Malawi’s President Joyce Banda has been accused of overstretching her powers, after she recently cancelled contracts to buy cholera, malaria and diabetes emergency medicines worth $2 259 242. State defended the move, Malawi Law Society argued that Banda’s throwing out of a process approved by the Office of the Director of Public Procurement was out of line.
Barracks ban for social networks
Botswana’s army has banned soldiers from using social networks like Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites, ostensibly for security reasons. Tebo Dikole, Directorate of
Protocol and Public Affairs of the Botswana Defence Force, said employees would no longer be allowed to communicate via the social networks during army operations. Military employees are barred from commenting on military-related issues, as some such comments would bring the organisation into disrepute and lay military operations on the line.
Cosatu intensifies strike
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has rejected the ruling ANC’s call for an immediate suspension of the ongoing farm worker strike. Instead,
Cosatu, a tripartite member of the ANC, and has vowed to intensify the strike in all areas in the coming week. It also planned to launch an economic boycott of “bad farmers” in local and international retailers.
Swazi paper blocks
democracy
The managing director of the Swazi Observer group, Alpheous Nxumalo, recently vowed not to publish pro-democracy voices. The King Mswati-owned paper recently suspended journalists on claims that they had not followed its original mandate.
Nxumalo accused democracy activists of trying to “subvert the national institutions such as the monarchy and the government in order to advance the agenda of radicalising the Swazi nation”.
DA demands Zuma
apology
The Democratic Alliance has demanded that South Africa’s
President Jacob Zuma retract his comments that businesses that support his ruling ANC will prosper. DA parliamentary leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko, said Monday that she would submit parliamentary questions asking Zuma to explain whether the remarks were in fact government policy and ask for his formal retraction. Zuma said recently that businessmen who supported the ANC would see their business “multiply”.
More military justice
organs
The Angolan Army’s Chief of Staff, General Geraldo
Sachipengo Nunda, recently defended the need for military justice organs to be permanently prepared to fight crime in the country. He said the criminality phenomenon was a world concern.
Post published in: Africa News