Day: November 18, 2021

WASHINGTON— The United States has removed Nigeria from its list of religious violators, even as it blacklisted Russia, China and eight other countries “as Countries of Particular Concern for having engaged in or tolerated ‘systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made this known in a statement on Wednesday titled, ‘Religious Freedom Designations’.

While the US had in 2020 placed Nigeria and six other countries on its special watch list of states that had engaged in or tolerated the severe violation of religious freedom, Nigeria was missing from the list of countries designated in the 2021 list for religious violations.

Blinken, who is currently in East African nation Kenya on an official visit, is scheduled to physically visit Nigeria on Thursday and meet with the Nigerian President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and other members of his cabinet.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Northern Cape Department of Employment and Labour to conduct blitz inspections focusing on agriculture in ZF Mgcawu District Municipality (Upington)

The Department of Employment and Labour in Northern Cape will conduct the integrated blitz inspection focusing on Agricultural sector from 22 November 2021 to 03 December 2021 at ZF Mgcawu District Municipality (Upington).

The integrated inspection will consist of all services offered by the Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES) which includes amongst others compliance with Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA), Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), National Minimum Wage Act; Unemployment Insurance Fund Act (UIF) including the Unemployment Contributions Act as well as Employment Equity Act (EEA).

According to the Provincial Chief Inspector (PCI) Mr Ivan Vass. The department will be joined by other stakeholders namely; Department of Home affairs (DHA), Human Rights Commission (HRC), South African Revenue Services (SARS), South African Police Services (SAPS), Department of Rural Development Land and Reform (DRDLR), Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF)

“IES endeavours to monitor and enforce compliance in the Sectoral Determination 13: Agricultural Sector in the Northern Cape by conducting Pro-active and reactive inspections in Kakamas, Keimoes, Augrabies, Groblershoop (Upington area).

Furthermore, he advice the employer to prepare all documents of compliance on all labour legislation and the employee to raise their complaints or concerns of non-compliance with labour legislation with the labour inspector.” The PCI concluded.

The blitz inspection schedule is as follows: From 22 November to 03 December 2021 in all the areas mentioned above

Source: Government of South Africa

The U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned the military crackdown on Sudanese protesters, a day after security forces killed 15 people in demonstrations against the country’s October 25 military coup.

Wednesday was the deadliest day of violence since the takeover and increased the death toll during the recent pro-democracy protests to 39.

Witnesses said the security forces dispersed protests in Khartoum and other cities using live ammunition and tear gas.

The U.N.’s Michelle Bachelet said in a statement Thursday that her office has repeatedly asked the country’s security forces and military “refrain from the use of unnecessary and disproportionate against demonstrators.”

“Shooting into large crowds of unarmed demonstrators, leaving dozens dead and may more injured, is deplorable, clearly aimed at stifling the expression of public dissent, and amounts to gross violations of international human rights law,” Bachelet said.

The U.N., citing reliable medical sources, said more than 100 demonstrators were wounded in Wednesday’s protests, including 80 who were shot in their upper bodies and heads.

Police said 89 officers sustained injuries.

Reporting from Khartoum for VOA’s South Sudan in Focus, Michael Atit said hospitals struggled to deal with scores of wounded people.

Because authorities cut telecommunications ahead of the protests, the administration of Al Dauli Hospital sought help from mosques to call for doctors and nurses to come help save lives, said Waliddeen Al Fekki, a member of the executive board of the Sudanese Doctors Association,

“They used the microphone of the mosque,” Al Fekki said.

A group of neighborhood resistance committees coordinating the protest movement in east Khartoum announced Thursday in a statement that there will be an “open escalation” against the ruling junta until its overthrow.

“Now we are making consultations among the resistance committees about upping the escalation against the coup,” a senior member of the committees in the capital told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Protesters described the behavior of police on Wednesday as more aggressive than in the past, the latest sign that the military is looking to entrench its position. The military has said peaceful protests are allowed.

The protests were the latest marches held by Sudan’s pro-democracy movement since a joint civilian-military government was ousted in the military takeover.

The coup occurred after weeks of escalating tensions between military and civilian leaders over Sudan’s transition to democracy.

Sudan’s Army Chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said he dissolved the joint civilian-military council and the government due to “political quarrels that were threatening the security of the country.

The coup has threatened to derail the process that began after the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a 2019 popular uprising.

Source: Voice of America

The Electoral Commission publishes second quarter report on the disclosure of donations to political parties

Section 9(3) of the Political Party Funding Act 6 of 2018 and its supporting regulations require all registered political parties to disclose donations above the R100 000 threshold to the Electoral Commission. In turn, the Commission has a duty to publish the disclosed donations.

Declarable donations are monetary in nature, in-kind or combined, above R100 000 made by a single donor to a single party in a financial year. It is also important to note that no donations may be made by a donor to a political party above R15 million in a year.

Regulations governing donations from foreign entities stipulate that such a donation should not exceed R5 million in a year. Such foreign donations may only be used for policy development, training or skills development of members of a political party.

Accordingly, the Commission today shares details of all donations disclosed by political parties during the second quarter of the current financial year. The Second Quarter Disclosure Report covers disclosed donations by political parties for the period from July to September 2021.

VALUE OF SECOND QUARTER DONATIONS

Six political parties have made disclosures totalling R 56 880 644.47 during the second quarter. These parties made disclosures with corresponding amounts as follows:

ActionSA – R16 923 382.00

Abantu Integrity Movement (AIM) – R112 386.04

African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) – R235 000.00

African National Congress (ANC) – R22 619 969.00

Democratic Alliance (DA) – R16 867 007.43

GOOD – R122 900.00

It is important to highlight that the amount of R112 386.04 declared by AIM was for donations received by the party during the first quarter, i.e., between the months of April and June 2021. These donations were, however, only declared to the Commission by the party in the second quarter.

Party funding prescripts state that donations received by political parties must be disclosed on a quarterly basis. In the circumstance, the Commission resolved to publish the donations despite their late submission in the spirit of transparency and openness. For corrective action, a directive has been issued against the party as provided for in the legislations.

Concerning the four represented political parties (ACDP, ANC, DA and GOOD), the total value of donations received and declared is R 39 844 876.43 (thirty-nine million eight hundred and forty-four thousand eight hundred and seventy-six rands and forty-three cents). This constitutes 70% of all the donations received and declared during the second quarter.

In-kind donations

Four political parties have disclosed a total of R 780 675.47 in donations-in-kind. The disclosures were as follows:

ActionSA – R 498 382.00

AIM – R 112 386.04

GOOD – R 122 900.00

Democratic Alliance – R 47 007.43

The in-kind donations for ActionSA included items such as donation of 400 corporate golf-shirts for the party, provision of consulting services, policy development for the party, provision of books and other marketing material as well as 950 000 (A5) handout brochures for the party.

For AIM, the in-kind donation consisted of party T-shirts, flyers, banners, flags, video material, information technology related material and gazebos.

GOOD Party’s in-kind donation, which was also the only donation declared by the party, consisted of the purchase of a motor vehicle (Mazda Drifter BT-50 Bakkie) for the Party.

The in-kind donation of the DA was in the form of service provider payment for training of the political party members which took place between 17 – 23 June 2021. It is important to note that while training took place in June, which was during the first quarter, payment was only processed and declared during the course of the second quarter on 20 August 2021, hence reported under the second quarter declarations report.

Foreign donations

Political parties have disclosed a total of three donations from foreign sources, with a combined value of R 467 007.43. The DA declared two of the donations, valued at R 347 007.43 and ActionSA disclosed a donation of R120 000.00.

All these foreign donations appear in compliance with the legislative requirements set out in section 8(4) of the Party Funding Act. According to the declarations by both the receiving parties and the donors themselves, the donations were used for policy development, training and skills development of party officials.

Parties that fail to disclose

With respect to non-disclosing parties, the prescripts provide that the onus rests on both political parties and entities making declarable donations to their preferred parties to disclose such donations to the Commission.

The Commission therefore entreats all registered parties to ensure that all declarable donations are disclosed. This is a vital component of our political architecture driving openness and transparency in matters pertaining to democracy. Disclosures can only serve to strengthen the informed political choices of citizens.

­Multi-party democracy fund

For the second quarter, the MPDF has remained inactive because donations have not reached the minimum threshold of R1 million as required by the Act.

The Commission re-emphasizes its call on members of the public, corporates, both local and foreign, and any other entities that may wish to support constitutional imperatives of multi-party democracy to make contributions into the Fund.

For more information please visit https://results.elections.org.za/home/downloads/party-funding-reports

Source: Government of South Africa

Nairobi – Vulnerable communities in the IGAD region continue to experience a complex mix of re-enforcing shocks and stresses that are eroding their resilience to food and nutrition insecurity. As of October 2021, 26 million people were already facing high levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3+), according to the Food Security and Nutrition Working Group (FSNWG), which is co-chaired by the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Due to the threat of worsening drought conditions, food insecurity will likely rise during the first half of 2022 across the Horn of Africa. Urgent action is therefore required now to safeguard livelihoods, save lives, and prevent possible starvation in some areas.

Drought conditions are already affecting the arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya, southern and central Somalia, and Belg-receiving areas of southern and south-eastern Ethiopia as consecutive poor rainfall seasons have driven below-average crop production, rising cereal prices, poor rangeland conditions, reduced livestock production, and drought-related animal deaths in many areas.

Moreover, as forecast by the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), the start of the current October-December 2021 rainy season has been significantly delayed, with little to no rainfall observed to date in many areas, raising the probability of another poor season. Should this occur, agricultural and pastoral conditions will further deteriorate, causing households already struggling with the effects of multiple, concurrent hazards (climate variability, conflict, COVID-19, and desert locusts) to employ negative coping strategies and reduce their food consumption. This is a major source of concern as food insecurity in the region has historically increased sharply following consecutive poor rainfall seasons.

IGAD Member States continue to work in collaboration with development partners to anticipate and respond to various food security threats and build the resilience of vulnerable communities to recurrent threats and crises. During the desert locust upsurge, for example, the unparalleled support of resource partners and multi-agency coordination averted USD 1.3 billion worth of cereal losses, meeting the cereal requirements of 29.1 million people. Desert locust livelihood recovery support continues for more than 200 000 households.

IGAD and FAO share a long-standing history of successful partnership and collaboration in building the region’s resilience in several areas, including but not limited to: livelihood support to strengthen resilience against droughts; food security information and analysis; early warning and disaster risk management; implementation of cross border actions in close collaboration with the respective communities, local and national authorities; conflict prevention; natural resource management; market access and trade; and capacity building; institutional strengthening and coordination through the IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI).

Such resilience-building efforts have significantly improved the ability of households to withstand the impacts of shocks. However, the increased frequency of climatic hazards, combined with the effects of other stressors, is threatening these hard-won gains. It is, therefore, crucial to act now to protect these resilience gains and prevent more people from sliding into food insecurity and malnutrition.

To this end, we must support farmers and herders who are experiencing the impacts of poor harvests, depleted food and animal feedstock, and rising food and water prices. More specifically, IGAD and FAO call for a scale-up of contributions to existing and future Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs) as the response remains grossly underfunded in the relevant countries. Through rapid, collaborative action by all actors, we can safeguard the lives and livelihoods of communities currently bearing the worsening effects of the drought, while at the same time, protecting households’ longer-term resilience.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations