The Southern African Litigation Centre recently criticised Lesotho’s Constitutional Court, which last week “struck a serious blow against women’s rights and gender equality” by upholding a discriminatory section of the Chieftainship Act. The section denies all daughters the right to succeed to chieftainship solely due to their gender. Priti Patel, who is SALC’s Deputy Director, said: “This is a dark day for women in Lesotho. The Constitutional Court has basically re-affirmed the view that women are second-class citizens in Lesotho.”
HPV vaccine
Mozambican health authorities said they would in 2014 begin to administer a vaccine against the human papilloma virus, responsible for the majority of cases of cervical cancer. The immunisation would mainly be financed by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, a public-private international health partnership. GAVI Chief Executive Officer, Seth Berkley, said a vast gap existed between girls in rich and poor countries, but was hopeful that GAVI’s programmes would bridge that gap and protect all girls against cervical cancer “no matter where they are born”.
Feeding programme
The Mozambican government recently approved the National School Feeding Programme, whose pilot phase would benefit 88 400 pre-primary and primary school children. Education Minister, Augusto Jone, said the pilot phase would target districts mainly in semi-arid areas, where food insecurity was most prominent. The programme aimed to reduce the impact of food insecurity in schools so as to cut absenteeism and improve both the educational performance and health of the children.
Judges appeal
Zambian women rights activist, Sarah Longwe, has appealed to Malawi’s President Joyce Banda to withdraw Judge Lovemore Chikopa from overseeing the tribunal of the three suspended Zambian judges. She said Chikopa was wasting Zambian tax payers’ money by taking up a futile cause. Chikopa has been in the country for almost a year and stuck in the uptown Intercontinental Hotel during the period the tribunal had been halted due to a legal challenge.”
Swazi democracy ban
Swaziland’s Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini recently decreed that members of political parties advocating for democracy would not be allowed to become members of the Swazi Senate. Swaziland goes to the polls later this year to select a parliament, generally considered outside the kingdom to be without powers and simply a fig-leaf for King Mswati III to claim he does not rule as an absolute monarch.
Ordinary people are not allowed to vote for members of the Swazi Senate, whose 20 out of 30 members are chosen by the king and 10 are elected by members of the House of Assembly.
Africa loses millions
Thabo Mbeki, Chairman of the United Nations High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, said recently that the continent lost at least $50 billion annually through illicit fund flows. The former SA President the UN panel was determined to study the problems and propose solutions. “The huge funds being illicitly taken out of Africa can solve our infrastructure and other problems, so we must look within and check this haemorrhage,” said Mbeki.
Post published in: Africa News