Adonsela not needed
JOHANNESBURG - Former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela will no longer give oral evidence at the parliamentary inquiry into her successor Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
Instead, the committee will accept her written statement about her role in the CIEX and Vrede dairy farm investigation, which she initiated while still in office. The committee took the decision after confusion and debate about whose witness Madonsela was, after her refusal to consult Mkhwebane’s legal team.
In January, Mkhwebane submitted Madonsela’s name among five she wanted to be subpoenaed to testify at her impeachment hearing. The committee agreed to subpoena Madonsela and Bianca Mvuyana, an investigator in the public protector’s office.
Before the subpoena was issued, Madonsela changed her mind and informed the inquiry of her willingness to give evidence, which was then country, the biggest economy and scheduled for Wednesday morning. top oil producer as it struggles with On Wednesday, Mkhwebane accused overlapping crises. the parliamentary committee of hijacking
Those include Islamist insurgencies her witness, Madonsela. in the northeast, an epidemic of Mkhwebane’s legal representative, kidnappings for ransom and conflicts Dali Mpofu SC, told the inquiry that between herders and farmers, as well Madonsela had refused to meet Mkhwebane’s as shortages of cash and fuel, industrial-scale legal team to prepare for her oil theft, high inflation and appearance and had elected to draft her deep-rooted poverty. statement independently.
But for now, the focus is on the election “All we did was to say, since originally itself, in which Tinubu won 37 per you were called by us, we would cenut millionǣvotees,st l ikaentoncootndsuil t
8.79 according to official results announced consult and she wanted to consult only by the Independent National Electoral with evidence leaders, saying there is Commission (INEC). a tradition about that,” said Mpofu.
current three-year term, which ended JOHANNESBURG - Uganda’s President in February this year. Yoweri Museveni has lashed out Another thorny issue is the proposed at Western countries for criticising bill affecting the rights of the LGBTQI Uganda’s Parliament after it approved community and Museveni blames the a Bill that is likely to impact the rights Western nations. “This was the mistake of the LGBTQI community. of the Western countries. They are the
Museveni, who has been accused ones who are provoking the English in of being homophobic, said the West what is insufferable. You can’t put up can not dictate to Uganda, how it with their nonsense because nobody should handle issues related to culture concentrates so much on homosexual. and religion. Museveni defended his Nobody is hunting them.” country’s decision to close the United
Nations Human Rights Council office in Uganda. He said they had developed their own capacity to monitor rights compliance.
Difference
“We have a Ugandan human rights commission which is mandated by the Constitution. So having others which are not part of our Constitution system is first of all unnecessary, but also diversioning. Because some people may not know the difference.” Uganda is facing criticism for its decision not to renew its agreement to host the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights beyond its
Strengthen
Museveni was been in South Africa to strengthen trade and political ties between Pretoria and Kampala. He recently spoke to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“What I told him is that Uganda has no food problem. Because in Uganda, we have a lot of food … this is not the case in other countries. But I wanted to assure him that some other African countries are strong economically.”
Museveni said African countries should work together to fight global challenges such as unstable economies, especially in some parts of the African continent.