Honeymoon ends for South Africa and Rwanda
South Africa’s post-World Cup return to reality, Rwanda’s displeasure at a UN report accusing its forces of the massacre of Hutu refugees in DRC, and the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS in Swaziland are among the stories covered in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, collated by Dibussi Tande.
Postcard Junky argues that South Africa’s World Cup honeymoon is over, with old social and political problems taking centre-stage once again:
‘Discontent, malice, fear: they inhabit the air like the smell of a coming storm. Yes, the World Cup honeymoon is over here in South Africa. And Africa’s most turbulent, energetic, and schizophrenic and, ultimately, hopeful democracy is once again lurching about in search of its own identity.
‘The most visible sign of something rotten in the state of Zuma has, of course, been the massive civil service strike that is now entering its third week. More than a million public employees have taken to the streets so far, over demands of increased wages and housing allowances; according to local media, that number is expected to grow this week. There have been ugly reports of clashes between strikers and police; between strikers and those daring to cross the picket line; even between strikers and hospital patients, who have been turned back at healthcare facilities across the country by angry mobs. This is the ugly face of democracy-run-amok – a bitter pill to swallow for those who, having grown with the apartheid struggle, remember the days when labor unions were seen as an important voice of social protest for blacks – one of the few entries into the political space not banned by the apartheid government...
‘The government insists that the strikers’ demands are unreasonable, that they threaten to bankrupt its already overtaxed coffers. (World Cup stadium in Port Elizabeth, anybody?) Meanwhile more reports of government misdeeds: ANC cronies linked to a corrupt waste management deal in Limpopo province; President Zuma’s own son implicated in a scandal involving the South African arm of the steel giant, ArcelorMittal. Bitterness, fear, fury. How quickly the dreams of the World Cup have dimmed and faded, like the last gasps of fireworks bursting over Soccer City six weeks ago. It’s back to the dirty business of politics now, to the trench warfare of negotiated settlements – neither line willing to give an inch.’
Congo Siasa challenges some of the arguments put forth by the Rwandan government to rebut the UN report which accuses Rwandan-controlled forces of having massacred Hutu refugees who fled to Zaire after the 1994 genocide:
‘The report's intention is to call for accountability for the mass atrocities committed during ten years of conflict in the Congo, not to single out Rwanda for "acts of genocide." Indeed, Angolan, Burundian, Ugandan, Chadian and Congolese officials are also cited for war crimes in the report. While the systematic massacre of Rwandan Hutu refugees stands out as one of the worst crimes committed during the war and deserves to be highlighted, the press should have put the report in context and highlighted its call for a tribunal and a truth and reconciliation commission.
‘There is no doubt that some Rwandan opposition members will seize this opportunity to resurrect the notion of a double genocide. The comparison is not helpful in the least. Some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed during the 1994 genocide. This report suggests "tens of thousands" of refugees killed by the RPA in the Congo and probably several times that many died from disease and starvation. However, while the figures of refugees that died were nowhere near as high as those of people killed in 1994 genocide, the systematic nature of the killing is deeply chilling and indicates complicity at a very high level within Rwanda's government...
‘The UN failed abysmally to bring an end to the genocide in 1994. It also failed to separate soldiers from civilians in the refugee camps. These failures will continue to bring shame and discredit to the organization. However, that past mistakes should somehow prevent the UN from criticizing other atrocities does not make sense. We should recall that the massacre of refugees was not carried out in self-defense, nor were the civilians killed by stray bullets; the evidence gathered by the UN investigators suggests that the massacres were systematic and carried out intentionally, in a coordinated fashion. That 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed in Rwanda in 1994, and that the RPA helped bring an end to the genocide should in no way prevent the UN from criticizing them for killing tens of thousands in the Congo.’
For His Glory calls on the world to act in the face of the devastating AIDS epidemic in Swaziland which he compares to ethnic cleansing and genocide:
‘Something is happening in Swaziland, something similar in proportions to the ethnic cleansing which threatened Kosovo and Rwanda which the world needs and must pay more attention to or never again will we as a race ever be able to look in the mirror of our humanity and see humanity, all we would see would be distorted inhumanity, thick skinned enough to let an entire nation evanesce from the face of the earth. HIV AIDS is slowly, deliberately, subtly, fazing, and decimating an entire people with the certainty of a high Richter scale magnitude quaking tsunamis. All of this is happening before the idle watch of the world...
‘Ever since the first Swazi cases of AIDS were reported in 1986, the virus has spread untamed and now 26.1% of the country's adult population are infected, effortlessly making it the highest HIV prevalence rate in the whole world, and the spread is still on like a wild Harmattan fire...
‘Oh how the twin fiend of poverty and HIV AIDS, wedded in polygamous union to ignorance can ravage and decimate a people!!... There is an unfolding tragedy endangering the entire existence of a people before the watch of the world and a selfish King… I personally feel dwarfed by the enormity of the challenge but let it better be said that we didn't succeed, but never that we didn't try...
‘The world must act now or history will judge this generation harshly. We have borrowed this present from our children and we have an obligation to give it back to them better and brighter. Let the international organizations of the world and powers which be, help this nation out of this dark valley of despicable health and economic malaise.”
mzatinkolokosa.com comments on the death of three people in Ndirande, Blantyre, Malawi at the urging of a church leader:
‘The three, Lamece Manda 31, Ettah Manda 27, and 16 year old Annie Manda died after throwing themselves into a fire. Two others—Petro Manda, 25 and Maria Manda, 19–were seriously injured.
‘Police say the family members did this because they suspected their father was casting a spell on them, so they could not find jobs or marry. This information, according to Police, was from a church leader who advised the family members to burn themselves. Something powerful must be at work here, something powerful enough to move a person to kill himself and others. The ages here are of young people....
‘The majority of people in Malawi are young, below 35 years and those between 18 and 35 are struggling to make a life, to get a good education, a decent job and raise a family. Hopelessness can lead to loss of interest in life. But should the youth in Malawi be hopeless? I don’t think so.
‘Every storm, no matter how strong, is temporary. We have loan programmes, we have skills training centres, farming and a strong extended family system that cares for one another. How could these and others fail to save the lives of the Mandas? This is where we need to think anew and seriously about the role of religion in Malawi.’
Ken Opalo laments about the poor state of the strategic but neglected Kisumu-Busia Highway in Kenya:
‘It is a key road that links western Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and the eastern DRC to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. But the state of the Kisumu-Busia “highway” does not exemplify its economic importance to the wider east African region. Potholes, dangerously narrow stretches, and encroachment by vendors are some of the many things that are wrong with the Kisumu-Busia highway. The many accidents that occur on the road tell it all.
‘Last Tuesday I witnessed the aftermath of an accident in the town of Ugunja in Ugenya when on a visit to my aunt’s in Got Osimbo. A tanker swerved while trying to avoid oncoming traffic. As always happens, locals rushed to the scene with containers to siphon away fuel. The fuel caught fire and burnt many stalls that line the road in Ugunja town and a section of the famous St. Michael’s Hotel. As far as I know there was only one fatality – thanks to the fact that the tanker was carrying diesel and not the more inflammable petrol. It is not that long ago when similar accidents in Sidindi and Sachangwan caused the death of dozens of people who were trying to loot fuel.
‘I can’t stop asking myself: HOW HARD CAN IT BE? How hard can it be for the four countries that depend on this key road to get their act together and construct a proper road?’
Uganda Journalist says that contrary to the triumphalist discourse coming out of Kampala about recovery in Northern Uganda, the region is still plagued by immense problems:
‘A few weeks ago, the government of Uganda paid supplements to major newspapers publicising their achievements in the recovery plan for Northern Uganda. I took a trip to the north and east with Isis-WICCE an organisation am currently working with to finish my masters.
‘These people's stories tell a different reality. The case is simple; not much on the ground yet to cause celebrations and the waste money to put ads [in newspapers">. That money invested in supplements could have well changed the situation of these people I spoke to and many many others.
‘But since it is election time here “you have to blow the trumpet” even in situations that are dire. These people’s lives show not much has been done for communities that have faced over a decade of conflict especially those people whose bodies were the battle ground of the war – the women!
‘The issues addressing the welfare of ordinary people in the north are still not addressed. Maternal deaths are still high. Uganda loses about 6000 mothers per year due to pregnancy related complications. Recently at the All Africa Anglican Bishops conference in Uganda, the head of UNFPA Janet Jackson put the deaths in a way that I can’t forget. That for every 90 minutes, a time it takes for a football match, a mother dies in Uganda. And for those of us who love football so much it is a comparison that can’t leave our minds. Normalising the situation in northern Uganda will take more than just road construction.’
BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS
* Dibussi Tande blogs at Scribbles from the Den.
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