A high-profile race for the post of chairman of the African Union (AU) commission entered deadlock on Monday, splitting the organisation into anglophone and francophone blocs.Voting in the conference centre of the new $200m AU building donated by China produced no clear winner. The incumbent, Gabon’s former foreign affairs minister Jean Ping – who stood unopposed after Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa’s interior minister, withdrew having failed to win enough votes – failed to win two-thirds of the 54 votes needed, leaving the AU in uncharted territory.

Under the organisation’s rules, neither Ping nor Dlamini-Zuma will be allowed to stand again, so another election will be held at the next summit, in Malawi in six months’ times. Ping will stay on as chairman until the next election.

The day’s events made a mockery of rhetoric of an African renaissance and overshadowed the summit’s theme of boosting intra-Africa trade.

The big surprise is that Ping failed to clinch the 36 votes needed for a second term. “It shows how many people Ping had alienated,” said one diplomatic source.

Ping was criticised for being too slow in distancing the AU from Muammar Gaddafi, its former chairman, during the Libyan revolt, although the AU benefited handsomely from the “brother leader’s” largesse, and that might have played on the chairman’s mind.

Delegates also attributed Ping’s shortfall to South Africa’s insistence that Dlamini-Zuma’s supporters should not vote for him, a tactic that angered Ping’s francophone supporters.

For the AU, it was a humiliating comedown after the inauguration of its new headquarters, which was accompanied by high rhetoric and performances by a brass band, dance troupes and singers.

The commission chairman does much to set the tone for the AU and can have significant behind-the-scenes influence, although being the public face of an organisation with such disparate voices appears a thankless job.

Until Monday’s voting, the talk was of “Africa’s renaissance”, a phrase used by Ethiopia’s president Meles Zenawi in his weekend address. The dour Zenawi could not resist a swipe at western pundits who had once written off Africa. He cited with satisfaction an Economist headline last December that read: The hopeful continent: Africa rising, noting that 10 years ago the same publication had described Africa as hopeless.

Others are also bullish on Africa, from Andrew Mitchell, the UK international development secretary, to Jia Qinglin, a senior political adviser to the Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi. In his speech on Sunday, Jia lavished praise on Africa.

“Africa is a land with faster economic growth and rising influence in international affairs. It is a land that radiates fresh vigour and vitality and holds out prospects for development,” he said.

Jia took the opportunity to announce 600m renminbi (£60m) in aid to the AU in the next three years, which will do much to ease the organisation’s finances at a time when its biggest funders, particularly Libya and Egypt, have pressing financial worries at home.The organisation was ignored when Nato decided to intervene in Libya, and it moved at glacial speed in mobilising resources over the humanitarian disaster in the Horn of Africa.

In a veiled reproach to the AU, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, called on African leaders to “play a more important role in solving regional issues”.

Whatever its diplomatic shortcomings – and the EU has hardly covered itself in glory with the eurozone crisis – Africa, or parts of it such as Rwanda and Ethiopia, have notched up strong growth, sparking growing interest in the continent. Echoing Jia, Salehi praised Africa as an “emerging continent with a bright future”.

Like Jia, Salehi was keen to tap into Africa’s bright economic prospects, arguing that, because Iran is comparable to Africa in terms of technological progress, it is in a better position to help the continent than the more advanced west.

“When the technology gap is wide, it is difficult to make the transfer,” argued Salehi, adding that Iran was ready to offer assistance to its many African counterparts “very humbly”.

That Africa is being courted by the likes of Iran and China is a telling indication of its stock, despite headlines about Somalia and rising tension between Sudan and South Sudan – other subjects that featured prominently in meetings at the summit.

However, the oil dispute between Sudan and South Sudan could be very damaging to the image of “Africa rising”, and there are fears of a humanitarian disaster should hostilities erupt.

“It’s clear that the situation is declining very rapidly,” Princeton Lyman, the US special envoy to Sudan, told the Associated Press. “Without access for the international community we see what could emerge as a major humanitarian crisis for the continent, and a preventable crisis that the African Union has to address.”

Civil society groups are also critical of African governments in implementing AU treaties and policy standards that hold back integration, including closer trade ties. For all the talk of a Cape to Cairo trade zone by 2017, trade within Africa makes up just 10% to 12% of the continent’s total.

State of the Union, a civil society group, said the performance of member states in ratifying and integrating AU decisions at the national level must be a criterion for electing the next commission. First, however, the AU needs a new commission chair.

Police in Swaziland fired teargas Monday on students protesting their university’s failure to open for the semester, injuring several people, a student leader said.Police arrested at least four demonstrators after students of the University of Swaziland vowed to occupy the labour ministry and clashed with peers from a teachers college who refused to join their protest.

The financial woes facing Swaziland’s only university have turned political as King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch, faces calls for democratic reforms sparked by a financial crisis that has seen his government almost run out of cash.

“Students found that the source of their problems … is the way the country is governed. We have agreed to dismantle the way this country is governed as a matter of urgent priority,” student leader Xolile Mdluli told AFP.

Mdluli said students had resolved to occupy the labour ministry from Tuesday and disrupt classes at post-secondary institutions.

After the meeting in central city Manzini, students swarmed the campus of the William Pitcher Teachers College, leading to a brief scuffle as the teachers college students stoned their university counterparts.

The university announced last week it would not be able to open on Tuesday as scheduled, the second time in two semesters it has postponed its opening.

It needs 22 million emalangeni ($2.8 million, 2.1 million euros) a month for administrative, maintenance and salary costs and has struggled to stay afloat this academic year.

It has not released results of first-semester exams taken in December, and first-year students have not received their allowances from the government.

The university has three campuses and a combined student population of about 7,000.

In this historic year when we celebrate the centenary of the oldest liberation movement in Africa, in the 18th year of our democracy and after 26 years of COSATU’s existence, we gather at this historic Constitutional Court – a court which is vested with the responsibility to ensure that our Constitution is upheld at all times and that all South Africans benefit from the rights enshrined in it.We are extremely honoured to witness the successful implementation of another critical resolution of COSATU and civil society, the official launch of the long awaited Corruption Watch. A dream has come true – a dream to empower our people so that they may play a more meaningful role in a battle to combat the scourge of corruption.

Unless we can successfully mobilise and empower ordinary people, strengthen and build a people-centred developmental state, led by honest men and women, build independent state institutions that battle against corruption daily and transform the judiciary and media, we will not succeed in our quest to defeat this fast advancing enemy. Corruption is growing like a wild fire in the veld, threatening to engulf and destroy the future of a country that has so much potential.

The launch of Corruption Watch is a critical intervention. There is not a single day without newspapers exposing corruption of a government worker who extorts money out of the poor, driving schools and traffic police who collude to extort money out of our working class children who are desperate to acquire a driving license – which has become a principal requirement for getting a job in this country, how government officials collude with business to inflate the price of tenders and provide substandard housing to the poor.

We know only too well the devastating impact of corruption and on the lives of thousands and thousands of poor black South Africans.

The revolving door between public representatives and business has normalised a picture of public representatives living in mansions behind high-wall and electric fences whilst the surrounding townships they are supposed to serve reel under the misery of neoliberalism, poverty and unemployment.

Workers’ pension funds being gambled away, leaving some workers to retire with only a pittance. We must leave no stone unturned to bring those who squandered R100 million of clothing and textile workers` pension funds to justice.

We congratulate SACTWU for the sterling job they continue to do in exposing this rot. Yesterday for the first time a commission investigating this scandal was held in a prison and offered an opportunity to one of those arrested on suspicion of embezzling the workers’ pensions. Regrettably Mr Sam Buthelezi did not cooperate.

As trade unionists, we also know that unions are not paragons of virtue, immune from this contagious disease. Some workers complain that their leaders have been corrupted and that trade union officials are paid off by employers to turn a blind eye to their abuse. This type of corruption results in a situation whereby we have agents of the capitalist class within the workers’ movement who labour day and night as conveyor belts for capitalist interests.

Ailing patients in public hospitals are subjected to eating biscuits because private companies providing hospital meals have not been paid; school children have to walk for painstaking kilometres to schools – negotiating their way through dangerous velds and deadly highways – because service providers have not been paid on time; or young children are hungry because some corrupt officials collude with greedy business people to halt the crucial schools nutrition programme. All these stories have one common message – corruption is daylight theft from the poor.

These are the human stories behind the crisis of good governance plaguing the Limpopo Provincial Government, Gauteng Health department, Free State Roads and Transport department and the Eastern Cape Education department. They highlight colossal problem of mismanagement of public money, fraud, and corruption.

The crisis in Limpopo is not unique to that province. Auditor General, Terence Nombembe uncovered R20bn in unauthorised expenditure in 2010-11. Only three out of 39 government departments (down from six three years ago), and 106 out of 272 state-owned enterprises, had clean audits for 2011 and only seven municipalities out of 237 received a clean audit for 2009/10. The former head of the Special Investigating Unit, Willie Hofmeyr, has estimated that the government loses up to R30bn to corruption every year.

The loss of such huge sums of money has a devastating impact on the economy. Billions of rands which could and should have been spent on improving our healthcare and education systems, promoting economic growth and creating jobs and providing basic services to our poorest communities are being squandered.

This points to an appalling tolerance of mediocrity and incompetence, for which divisions and factions provide a perfect cover. The full cost of these divisions has still to be counted. The perfect cover that such factions and divisions provide is that even those caught with their hands in the cookie jar refuse to resign from their post as they enjoy immunity and guaranteed indemnity provided by their factions.

All this is wreaking untold damage on the moral fibre of the nation. We are moving towards a society in which the morality of our revolutionary movement – selflessness, service to the people and caring for the poor and vulnerable – is being threatened. If we do nothing it will be swept away by tidal wave of a culture of individualism, ‘me-first’ attitude and to hell with everyone else. Some argue that we are already a society where only the fittest survive and dog eats dog.

It is a culture which grows within the system of capitalism, but which is spreading fast from the private sector into the public service, as businesses are set up to corruptly obtain tenders from the state, some of them run by public representatives themselves or members of their families. That is why COSATU is insisting that people have to choose whether they want to pursue their business interests or serve the public. They cannot do both at the same time.

Our political life is also getting polluted; some corrupt politicians and officials build political support by bribing people to back their factions, which are no longer based on ideological differences but on who has the biggest treasure chest to dole out favours.

Leadership contestation is changing from being about the battle of ideas into battles for control of the public purse-strings. This will destroy the democratic traditions of our movement and lead to paralysis and disunity. Worst of all is the growing evidence that corruption is becoming literally a matter of life and death, as people are being intimidated or even killed for exposing and preventing corruption.

COSATU urges all its members and all South Africans to work closely with Corruption Watch to help to get rid of this fatal cancer within our society.

The idea of this institution can be summed up in the words of one famous musician – that “money and corruption are ruining the land, crooked politicians betray the working man, pocketing the profits and treating us like sheep, and we`re tired of hearing promises that we know they`ll never keep.”

We appeal to all freedom and justice loving South Africans to join those of us who repudiate the notion that the poor must continue to feed off the discards of the rich and powerful. Let us together end this belief amongst some of our representatives that they are entitled to eat on behalf of the masses.

Viva Corruption Watch Viva

[1] Ray Davies, Money and Corruption.

Sent by:
Phindile Kunene (Editor – Shopsteward Magazine)
Office: 011 339 4911
Cell : 0824942409 / 0791679511
Email: phindi@cosatu.org.za

President of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), Maxwell Dlamini, has been nominated for the 2012 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. The award is presented by Front Line, an Irish-based human rights organisation founded by former director of the Irish Section of Amnesty International, Mary Lawlor, and is given to “human rights defenders who, through non-violent work, are courageously making an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of the human rights of others, often at great personal risk to themselves.”Maxwell Dlamini was detained, tortured and forced to sign a confession by members of Swaziland’s police and security forces during the so-called April 12 Swazi Uprising, a peaceful protest inspired by the Arab Spring that was brutally clamped down upon by Swazi police and security forces. He is currently on trial for allegedly having been in possession of explosives and remanded and the infamous Manzini Remand Centre. Several representatives of Swaziland’s democratic movement have called the allegations against Maxwell Dlamini absurd, and an international campaign has demanded his unconditional release.

Maxwell is a threat to the undemocratic Swazi regime precisely because “he is a strong and a brave young leader who stands up and defends human rights,” says Dumezweni Dlamini from the Foundation for Socio-Economic Justice, a partner organisation of Maxwell’s SNUS. “This is why he has been put behind bars.”

“But there cannot be a better recipient [of the award] than this rare gem of a new generation of activists for the liberation of Swaziland,” says Wandile Dludlu from the Swaziland United Democratic Front. “Maxwell has been at the service of the youth in an oppressive dangerous political environment and has led the students in several campaigns of peaceful protests against unjust government policy. We are proud to be associated with SNUS, who has been producing leaders of a special pedigree like Maxwell. They have made an indelible mark in the history of our struggle for democracy, human rights and good governance.”

The Front Line Defenders Award is presented annually. The winner and his or her organisation is awarded with a cash prize of €15,000. Last years award, presented by former Irish Prime Minister Mary Robinson, was given to the Joint Mobile Group of the Russian Federation “for their outstanding work investigating torture, killings and disappearances in Chechnya.”

Two tropical storms in quick succession in Mozambique in recent days have left at least 25 dead, tens of thousands affected by flooding, and communications infrastructure damaged.Tropical depression Dando, which made landfall on 16 January north of the capital Maputo, was the fiercest tropical storm to strike the area since Storm Domoina in 1984. A few days later Cyclone Funso veered from an expected landfall in the north of the country and headed back into the Mozambique Channel, but the effects of the weather system were still felt.

Dulce Chilungo, Mozambique’s director of the Technical Council for Disaster Management, told a press briefing in Maputo on 25 January that 16 people had died in Zambézia and nine in Gaza Province.

Dando has washed away about 60 metres of the main north-south road about 100km north of Maputo, where wind speeds of up to 70km/h and heavy rainfall led to flooding and damage to houses and schools, says a draft report by the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies obtained by IRIN.

“The situation was exacerbated by the heavy rainfall in [neighbouring] South Africa and Swaziland which caused a steady increase of water levels in the Maputo, Umbeluzi and Incomati Basins, flooding low-lying areas in Magude and Chókwe,” the draft report said.

Citing Mozambique’s National Disaster Management Institute (INGC), the draft report said that in Gaza Province flooding (caused by Dando) had affected 5,393 families, while in Zambézia about 2,571 families were affected by Funso up until 23 January 2012.

INGC also forecast in the first quarter of 2012 “normal to above normal rainfall… throughout the country with the exception of Cabo Delgado, Nampula and part of the northern province of Zambézia”.

Jorge Unamusse of Mozambique’s Red Cross told IRIN the southeastern province of Inhambane was also being monitored for flooding following continued heavy rain.

Mozambique’s Technical Council of Disaster Management has been holding daily meetings with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Mozambique Red Cross since 16 January, and an Orange Alert has been declared, to ensure preparedness by all relevant agencies.

Preparedness activities

Preparedness activities include distribution of bicycles, stretchers, masks, gloves, megaphones and boats, and the cleaning out of storm drains.

Unamusse said a temporary camp in Maputo for about 440 people had been set up for those displaced on the outskirts of the city by flooding caused, among other things, by poor maintenance of storm drains.

In 2000 Cyclone Eline made landfall near the central Mozambique port city of Beira, accompanied by 260km/h winds, causing widespread flooding and the deaths of at least 700 people and the displacement of about a million others.

”Its intensity decreased from category four to category three with sustained winds exceeding 155km/h”

INGC has been conducting flood simulation exercises since November 2011 and daily meetings were evaluating “the impact of the current rainy and cyclone seasons as well as monitoring the hydrological situation and the sequence of cyclones that are being formed in the Indian Ocean season.”

Funso remains active in the Mozambique Channel and at 10am on 25 January was about 230km off the coast of Inhambane Province, Mozambique’s National Institute of Meteorology’s chief forecaster Sergio Buque told IRIN.

“Its intensity decreased from category four to category three with sustained winds exceeding 155km/h. Rain with thunderstorms and strong winds, above 70km/h, will continue to affect the Inhambane districts of Inharrime, Panda, Jangamo, Homoíne, Inhambane City, Maxixe, Morrumbene, Massinga Vilankulo and Inhassoro,” he added.

Zimbabwe union leaders on Tuesday suspended a strike that shuttered the nation’s schools as civil servants demanded a doubling of basic wages, on the eve of talks with the government, a spokesperson said. “We have suspended the strike for tomorrow only, pending the outcome of the meeting with the government representatives,” Tendai Chikowore, spokesperson for the umbrella union for state workers, said.

“After the meeting, we will report on the outcome and issue a statement. If the outcome is favourable, we will call off the strike. If it is not favourable, the strike will resume on Thursday.”

An Agence France-Presse correspondent visiting government schools around Harare found only a few staffers and some pupils milling around, as more teachers heeded the five-day strike call.

“We were just hoping there might be lessons but the teachers did not come to class today,” one boy returning home from high school said.

Ignored strike request
Unions called for a five-day stay-away this week, after a similar call for a one-day strike was largely ignored last Thursday.

Chikowore said the workers want across-the-board pay rises including a raise from $200 to $538 a month for the lowest-paid government workers, medical insurance and an allowance for workers based in rural areas.

The strike got off to a slow start but on the second day on Tuesday, public schools in the capital were deserted with a few staffers in offices and senior pupils milling around.

But at government departments, work went on as usual with people queuing up and being served.

Civil servants, particularly teachers, nurses and doctors, have been striking on and off for better salaries since 2007.

Sabotage
The situation reached its height in 2008 when staff shortages forced state hospitals to close some units and teacher strikes left only 50 days of classes in the whole year.

Zimbabwe’s economy has begun recovering after a decade-long downturn, following a power-sharing agreement by long-time rivals President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in the wake of failed 2008 polls.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti says about one-third of the 230 000 workers on the government payroll don’t actually exist, meaning corrupt employees are siphoning off salaries.

Biti, a Tsvangirai ally, has insisted the cash-strapped government cannot afford to pay higher salaries.

Mugabe has accused the minister of deliberately sabotaging the government by refusing the increases.

Swazi Observer, 19 January 2012

GOVERNMENT is more than ready to conduct the national elections next year. This was revealed by Minister of Justice Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze.

He was speaking during a courtesy visit to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) offices yesterday.  Gamedze said it would be a grave mistake for government not to stage elections.
He applauded the commission for progress made in preparation for the 2013 elections. He encouraged members of the public to ensure they get their national ID cards before the elections begin next year.

The minister stressed that using one form of identity document was necessary to make things easier for the commission when conducting the elections process. In the past, voters were allowed to use various documents such as the national ID, drivers’ licences, and birth certificates during the registration process.
achieve
Gamedze said the commission had done a lot to achieve its mandate despite the financial challenges government was facing.
He said government had just gone through a tough year but the commission achieved a lot.

Forget multi-party – Minister Mgwagwa

THE 2013 national elections will continue undeterred despite threats by some union members who are calling for a change from the Tinkhundla system of governance to multi-party.

Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze said this during a courtesy visit to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) offices at Nkhanini yesterday.

The minister said they noted as government that some people had been on the roads calling for multi-party governance but, that will not happen as per the wishes of a few because the country had a constitution that it followed in whatever it does.

“We will do what the Constitution requires. No one will wake up one day and want to make changes overnight. National elections are conducted according to the constitution. If we do not conduct elections next year, then we would be flouting our very own document which is the basis of our functioning,” said the minister briefly.

The civic society has been calling for a change in the governance system from Tinkhundla to the multi-party system.  They raised concerns that the system had failed the people and therefore.

Ncumbi gets emotional

EBC Commissioner Ncumbi Maziya did not take kindly to being left out and not getting informed of the minister’s courtesy visit on time.
He said it was wrong for whosoever received the information not to inform them in time to prepare for the discussions.
Maziya said this after the Ministry of Justice’s Principal Secretary Jinnoh Nkambule invited comments from other members of the commission, after the Chairman Chief Gija had made his address.

“We were taken by surprise on the minister’s visit. Otherwise if we were informed prior about this, we would have prepared ourselves. Right now, one doesn’t know what to say because we do not even know the agenda of this meeting,” said Maziya.  “It is disappointing that we had a meeting yesterday but no one bothered to inform us about this. I must say it was wrong for whosoever got the information first not to alert us. It shouldn’t happen next time,” he said.

The PS had to calm down the situation as he explained that the minister’s visit was just to meet with and introduce himself to the commission since he was new in the ministry.

Blog by Sibusiso Magnificent Nhlabatsi 

Maxwell Dlamini, President of the Swaziland National Union of Students was arrested on April 2011. He was charged under the Explosives Act in that he was suspected to have had explosives. He made bail application at the Manzini Magistrate Court where the court refused to grant him bail. After months of staying in prison his lawyer, Mandla Mkhwanazi, appealed to the high court of Swaziland for review of the refusal of bail by the subordinate court. The high court through Justice Bheki Maphalala granted him bail fixed at 50 000 Emalangeni payable in cash only. Further he set out bail conditions as follows:

• Maxwell must report to Mbabane Police Station four times a week ( Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday)
• He must surrender his passport to the Police
• He must not interfere with state witnesses.

This was an outrageous judgment from Justice Maphalala. Swaziland is crippled with greed and corruption but we have never seen such unreasonable bail conditions. Eight people in 2008 were charged for stealing 50 million but were granted 20 000 bail two thousand cash and the balance in surety. We had expected that in such a huge amount someone would stand in as surety for comrade Maxwell but the court denied that as it made an order of cash only. Most legal practitioners have viewed the actions of the judge to that of denying the comrade bail indirectly.

In all these frustrations we go through we are optimistic to work even hard. To us as students the continuance existence of undemocratic tinkhundla system of government in our country is a constant reminder to us that we have a war to find. Maxell’s spirit is strong and he is of strong character. The tyranny of our regime will not defeat him and we will outlast the fascist system.

We are grateful to the National Union of Students (NUS) in the United Kingdom and Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) for their continued support on comrade Maxwell. Comrade Danielle Grufferty, and other many comrades have always been with us every step of the way. I remember she even attended comrade Maxwell’s bail hearing. Really, you have done so much for us.

We are trying by all means to raise the 50 000 Emalangeni bail money. We are facing difficulties but we hope we will prevail. Any sort of help from will be highly appreciated and valued. We may be a poor group, poor young men and women who grew up inn difficulties. But we are fighters and want what’s best for us, next generation, our country and the world. We want Swaziland to be a democratic state. We want human dignity to prevail we want to be known as a small nation that is democratic which uphold rights of human beings.

Four people have died and more than 4,000 others are without shelter after torrential rains in Mozambique.

Three days of storms and high winds have hit water and power supplies and destroyed farm animals and cash crops.The storms have also led neighbouring South Africa to close its famous Kruger National Park, where helicopters have been used to evacuate tourists.

Meteorologists warn a stronger weather system is approaching Mozambique, where flooding in 2000 left 700 people dead.

It was the worst flooding in Mozambique’s living memory and half a million people were also made homeless.

The worst affected areas are in the southern Gaza and Maputo provinces, the national relief agency says.

According to Dulce Chilundo of the Disaster Management Institute, tents and food are being sent to those who have lost their homes.

Two of those who died were electrocuted, while the two others were killed when their homes collapsed – one after a tree hit the house, she told the BBC.

Mozambique: A woman holds on to her husband while trying to cross a floodplain, Friday 25 February 2000 The floods in 2000 left more than half a million people homeless

The capital, Maputo, is also affected by the heavy rains with drivers having to manoeuvre through water of up to a metre in some areas, the BBC’s Jose Tembe reports from the city.

Of the 4,000 people who have lost their homes, more than 1,200 are in the capital, where on Tuesday night at the height of the storm, many people were too scared to spend the night in their houses, he says.

People who have not yet been assisted have resorted to climbing trees or sitting on the roofs of their houses to avoid being swept away by the flood waters, he says.

The floods have also destroyed more than 160 classrooms, four clinics and more than 600 hectares of farmland, the national disaster agency said.

Our reporter says one of Mozambique’s main crops, the cashew nut, has also been affected with more than 6,000 cashew tree destroyed.

In some areas of Mozambique the water has begun to recede now that the high winds and rains have dissipated, our correspondent says.

But meteorologist Sergio Buque said another low pressure system was heading towards the country which might bring heavier downpours.

“We expect that the intensity may be greater than this one: We had category one winds of between 80 and 120km/h – the next one, if it develops as the models are showing us, could reach category two, when the winds are stronger,” he told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.

The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) today joined the fight to repeal parts of Lesotho’s discriminatory Chieftainship Act, which only allows the first-born son to succeed to chieftainship, by filing submissions in a landmark case that is due before the country’s Constitutional Court next month.“Universally denying women the ability to succeed to chieftainship entrenches the view that women are subordinate members of society and is a fundamental breach of their constitutional rights,” said Priti Patel, Deputy Director of SALC. “In recent years, Lesotho has made significant progress in eradicating gender discrimination within society, including having abolished marital power. Giving women the opportunity to succeed to chieftainship would be another major step towards eradicating gender discrimination in Lesotho.”

SALC filed submissions in Masupha v Senior Resident Magistrate for the Subordinate Court of Berea and Others, challenging the blanket denial of women to succeed to chieftainship. The case is being brought by Senate Masupha, a first-born daughter of a chief, who is calling on the Constitutional Court to declare the relevant sections of the Chieftainship Act unconstitutional and permit women to succeed to chieftainship.

Intervening as amicus curiae (friends of the court), SALC’s submissions argue that the law is unconstitutional under the Lesotho Constitution as well as under Lesotho’s international and regional obligations. The submissions also document how laws that discriminate against women significantly harm the government’s ability to effectively respond to Lesotho’s HIV epidemic.

This case is part of a broader trend in the region to change or repeal laws which explicitly promote gender discrimination.

The Constitutional Court in South Africa has struck down laws which deny women the right to inherit and permitted women to succeed to chieftainship. In Botswana, the Court of Appeal in Attorney-General v Dow struck down a law denying children citizenship if only their mother was a Botswana citizen. Courts in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania have also all struck down laws which deny women the right to inherit due solely to their gender.

The case will be heard in February with a decision expect in late 2012.