Tanzania's Censorship

A new law in Tanzania has placed strict controls on cooperation between local and international media outlets. The change enforces the government view that any differing opinion should be punished. New regulations announced by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), which came into force on August 10, local media must now seek government permission to broadcast foreign content — and they will bear the responsibility for any perceived "offense" contained in that content.

The warning that local media outlets would bear responsibility for any offense caused by content prepared, organized and produced by a foreign media partner is of particular concern — even more than these new regulations  themselves. Since taking office in 2015, the administration of President John Magufuli has expanded its definition of "offense" to include almost anything contrary to the president's personal views, everything from economic statistics to COVID-19, a disease Magufuli has already declared extinct in Tanzania thanks to prayer.

In a country where even a simple complaint about living conditions can be defined as sabotaging the president's efforts, the scope of the perceived offenses is broad, unlimited and endangers the very foundations of journalism.

The public sphere is shrinking and long with it the power of the media, with many Tanzanians now forced to rely on one-sided reports from local media.People are facing court cases, and others have already been imprisoned, for so-called "cybercrime" — and their biggest mistake was expressing a view against the official government line on minor issues such as rising commodity prices.

 To avoid this penalty, international outlet's local partners will be forced to choose one of three options. 

The first will be to simply decide against any rebroadcasting of world programs, depriving millions of Tanzanians of their right to access detailed and analytical information. 

A second option would be for partner stations to record and filter the programs, removing everything that could potentially be against the government's views before feeding the rest to Tanzanians. 

Thirdly, they could edit and censor its own content by not broadcasting anything that could be deemed offensive by the Tanzanian government. But this would no longer be journalism.

https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-tanzanias-media-law-muzzles-free-speech/a-54532521

Land Theft in Kenya

The demolition of homes in low-income and rural areas has become a familiar occurrence in Kenya, but this time, say housing rights advocates. 

The land at the centre of the legal tussle is 54 hectares (133 acres) which was excised from the larger Ngong Forest in 1998 "to be put to public use," according to local officials at the time. More than 20,000 families in Langata live on land that the environment ministry says was bought illegally by various civil servants who subdivided and sold parcels of it to unsuspecting members of the public. Now the ministry is taking back the land as part of a tree-planting drive, 

Asked about compensation for the evicted homeowners,  the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Keriako Tobiko, told the press conference that the government is not offering to pay anything. Tobiko said in June that because the land was initially bought illegally, the title deeds that Gedi and other homeowners hold are void.

"These people have been on this land for more than 20 years now. Where was the government all that time?," Renny Langat, a Nakuru-based constitutional lawyer asked. "Of course, I say that we should conserve the environment, but not at the expense of the people living in those areas because they are fully developed," Langat added. 

At the Royal Park Estate, home to 750 families, a 10-minute walk from Sun Valley Estate Phase 1, Hodhan Gedi also worries about the government's plans. She and her husband bought two parcels of land inside the estate 20 years ago and built houses on each of them, one they live in and the other they rent out.

"We have genuine titles that were issued within six months of our application by the same government that is threatening to evict us and have also been paying land rates to them," she explained.

Humphrey Otieno, chairman of the Nairobi People's Settlement Network, a coalition of community groups, said the government has inconsistently applied the law when it comes to evicting residents of high-end housing compared with those from slums.

In a recent round of evictions in May, the government demolished some 600 homes in the Kariobangi slum in northeast Nairobi with two days' notice, forcefully evicting at least 5,000 people in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, campaigners said.

"For thousands and thousands of residents in informal settlements who are there not by their choice but because of their status, they are evicted mostly at night, and court orders are completely defied," Otieno said . "The government is failing in its responsibility to provide, protect and fulfill its mandate ... by applying the law selectively," he said.

https://news.trust.org/item/20200810091201-yz9wy/

Mauritius Pollution Disaster

Urgent efforts to contain an oil spill off the coast of Mauritius are being ramped up due to fears that a cracked ship spilling fuel into the Indian Ocean—polluting nearby coral reefs, mangrove forests, and beaches of the island nation—could soon split in two, exacerbating the local environmental crisis. The Wakashio struck a reef at Pointe d'Esny, an ecological jewel fringed by idyllic beaches, colorful reefs, sanctuaries for rare and endemic wildlife, and unique RAMSAR-listed wetlands. Mauritius and its 1.3 million inhabitants depend crucially on its seas for food and for ecotourism, and has fostered a reputation as a conservation success story and a world-class destination for nature lovers. Ecologists fear if the ship further breaks it could inflict potentially catastrophic damage on the island nation's coastline, which forms the backbone of the economy.

"Thousands of species around the pristine lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe d'Esny, and Mahebourg are at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritius' economy, food security, and health," Happy Khambule, Greenpeace Africa senior Climate and Energy Campaign manager, said 

The vessel ran aground on a coral reef near Mauritius, work to safely remove the estimated 4,000 tonnes of oil it was carrying kicked off last week, when the ship starting seeping fuel into the ocean. Over 1,000 tonnes of oil is believed to have leaked into the surrounding waters.

Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth has declared an environmental emergency and called for international help. Jugnauth told reporters Sunday that emergency crews temporarily stemmed the leak but were still preparing for the worst. He also expressed concerned about the condition of the stranded ship. "The cracks have grown. The situation is even worse," he said. "The risk of the boat breaking in half still exists."

Mauritian Wildlife Foundation manager Jean Hugues Gardenne echoed that warning to the AP on Monday, saying that "we are expecting the worst."

"The ship is showing really big, big cracks. We believe it will break into two at any time, at the maximum within two days," Gardenne said. "So much oil remains in the ship, so the disaster could become much worse. It's important to remove as much oil as possible. Helicopters are taking out the fuel little by little, ton by ton."

Sunil Dowarkasing, a former Greenpeace strategist and environmental expert assisting in the clean-up effort, said, "We will never be able to recover from this damage. But what we can do is try to mitigate as much as we can,"

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/10/we-are-expecting-worst-alarm-over-eco-crisis-grows-amid-fears-ship-leaking-oil-near

Mozambique's Misery

The number of internally displaced people has doubled in the past five months in Cabo Delgado, a province in northern Mozambique. Thousands of people have fled a violent insurrection by a group of Islamist militants with ties to the Islamic State (IS) group and are now living in overcrowded camps or the homes of friends or relatives. Humanitarian organizations on the ground are calling for more assistance.

Since October 2017, a group of armed Islamist militants-- known locally as Al Shabaab, though they have no ties to the better-known Somali group-- have been carrying out a series of violent attacks on the resource-rich province of Cabo Delgado. In the past three years, more than 1,400 people have been killed in these attacks, according to the NGO The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled). The attacks have intensified this year. Between March and June, insurgents seized numerous villages as well as the local capitals in the districts of Mocimboa da Praia, Quissanga, Muidumbe and Macomia. Photos posted online show charred ruins of homes and buildings and abandoned government buildings. Thousands of people have fled, by land and sea. Despite repeated attempts, Mozambique hasn’t managed to control the situation in Cabo Delgado. In May, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) recognized that the insurrection in Mozambique posed a threat to the entire region. But, for the time being, there hasn’t been any regional or international intervention.

In July, there were 250,000 internally displaced people in Cabo Delgado, double the number in March, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha). That represents close to 10 percent of the population of this province, which is home to 2.3 million people. Many of the displaced people fled to the coastal city of Pemba, which is the capital of Cabo Delgado. Many are staying with friends or family but their living conditions are precarious and they lack food.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) is currently trying to come up with a strategy to help the rising number of displaced persons. They hope to provide assistance to nearly 200,000 people in August. By September, they hope to establish a system of vouchers that can be redeemed in local shops.

There are nearly 40,000 displaced people in Pemba, many of them women, children and the elderly. Some have been there for the past six months, but most of them arrived more recently. Most of them are staying with friends or family. Sometimes 10 or 20 or even 30 people will be crowded into someone else’s home. The government and international aid organisations have a presence there, but the need is great and the assistance doesn’t reach everyone.

In the neighboring district of Metuge, not far from Pemba, the provincial government set up five shelters that are now housing 10,000 people. Many of the tents on site were supplied by humanitarian organisations like the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), which housed victims of Cyclone Kenneth last year. Other people built their own shelters with whatever they had lying around. The diocese of Pemba and Caritas, a Catholic relief organisation, regularly brings aid to these camps. But taking care of victims of conflicts is complex.

According to the Mozambican Institute for the Management of Natural Disasters (INGC), a further 8,000 people, , including nearly 4,400 children, have fled to the neighboring province of Nampula. On July 14, the government of Nampula announced the opening of a special centre for displaced people. The provincial government also says it will provide land for displaced people to farm. Roughly 87 percent of the displaced people are farmers. Another centre for displaced persons will soon be opened in the province of Niassa.

However, many organizations say that a large number of displaced persons haven’t been counted yet, or are currently living in zones that are difficult to access. The Islamic Community of Mozambique (CIMO), which plays an active role in providing humanitarian assistance to displaced people in Cabo Delgado and Nampula, has expressed worries about the people who didn’t leave the affected districts and surviving in extremely difficult circumstances.

Maulana Mansur, a member of CIMO, met with survivors in Quissanga, the site of many attacks.

"...I saw nearly 350 burned homes with my own eyes. There were no more shops, nothing. The people who had stayed behind were sleeping in the marsh at night. Those who stayed behind were too old or too poor to flee. For the past few weeks, no one travelled to these zones, and so people left their shelters to fish or search for water... I have never seen anything like it..."

in July, researcher Martin Rupiya from the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), said that Southern African Development Community should be "officially asked to intervene".

"The countries wait until the last minute before turning towards this institution. They try other techniques first, like using private security companies, because no one wants to see this region categorized as a conflict zone,” he explained. Essentially, Mozambique engaged a private security company, whose helicopters are used in the fight against the insurgents.

Jasmine Opperman, an analyst at the NGO Acled said that the response of the Mozambican security forces so far were characterized by "coercive tactics and human rights violations”. A regional intervention using these same methods could destroy the trust within affected communities.

 Martin Rupiya also agreed that the military option alone wouldn’t be enough: “There is need for investment to create infrastructure, employment and restore hope".

https://www.france24.com/en/

Africa's Witch-Hunts

Are witches a thing of the past? Even in the 21st century in many countries, witch-hunts are still a sad reality for many women today. August 10 has been declared a World Day against Witch Hunts.

Akua Denteh was beaten to death in Ghana's East Gonja District last month — after being accused of being a witch. The murder of the 90-year-old has once more highlighted the deep-seated prejudices against women accused of practicing witchcraft in Ghana, many of whom are elderly.  Human rights and gender activists now demand to see change in culture in a country where supernatural beliefs play a big role. in Ghana, where nonagenarian Akua Denteh was bludgeoned to death last month, certain communities blame the birth of children with disabilities on witchcraft.

But the case of Akua Denteh is far from an isolated instance in Ghana, or indeed the world at large. In many countries of the world, women are still accused of practicing witchcraft each year. They are persecuted and even killed in organized witch hunts — especially in Africa but also in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Historian Wolfgang Behringer, who works as a professor specializing in the early modern age at Saarland University, firmly believes in putting the numbers in perspective. He told DW that during these three centuries, between 50,000 and 60,000 people are assumed to have been killed for so-called crimes of witchcraft. But he says that in the 20th century alone, more people accused of witchcraft were brutally murdered than during the three centuries when witch hunts were practiced in Europe:

 "Between 1960 and 2000, about 40,000 people alleged of practicing witchcraft were murdered in Tanzania alone."

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is usually the younger generations who are associated witchcraft. So-called "children of witchcraft" are usually rejected by their families and left to fend for themselves. However, their so-called crimes often have little to do with sorcery at all:

"We have learned of numerous cases of children suffering rape and then no longer being accepted by their families. Or they are born as illegitimate children out of wedlock and are forced to live with a parent who does no longer accepts them," says Thérèse Mema Mapenzi, who works as a mission project partner in the eastern DRC city of Bukayu.

 Mapenzi's facility was initially intended to be a women's shelter to harbor women who suffered rape at the hands of the militia in the eastern parts of the country, where rape is used as a weapon of war as part of the civil conflict there. But over the years, more and more children started seeking her help after they were rejected as "children of witchcraft."  There is a whole social infrastructure fueling this hatred against these young people in the DRC: Many charismatic churches blame diseases such as HIV/AIDS or female infertility on witchcraft, with illegitimate children serving as scapegoats for problems that cannot be easily solved in one of the poorest countries on earth. Other reasons cited include sudden deaths, crop failures, greed, jealousy and more.

https://www.dw.com/en/witch-hunts-a-global-problem-in-the-21st-century/a-54495289

The Oxygen Cartel

Sub-Saharan hospitals are dependent on costly oxygen from multinational suppliers. As Covid-19 spreads, doctors are being forced to make terrible choices. One nurse in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, says that in her hospital doctors frequently have to choose who receives oxygen and who does not.

A potentially deadly lack of oxygen is leaving doctors unable to offer essential treatment. Some experts put considerable blame on two multinational gas suppliers that dominate the market for oxygen cylinders across much of the continent, saying that their high prices and systems make the treatment unaffordable.

Ex-employees, industry insiders and hospital staff point to the processes and prices Linde Group and Air Liquide have for medical oxygen and say they are leaving hospitals struggling for supplies.

In European and US hospitals, liquid oxygen is delivered by tanker, stored in tanks, converted to gas and piped directly to bedsides. But for nations without this infrastructure, cylinders have to be bought in. As a result oxygen in sub-Saharan Africa is around to five times more expensive by volume, according to an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ)

 The price of a 6.8-cubic metre cylinder of oxygen (a “J” cylinder), enough to treat an adult for roughly a day, ranges from $112 in Guinea, including transport, to $23 in Kenya. Additional costs can include a cylinder deposit fee of about $300, a monthly cylinder rental fee of about $25, and paying to transport cylinders to the gas company’s depot. As some big hospitals need up to 80 cylinders a day, the costs quickly spiral.

Globally the Linde Group and Air Liquide made revenues of $28bn and $24.5bn respectively in 2019. Ex-employees and analysts suggest some gas companies have likely made profit margins of between 45% and 88% on medical oxygen.

Oxygen is the key treatment that patients with the virus are taken into hospital for and is used when weaning patients off ventilator support. As lungs become damaged, blood oxygen levels can drop alarmingly, a condition called hypoxaemia, which can be fatal.

14% of Covid patients will need oxygen in hospital and 5% mechanical ventilation in intensive care. Across countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Guinea, South Africa, South Sudan, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Tanzania, many hospitals and dedicated Covid-19 isolation centres have oxygen shortages.

Air Liquide – which does not operate in Kenya – has charged up to a third more for medical oxygen than industrial oxygen. According to the BIJ, both come from the same gas plant; BOC/Afrox has charged up to seven times more for its medical oxygen. 

One former gas company employee  complained about the big price difference between medical and industrial oxygen.

“There’s no justification for it one way or another,” they say. “The Covid-19 crisis highlights the need for governments to treat medical gases as strategic and not be at the mercy of foreign owned suppliers.”

The chronic shortage of oxygen across Africa affects more than Covid cases. In 2018, almost half a million children died of bacterial pneumonia in sub-Saharan Africa. Better access to oxygen and antibiotics could reduce that number. Studies from Malawi and Nigeria show that fewer than a third of adults and children who needed oxygen actually got it.

Trevor Duke, director of the Centre for International Child Health at Australia’s University of Melbourne, found that improving access to oxygen reduced early deaths in children by 35%.

And hospitals cannot simply shop around for a better deal if their oxygen supply is too expensive. “There are many countries with a gas company monopoly,” Duke said. “In some countries,” he added, “the oxygen bill is the largest single drug purchase by ministries of health.”

For children with pneumonia in Nigeria, oxygen accounted for half the cost of an admission, says Dr Hamish Graham, a consultant paediatrician who researched improving oxygen access. “Oxygen was a really big driving force of catastrophic health expenditure for those families.”

“These prices are completely beyond the reach of most public hospitals across sub-Saharan Africa,” Leith Greenslade, an activist from the Every Breath Counts coalition, says, “which is why the hospitals have been passing the cost on to patients.

“You can imagine how desperate that situation can be for a family, when they have just put a family member in hospital and they have had to find the oxygen to help keep them alive and come up with these huge, huge amounts of money.”

Air Liquide has faced criticism in the past. In 2002, the European commission fined them and five other gas companies for participating in a medical and industrial gases cartel in the Netherlands, which prompted other investigations across Europe. The companies held regular meetings to fix prices between 1993 and 1997.  etween 2001 and 2011, Air Liquide and Praxair – which later merged with the Linde Group – were investigated for perceived cartel-like behaviour in a series of cases in Latin America. The Argentinian competition authority fined Air Liquide, Praxair and two other companies $24.3m in 2005 for price fixing and allocating customers. Praxair and two other companies were fined $8m in 2010 for bid-rigging in Peru. The Linde Group’s subsidiary Afrox is currently being investigated by the South Africa Competition Commission for concerns over alleged price-fixing over liquid petroleum gas cylinder rental schemes.

Maria Teresa Da Piedade Moreira, of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, says “It’s one of those sectors where the investments to enter the market are so high that you will never have a competitive market.”

It is “completely wrong” that gas companies can use cylinders to seek to tie hospitals to their product, because they cannot always deliver all the oxygen a hospital needs, says Temie Giwa-Tubosun, founder of LifeBank, a business enterprise in Nigeria working with hospitals. After seeing a news story about a man who died after being sent to five different hospitals, none of which had oxygen, she set up AirBank, to distribute free emergency oxygen cylinders to Nigerian hospitals, a project funded by corporate donations. “By tying hospitals to this one system you’re actually putting people at risk,” she says.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/aug/10/fighting-for-breath-how-the-medical-oxygen-industry-is-failing-african-hospitals

Kenya's Youth Potential

Africa’s demographic boom has been hailed as its biggest promise for transforming the continent’s economic and social outcomes, but only if the right investments are made to prepare its youthful population for tomorrow’s world.

Consider this. Every 24 hours, nearly 33,000 youth across Africa join the search for employment. About 60% will be joining the army of the unemployed. Africa’s youth population is growing rapidly and is expected to reach over 830 million by 2050. 

Kenya has one of the youngest populations in the world. With the right investment in their talents, skills, and spirit, young people present an extraordinary opportunity for transformation, growth, and change.

Three quarters Kenya’s population is under the age of 35. Across Africa there are 200 million people between the ages of 15 and 24, a demographic that is expected to double by 2045.

One of the greatest challenges facing governments and policymakers in Africa is how to provide opportunities for the continent’s youth, in order to provide them with decent lives and allow them to contribute to the economic development of their countries. 

As things stand, around 70% of Africa’s young people live below the poverty line.

A million young people join the workforce every year in Kenya, applying for jobs in a formal sector that can only absorb one in five of them. Some, however, find work at least intermittently in Kenya’s vibrant informal sector, which accounts for more than 80% of the country’s economy according to the World Bank.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on governments to “do far more to tap their talents as we tackle the pandemic and chart a recovery that leads to a more peaceful, sustainable and equitable future for all”.

http://www.ipsnews.net/2020/08/proper-investment-youth-kenyas-potential-progress-unlimited/

Unilever Challenged in Kenya

A group of 218 Kenyan tea plantation workers have filed a complaint with the UN against Unilever, alleging that the multinational violated international human rights standards by not adequately assisting its employees, who were attacked when ethnic violence broke out following a disputed election in 2007.

Unilever, known in the UK for its PG Tips brand, breached its obligation to remediate any human rights abuses to which it has contributed, which is central to the UN’s guiding principles on business and human rights, and which the company has endorsed. They request the UN’s working group on business and human rights to make a declaration to this effect, and to call on the company to provide redress.

The workers lived on a plantation in Kericho, in western Kenya, operated by a Unilever subsidiary and at that time hosting more than 10% of the company’s global workforce. Most were from the Kisii tribe, which is not indigenous to the area. After the 2007 presidential election, violence broke out across Kenya, leading to more than 1,300 deaths nationwide. In Kericho attackers invaded the plantation and assaulted hundreds of workers and their families. Seven people died, and others were raped and seriously injured, according to the complaint.

“This was the most serious known case of human rights abuse suffered by the largest concentration of Unilever workers anywhere in the world,” it said.

 Following the violence, Unilever closed the plantation temporarily and sent workers home. The victims say they were not paid for six months, “exacerbating their situation”. They brought a court case in the UK, but in 2019 the supreme court declined jurisdiction, saying Unilever’s Kenyan subsidiary was responsible for risk management of any crises and as such any case should be heard in Kenya.

Daniel Leader, a lawyer with Leigh Day, the firm that filed Thursday’s complaint on the victims’ behalf, says that Unilever “relentlessly hid behind its corporate structure” to prevent the case proceeding in the UK. The complaint requests a UN statement on “litigation strategies used by parent companies to distance themselves from subsidiaries and shield themselves from liability for human rights abuses occurring in their corporate group”.

“A lot of these issues and abuses take place in Africa, where impunity is a big issue,” he said. “If even companies who are claiming to be world leaders in the principles are flouting them when faced with actual victims, then that’s a big problem.”

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/aug/01/kenyan-tea-workers-file-un-complaint-against-unilever-over-2007-ethnic-violence

Divide and rule (1986)

From the July 1986 issue of the Socialist Standard

The ruling South African National Party's attempts at reforming apartheid have arrived too late, and are too little, to permit an orderly transfer of political power to the limited democracy of majority rule. Anger, fear, hostility and resistance have now made that process almost impossible — sentiments that are a direct result of the entrenched attitudes of the Afrikaner ruling class, and their strategy of divide and rule. For apartheid — based as it is on division not unity — has exacerbated other divisions within South African society, divisions potentially even more explosive than those between racial groups.

As administrative structures have broken down in the townships a power vacuum has been created which black groups are now competing to fill. Firstly there is intra-black political conflict between three main groups jockeying for position. The largest of these consists of the exiled African National Congress (ANC) together with its internal partner the United Democratic Front (UDF) — a loose umbrella organisation of about 600 heterogeneous local and national groups and the main federation of black trade unions — Cosatu. The UDF was set up in 1983 to oppose the new tricameral constitution, but now increasingly acts as the domestic wing of the ANC. The ANC's strategy uses three tactics: armed struggle which, although it receives high priority has had very little impact; organisation within South Africa itself which has proved highly successful; and activities abroad to extend foreign recognition of the ANC.

This alliance is challenged by the Azanian People's Organisation (Azapo) together with its partner the National Forum — an organisation of black consciousness groups. Azapo and its allies differ from the ANC/UDF on the question of the role of whites in the struggle against apartheid, but share similar goals and tactics, although it is relatively weak on the ground.

The third black political group is Chief Buthelezi's Inkatha movement based in the Kwazulu homeland. Buthelezi is reviled by the ANC, UDF and black consciousness groups and regarded as a collaborator with apartheid. He commands the support of six million Zulus and is encouraged by white businessmen because he opposes disinvestment. But his power base is essentially regional and tribal, located mainly in the rural homelands rather than in the townships. A group of trades unions supporting Inkatha has recently been formed to rival Cosatu which is likely to lead to a still wider gulf between the Zulus and other blacks.

However these political, tactical and personal divisions between black groups have, in recent weeks, been over-shadowed by divisions between blacks within the townships. In an attempt to foster the illusion of a degree of black self-government, local councils were created on which blacks had representation and responsibility for certain aspects of local administration — an attempt, some argued, to shift the burden of running apartheid to blacks themselves. As a result a faction of blacks grew up — councillors, local officials, small businesspeople, police — who felt that they were getting something out of the apartheid system status, and relative material well-being. Not surprisingly they were regarded with suspicion and hostility by township residents because of their close identification with "the system". In the present state of turmoil most of these councils (33 out of 38) no longer function and by June last year 240 black councillors, officials and mayors had resigned. Some have been the victims of violent attacks as punishment for their collaboration. Others have tried to fight back in a futile and misguided attempt to defend what they think they have. As a result in many townships two loosely structured, but opposed, groups have developed popularly known as the "vigilantes" and the "comrades". Violent clashes between them have contributed to the death toll of 1,500 over the past 19 months (although the majority have died at the hands of the South African security forces).

The “vigilantes" tend to be older, more conservative — the black "establishment" who have organised to defend what little they have and who are fearful of more militant activists. Initially vigilante groups emerged in the homelands in response to popular resistance against authoritarian and corrupt local administrations. More recently they have developed in urban areas in response to similar opposition to township councils. Increasingly there is evidence that their activities are condoned and even assisted by the security forces. At the Crossroads squatter camp recently, 32 people died and over 20,000 were left homeless as a result of vigilante activities assisted by the security forces who, it is alleged, provided both weapons and protection so that the forced removal of the squatters could be achieved.

Opposing the vigilantes are the "comrades" — an even more loosely structured group of mostly young, more militant township residents who have closer links with the ANC and UDF. Their activities are often organised in open defiance of the black establishment and, as township councils have collapsed, they have stepped in to provide an alternative power structure through the setting up of street and area committees responsible for organising everything from rent collection to rubbish disposal. They also deal with what they see as the crimes of alleged informers and collaborators, meting out summary punishments as severe as those handed out by the vigilantes. The blazing "necklace" has become a hallmark of the comrades' treatment of alleged informers.

The tactic of divide and rule was consciously adopted by the white ruling class in the hope that a stable, conservative, black "middle class" would emerge in the townships to administer apartheid on their behalf and to deal with more militant elements. The present activities of the township vigilantes are still, in some senses, advantageous to the ruling class, since they justify the maintenance of the security forces in the townships and violent factionalism among blacks is also used as a justification for the continuation of apartheid itself. South Africa, it is argued, is too fragmented for a unitary, democratic system to be workable. Ultimately. however, the security forces and the government can't win — they have applied the divide-and-rule strategy for what it is worth and now it is beginning to work against them. They created the divisions within the townships; now that they are becoming violent and the townships become increasingly ungovernable they use more repressive tactics to control the situation; more repression only serves to add to grievances.

But if political tactics are failing Botha's government, so too is the ideology of apartheid turning on its own. For Botha's feeble attempts at cosmetic change, which have done nothing to satisfy the blacks, are viewed with alarm and a sense of betrayal by some Afrikaners. The ideology of white supremacy was used to divide South Africa's working class. That ideology ensured that white workers were relatively affluent, had a protected position in the labour market and constituted an "aristocracy of labour". Many accepted this ideology believing that their privileged position meant that they had no interests in common with black workers. But the apartheid ideology, now recognised by significant sections of the capitalist class as an anachronism, a fetter on the expansion of wealth production, created a group of white workers who not only felt no common class interest with black workers, but who hardly even regarded them as human. Botha's attempts at reform have, therefore, bolstered the fortunes of a number of even more extreme right-wing groups, while his own National Party is itself breaking up into factions.

There are two main parties on the far right: the Conservative Party, founded after the last general election in 1981, which has 17 seats in the South African legislature, and the Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP) which has one. But this lack of seats disguises the level of support in certain areas of the country for extra parliamentary, neo-Nazi groups such as the Afrikaner Volkswag (the people s guard) headed by Carel Broshoff. former leader of the Broederbond — a secret society dedicated to Afrikaner supremacy, and the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) the Afrikaner Resistance Movement — led by Eugene Terre' Blanche. It was this group which was responsible for the breaking up of a National Party meeting in Pietersburg recently. The AWB has a swastika-like emblem and openly supports racist violence Terre' Blanche encourages his members to join the security forces and he wants an armed vigilante group to protect whites. Ultimately he seeks the re-establishment of the old Boer republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State as a white "homeland".

Many business people, professionals and political liberals want apartheid to go. They want to replace the old racist ideology which is now causing so many problems but without basically changing the distribution of political power, hence the present attempts to introduce power-sharing without having to forfeit overall political control. Some liberals have given up and left South Africa, others, especially the young, have attended meetings supporting black political rights. Some young whites have refused to serve in South Africa's conscript army and risk six years' imprisonment. Some whites have even joined the ANC's military wing.

Clearly it is no longer possible to see the situation in South Africa simply in terms of a conflict between black and white. Class conflict, always present but to some extent disguised by the racial division, is becoming more obvious as workers and trade unionists exploit the weak position of South Africa's ruling class to press home demands for changes in working conditions and levels of pay. Within the capitalist class itself conflict is apparent between industrialists who need the more flexible labour force that an end to apartheid can provide, and the old. mainly Afrikaner, land owning class who fear the cost of such a change for the semi-feudal system by which they run their farms. These divisions are real, representing a true opposition of interests. Those created by the ideology of apartheid are not. They are illusory, representing artificial distinctions based on the ambiguous concept of racial difference, or mistaken beliefs about where your true interest lies.

Apartheid must collapse. The tactic of divide and rule has divided not only blacks but also whites and the white ruling class may well find that the absence of a single black political movement with whom it can do business is a greater threat to its existence than they had imagined. To head off black discontent the government has tried to win over blacks through a process of gradual reform to remove "petty apartheid". It has not only failed but in so doing it has now outraged its own supporters who believed the racist ideology of white supremacy. At the same time those reforms are seen by blacks as cracks in the facade of white rule, adding impetus to the pressure for change.

The white ruling class is also under pressure from capitalists who are threatening to withdraw investments from South Africa. Firstly because of the combined effects of the fall in value of assets and dividends caused by the collapse of the rand; secondly negative publicity because of their South African involvement from anti-apartheid organisations. which it is feared will affect their sales. The capitalist class as a whole is not concerned about the morality of apartheid, how humane or democratic the system is, but rather whether it is stable and can provide the environment necessary for the production of profit.

The extent to which Botha is losing his political grip is evident in the raid launched by South Africa on alleged ANC bases in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. No doubt the raid was intended to reassure the whites at home that the regime was not going soft on blacks, despite the reforms. And no doubt too Botha thought that since America had used a similar justification (rooting out terrorists) for the attack on Libya and got away with it there would not be international outrage if he conducted a similar exercise. But America is clearly recognising which way the wind is currently blowing in South Africa (some US politicians have already started calling ANC "terrorists" "freedom-fighters") and expressed hypocritical moral outrage at South Africa's attack, as did Britain. Botha clearly has few political friends either at home or abroad. He is in a classic "no win" situation as a result of the contradictions of an archaic political and social system in a modern capitalist state. A move in any direction is likely to bring the whole citadel of apartheid down around his ears. The more interesting question that we should now consider is what is likely to replace it?

Janie Percy-Smith

Migrants' Misery

Land routes across Africa are among the most deadly for migrants, a new report from the UN has revealed. Much of the violence people face is at the hands of state and local officials. Thousands of migrants have died from "extreme" abuse experienced while crossing Africa. A report estimates that 72 people a month perish traversing the continent's land routes.

The report titled "On this journey, no one cares if you live or die" from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the Danish Refugee Council's Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) presents the "unspeakable brutality and inhumanity" migrants crossing through African countries face at the hands of smugglers, traffickers, militias, and some state actors. 

At least 1,750 people died making journeys across Africa in 2018 and 2019, the report said, an average of more than two deaths a day. The real figure is likely much higher, the authors wrote. Crossing Africa by land is "one of the most deadly routes for refugees and migrants in the world," the report concluded.  Nearly a third of people who died had attempted to cross the Sahara desert, while others died in war-torn Libya or while crossing through conflicts in the Central African Republic or Mali. The report found that border guards, police, and soldiers were responsible for nearly half of all cases of physical violence against migrants. 

The report documents "killings and widespread violence of the most brutal nature, perpetrated against desperate people fleeing war, violence, and persecution," UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said.

https://www.dw.com/en/africa-migration-routes-deaths/a-54371917

A village of women in Senegal

In the arid, desolate landscape of northeast Senegal - marked by miles and miles of dust, Saharan sand and solitary Baobab trees - there is a miraculous patch of luscious green. Tall and luxuriant tomato plants sit beside thick, purple aubergines, rows of yellow corn, beds of blooming hibiscus flowers. This oasis on the banks of the River Senegal, along the border with Mauritania, is home to a community of small-scale farmers spread across a handful of villages who for centuries have been channelling the river's water to grow and consume local produce.

But in recent decades, the aridity of the area, which lies at the gateway to the Sahara Desert, has increased dramatically. Arable land has become tougher to find, food production has slowed, livelihoods have worsened, and the men have left in search of work and opportunities abroad.

"The desert is advancing on us," says Fama Sarr, gazing intensely. The elegant 63-year-old is one of the oldest inhabitants of Sinthiou Diam Dior, a village here in the Matam region. "The heat has become so extreme and the rainy season so short, that our agricultural activity has decreased year by year and food insecurity is gaining ground everywhere," she says. "When it's so hot, you can't live," says Sarr. "The kids look sick and they stop playing."

Temperatures now regularly exceed 40 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit), and less rain means the river water is drying up. Now, more and more, the desert is encroaching. The change has been slow and gradual, yet constant over time. But what worries the community of Sinthiou Diam Dior the most, is the shortening of the rainy season - and its effect on their main sources of income: agriculture and farming. Overall, the UN desertification organisation says every year, 12 million hectares (nearly 30 million acres) of productive land around the world are transformed into deserts - an area greater than the size of Portugal. And the pace of land degradation is more than 30 times the speed recorded in the past. UN data also projects that there will be 200 million climate migrants by 2050; northern Senegal is one of the countries that will be affected most severely. In Matam, poverty affects as much as 75 percent of families, and more than a third does not have enough food to eat, making them even more vulnerable to the consequences of desertification - which is rapidly escalating in the area, according to the United Nations.

In Sinthiou Diam Dior, at least one person from every family has emigrated, most of them men. Across Matam, the women remain behind as the lifeblood that animates and nourishes the villages. Abandoned, they are at the core of family life but also the economy of the villages: They have a key role in managing resources, food production, animal husbandry, consumption choices and raising children. When husbands leave, life for women in Matam grows more challenging. Married, but alone, they wait for a visit that often does not happen for years, and for money that sometimes stops coming. They are left in limbo, unable to start a new life.

"It rains once in July and then it stops for a month, so families often lose their crops," Sarr says. "We became so poor that my husband had to emigrate to Gabon and my son to France."

For the men (and few women) who leave home, the conditions are notoriously complicated, with most facing treacherous journeys, racist abuse and violence, along the way. According to the UN, up to four million Senegalese nationals out of the domestic population of 15 million live abroad, ranking it as one of the countries with the highest number of emigres in West Africa.

For those who stay, life is not easy. Left alone by husbands, sons and brothers, women are often forced to leave their studies and take care of the land and children. Many also find themselves marrying younger.

"The women stay. The man marries you, then emigrates and leaves you there," says 35-year-old Dieynaba Niang. "And you, you have to take care of everything, his family, his mother and for this you have to leave school. Once you are married everything you will do is prepare food and take care of your family."

In Senegal, as is the case in many African countries, gender inequality is still very high. Although women represent 70 percent of the continent's agricultural force, produce 80 percent of food and manage 90 percent of its sale, according to the World Bank report on Women and Agriculture in Africa, their rights are not recognised and they have very little decision-making power. Patriarchal society in Senegal prevents most women from directly managing the land they work on, and in most cases there is a man who enjoys the fruits of the labour carried out by women.

"Here are the women who are strong and work in the fields," says Niang. "It is basically the women who do everything."

The women of the villages dedicated all their strength and energy to agriculture.

But their outdated, inefficient equipment and the rising cost of fuel, ratcheted up financial pressures.

"We have always had to pay for the fuel to drain water from the river and irrigate the fields," explains Sarr. "But in recent years, more and more of it was required and we ended up spending most of our money on gasoline."

Then, a beacon of hope appeared. New technologies have since been installed in the villages to draw water from the river and irrigate the fields.

Instead of using expensive gasoline to pump water, solar panels now power a water collection system. The new system also irrigates the fields using pipelines buried in the soil to gradually deliver the water over time, as opposed to the old method called "flooding", whereby the pump released water into channels dug in the ground. This change has led to a water-saving of 70 percent.

In each village, year after year, the solar irrigation system allows the cultivation of more than 60 hectares (148 acres) of land, in turn producing enough fruit and vegetables to feed more than 900 people.

The aim of the operation was to rehabilitate farmland in an environmentally sustainable manner, and in so doing ensure that the local population has a supply of fresh produce they can eat and sell to generate an income, says Alessandra Pierella, the manager of the Green Cross project. "Now the women have learned to use the machinery and manage the fields, becoming entirely independent," Pierella says. "We managed to eliminate the women's expenses and their carbon dioxide emissions are now zero."

Alongside the technology, more sophisticated farming techniques have been developed, such as crop rotation - which reduces waste and optimises production. To help formalise the structure of the operation, a women's association has been formed for the region and in each village, a president, a treasurer, and a secretary has been elected.

"This has been the best year of harvest thanks to solar power," says Diallo, looking at the fields along the river, where green shoots have sprouted in patches that had once turned brown. "This has allowed us to increase our income, thus reducing poverty and having quality vegetable consumption in families. We're doing well, we can feed our children and even save some money by selling at the market."

While there is a lack of female presence in the most important positions in the country, for the first time in this area women not only work, but also take part in decision-making processes and hold positions of responsibility. Within the last five years, in addition to selling agricultural products, travelling to regional markets and taking care of their own business, women have become owners of land parcels.

"The group is very well organised and women are so dynamic," explains Diallo, who is secretary in her village. "Every month members meet to contribute to emergencies, if there is a possible breakdown or if there is something to do."

"The land belongs to the group, but then it is distributed in plots and given to each woman according to the quota she has decided to pay," explains Diallo.

Diallo shares an eight-hectare (19-acre) field with two dozen other people, and works on her own parcel of land every day. She uses part of the harvest for cooking, part for stocks, but the majority she sells. From the money the women earn, each also puts in an amount to pay for expenses such as seeds, the caretaker and the pump. Diallo collects contributions from more than 200 women each month. In this way, year after year, hectare after hectare, the women of the Matam villages have slowly managed to reclaim the deserted lands, improve living conditions and create job opportunities, thus generating an alternative to migration. Improved living conditions and new job opportunities brought on by technology, as well as the hard work of Matam's women, are beginning to halt the climate migration.

https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2020/senegal-village-of-women/index.html