Harare, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwean Vice President Constantino Chiwenga threatened a gay and lesbian group Thursday for offering university scholarships to underprivileged students.

Chiwenga, who is serving as acting president while President Emmerson Mnangagwa is out of the country, said in a statement that the LGBTQ community is “alien, anti-life, un-African and un-Christian.”

He condemned an advocacy group, the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, for offering the scholarships and urged young Zimbabweans to snub the offers. He accused the group of making an “insidious attempt” to advance foreign interests by enticing Zimbabwe’s less-privileged youths into the LGBTQ community’s activities.

“The government sees such scholarship offers as a direct challenge on its authority and thus will not hesitate to take appropriate measures to enforce national laws and to protect and defend national values,” Chiwenga said.

There was no immediate word from Mnangagwa, who is in Dubai, on whether he agreed with his deputy’s statement or whether it was authorized.

Zimbabwean officials did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.

Chesterfield Samba, director of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, said Friday that his organization’s board was still digesting the vice president’s statement.

Some Zimbabweans had strong reactions on both sides to the vice president’s statement.

Oliver Mutambara, 36, said, “I would like to thank the acting president for the clear message that we are not going to accept those scholarships. We should remember that we are a multireligious community, we have the Christian community, which is the largest chunk. And from our principles, we do not condone such practices.”

He continued, “We are going to seek permission very soon from our government to act upon those people or bring down their banners and act accordingly to them.”

Lloyd Damba, spokesman for Zimbabwe’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, did not entirely disagree with the vice president’s statement.

“As a Christian nation, the Christian community believes that man can only marry a woman and, based on that, I think he is correct in this sense,” Damba said.

Also, he said, “I think [Chiwenga] is basing his communique [on] the laws of the land do not permit such things.”

Treasure Basopo, 28, expressed a different view, arguing that the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe has been a legal organization in the country since 1990.

He criticized Chiwenga, a former army general before he became a vice president in 2017 after the military coup that ousted former President Robert Mugabe.

“He is a man of misplaced priorities, excitable character,” Basopo said. “General Chiwenga must first give reference to section 78 of the constitution, which talks of people of same sex being banned from getting into a marriage. But the constitution is silent about the conduct and activities of these people before marriage.”

Speaking to VOA, Sally Ncube, a representative for rights group Equality Now in southern Africa, called on the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission and other such institutions, as well as the Southern African Development Community, to ensure Harare protects the rights of everyone in the country.

“The statement in tone is contrary to Zimbabwe’s commitment and obligations under international law to uphold the rights of all, including its LBGTQ citizens,” Ncube said. “The government must not only refrain from making discriminatory statements, but actively work toward creating an environment that respects and protects diverse identities within its nation.”
…

your ad here

…

your ad here

NAIROBI, KENYA — The democratic process in sub-Saharan Africa is not off to a good start in what is supposed to be a busy election year.

The small island nation of Comoros was the first to host presidential elections in 2024. Incumbent president Azali Assoumani – a former military officer who first came to power in a coup in 1999 – won a fourth term.  

Sahel Region  

Election results were immediately rejected by the opposition, triggering violent protests that killed one and injured 25.     

Next on the list was supposed to be Mali, followed by Senegal, but elections were postponed in both countries. Mali is ruled by Assimi Goita and right? a military junta that overthrew a democratically elected government in 2020. 

At the time, Goita promised to return the country to civilian rule but eventually had a second coup months later, forcing out the chosen transitional civilian leaders.

Edgar Githua of the United States International University-Africa told VOA  OK? that elections may not take place in Sahel countries that have recently experienced coups.    

“Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, have promised they are going to transition, they will not … All these military juntas are trained military soldiers, they do not know how to govern. The learning curve to learn how to govern is too long.”       

Earlier this month, in an unprecedented move, Senegalese President Macky Sall announced that elections will be delayed because of allegations of corruption in election-related cases and the disqualification of some leading candidates.     

Some in the opposition called the delay a constitutional coup, though in July, Sall said he would not seek a third term after deadly clashes protesting his possible run for another term.  

Lloyd Kuveya, of the University of Pretoria law school in South Africa told VOA it seems like Sall wants to stay a little longer.     

“Can we really trust Macky Sall? Everybody knows that his intentions were going for a third term, and if it hadn’t been for the protests of the people of Senegal, I am quite sure he would’ve gone ahead to change the constitution.”     

On Thursday, Senegal’s top election authority, the constitutional council, ruled that delaying the elections was not in line with the constitution. It is not clear if elections will still be held as previously planned on February 25, as many candidates had suspended their campaigning due to the postponement. 

Senegal has been seen as a beacon of democracy in a region plagued by coups as Momadou Thior, Senegalese journalist and political analyst recently told VOA.

“We witnessed, in 2000, the first change in power with the opposition leader then named Abdoulaye Wade defeating the incumbent President [Abdou] Diouf, who was in power for 20 years, and 12 years later, the current president, Macky Sall, defeating the same Abdoulaye Wade after 12 years in power.”

East Africa

In East Africa, Rwanda has had the same president since 2000. While some analysts credit Paul Kagame for bringing unity and economic development to Rwanda after the country’s OK? genocide, others question his popularity within the country.  

“Rwanda is the paradox of Africa. Paradox of Africa because the Rwandese themselves are afraid to talk about their own elections. If you have a vote where 98% votes for one candidate, that is a red flag. Nobody is that popular in this world,” Githua said.      

He said Kagame will once again win the elections with over 90% of the vote in his favor but said he is more worried about the post-Kagame era.

“Rwandese democracy is not mature because we’ve had some very negative experiences of past leaders who’ve tried to run against Kagame, the system kind of muzzles them. …The bigger question for me in Rwanda is not even the elections they will have right now. Are they ready for that political landscape if Paul Kagame says he’s walking away?”  

A 2022 Human Rights Watch report said the space for political opposition, civil society, and media remained closed in Rwanda.  

Southern Africa

In South Africa, the African National Congress has been governing since 1994, when Nelson Mandela was elected president following the end of apartheid in the early 1990s, but there may not be business as usual, Kuveya says.     

“The ANC will win the elections but not with an outright majority. It’ll be below 50[%],OK? and therefore, the African National Congress must brace for coalition politics although they are saying there will never be [a] coalition, they are going to win outright.”     

He said allegations of corruption, scandals, and disunity within the ANC – as former president Jacob Zuma recently said he will vote for a different party – are already helping the opposition, including the Economic Freedom Fighters party led by Julius Malema, a former ANC youth leader.
…

your ad here

DAKAR, SENEGAL — Senegal’s Constitutional Council on Thursday ruled that parliament’s unprecedented postponement of the February 25 presidential vote was not in line with the constitution, pitching the country into a new phase of electoral uncertainty. 

Opposition presidential candidates and lawmakers last week filed several legal challenges to the bill that delayed the vote to December and extended President Macky Sall’s mandate in what critics said amounted to an institutional coup. 

The standoff has fueled widespread unrest and raised international concerns that one of the remaining democracies in coup-hit West Africa is under threat. 

In the latest twist, the Constitutional Council decided that “the [postponement] law … is contrary to the constitution,” according to its minutes. 

The council also ruled to cancel a decree announced by Sall ahead of the vote that had set the postponement in motion. 

The presidency and government did not reply to requests for comment. 

What happens next is unclear. Sall, who is not standing in the vote and has reached the constitutional limit of two terms in power, said he delayed the election because of a dispute over the candidate list and alleged corruption within the Constitutional Council. 

In its decision, the council did not specify when the election should be held. There are 10 days left before the original poll date, and most candidates have not been campaigning since Sall issued his decree on February 3, hours before campaigns were meant to kick off.  

The council’s decision has “left a window of opportunity open for discussion,” said Ali Ngouille Ndiaye, a former minister and opposition candidate, on local radio. 
…

your ad here

…

your ad here

The nightmare of the October 7th attacks by Hamas gunmen and the war that’s followed them is far from over for Eritrean refugees in southern Israel. With no Israeli IDs and limited access to benefits, the refugees – twice displaced – are struggling to rebuild their lives as the war in nearby Gaza shows no signs of ending. VOA’s Celia Mendoza reports from the southern Israeli port city of Ashkelon.
…

your ad here

Gabarone, Botswana — Botswana’s coalition of opposition parties has slammed the country’s electoral body for traveling to Zimbabwe to benchmark its election procedures — the process by which the performance of a system is assessed for success and emulation.

Botswana will hold its general election later this year, and officials with the country’s Independent Electoral Commission have been criticized for choosing the example of Zimbabwe, a country that held disputed polls in August 2023.

The two-day benchmarking trip ended Wednesday, and Botswana’s Independent Electoral Commission’s focus was on “management of electoral activities and how to conduct elections.”

Utloile Silaigwana, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chief elections officer, told journalists in Harare that the Botswana delegation will also learn about election publicity activities using radio and social media.

While Zimbabwe’s 2023 election was disputed, Silaigwana said Botswana’s visit is an endorsement of ZEC’s conduct of the elections.

But the Botswana National Front opposition is displeased with the IEC’s trip to Harare, arguing Zimbabwe is not an ideal model for the conduct of free and fair elections.

Ketlhalefile Motshegwa, spokesperson for the opposition Botswana National Front, expressed disappointment at the commission’s trip.

“One would have expected the IEC to benchmark in more developed democracies and systems with effective electoral institutions as an indication that they really want to achieve excellence in their mandate,” Motshegwa said. “The mission of Botswana’s IEC benchmarking in Zimbabwe is simple: Just to learn how to rig an election.”

Lawrence Ookeditse of the Botswana Patriotic Front shared similar sentiments.

“We know that Zimbabwe for the past two decades has not been in a position where they have run credible elections,” Ookeditse said. “The election has been stolen time after time. We see a situation where in the middle of an electoral process, the IEC in Botswana says they are going to Zimbabwe to benchmark. If you want to benchmark to run elections, you are not going to go to Zimbabwe.”

The IEC, in a statement released Wednesday, said the visit to Zimbabwe was specifically to look at ZEC’s accreditation machine for election observers.

International observers criticized a presidential election in Zimbabwe last August, saying it fell short of international standards and was conducted in an atmosphere of intimidation and fear. The winner, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, insisted that the election was conducted “transparently, fairly in broad daylight.”

But Botswana Vice President Slumber Tsogwane, addressing Parliament on Tuesday, said there is no need to disparage Zimbabwe.

“It [Zimbabwe] is a sovereign state, and these people are our neighbors. Yes, some [election] observers might have said what they said, but this has been said about many [other] countries,” Tsogwane said. “But we can’t come here and castigate Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is a sovereign state, [which] is doing as well as any other country. If you have nothing to say good about Zimbabwe, just keep quiet.”

Grant Masterson, director at the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa, said despite criticism, there are positives in Zimbabwe’s electoral system.

“The decision has both positive and negative implications,” Masterson said. “From a technical perspective, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has performed very well in key areas [of] election management, most notably in civic voter campaigns, as well as stakeholder engagement. They really have a lot of good practices to teach other electoral commissions. On the other side of the coin, there is the consideration that the elections delivered in Zimbabwe have had huge question marks about their integrity.”

Zimbabwe said other electoral organizations from the region, including from Lesotho and Ethiopia, have visited to benchmark on conducting elections.
…

your ad here

A Kenyan government agency is helping students from low-income families access laboratories for science classes. The producer is making solar-powered mobile laboratories that are cheaper than building permanent facilities. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi. Camera: Jimmy Makhulo
…

your ad here

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Two boats have collided on the Congo River in western Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials said, giving conflicting accounts on deaths.

Alexis Mampa, chief of the Maluku municipality, said no one died in the collision Monday east of Congo’s capital of Kinshasa. Another local official, Eliezer Ntambwe, at first said dozens were dead but later said the toll wasn’t clear.

It was not known what caused the boats loaded with people and goods to collide.

Horrified residents watched from the riverbank. A video seen by The Associated Press shows people flailing in the water while small boats move toward them.

Deadly boating accidents occur frequently in Congo as crews often overload small wooden vessels. Rivers are key to transport in the vast central African country with some of the world’s least developed road infrastructure. Most river traffic is run by small, informal operators, and officials have warned that adherence to maritime regulations is poor.

In January, most of the 50 passengers aboard a wooden boat that capsized on a lake in eastern Congo were presumed dead.
…

your ad here

Harare, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s government said Monday it is introducing a gold-backed currency to replace the country’s nearly worthless dollar, which most businesses have shunned, preferring the U.S. dollar or South African rand.

Minister for Finance and Economic Development Mthuli Ncube told reporters in an online press conference that Zimbabwe was making the move to ensure sustained growth.

“Really this is a quest for currency stability,” Ncube said. “What has emerged over the years is the U.S. [dollar] being the most dominant.

“Going forward, we want to make sure that the growth we have achieved so far — which is very strong — is maintained and even increased,” he said. “We can only do that if we have further stability in the domestic currency. … And the way to do that is perhaps to link the exchange rate to some hard asset such as gold.”

He did not say when Zimbabwe will introduce the gold-backed currency.

Since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, the country has introduced new currencies several times after citizens and businesses shunned the previous money.

The present-day currency, known as the dollar, bondnotes or ZWL, was introduced in 2014. Within months it started losing value, something economists attributed to the government overprinting notes and businesses failing to have confidence in the currency.

It now trades at 20,000 for 1 U.S. dollar.

Prosper Chitambara, a senior economist with the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe, said the move will help control money supply.

“It also helps to stabilize the value of the currency because, ultimately, the value of the currency would be determined to a greater extent by the value of gold,” he said. “On paper, it sounds [like] a good idea to link your currency to an underlying asset such as gold.”

Ultimately, Chitambara said, Zimbabwe needs to exercise fiscal responsibility if it wants a stable domestic currency.

“We need to ensure fiscal sustainability through ensuring there is fiscal discipline, fiscal consolidation, restructuring public spending with a view of eliminating waste and nonproductive spending,” he said.

Also, he said, it is important to ensure monetary discipline through controlling supply and making institutional reforms to address waste and inefficiencies in public enterprises.

Zimbabwe “has been losing money through subsidizing loss-making parastatals and entities,” he said, referring to state-owned companies.

Steven Dhlamini, an economics professor at National University of Science and Technology, said the success of the change will also hinge on whether people have confidence in the gold-backed currency — “whether they believe the government will indeed be transparent and accountable as to the production of the gold viz-a-vis the printing of the currency.”

“So once the trust is established, then that is critical in ensuring the currency will be acceptable and will be stable,” he said.
…

your ad here

BANGUI, Central African Republic — About 10,000 children are still fighting alongside armed groups in Central African Republic more than a decade after civil war broke out, the government said Monday.

Marthe Kirima, the minister for family and gender, said in a statement that children are still being recruited as fighters, spies, messengers, cooks and even used as sex slaves. While 15,000 children have escaped from rebel forces, she said, many are traumatized and find it difficult to return to normal life.

The mineral-rich but impoverished nation has had conflict since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power and forced then-President Francois Bozize from office. Mostly Christian militias fought back, also targeting civilians.

The United Nations, which has a peacekeeping mission in the country, estimates the fighting has killed thousands and displaced over a million people, or one-fifth of the population. In 2019, a peace deal was reached between the government and 14 armed groups, but fighting continues.

The U.N. is trying to prevent children from joining armed groups and make it easier for those released to reintegrate into society. It has created training programs for them to become mechanics, masons, carpenters or take up other professions.

Some former child soldiers told The Associated Press that their harrowing experiences had pushed them to become peace ambassadors.

“I took up arms because Seleka killed by mother and father,” said Arsene, who insisted on only his first name due to the sensitivity of the situation. He said a Christian rebel group recruited him when he was 14. After three years of fighting, he now tells young people not to join rebel groups.

Ousmane, another former child soldier, said that joining the rebels ruined his life and that of those around him. “What we did is indescribable,” he said.

The Dany Ngarasso Foundation, a local civil society group, called on the government to accelerate the peace process to protect child soldiers.

“They may have fought yesterday, but they can still campaign for peace today,” foundation head Ngarasso said.
…

your ad here

The World Health Organization says that in Zambia over 70% of men and over 30% of women are drinking too much, too often. Some nonprofit organizations are intervening to help those on the path to recovery from alcohol addiction. Kathy Short reports from Lusaka, Zambia. Video editor: Elias Chulu
…

your ad here