Day: February 12, 2023

PRETORIA— South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa teed off at the Presidential Golf Challenge (PGC) in a bid to drum up financial and technical support for the Adopt-A-School Foundation.

Addressing the media ahead of the tee off, Ramaphosa explained that traditionally, the PGC is held every year following the State of the Nation Address (SONA).

“Every President nominates the charity or the entity that should benefit from the proceeds of… an event like this. We are truly grateful to have sponsors who have been supporting the work that we do and in our case, it is the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation that is a beneficiary.

“[The foundation] works with schools through the Adopt-A-School Foundation and adopts almost 600 schools in the country and enables those schools to function properly. Education must be delivered in a way that it produces well educated young people,” he said.

Talking about his chances on the golf course, the President did not rate his skills very highly.

“My golfing skills are atrocious. They have really declined. I haven’t played golf in more than a year so I don’t really regard myself as a golfer. Now I just putt around,” he said.

Answering questions from the media, Ramaphosa assured the public that the State of Disaster he announced during the SONA will not be subjected to any looting of state coffers.

“There’s not going to be any looting. There’s just going to be a process of ensuring that we deal with the crisis and we will be following all the processes, the rules and the regulations to speed up the process of enabling Eskom to be able to deal with the challenges of generation and transmission.

“That’s what the State of Disaster is going to be addressing so if there is any money that is going to be deployed, it’s money that is going to be deployed to Eskom – to entities that are going to enable us to deal with the energy crisis. There’s no form of money that’s going to be parcelled out to individuals,” he said.

He further emphasised that although he cannot give a firm date on when load shedding will end, the State of Disaster provides the tools to bring the country closer to that time in a shorter space of time.

“The State of Disaster is going to give us the instruments, the capabilities of dealing with this energy crisis and that is what the state of disaster is meant to do – including appointing a Minister of Electricity who’s going to be focussed … on ensuring that we deal with load shedding and restore the capability of Eskom working with the board and the management on an on hand basis.

“[The minister] will be in my office because in the end, it is a responsibility that the people of South Africa have imposed on me so I must pave the way with all the capability to deal with it. Whatever criticism that may be, it is criticism that is misguided because what we should be focussing on is load shedding and dealing with it,” President Ramaphosa said.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

ADDIS ABABA— Widespread tensions caused by a rift within Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christian church have resulted in the suspension of access to social media platforms including TikTok, Facebook, and Telegram.

The church, which recently denounced a splinter group in the country’s largest region as “illegal,” has accused Ethiopia’s government of interfering in its affairs. It has threatened to go forward with a rally on Sunday despite a government warning.

The division within the church, followed by the majority of Ethiopia’s more than 110 million people, came after church members in Oromia declared a new synod on Jan 22, claiming a need to exercise their faith in local languages. The church ex-communicated several church officials who participated in the split.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has urged church members to solve their differences and said the government will not get involved. But many followers of the church are accusing the prime minister, an ethnic Oromo and a Protestant, of undermining the church and siding with the breakaway synod.

On Friday, the church said talks were ongoing between Abiy and the church patriarch over the controversy that has engulfed many parts of the country.

The internet observatory NetBlocks confirmed social media platforms had been “restricted in Ethiopia amid anti-government protests” as of Thursday evening.

Earlier in the week, several dozen cities and towns, mostly in Oromia and the outskirts of the capital, Addis Ababa, saw sometimes violent rallies.

On Friday, the government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said at least eight people were killed by security forces in Shaashamane in the Oromia region on Saturday. It said many people were arrested.

The government in a statement Thursday accused unnamed groups of aiming to “shake the government using armed violence.” It said the government has begun “bringing to justice who are taking part in the movement.”

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

BUJUMBURA (Burundi)— Former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta asked countries in the East African Community to fully deploy troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Speaking for the first time after the EAC’s extra-ordinary Summit in Bujumbura, Kenyatta, the EAC facilitator of the EAC-led peace process in the Congo, said the troops should help buffer liberated areas in eastern DRC from a clash between government forces and rebels.

“The Facilitator urges the countries of the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) to deploy and take up their positions urgently and without further delay throughout eastern DRC, and in the case of North Kivu, for the regional force to interpose itself between the fighting forces in areas where the withdrawal of the armed groups has been effected,” Kenyatta said in a statement.

He did not attend the Summit in Bujumbura last Saturday, citing logistical problems and short notice. But Kenyatta said he endorsed the decisions by leaders of the East African Community who asked for a ceasefire, rebels to withdraw and for defence chiefs to decide new timelines for withdrawals of rebels.

The call for deployment, however, may imply his fervent support for the EACRF, authorised last year to be the EAC mission in DR Congo to help bring peace.

But the EACRF has been dogged by protests in Goma as civilians demand that it battles M23 rebels and allows Congolese forces to take over territory left by rebels. In Addition, some of the troop-contributing countries such as South Sudan and Uganda, which announced plans to deploy, are yet to be brought onto the scene. South Sudan faced opposition from Congolese officials. Uganda and Burundi had already deployed troops under a bilateral arrangement with DRC.

Kenyatta insists that the EACRF be deployed to protect civilians and prevent clashes between the M23 and Congolese forces (FARDC). So far, only the Kenyan troops in the EACRF are in Goma but have not yet entered combat.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

ADDIS ABABA— Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s national flag carrier, announced that it has added the southern Chinese cities of Xiamen and Shenzhen to its cargo destinations.

In a press statement issued late Friday, the airline said it has already started two weekly freighter flights connecting Xiamen with the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo and the Chilean capital of Santiago via the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

The statement also said Ethiopian Airlines plans to commence two weekly flights between Shenzhen and the Belgian city of Liege as of next Friday. The airline plans to deploy Boeing 777 freight aircraft on the new cargo routes.

“The new cargo flights will be instrumental in facilitating cargo shipments across the world by improving air connectivity among China, Africa, Europe and South America,” the airline said.

Ethiopian Airlines already operates freighter flights to the Chinese cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Changsha and Wuhan.

In January, Ethiopian Airlines announced that its passenger flights to China will return to pre-COVID-19 levels by March 2023.

The expansion of existing and new Chinese destinations came as Ethiopian Airlines marks five decades since the start of its passenger service to China back in 1973.

Meanwhile, Kenya on Saturday received the first group of Chinese tourists after three years of pandemic-related hiatus at a ceremony in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi marked with pomp and pageantry.

Kenya’s senior officials and executives in the hospitality sector were on hand to receive the first batch of 40 Chinese tourists who traveled from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to Nairobi using a China Southern Airlines flight.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

First and of all, I would like to convey to Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, my friend Mevlüt Çavusoglu, to the Turkish Government, and the Turkish people, the Mitsotakis Government and the entire Greek people’s most heartfelt condolences for the thousands of deaths of our fellow human beings following the two devastating earthquakes.

I would also like to thank Mevlüt Çavusoglu for his very warm words regarding the Greek rescuers’ efforts and our presence here.

We are particularly happy for the human lives saved by the Greek rescuers who have been operating here in Turkey, as well as for the very many lives saved by the European rescuers, as we had the opportunity, to visit the Austrian, Dutch and Icelandic rescuers together with Mr Çavusoglu. According to what we were told, 205 lives were saved by European rescue teams, including the Greek one.

But I would like to emphasize that Greece’s efforts to assist the Turkish people and society in overcoming this great blow do not end here. I have been instructed by my Prime Minister, Mr Mitsotakis, to assure Turkey that Greece will do everything possible to support it at this difficult time, either bilaterally or in the context of its membership in the European Union.

Aside from that, I would like to fully endorse Mevlüt’s earlier statement that there is no need to wait for natural disasters to occur to improve our relations.

In conclusion, I would like to express my admiration for my compatriots, the rescuers who have helped Turkish society and the Turkish people in this difficult time. I warmly thank Mevlüt and the Turkish government as well for their warm welcome at this very difficult time for them.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic