South African President Kgalema Motlanthe announced yesterday that the region was launching an urgent international campaign to assist Zimbabwe with a humanitarian crisis amid a cholera outbreak.
“The SADC [Southern African Development Community] Troika has decided ... to launch an urgent international campaign to mobilize financial and material resources for the people of Zimbabwe in order to help them overcome the challenges facing their country,” Motlanthe told journalists in Pretoria.
The announcement comes after Motlanthe called a meeting with health and water ministers in the troika of the SADC from South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.
“Zimbabwe is facing serious humanitarian challenges characterized by acute food shortages and the recent outbreak of cholera,” he said.
Motlanthe said all countries in the 15-member bloc were expected to contribute to the campaign with their available resources.
He said the campaign was about aid and not Zimbabwe’s political crisis.
“This is not political work, this relief work is not to be politicized. It’s done on a humanitarian basis,” he said.
“So the mandate of this structure is really to ensure that the relief is distributed fairly to all deserving Zimbabweans. It is not to deal with the political challenges — those will be handled by the inclusive government once the inclusive government is in place. They will have the authority to deal with all challenges on the political front.”
The UN estimated this week nearly 1,000 people had died in a cholera epidemic that has affected more than 18,000 in Zimbabwe, compounding the country’s woes, which include inflation of 231 million percent and a political crisis.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s neighbors said they did not believe allegations that opposition militants are training in Botswana to overthrow Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
Motlanthe said the main regional bloc opened an investigation into the allegations when Mugabe’s regime first raised them last month.
But “we never believed that,” he said.
The Zimbabwean opposition says the allegations, which were made again this week, are part of a plot to create a pretext for declaring a state of emergency.
Motlanthe would not say why he thought Mugabe’s regime was pressing the allegations, but noted the “mistrust” among Zimbabwe’s politicians.
Motlanthe also said South Africa would not join international calls for Mugabe to step down, saying it was “not for us” to do so.
“It’s really not for us,” he said when asked by reporters how bad conditions had to get in Zimbabwe before South Africa would say it was time for him to step down.
“I mean I don’t know if the British feel qualified to impose that on the people of Zimbabwe but we feel that we should really support and take our cue from what they want.”
Motlanthe said he was hopeful Zimbabwe would have a unity government in place by the end of the week.
But the Brussels-based International Crisis Group described the rivals’ power-sharing talks as “hopelessly deadlocked.”
Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should both step aside to allow a neutral administration to tackle the country’s crisis and prepare for a new election, it said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS