Border closures against Africa’s spirit

MDC-ALLIANCE secretary-general Chalton Hwende recently came under attack from party members who accused him of abusing £20 000 donated to the party by well-wishers, as infighting within the party continues unabated.

In a barrage of tweets, the party members blasted Mr Hwende for failing to account for party funds.

In one of the tweets, Munya Hoto asked MDC-A to come clean on what happened to the money donated under the #DefendTheVote campaign.

“Back in July, we asked MDC- A to come clean on what happened to the #DefendTheVote money. Over 4 900 people participated in the poll. Hwende should explain how the 20 000 pound of defend the vote funds donated by supporters and well-wishers were used,” tweeted Hoto.

“Funds were transferred to the Nelson Chamisa Trust where Hwende is a trustee.”

Hoto said there had been consistent dodging by the party leadership on the matter.

“The fund-raising page says the resources were given to the so-called Nelson Chamisa Trust, of which you are supposedly a trustee,” wrote Hoto. “The lawyers said that they did not charge for services, but you said they were paid.”

Brian Machingambi blamed Mr Hwende for failing to give a satisfactory answer.

“Accountability is necessary, whether I contributed or not,” he tweeted. “How would I have faith in an organisation which lacks this.”

Contacted for comment, Mr Hwende denied that the money was abused.

He said it was used to pay the party’s lawyers.

“If you check on my Twitter account, I clearly stated that the money was used to settle bills by our lawyers who prepared the presidential petition,” said Mr Hwende. “There are some people who want to tarnish my image.”

JOHANNESBURG. — Mmusi Maimane, who resigned as leader of the DA last week, must take responsibility for his short-lived career in the DA, writes Tshidi Madia. But we must also acknowledge that he was punished for trying to change the party from within.

“The strength of the DA lies in the party being able to say: ‘I don’t need to share your race, your gender or your orientation to be able to deal with issues.’ I’ve got to be a proud South African who defends you,” Mmusi Maimane said at a press conference last Sunday when he was still the party’s leader.

Next to him sat a visibly smug Helen Zille, who had just made a comeback, winning a contest for chairperson of the DA federal council by a very tight margin.

Fast-track to Wednesday when a relieved Maimane told South Africa the DA was no longer the vehicle to achieve the vision that he has championed as its leader.

We’ve had weeks of fascinating behindthe-scenes political jostling in South Africa’s second-largest party, resulting in a historic outcome where its youngest and first black leader stepped down.

He also resigned as the party’s parliamentary leader and as a member.

ADDIS ABABA. — Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan and Kenya have in recent past closed their borders for various reasons, including diplomatic disputes, security concerns, health precautions and economic considerations, among others.

The closures, especially by Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria, are a slap in the face of continent’s integration efforts.

The recently signed African Continental Free Trade Agreement provides for the free movement of goods and persons across African countries.

In this article, we explore the various reasons that have caused the border closures.

Nigeria

Nigeria’s customs agency on Monday confirmed that it had closed its land borders indefinitely, barring all movement of goods, as it struggles to curb smuggling.

“All goods for now are banned from being exported or imported through our land borders and that is to ensure we have total control over what comes in,” Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of the Nigerian Customs Service, told reporters in Abuja.

Ali’s announcement was the first official confirmation of a total shutdown in trade across Nigeria’s land borders, which had been reported by local media since August.

“We are strategising on how best the goods can be handled when we eventually get to the point where this operation will relax for the influx of goods,” he said, adding that it would still be possible for goods to cross at points equipped with special scanners.

The closure has no impact on Nigeria’s economically crucial oil exports, which are shipped out almost entirely via the nation’s

A few things have become clear to many voters who will probably be forced to reconsider the DA’s offering in the 2021 elections and years to come.

First, the ever-present race issue that the DA often tries to underplay simply won’t go away.

And it will remain so for as long as attempts to groom black leaders results in their heads being chopped off when they are seen to be taking some sort of stand or assert themselves within the party.

“South Africans are too bogged down in race,” Zille told News24 over the weekend.

Also, former chief whip Douglas Gibson told SAFM that white people, in a country still so unequal and in favour of the white minority, were tired of black people “yapping” about race.

And this from a party that has, as many have noted, the most vigorous affirmative action programme in place or, as Professor Somadoda Fikeni said on eNCA, “microwaves” black leaders and parachutes them to the top.

Secondly, Zille must figure out where her actual lane is and then attempt to stay in it.

She is a noted political tactician and looked positively frustrated as she waited to seaports and offshore oil platforms.

Ali said reopening the borders would depend on the actions of neighbouring states, and that as long as they and Nigeria were not in accord on what goods should be imported or exported overland, the frontier would remain shut.

The move is likely to make a variety of food items, such as rice, tomatoes, poultry and sugar, more expensive for consumers.

Exports are also restricted, which will stop movements of cocoa and sesame seeds via land borders, Nonso Obikili, director at the Turgot Centre for Economics and Policy Research in Abuja said.

Sudan

Last month, Sudan closed its borders with Libya and the Central African Republic, citing security reasons.

A statement issued by the Sudanese authorities said vehicles had been illegally crossing the borders with the two nations, which have both been mired in violence.

Rwanda–Uganda

In August this year, Uganda and Rwanda agreed to re-open their borders, and committed to resolving a diplomatic dispute that had raised fears of hostilities.

Rwanda had closed a busy border crossing with Uganda in February, accusing its neighbour of harassing its citizens and backing rebel groups against the Kigali government.

Kenya–Somalia

In June this year, Kenya closed its border with Somalia, and suspended cross border trade, as part of security operations against terrorist group Al Shabaab. speak after Maimane and Athol Trollip, who resigned as federal chairperson, announced their departure from the party’s leadership on Wednesday last week.

Perhaps her frustration stemmed from disbelief when Trollip also resigned.

She and her supporters expected — and were more than happy — with Maimane’s resignation.

But when Trollip also left, it created a leadership vacuum and forced the party into another leadership contest, way before the expected congress in April.

Trollip, mind you, is yet another example of how clueless the white leaders of the DA are when it comes to the real state of South Africa.

He spoke of the struggle of rebuilding his life as a white male in South Africa after his stint as leader.

And then there was the pastor turned politician, Maimane. I think his announcement on Wednesday was a hell of a clever chess move.

He threw the party into complete disarray when he relented and walked away from a position he held for four years.

It might have taken him very long to get ballsy, but he did at the very end.

“Apart from security concerns, we are also aware of human and narcotics trafficking. That must stop.

“It is now a crime and for those who do not know, the border remains closed until further notice,” police chief Kioi Muchangi explained at the time. Kenya has on several occasions closed its border with Somalia, over security and sometimes diplomatic reasons.

Rwanda–DRC

While many countries have heeded the World Health Organisation (WHO) call not to close borders in the wake of the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, authorities in Rwanda closed their border for several hours.

The closure was prompted by the confirmation of a third death in the Congolese city of Goma. The city lies just across the Rwandan city of Gisenyi, and many of the two cities’ residents cross the border for work and other activities.

Ethiopia–Eritrea

Hardly a year after Ethiopians and Eritreans celebrated the re-opening of their borders, President Isaias Afwerki’s government closed the border points at Serha-Zalambesa, Bure — Assab and Om Hajer-Humera, without giving its neighbour any official explanations.

Equatorial Guinea’s planned wall

In August, authorities in Cameroon expressed concerns over plans by Equatorial Guinea to build a wall along their shared border. According to a number of different sources, Equatorial Guinea accuses Cameroon of letting West Africans enter its territory illegally. — AFP.

A quick study of video interviews conducted by Maimane and Zille over the years is fascinating to watch because it’s the former’s face that twitches and lips that tighten.

His eyes often told a story of frustration and of someone who was not given a space to lead with Zille hovering around.

Maimane’s anger was also visible when he and Zille held a media briefing in Rosebank when she was forced to apologise for her tweets in which she said not everything about colonialism was bad.

But on Wednesday, he gave South Africans a glimpse into some of the battles he faced as leader. He tried to change the party’s position on diversity, he had to navigate those colonialism tweets, he tried to convince the party that black emancipation did not mean white enslavement and he moved the DA’s headquarters to Jozi.

And for all of this he was lambasted by a review panel consisting of former leader Tony Leon, former party CEO Ryan Coetzee and Capitec founder Michiel Le Roux.

For now, Maimane finally gets to breathe after having his back against the wall for months while the DA finds itself stuck in internal battles. —News24.

GABORONE. — Botswana’s newly-elected leader, President Mokgweetsi Masisi vowed on Saturday to make the economy his top priority in the diamond-rich country which is struggling with income inequality, high unemployment and a high rate of HIV.

“The overriding intention is to re-steer this economy in another direction,” Masisi said without giving much detail in his first media address since winning the closely-fought vote on Friday.

Botswana has been one of the world’s fastest-growing economies since independence in 1966, with business activity expanding by about five per cent a year over the past decade, according to the World Bank in 2018.

It is one of the world’s biggest diamond producers but was hit hard by a drop in diamond prices in 2009 and a record drought in 2015.

It has since sought to diversify, notably through tourism. Nevertheless, income inequality in Botswana is among the highest in the world according to the World Bank, with 16 per cent of the population living in poverty.

Unemployment is running at 20 per cent and the HIV prevalence rate is the world’s third-highest with 23 per cent of adults aged between 15 and 49 living with the AIDS-causing virus, according to UNAIDS 2019 data.

Masisi (58) first became president of Botswana in April 2018 as the hand-picked successor to Ian Khama, who stepped down.

He won his first election on Friday after the ruling Botswana Democratic Party, which has ruled since independence from Britain, secured more than 51 per cent of parliamentary votes. But the main opposition has protested the outcome, saying the ballot was “massively rigged.” — AFP.