Volgens statistiek wat Vrydag deur die Nasionale Vereniging van Motorvervaardigers van Suid-Afrika bekendgemaak is, het motorverkope in Oktober vanjaar met amper 7% toegeneem in vergelyking met September-verkope. Brian Riley, hoof uitvoerende beampte van Wesbank, meen dat dit meesal toegeskryf kan word aan ’n toename in swart manlike kopers. Helfte van al die aansoeke wat Wesbank deesdae vir voertuigfinansiering ontvang, is van swart mans afkomstig.
“Die persentasie swart mans wat hul motors deur hierdie bank finansier, het met 22,9% toegeneem teenoor verlede jaar, terwyl die persentasie vir blanke mans afgeneem het,” het Riley gesê. Die swart groei vind hoofsaaklik in die ouderdomsgroep van 26-36 plaas. Ook die tweedehandsemark word geraak. Volgens Riley het swart mans se aankope van tweedehandse motors oor die afgelope jaar met ’n ongelooflike 73,8% toegeneem.
Chinese maatskappye staan tou om in Afrika te belê. Hulle is op soek na grondstowwe om die Chinese ekonomie, wat met sowat 9% per jaar groei, aan die gang te hou. Belangstelling in Suid-Afrika is egter nie so groot nie, hoofsaaklik weens die hoë misdaadsyfer en die gesukkel met visums. Meer as 800 Chinese regeringsmaatskappye is tans in Afrika bedrywig, maar slegs ’n fraksie van hierdie firmas is in Suid-Afrika aanwesig. Van die $11,7 miljard wat teen die einde van verlede jaar deur China in Afrika belê is, is slegs $200 miljoen in Suid-Afrika belê.
Volgens Yabin Zhou, direkteur-generaal van Wes-Asië en Afrika in China se handelsministerie, is die Chinese bekommerd oor misdaad in Suid-Afrika. Verskeie Chinese is naamlik al in die land vermoor. Hierdie nuus het telkens prominente aandag in die Chinese pers geniet. “Hulle is nie bereid om hulle lewens te waag om in Suid-Afrika te belê nie,” meen Zhou. Ten spyte van die vrese oor geweldsmisdaad, bemark China tog Suid-Afrika as ’n toerismebestemming vir sy burgers.
Verlede week het die prentjie ten opsigte van Chinese belegging dramaties verander toe die Nywerheids-en Handelsbank van China aangekondig het dat hulle beplan om ’n 20% aandeel in Standardbank te koop. Dit sal neerkom op die grootste enkel buitelandse aankoop deur ’n Chinese maatskappy.
In die res van Afrika word Chinese beleggers gekortwiek deur swak kommunikasie en logistieke probleme, maar dit demp skynbaar nie die Chinese se entoesiasme nie. China het in 1978 begin om sy ekonomie te herstruktureer. Spesiale ekonomiese sones is geskep om buitelandse maatskappye te trek. Hierdie model word nou in Afrika gebruik, met soortgelyke sones wat deur die Chinese in Zambië, Mauritius en Nigerië geskep is.
In sy antwoord op kritiek dat China bloot in Afrika betrokke is om grondstowwe te bekom, het Zhou gesê dat die Chinese die afgelope 50 jaar al by 900 opheffingsprojekte op die vasteland betrokke was. Dit sluit die bou van gesondheidsfasiliteite, stadions en skole in. Hy het verder beklemtoon dat die regering dit nie goedkeur as sekere Chinese firmas nie die plaaslike Afrika-wetgewing respekteer nie. “Sommige mense bestempel Chinese belegging in Afrika as ’n nuwe soort kolonialisme. Dit is egter oppervlakkig en dui op ’n gebrek aan insig.” Dit is wel waar dat Chinese firmas dikwels huiwerig is om plaaslike burgers aan te stel, het hy bygevoeg. Hulle beskik nie altyd oor die nodige vaardighede nie, kom nie getrou werk toe nie en dan is daar ook taalprobleme.
Zhou het verder daarop gewys dat China self nog ’n ontwikkelende land is, met 130 miljoen mense wat in armoede leef. Beijing, met sy 14 miljoen mense en Shanghai, met sowat 18 miljoen inwoners, is weliswaar welvarende stede, maar op die platteland leef miljoene mense in armoede. Die land se bruto binnelandse produk per capita was laas jaar maar $1 200. Suid-Afrika se BBP word in vergelyking hiermee op $13 300 per kop gereken.
Alhoewel Suid-Afrika dalk nie die Chinese se voorkeur geniet as dit by vaste beleggings kom nie, is Suid-Afrika China se grootste handelsvennoot in Afrika. Suid-Afrika het verlede jaar goedere ter waarde van R46,7 miljard uit China ingevoer en sowat R14 miljard se goedere na daardie land uitgevoer.
The latest development follows a recent breakdown of the equipment and machinery at the only mortuary in Beitbridge.
The district medical officer for Beitbridge Hospital, Dr Nyasha Masuka, told Mirror that the cooling system at the mortuary constantly broke down, as it was being strained by the huge number of bodies. "Our mortuary was designed to accommodate only six bodies at a given time, but due to the ever-increasing number of unclaimed bodies, it ends up handling as many as 60 bodies, thereby putting pressure on the facility. That eventually resulted in the machinery’s breaking down," he said.
Most of the unclaimed bodies are of ailing border jumpers and illegal immigrants deported from South Africa through the Beitbridge border post.
When Mirror recently visited the mortuary, shortly after its closure, there were several decomposing bodies strewn all over the floor. Most of the corpses were of deportees kept at the mortuary after authorities had failed to locate their relatives.
"Right now, a number of local people are resorting to taking their relatives’ bodies to neighbouring Musina, due to the breakdown of the machinery," Masuka said. Most of the corpses are taken to private funeral parlours such Doves, where they are then kept while awaiting burial back in Zimbabwe.
However, only the few privileged ones with money can afford to take their relatives to Musina mortuaries, while the majority is now resorting to burying their deceased relatives on the same day that they die.
Due to the deteriorating economic situation in Zimbabwe, the government is failing to maintain public facilities such as hospitals, a move that is now compromising the health delivery system in that country, and as a result, Musina hospital is now bearing the brunt as Zimbabwean patients are now streaming into the border town of Musina for treatment and, in the long run, putting a strain on the facilities for the Musina residents.
Support for the treaty designed to enable the EU to act more efficiently has halved over the past two years. The Government will have a big task on its hands to persuade people to vote Yes in next year’s referendum, according to The Irish Times , TNS mrbi opinion poll.
Just 25 per cent of people say they will vote Yes to the EU Reform Treaty, agreed in Lisbon last month, while 13 per cent intend to vote No and a massive 62 per cent say they don’t know or have no opinion. In a comparable poll on the EU Constitutional Treaty in March 2005, 46 per cent said they would vote Yes as against 12 per cent who would vote No and 42 per cent who had no opinion.
Given that the content of the two treaties is almost identical, the sharp drop in support for the treaty indicates that the referendum result could be very close.
Ireland is the only EU state committed to holding a referendum on the reform treaty and a defeat would not just be a serious embarrassment for the Government, it would throw the whole process of EU reform into disarray.
Already anti-EU groups across Europe have indicated that they intend to come to Ireland to campaign for a No vote. The French far-right leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, is just one of a number of prominent figures who have expressed a desire to get involved in the campaign.
Ireland voted No to the Nice Treaty in 2001 although that decision was reversed in another referendum in 2003 following the insertion of a protocol clarifying the issue of neutrality.
One bit of good news for the Government is that Green Party supporters appear to be strongly in favour of the treaty, with 37 per cent of them in the Yes camp and just 2 per cent against, while 61 per cent are undecided.
The party is engaged in a consultation process with its members on the treaty and the party leadership will be heartened by the backing already being given by its supporters to the Yes side. The poll indicates that the membership will rally behind their leaders if they decide to campaign for a Yes vote.
The Greens led the campaign for a No vote in every referendum going back to the Single European Act in 1987 and a change of sides this time would be a boost to the Yes campaign.
Surprisingly, Fianna Fáil supporters are not as enthusiastic as the Greens about the reform treaty, although PD supporters are the strongest of all on the Government side in its favour.
There are also some surprising attitudes on the Opposition side, with Fine Gael voters, traditionally the most strongly pro-EU of all parties, not as enthusiastic as Labour voters this time around.
The Yes vote is strongest in Dublin, followed closely by the rest of Leinster. Support is considerably lower in Munster while in Connacht Ulster the Yes and No sides are almost evenly divided.
This may be explained by the fact that urban voters are much more likely than rural ones to favour the treaty, reflecting a large degree of disillusionment in the rural community at the trend of EU policy over the past number of years. In class terms, the strongest support for the treaty comes from the better-off ABC1 social category, while men are also more likely to vote Yes.
The poll was carried out last Monday and Tuesday in face-to-face interviews with a representative sample of 1,000 adults in all 43 constituencies across the country.
The key factor across all groups and different party supporters is that there are far more people in the don’t know category than in either the Yes or No camp. It indicates that the final outcome is wide open, despite the overwhelming endorsement of the treaty by the major parties and key interest groups.
Vyf mense is dood en ‘n honderdtal gehospitaliseer in Luanda as gevolg van ‘n "ongeïdentifiseerde siekte" wat in Angola uitgebreek het. Die slagoffers kom almal uit dieselfde woonbuurt volgens ‘n verklaring wat in die hoofstad uitgereik is deur dié land se gesondheidsowerhede.
"Ons weet nie wat die oorsaak is op hierdie stadium nie," het die gesondheidshoof van Luanda, dr. Vita Vemba, oor die staatsradio gesê. Hy het ook aangekondig dat ‘n kommissie saamgestel sal word wat uit spesialiste, omgewingskenners en plaaslike leiers sal bestaan om ondersoek in te stel na die oorsake.
Twee weke gelede het inwoners van Cacuaco begin kla oor "dik, verstikkende groen rook" wat by die skoorsteen van ‘n klein petrochemiese fabriek in die omgewing uitborrel. Die direkteur van A Capital, Tandala Francisco, het dit aan Franse joernaliste bevestig. Die rook het intussen opgehou.
Pasiënte kla oor simptome soos moegheid en dat hulle aan die slaap wil raak, asook moeilik praat, word in die tydskrifartikel berig. Dr. Vemba het ‘n nuwe cholera-epidemie en die ebola-virus as moontlike oorsake vir die sterftes uitgesluit.
Die enigste olieraffinadery in olieryke Angola is in Cacuaco, maar die petrochemiese fabriek ter sprake is nie deel daarvan nie. Die fabriek behoort aan ‘n subkontrakteur van die nasionale oliemaatskappy Sonangol.
Hoewel daar net sestig plekke beskikbaar was by Vrydagaand 2 November se PRAAG-dinee, het daar uiteindelik meer as sestig mense opgedaag van so ver as Clarens in die Vrystaat, Essen in Duitsland en Atlanta in die VSA.
Wie sê "dis geskiedenis" in die sin van iets vergeetliks, het dit mis. Vir die meeste mense, staatshoofde ingesluit, bly die geskiedenis steeds ‘n brandende kwessie en die voorgenome besoek van koning Juan Carlos van Spanje aan Sebta (Ceuta in Arabies) en Melilla het gemoedere in Marokko gaande.
Die Spaanse koning beplan om die twee enklawes in Afrika wat aan Spanje behoort op 5 en 6 November te besoek. Die twee kolletjies Spaanse grondgebied het internasionale nuuskommentare gehaal vanweë die toestroming van swart immigrante wat poog om Europa ten alle koste binne te dring deur Sebta en Melilla.
Vir Marokko sal die Spaanse koning se teenwoordigheid die voortsetting van die "herowering" van die Katolieke konings oor die More wees. Die twee enklawes is onderskeidelik sedert 1580 en 1496 ‘n verdelende kwessie tussen Spanje en Marokko. Marokko voel dat die twee stede nie aan die besetter behoort nie. In Sebta woon daar 74 000 Spaanse burgers en in Melilla 57 000.
Juan Carlos het nog nooit die stede besoek ná 1975 vandat hy as koning dien nie. Ook lede van die onderskeie Spaanse regerings het nog altyd ‘n verskoning gevind om nie daar aan te doen nie, maar die immigrantestormloop in 2005 het José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero genoop om in Februarie 2006 ‘n besoek aan die enklawes te bring.
Marokko het tydens sy besoek met uiterste beheersing gereageer omdat die twee lande se onlangse verhoudinge veral op gemeenskaplike kwessies betreffende immigrasie en anti-terreurmaatreëls gebou is. Die Spaanse minister van buitelandse sake het gister die huidige reaksie van Marokko probeer dedramatiseer en gesê dat die reis nie "goeie verhoudinge en hul strategiese dimensie sal aantas nie".
Sover dit Marokko aangaan, het ‘n segsman van buitelandse aangeleenthede egter daarna herhaal dat die besoek "jammer, onvanpas en ontydig" is. Verskeie groepe het aangedui dat hulle Maandag die voor die Spaanse ambassade sal betoog om druk op Spanje te verhoog asook sy "koloniale verlede" op te haal.
It is a fact that intra-party squabbles and the tactics of one-upmanship have since time immemorial been known to leave political entities badly bruised and benumbed from self-inflicted blows. There is nothing to gain from internal strife but the opposition Movement for Democratic Change appears to have difficulty grasping this truism.
For a long time, the MDC has oftentimes pretended that talk about internal squabbling is a creation of the media or political opponents. But the current crisis — spawned by the party leadership — is too obvious to hide.
In a nutshell, Morgan Tsvangirai’s executive stands accused of subverting the party’s constitution by dissolving the women’s assembly leadership and imposing Theresa Makone, the wife of his advisor Ian Makone, to head the group.
This is the worst form of advertising for Tsvangirai as a leader of an opposition party that fancies itself as an alternative government to the hopeless Zanu PF administration. Without any good reason, Tsvangirai and his cohorts have in the past two years elected to refocus the party from the core business of putting pressure on the Zanu PF government to engaging in an embarrassing tangle of infantile fights, backstabbing and gossip.
The pace of degeneracy from the split of October 2005, the failed reunification discourse spanning the greater part of last year, and the party’s failure to respond to the national crisis, has only helped to amplify the extent of the leadership deficit in the party.
It should be noted that at the time of the party’s formation cynics raised doubts about whether the MDC leadership was capable of evolving in tandem with the changing political circumstances in the country and chart a path for its transformation from a mere movement to a political party ready to form the next government. They were right.
The MDC executive, especially its leader Tsvangirai, has failed in the transformation stakes. The party under his watch has morphed into a rudderless entity which owes its current existence more to public sympathy and popular hatred of President Mugabe’s Zanu PF than to prudent leadership.
After the 2005 split, Tsvangirai went around the country tapping public opinion on the way forward. The verdict was clear that opposition supporters wanted unity, and they still want unity. The differences within the opposition — which resulted in the split — had nothing to do with popular will but inflated egos and lack of tact. The current strife is no different. It does not reflect the situation on the ground among grassroots supporters.
One trait of a good leader is an ability to keep a party together — notwithstanding contesting views therein — and to use the energy of the group to march towards a common goal. But alas, in the MDC, it is Tsvangirai who has elected to amplify the differences and ensured superficial cracks developed into crevices and then chasms which over time have become impossible to bridge. Worse still, in the current episode Tsvangirai has worked to create a crisis where there was none in the first place by fighting the influential women’s assembly.
We do not know what Tsvangirai thought he would achieve by fighting Lucia Matibenga and trashing the party’s constitution. This is an unnecessary sideshow on the eve of a crucial election.
One is tempted to think that Tsvangirai deliberately creates problems to test his own leadership prowess and hopefully emerge stronger after solving them to the satisfaction of all stakeholders. He does not appear to be on top of this game.
At a time when the country is crying out for visionary leadership ahead of next year’s elections, the supposed head of the opposition is now fighting for his own survival as party members have ganged up against him. Tsvangirai at the moment has his back to the enemy as he is facing off with supposed allies. A leader in this position is vulnerable from both sides. Meanwhile, there is still Mugabe to contend with.
The MDC today should go through a serious process of introspection. The party should start to question whether the current leadership has been effective in driving the democratic process forward. As things stand, the present approach is not working for the MDC or the country.
Three Romanians were in hospitals in Rome yesterday – one of them seriously injured – after being attacked by a masked, club-wielding gang on Friday night in the latest escalation of racial tension in Italy following the beating to death of a naval captain’s wife.
The violence, condemned by local politicians, came as authorities in Milan carried out the first expulsions of Romanians under new legislation that came into effect on Friday allowing for the removal of EU citizens judged to be a threat to public security. Italian television showed four men being hustled aboard an airliner by police after nightfall.
Emotions were again running high yesterday at a funeral service in Rome for Giovanna Reggiani, the 47-year-old woman who was discovered fatally injured in a ditch on Tuesday after being savagely attacked. A young Romanian has been arrested and jailed. He has admitted snatching her bag, but denies beating and sexually assaulting her.
A thousand people packed into the church, in a well-heeled district of the capital, for an ecumenical service conducted by a Protestant pastor and the Italian navy’s Roman Catholic chaplain. Large numbers gathered outside, many of them tearful, middle-aged women.
Ms Reggiani, though married to a Catholic, was a member of Italy’s tiny Protestant community, the Waldensians. Her husband, the commander of the navy’s minesweeping squadron, arrived at the church holding a single red rose. Those who sat nearby said that, throughout the service, he muttered over and again: ‘It’s not fair’.
Ms Reggiani’s death has profoundly shocked the Italian middle classes. She was robbed, stripped of most of her clothes and ferociously beaten in a lonely part of northern Rome, but one that was until recently considered safe and respectable enough for officers’ married quarters. In just a few years, it has become a haunt for prostitutes and pimps, dotted with encampments set up by the latest wave of immigrants from eastern European.
Bulldozers yesterday moved in to destroy the one where Reggiani’s alleged killer, Nicolae Mailat, a shepherd-turned-labourer, lived with his mother. They and some 50 to 60 other Roma occupied a string of fragile shacks hidden in a copse.
Another makeshift settlement, in a supermarket car park on the other side of Rome, was the target of Friday night’s attack. Yesterday, there were still pools of blood on the ground.
An eyewitness, who gave her name as Cristina,t said she had come out of the supermarket to see six to eight men arrive, carrying metal bars, staves and knives. Their faces were concealed by balaclavas and motorcycle helmets.
The most seriously injured was Emil Marcu, 47. Doctors said he had a deep stab wound in the back, but his life was not in danger.
A spokesman for a newly founded far-right group, Fabio Sabbatani Schiuma, said he condemned the attack but called it ‘the product of a climate of exasperation’. Anti-foreigner graffiti on the walls of the surrounding, working-class area echoed his words. One woman said: ‘We’ve had enough of them. My dad was mugged for his pension just at the end of this road.’
The vast majority of the 560,000 Romanians who have poured into Italy since visa restrictions were lifted five years ago have come to work. But the government says they account for a disproportionate share of crime, including more than five per cent of murders.
Many of the recent arrivals have come to Rome where they live in sub-human conditions, often by the banks of the Tiber river. Others have made their way to other cities like Milan where the authorities said yesterday that another 12 expulsions had been authorised by judges.
