'The rebellion of the poor in this country is growing,' writes Ayanda Kota, the chair of the Unemployed People's Movement in the Mail and Guardian, days before South Africans vote in local elections on 18 May. 'More and more organisations are emerging. More and more people have become radicalised. More and more communities have lost their illusions after experiencing the violence of the predator state. More and more people are starting and joining discussions about the way forward for the struggle to take the country back.'

Tension between the ruling MPLA party and the main opposition UNITA party and questions over policy-making are worrying investors in the major African oil-producing nation of Angola, states this risk assessment article from Reuters. Campaigning for 2012 elections got off to a shaky start, with UNITA saying food price riots in Mozambique in September could lead poverty-stricken Angolans to do the same.

Cash strapped government will find itself failing to pay salaries in June if its coffers fail to get immediate injection. It also states it will be difficult for May. What had been feared and allayed for months seemingly looms. Since openly acknowledging that it is faced with a fiscal crisis, government has, for months, said civil servants’ salaries are a priority and would be guaranteed. Now it has conceded that beyond this month there will be no money to pay them.

Least Developed Countries do not need charity; they want more and smarter investments. This was the point of departure for the Fourth UN Conference for the world's poor countries (LDC-IV) begins in Istanbul, Turkey. Up to 8,000 delegates, including the leaders of the world's 48 least developed countries (LDCs), international aid agencies and development partners discussed solutions to abject poverty. Up to 900 million people are citizens of LDCs, half of them living on less than two dollars a day. Over the last decade, 60 per cent of the world’s refugees originated from the LDCs, according to the United Nations.

The Zimbabwe Coalition of Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), Poverty Reduction Forum (PRF) and Women's Action Group (WAG) with the support of Reality of Aid (RoA) convened a CSO Consultative Meeting on the Implementation of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (PD) and the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) in Zimbabwe on 23 February 2011. The objective of the meeting was to identify Zimbabwean CSOs which are interested in Aid Effectiveness (hereafter AE) and the AAA and provide a platform for information sharing among them. Visit the Kubatana website for a report of the meeting.

Minister Louis Farrakhan, in this video interview, discusses the role of the CIA in the conflict. He points to the contradiction of Western concern over the people of Libya, while the people of Palestine and Rwanda, for example, were ignored.

Doubts are emerging over whether cash transfers, designed to strengthen local markets, also empower women and change gender roles in emergencies. 'Gender relations are quite complex and you cannot assume US$50 is going to change that,' Sarah Bailey, research officer at the Humanitarian Policy Group, told IRIN. 'You cannot assume targeting women necessarily leads to their empowerment or promotes gender equality.' The issue is discussed in a joint report by Oxfam Great Britain and Concern Worldwide on cash transfers and gender dynamics, released on 6 May.

Desperate and displaced, some Burundian women will do anything, including have unprotected sex for money, to escape the dreadful living conditions in the Bujumbura suburb of Sabe, where more than 480 families of internally displaced persons (IDPs) have lived for several years. Burundi has more than 100,000 IDPs as a result of several years of political turmoil; most of the families in Sabe are returnees from neighbouring countries.

Alassane Ouattara has been sworn in as Ivory Coast president in a ceremony after months of political violence in the world's leading cocoa producer followed his victory in last November's elections. Ouattara, 69, was sworn in at the presidential palace by the head of the Constitutional Council, Paul Yao N'Dre, watched by members of his government, the armed forces and the diplomatic community.

Ghana has given the assurance that the country was committed to a 'free uncensored and safe cyberspace'. Making the announcement, deputy Information minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa condemned attempts by some countries to clamp down on internet usage through censorship. In a speech to mark the World’s Press Freedom Day, Mr Okudzeto-Ablakwa said: 'We have seen governments engage in online blocking where access to some websites is curtailed. We have observed that some governments are now mounting surveillance on cybersapce so as to track down those who publish what those governments don’t like.'

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

The ANC 'didn't know' about 1,600 toilets in a Free State municipality which have been left without enclosures for the past eight years, secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday (09 May). 'We didn't know about open toilets,' he told journalists at as press briefing at Luthuli House in Johannesburg. Earlier, the Human Rights Commission spokesperson, Vincent Moaga, said the body's legal committee would discuss the issue after a complaint had been laid with the commission on the issue.

President Rupiah Banda had no role in the alleged illegal $100 million arms procurement deal and does not owe people an explanation on the transaction, says Zambia's Defence minister. An ex-minister of defence in the Banda Cabinet, Mr George Mpombo, a fortnight ago claimed he quit his position in 2009 after he resisted pressure from the head of state to approve an arms deal with a South African firm, in which President Banda's son was the middleman. Mpombo, now aligned to main opposition leader Michael Sata and a fierce critic of President Banda, insisted the head of state constantly phoned him at the time to influence the signing of the deal and when he refused, he was scorned in Cabinet meetings, hence his resignation.

Zimbabwe has adopted a two-pronged approach to tackling the country’s foreign debt that will see the African country use its rich natural resources while also embracing the HIPC debt relief initiative to pay back the more than US$7 billion owed to foreigners. The move to adopt a hybrid solution to the debt crisis comes after more than a year of strong disagreements within the Harare unity government over how to handle a burgeoning debt that Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said is the biggest obstacle to efforts to resuscitate the country’s economy ravaged by a decade-long recession.

'The enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression in Southern Africa remains under serious threat, particularly due to repressive legal regimes which are being used as a tool to justify the persecution of journalists and citizens under the guise of due process. Lack of political will to put in place effective measures that enhance the protection and enjoyment of this right, is a common problem particularly in Swaziland, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.'

The ‘Governing Migration’ conference will draw together approximately 350 persons working in the field of forced migration (academics, practitioners and policy makers and forced migrants themselves) to debate recent research findings, hot policy topics, and pressing concerns in the field of forced migration as they relate to the fields of Governance and Justice, and to catalyse the establishment of new research, policy and practice agendas.

Plans to bring bin Laden back to life?

Pambazuka and the Carleton University Institute of African Studies invite you to a talk to celebrate Africa Liberation Day with Firoze Manji and Molly Kane, Pambazuka News. It takes place on Wednesday, 25 May at 6pm at the Arts Lounge, 1025 Dunton Tower, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

Following requests from a number of individuals, the deadline for the submission of essays has been extended until Monday 9 May. If you haven't already submitted your essay, please do so now.

Maghreb states need to find immediate solutions to the soaring food prices, said participants at a Tunis seminar, which ended Wednesday (4 May). The three-day event, organised by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), brought together experts from the Maghreb and the European Union, as well as representatives from the UN, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.