Whites still occupy 73.1 per cent of top management positions in the country, the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) says. Black people made up 12.7 per cent of top management, Indians 6.8 per cent and coloureds 4.6 per cent, the CEE said in its 11th annual report released in Pretoria. Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant said she was disappointed at the slow pace of reform at top management.

Mali will soon hold a referendum to vote on political reforms after the country's parliament adopted proposed changes to its supreme law. The National Assembly's vote was overwhelming in favour of the constitutional changes, with 141 deputies supporting them. Only three deputies rejected the draft while one member abstained. Some 105 out of 122 articles are targeted in the reforms but the presidential term limit remains pegged at two and the governing system semi-presidential, although the president's duties will be reinforced.

The UN is to publish a long-awaited report on the impact of the oil spills in Nigeria's Ogoniland region. The report took two years to produce and is controversial in part because it was funded by oil giant Shell. On Wednesday (03 August) Shell accepted liability for two spills that devastated communities in 2008 and 2009. One community said it would seek hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. Shell said it would settle the case under Nigerian law. After two years of research, and consultations with all the concerned parties, the UN Environment Programme must now present its findings to Nigeria's president and the wider public.

Swaziland's pro-democracy activists have threatened to march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against SA’s R2,4bn conditional rescue package for the kingdom. Swaziland has been hit with protests this year after its government froze public sector salaries and cut social services. Protesters have accused King Mswati of looting state coffers to finance his extravagant lifestyle. The Swaziland Solidarity Network, which represents a consortium of pro-democracy movements in the kingdom, said it would organise protests at the Union Buildings and around SA to voice displeasure at the loan and in support of their demand that King Mswati lift the ban on political parties, in place since 1973.

With the health of the country’s economy hanging in the balance and financial markets watching closely, President Museveni convened a crisis Cabinet meeting to try to come up with austerity measures that would deliver a blueprint for economic recovery. Across the nation, the rising public concern caused by double-digit inflation - currently standing at 18.7 per cent, is palpable. Of late, public employees, particularly teachers, medical workers and the business, are increasingly growing impatient as a result of the depreciation of the Shilling and the rising cost of living.

The ‘international and continent-wide issue is not so much whether Gaddafi's regime should be removed’, but rather ‘how this should be approached, and why it is being approached at all,’ writes Khadija Sharife.

The famine spreading across the Horn of Africa is ‘not principally the result of drought’, it’s ‘due to political and social circumstances that if left unaddressed will begin one terrible unending famine capable of wiping out entire populations and massively stressing global resources’, writes Africa Answerman.

'The surreal images of ex-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on a hospital bed inside an iron cage in a Cairo courtroom have been the leading topic in the African blogosphere this week,' writes Dibussi Tande.

Christopher Zambakari’s article on South Sudan fails to address the key issue of leadership, writes Africaforafrica.

Why Pambazuka is unique

The 200th edition of Pambazuka News in French is a special issue featuring different contributors who over the years have made this a reality. In the 10 years of Pambazuka’s existence, 2,500 researchers, academics, activists and others, driven by a Pan-African ideal and a commitment to social justice, have made Pambazuka the most prolific African platform for citizen journalism. This special edition hears from these contributors, why they read Pambazuka and why it is important to them. The 200th edition also carries excerpts from the 500th English-language edition of the newsletter published in October 2010 (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/500). Pambazuka is clearly more than just a newsletter.

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The struggle for a new thought world order
Tidiane Kasse

Four years on, we are now at the 200th edition of Pambazuka News in French. After years of cutting one’s teeth in mainstream journalism, working with Pambazuka (which means ‘arise’ in Swahili) and immersing oneself in the fervour of activism has led to a better understanding of the issues at stake in the battle for information in Africa.

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Pambazuka and the struggle against capitalism, imperialism and for the emancipation of peoples
Demba Moussa Dembele

Demba Moussa Dembele pays tribute to Pambazuka’s commitment to the struggle for political, economic and social justice for the peoples of Africa and the diaspora and underlines that ‘its credibility and prestige make it a vital source of information on Africa for other media in the world, many of which reproduce Pambazuka articles, including translations, on their websites.’

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The second phase of African decolonisation needs an alternative press
Guy Marius Sagna and Fode Roland Diagne

After reviewing the evolution of the African press since colonisation, Guy Marius Sagna and Fode Roland Diagne make a plea for a different kind of press to tackle Africa’s current challenges, one that will put at the forefront the voices of ‘workers, peasants, workers in the informal sector, women, youth and progressive Africans’ and accompany them in the struggle to take destiny into their own hands and break with the slavish ties imposed on the peoples of Africa by Françafrique, Eurafrique and Usafrique.’ Pambazuka, they say, ‘is the kind of model required for a truly alternative and anti-neoliberal press.’

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Alternative media, a means of struggle against the capitalist system
Bernard Dodji Bokodjin

Amidst the plethora of mainstream media that has swept through the world to consolidate a system of exploitation and servitude, Pambazuka News, according to Bernard Bokodjin, stands out as a platform that enlightens people in Africa and elsewhere on the real issues of governance in Africa and ‘fights for the emancipation of Africa from the yoke of colonialism and the domination of the Françafrique mafia’.

‘Life is cheap. And so we are lethargic – until the numbers become too large to ignore,’ writes Muthoni Wanyeki, as Kenyans fail to heed the plight of either their fellow citizens or neighbouring Somalis during the region’s worst drought in 60 years.

In the absence of a well-functioning central government, Somalia is in effect being ‘managed and controlled by aid agencies’, writes Rasna Warah. But it’s a story that is unlikely to be told by either the global news networks or the ‘aid workers whose livelihoods depend on donor money that will soon flow into Somalia via Kenya.’

When it comes to sexual violence against women in Uganda, Doreen Lwanga says it is about time men start seeing women as human beings and not sexualised objects.

The recent acquittal of members of a leading South African social movement showed up the undemocratic tendencies of the ANC. Those committed to democracy will have to stand firm, writes Richard Pithouse.

If Kenya’s new constitution is to provide for a genuine democratisation of the country’s politics, public participation will need to be the prerequisite underpinning all other constitutional provisions, writes Katto Wambua.

With the Horn of Africa facing an acute drought and food crisis, Anne Mitaru underlines the need for African states and leaders to take centre stage in dealing with the crisis.

Uganda could be the next country hit by alarming malnutrition rates due to drought which has already sparked famine in southern Somalia and hunger in Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti, the United Nations warned. Pockets of food insecurity have already been detected in drought-hit northern areas of Uganda, east Africa's third largest economy, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.

Morocco's King Mohammed is pushing for early polls to hasten reforms he has initiated but this alone is unlikely to satisfy critics without serious steps to curb corruption and to give the next assembly teeth. The monarch acted promptly in March to contain any spillover from the Arab Spring after protests spread to Morocco, promising constitutional changes to reduce the king's powers. The new palace-made charter won near-unanimous support in a July referendum that critics said was itself far too hasty to allow proper debate.

The Society for International Development (SID)'s triennial World Congress, which concluded Sunday in Washington, drew over 1,000 attendees this year, 40 per cent hailing from the global south, making it arguably one of the most influential and far-reaching forums for development experts and organisations in the world today. 'The emergence of new paths to development has [grown] along with the rise of middle-and low-income countries,' Rebeca Grynspan, associate administrator of the UN Development Programme, said at the opening plenary. 'But we have seen that we can also have growth without inclusion. In Latin America, for example, one in every four young people is not studying or working - 25 per cent out of the education system and out of the labour market. If that's not exclusion, then I don't know what is,' she said.

Security forces broke up demonstrations by hundreds of people after weeks of electricity cuts in Niger, with several protesters wounded and arrested Monday 1 August, radio reports and police said. Police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators who took to the streets of the central town of Tanout after a first day of protests on Sunday, private Anfani radio said.