In first for Tunisia, police and soldiers head to polls

Yahoo – AFP, April 29, 2018

A Tunisian policeman casts his vote in the municipal elections at a polling station
 for the police and military in the capital Tunis on April 29, 2018 (AFP Photo/
FETHI BELAID)

Tunis (AFP) - Police and soldiers went to the ballot box for the first time in Tunisia on Sunday, casting votes in municipal elections after the lifting of a longtime ban.

Most Tunisians will vote on May 6 in the municipal polls -- the first since the North African country's 2011 revolution -- but members of the security forces cast their ballots a week earlier.

"This is a historic day. For the first time we are exercising a right of citizenship," a police officer told AFP at a polling station in central Tunis, asking to remain anonymous.

Under the long rule of ex-president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, authorities outlawed voting by soldiers and police, insisting security forces remain outside of politics.

But after Ben Ali's fall, long-banned police unions formed and called for the right to vote.

The new electoral law only allows security forces and members of the army to vote in municipal elections. Police and soldiers are barred from participating in election campaigns or attending public meetings.

Some 36,055 soldiers and security agents are registered to vote, according to Mehdi Jalouali from Tunisia's Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE).

Most police unions have called for participation in the vote, but one organisation has called for a boycott.

"The security institution is at the disposal of the people and it must be neutral, with this vote it will not be," said Chokri Hamad, spokesman for the National Union of Interior Security Forces.

Stiff new licence fees threaten Tanzanian blogosphere

Yahoo – AFP, April 14, 2018

Magufuli -- pictured on a campaign billboard for the 2015 president elections --
has been accusing of seeking to muzzle dissent (AFP Photo/Daniel Hayduk)

Nairobi (Kenya) (AFP) - Tanzanians have to pay $900 for a permit to blog, a staggering amount for many in the country, say critics who see the fee as a further bid by President John Magufuli to gag dissident voices.

A sweeping new law covering a broad range of online activity was signed in mid-March.

Under it, the operators of online platforms such as blogs, podcasts and live streaming services will have to pay stiff fees to operate.

To launch a blog, for example, a user must pay over two million Tanzanian shillings ($900, 750 euros) in fees to get a license. A renewal fee of over $400 is due every three years thereafter.

"The simple creation of a platform represents several months' salary for a blogger," said Arnaud Froger of the press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

"Tanzanian authorities want to get rid of the blogosphere and they couldn't have chosen a better way to do it," he said in a statement.

"The climate of fear and self-censorship that has already affected traditional media is now reaching online media, where many journalists found refuge."

Tanzania has a vibrant blogging community, whose members report or comment extensively on news, entertainment and music, as well as sport, lifestyle and travel.

Under the new law, a blogger can face fines of up to $2,200 for publishing content considered "indecent, obscene (or) hate speech", or even just for causing "annoyance".

The legislation broadly defines a blog as "a website containing a writer's or group of writers' own; experiences, observations, opinions including current news, events, journals, advertisements and images, video clips and links to other websites".

Getting rid of critics

Magufuli, 58, took office in 2015 as a corruption-fighting "man of the people".

But he has earned criticism for his authoritarian leadership style, with detractors saying he has clamped down on opposition and freedom of expression.

Under his rule, numerous opposition members have been arrested or jailed, critical media shut down and people arrested for perceived "insults" to the president.

On February 26, a Tanzanian court handed two five-month jail terms to two opponents of the regime, including a lawmaker, for allegedly defaming the president.

A new law introduced in 2016 required journalists to register themselves as such, seen as a further bid to curtail the media.

In March police arrested a driver and a farmer accused of calling for anti-government protests on social media.

For many in the online media fraternity, the latest law governing web content is just another nail in the coffin of media freedom.

"Most bloggers will not be able to find this money. But the problem is bigger than the financial aspect," said Maxence Melo, founder of the Jamii Media blog who has previously been taken to court for refusing to reveal the identity of a critical contributor to his site.

"The government's objective is to get rid of sites which are already considered critical. Because paying a fee doesn't mean you will have a licence, the relevant government department can still refuse this permit."

During a public discussion last week over the new law, the secretary general of the Tanzania Bloggers Network, Frantz Mwantepele, said many would struggle to "fulfill the conditions in the law".

"The fees that we are supposed to pay for licenses far surpass the revenues of many bloggers," he said.

Mike Mushi, who also works for Jamii Media, asked why the government was imposing fees when it is not the owner of the internet as a means of publication.

When it comes to traditional radio and television "we know that the government is the owner of the frequencies they use. But is the government the owner of the internet?"

'Illegal to be who I am' - Daley urges change in same-sex laws

Yahoo – AFP, Robert SMITH, April 13, 2018

Britain's Tom Daley has voiced his concerns about the treatment of homosexuals
 in large parts of the Commonwealth, whose athletes are gathered on Australia's
Gold Coast for the ongoing Games (AFP Photo/Anthony WALLACE)

Gold Coast (Australia) (AFP) - English world champion diver Tom Daley on Friday urged Commonwealth nations who outlaw homosexuality to relax their anti-gay stance.

Openly gay Daley, who is expecting a child with his partner through a surrogate, grasped the opportunity of his gold medal triumph in the 10m synchro event to push for change.

Daley, who won gold with team-mate Daniel Goodfellow, said sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex are criminalised in 37 Commonwealth countries.

Daley voiced his concerns about the treatment of homosexuals in large parts of the Commonwealth, whose athletes are gathered on Australia's Gold Coast for the ongoing Games.

"Hopefully, I know this might sound a bit political, but by the next Commonwealth Games (in Birmingham 2022), there are 37 countries in the Commonwealth where it's currently illegal to be who I am, so hopefully we can reduce that number between now and then," Daley told reporters.

"Coming to the Gold Coast and being able to live as an openly gay man is really important and to be able to feel comfortable in who you are when you are standing on that diving board.

"For 37 countries that are here participating that's very much not the case."

Daley said it was time for those Commonwealth countries to change their anti-gay laws.

"You just have to face those things and try and make change," he said.

"There are lots of things that are going to take a long time to change, but I feel with the Commonwealth I think we can really help push some of the other nations to relax their laws on anti-gay sex."

Commonwealth Games Federation CEO David Grevemberg said his organisation was proud of its record on inclusivity.

"At the time of Glasgow 2014, 43 Commonwealth countries criminalised same sex activity, but today, that number has been reduced to 37," Grevemberg said Friday.

"We hope that the Commonwealth sports movement is playing a meaningful role in the wider global conversation around tolerance, empowerment and legal recognition for all."

Daley's comments were backed by New Zealand boxer Alexis Pritchard, who wore rainbow socks in support of gay rights in her 57kg semi-final on Friday.

"I think it's particularly sad that people cannot love who they want to love," she told AFP.

"It's important that each and every individual has rights to receive love and give love to the people that they choose.

"I find it absolutely sad that we are not open to that in so many nations."

The penalties for private, consensual sexual conduct between same-sex adults remain harsh in a number of Commonwealth countries, including imprisonment, hard labour and in some cases flogging.

The Commonwealth countries that outlaw homosexuality include Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tonga.

The path to court: Zuma and the arms deal

Yahoo – AFP, April 6, 2018

South Africa's National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams, pictured,
said there were 'reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution of Mr Zuma'
(AFP Photo/WIKUS DE WET)

Johannesburg (AFP) - Here is a timeline of major events in the corruption charges against South African former president Jacob Zuma:

Red flag

- November 1998: The cabinet approves an arms deal at a price tag of $2.5 billion. On the same day Zuma, then a provincial minister, meets with his personal financial advisor Schabir Shaik and an official from French arms dealer Thomson-CSF. The auditor-general soon raises a red flag over the deal as "high-risk".

- June 1999: Thabo Mbeki is elected president of South Africa with Jacob Zuma as his deputy.

- September 1999: An opposition lawmaker Patricia de Lille alerts parliament that the arms deal could be graft-ridden and calls for an inquiry.

- December 1999: Finance Minister Trevor Manuel seals the deal at 29.9 billion rand.

- February 2000: The serious economic crimes offences police unit known as the Scorpions launch investigations.

- October 2004: Trial of Zuma's adviser Shaik opens.

President Zuma

- June 2005: Shaik is convicted and jailed for 15 years for fraud and corruption. Four years later he is released on medical parole in 2009, the year Zuma becomes president.

Zuma is accused in court of having had a "generally corrupt" relationship with Shaik. Mbeki fires him as deputy president.

Zuma was forced to resign as South African president by his party in the wake of

mounting corruption scandals (AFP Photo/MUJAHID SAFODIEN)

- December 2007: Zuma is elected president of the ruling African National Congress party. Ten days later Zuma is slapped with fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering charges.

- April 2009: Acting chief prosecutor Mokotedi Mpshe withdraws charges against Zuma based on the phone conversation of the so-called "spy tapes" that suggest the charges were politically motivated.

- May 2009: Zuma is sworn in as South Africa's president.

Mounting scandal

- April 2016: The inquiry clears all government officials of corruption over the arms deal. But days later, the High Court in Pretoria rules that the 2009 decision to drop the charges was "irrational" and that charges must be reinstated.

- October 2017: The Supreme Court of Appeal rules that Zuma is liable for prosecution.

- February 2018: Zuma is forced to resign as South African president by his party in the wake of mounting corruption scandals.

- March 2018: Prosecutors decide he should face 12 counts of fraud, two of corruption, one of racketeering and one of money laundering.

- April 2018: Zuma appears in Durban High Court for preliminary hearing, with the case adjourned until June 8.

Sudan's 'sister coach' takes love of football to field

Yahoo – AFP, Jay Deshmukh and Abdelmoneim Abu Idris Ali, April 3, 2018

Salma al-Majidi has been acknowledged by FIFA as the first Arab and Sudanese
woman to coach a men's football team in the Arab world (AFP Photo/ASHRAF SHAZLY)

Gadaref (Sudan) (AFP) - In Sudan, where a women's national football team remains a distant dream, Salma al-Majidi knew the only way to take part in her beloved sport was to coach... and that the players had to be men.

Majidi, 27, acknowledged by FIFA as the first Arab and Sudanese woman to coach a men's football team in the Arab world, is a pioneer in a sport that dominates the region.

"Why football? Because it is my first and ultimate love," said Majidi, clad in sports gear and a black headscarf, as she led players of the Al-Ahly Al-Gadaref club at a practice session in the town of Gadaref, east of Khartoum.

"I became a coach because there is still no scope for women's football in Sudan," said Majidi, who is affectionately called "sister coach" by her team.

Daughter of a retired policeman, Majidi was 16 when she fell in love with football.

It came about as she watched her younger brother's school team being coached. She was captivated by the coach's instructions, his moves, and how he placed the marker cones at practice sessions.

"At the end of every training session, I discussed with him the techniques he used to coach the boys," Majidi told AFP, as she watched her own players practising on a hot day at a dusty ground in Gadaref.

"He saw I had a knack for coaching... and gave me a chance to work with him."

Soon Majidi was coaching the under-13 and under-16 teams of Al-Hilal club in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum on the west bank of the River Nile.

Majidi says she became a coach "because there is still no scope for women's 

football in Sudan" (AFP Photo/ASHRAF SHAZLY)

Limits on women players

Questions like whether she understood football or had the skills to coach men were all put to rest over time, said Majidi, speaking in a soft but confident tone.

Named in the BBC's 2015 list of "100 inspirational women", Majidi has coached the Sudanese second league men's clubs of Al-Nasr, Al-Nahda, Nile Halfa and Al-Mourada.

Nile Halfa and Al-Nahda even topped local leagues under her coaching. She currently holds the African "B" badge in coaching, meaning she can coach any first league team across the continent.

The only other woman to have gained recognition in Sudan's footballing world was Mounira Ramadan, who refereed men's matches in the 1970s.

Sudan joined FIFA in 1948 and established the Confederation of African Football (CAF) along with Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa. It won the CAF trophy in 1970.

Women's football has faced an uphill task since the country adopted Islamic sharia law in 1983, six years after which President Omar al-Bashir seized power in an Islamist-backed coup.

There is no legal ban on women's football in Sudan, but a conservative society coupled with the Islamist leanings of the government have left it in the shadows.

Women do play football but there are no competitions or women's clubs, and they do not play much in public.

"There are restrictions on women's football, but I'm determined to succeed," Majidi, whose dream is to coach an international team, said, as her players kicked up clouds of dust practising free kicks.

Questions like whether she understood football or had the skills to coach men 

were all put to rest over time, Majidi says (AFP Photo/ASHRAF SHAZLY)

'Kids of Salma'

Majidi's journey has not been easy.

"Sudan is a community of tribes and some tribes believe that a woman's role is confined only to her home," said Majidi, a university graduate in accounts and management.

"There was this one boy who refused to listen. He told me he belongs to a tribe that believed men should never take orders from women," she said.

It took months before he finally accepted her as coach. "Today, he is a fine player," said Majidi, who works full-time and receives a salary that is equivalent to that of a male coach.

At first, "people in the streets used to call us 'Salma's kids!'" said Majid Ahmed, a striker and an ardent fan of Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi.

"In school we have female teachers, so what's the problem having a female coach?"

Majidi said her entrance to what was a male preserve is just a start.

"My message to men in general is to give women a chance to do what they want," she said as she prepared tea after a gruelling practice session.

'She was different'

Coming from a traditional family, it was a challenge for Majidi to prove herself to their relatives, recalls her father, Mohamed al-Majidi.

"Then one day, her uncle who used to criticise her saw crowds shouting 'Salma! Salma!' during a match," he told AFP at the family's mud-and-brick home in Omdurman.

"These same relatives now pray to Allah to support her."

From early on, Majidi's mother knew her daughter was different.

"She always preferred wearing trousers... And even when crossing the street, she would watch the boys playing football," said Aisha al-Sharif.

Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie Mandela dies at 81

ChannelNewsAsia – AFP, 02 Apr 2018

Winnie Mandela, the ex-wife of South African anti-apartheid fighter and former
president Nelson Mandela, died on Apr 2, 2018 at the age of 81, her spokesman
 said. (Photo: AFP/Gulshan Khan)

JOHANNESBURG: Winnie Mandela, the former wife of South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, died on Monday (Apr 2) aged 81, triggering an outpouring of tributes to one of the country's defining and most divisive figures.

She died in a Johannesburg hospital after a long illness, family spokesman Victor Dlamini said in a statement.

Winnie Mandela, who was married to Nelson Mandela for 38 years, played a high-profile role in the struggle to end white-minority rule but her place in history was stained by controversy and accusations of violence.

"It is with profound sadness that we inform the public that Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela passed away at the Netcare Milpark Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa on Monday," said a statement issued by her family.

"She died after a long illness, for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year. She succumbed peacefully in the early hours of Monday afternoon surrounded by her family and loved ones."

Leading the tributes, anti-apartheid campaigner and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu described Winnie Mandela as "a defining symbol" of the struggle against oppression.

"She refused to be bowed by the imprisonment of her husband, the perpetual harassment of her family by security forces, detentions, bannings and banishment," he said.

"Her courageous defiance was deeply inspirational to me, and to generations of activists."

In the ruling African National Congress (ANC), head of policy Jeff Radebe described her as "an icon of the revolutionary struggle."

LIVES APART

Most of Winnie's marriage to Nelson was spent apart, with Nelson imprisoned for 27 years, leaving her to raise their two daughters alone and to keep alive his political dream under the repressive white-minority regime.

But her reputation came under damaging scrutiny in the twilight years of apartheid rule.

In 1986, she was widely linked to "necklacing", when suspected traitors were burnt alive by a petrol-soaked car tyre being put over their head and set alight.

In 1990 the world watched when Nelson Mandela finally walked out of prison - hand in hand with Winnie.

The following year, she was convicted of kidnapping and assault over the killing of Stompie Moeketsi, a 14-year-old boy.

In 1992, the Mandelas separated, and then divorced in 1996, after a legal wrangle that revealed she had had an affair with a young bodyguard.

During her old age, she re-emerged as a "mother of the nation" figure who was feted as a living reminder of the late Mandela and of the long struggle against apartheid.

Just last month, she was shown in television footage joking with Cyril Ramaphosa, the newly-appointed president who paid a courtesy call at her home in Soweto, the township where she lived for decades.

Dressed in full ANC colours of yellow, black and green, she asked Ramaphosa, who is known for his morning runs, "Why don't you get tired?"

"We can't get tired when you have given us work to do'" Ramaphosa said, paying fulsome praise to her appearance.

She had also expressed support for the current leadership of the ANC (African National Congress) party - which her husband led to power in the euphoric post-apartheid elections of 1994.

#UPDATE Winnie Mandela's "courageous defiance was deeply inspirational to me," Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu says https://t.co/QgYSX2xmoL pic.twitter.com/RjNRtlAjjE

— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 2, 2018

Ethiopia's new PM, in key speech, reaches out to opposition and Eritrea

Yahoo – AFP, Chris Stein, April 2, 2018

Abiy Ahmed offered an olive branch to the opposition and to rival Eritrea after
he was sworn in as prime minister (AFP Photo/ZACHARIAS ABUBEKER)

Addis Ababa (AFP) - Ethiopia's new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, apologised to people harmed in recent political unrest and reached out both to the political opposition and longtime rival Eritrea at his swearing-in on Monday.

Abiy is the first ethnic Oromo to be selected by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) as prime minister in its 27 years of rule.

In a parliamentary session, Abiy formally replaced Hailemariam Desalegn, whose surprise resignation in February came after more than two years of anti-government protests led by the Oromo.

"Ethiopians living abroad and Ethiopians living here, we need to forgive each other from the bottom of our hearts," Abiy said in a speech after he was sworn in.

He had earlier exchanged a copy of the constitution and a hug with Hailemariam, who has stepped down from all party leadership positions.

It is the first time power has been transferred from one sitting prime minister to another in modern Ethiopia.

"In this peaceful transfer today, we are beginning a new chapter. This is a historic day," Abiy said in his remarks.

Abiy, left, held up the Ethiopian flag with his predecessor, Hailemariam Dessalegn,

 after being sworn in. He is the first ethnic Oromo to be named prime minister in the

ruling party's 27-year rule (AFP Photo/ZACHARIAS ABUBEKER)

The 42-year-old former minister of science and technology takes the reins of one of Africa's fastest-growing and most-populous economies amid hopes that he will change the EPRDF's authoritarian style of governing.

More than 1,100 people are being held without trial under a state of emergency declared after Hailemariam's resignation.

They include dissidents who had been freed just months earlier in a mass prisoner amnesty ordered by Hailemariam.

'Brothers, not enemies'

While he made no mention of the emergency decree in his speech, Abiy reached out to the country's opposition politicians, many of whom were incarcerated during Hailemariam's time.

"We will not be seeing you as enemies, but be seeing you as brothers," Abiy said.

Unrest among the Oromos started in late 2015 over a government development plan they decried as unfair, and soon spread to the country's second-largest ethnicity, the Amhara.

A two-year war between Ethiopia and Eritrea left thousands dead -- the dispute, over

the border demarcation, remains unresolved (file picture) (AFP Photo/MARCO LONGARI)

The protests resulted in hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of arrests and only stopped after Ethiopia was placed under emergency rule for 10 months from October 2016.

Referring to people who were hurt or jailed in the protests, Abiy said "I apologise from the bottom of my heart."

Northern rival

He also extended an olive branch to Ethiopia's arch-rival Eritrea, a one-time province that declared independence in 1993.

A two-year war broke out between the countries in 1998 over the demarcation of their shared border that killed tens of thousands.

The dispute remains unresolved, and Ethiopia and Eritrea accuse each other of supporting anti-government groups.

"For the common good of the two countries, not only for our benefit but for the two nations which are tied by blood, we are ready to solve our differences with discussion," Abiy said.

"We invite the Eritrean government to show the same sentiment."