared in South Africa’s Sunday Times of May 20, 2012. Police spokesperson for the southern region, Nicholas Gondwa, confirmed the arrest, saying Chinoko had been charged with “conduct likely to cause breach of peace” and that he would be taken to court soon. He had not been released on bail or taken to court at the time of going to print.
ANC probes secret meetings
SA’s ruling African National Congress recently began to investigate allegations that some senior party members were convening secret meetings to discuss leadership changes ahead of its elective conference later this year. The party’s Gauteng provincial secretary, David Makhura, said complaints had been received from the regions that “they have been called to attend the secret caucuses convened by some of the national leadership”.
“We will take action … the idea of secret caucuses is wrong. The ANC is not an underground organisation, it is leading a democracy,” said Makhura.
“The PEC maintains the view that the assessment of the organisation and leadership performance should take place within the structure of the organisation, not in secret caucuses.”
He refused to reveal the names of the NEC members allegedly spearheading these secret caucuses, but warned that no member in Gauteng would be influenced to attend them.
Post published in: Africa News