Month: February 2023

French President Emmanuel Macron heads to central Africa Wednesday on a four-nation visit marked by what he said ahead of his planned Wednesday departure.

On Monday, he announced a revamped relationship with Africa, amid an increase in anti-French sentiment in some places— and rising Russian and Chinese influence.

“Partnership,” “humility,” and “reorganization” are part of Macron’s lexicon this week, with his new, recalibrated strategy for Africa.

He said French military bases in Africa would be reorganized — with some becoming military academies or run in collaboration with African and European partners — based on goals defined by African hosts.

He said France will conduct more training, supply more equipment and work more closely with local troops, according to their needs.

Macron also said France must show a “profound humility” and carve out a “new balanced and mutual responsible relationship” with African nations.

Macron’s revamped Africa strategy will be put to the test this week, as he heads first to Gabon on Wednesday for a summit on forests. He then goes on to visit Angola, the Republic of Congo and the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Only two countries on his list — Gabon and the Republic of Congo — are former French colonies.

His Africa visit follows key setbacks for France, especially in the Sahel region, as a partnership to fight an Islamist insurgency unravels. France has ended military operations in Mali and Burkina Faso, amid deteriorating relationships with the military power-holders, and rising anti-French sentiment.

Paris is also feeling pressure from other foreign powers on the continent. That includes the private Russian military group Wagner, present in places like Mali and the Central African Republic, where it is accused of committing human rights violations.

Macron derided Wagner as a so-called “life insurance policy for failed regimes and putschists.” His government accuses Russia of spreading anti-French disinformation.

“The past 10-15 years, every French president comes to power with the idea of sort of reforming the relationship with Africa — moving beyond the old legacy of post-colonial relations,” said Martin Quencez, the Paris office director for the German Marshall Fund. He spoke to VOA before Macron’s speech. He said every recent reset effort has failed.

Shortly after becoming president in 2017, Macron called for turning a “new page” in French-African relations at a meeting with university students in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. It didn’t happen the way he planned — at least not in Burkina Faso.

“Macron right now is in a position where clearly France has lost influence in a region where we have invested a lot of money and military capacity in the region,” Quencez said. “The results are quite limited, to say the least.”

It’s not clear how Macron’s latest recalibration effort will fare.

Some Africans interviewed by French media said they heard nothing new in Macron’s speech. But others were more receptive.

Speaking to France’s TV5 Monde, Alioune Tine, founder of Dakar-based research group the Afrikajom Center, noted Macron was addressing not just African allies, but countries like Mali where France has problems. He said it was good the French president was trying to improve ties — but that it takes two to do so.

Separately, Macron’s push to return African artifacts taken during colonial times has also drawn praise, and objects have been returned to Benin and Senegal. He announced draft legislation to return objects to more African countries.

Source: Voice of America

FirstRand Namibia economist Ruusa Nandago said the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) receipts will account for 32 per cent of the total revenue for the 2023/2024 financial year (FY), making it the largest source of revenue for the Namibian government.

In a statement released by FirstRand Namibia on Tuesday, Nandago said the SACU revenues are expected to increase by 71,6 per cent from N.dollars 14.2 billion in FY 2022/2023 to N.dollars 24.3 billion in FY 2023/2024.

“This is a welcome relief to the fiscus as it provides an upside to government revenue which is expected to increase by 16,5 per cent from N.dollars 64.1 billion in FY 2022/2023 to N.dollars 74.7 billion in FY 2023/2024,” said Nandago.

She added that a breakdown of revenue sources shows that SACU receipts will now account for 32,6 per cent of the total revenue for FY 2023/2024, making them the single largest source of revenue for the Namibian government.

In the last decade there have been three SACU revenue shocks, in 2010/2011, 2016/2017 and 2020/2021.

Nandago therefore said that it is important that the government continues to broaden the domestic tax base and diversify its source of revenue.

“The finance minister (Iipumbu Shiimi) highlighted in his speech of the National Budget tabling that the government plans to boost domestic tax revenue collection through tax administration reforms aimed at improving tax compliance and collections on tax arrears,” she said.

SACU is the oldest customs union in the world that was established between Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa.

The union allows for these five countries to share trade related customs and excise revenue and for the free movement of goods and services within the union. All customs and excise duties are collected in a common revenue pool and shared among the countries according to a revenue sharing formula.

Nandago concluded saying that South Africa is the largest contributor to the pool, making up 97 per cent of the total contribution, followed by Namibia at 1.4 per cent.

Source: NAMPA

The head of a U.S. government program to fight AIDS, Dr. John Nkengasong, says that in its 20 years of existence the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, has saved 25 million lives.

PEPFAR, set up in 2003 under the administration of former U.S. president George W. Bush, has transformed the trajectory of HIV/AIDS, Nkengasong told reporters Tuesday while visiting South Africa.

“Twenty-five million lives have been saved, 5.5 million children have been born free of HIV/AIDS, health systems have been strengthened in a remarkable way,” he said.

Nkengasong, who comes from Cameroon, said there was once a “sense of hopelessness” in Africa, the continent worst-hit by HIV/AIDS, but since then countries’ economies have increased and life expectancy has improved.

Some 95% of the total $110 billion spent through PEPFAR was spent on Africa as it bore the brunt of the disease, he said.

“Before PEPFAR only 50,000 people, 50,000 people on the continent of Africa who were infected, were on treatment, 50,000. Today over 20 million people are receiving life-saving anti-retroviral therapy.” he said.

Nkengasong said the infrastructure rolled out across Africa as part of the U.S. government program was also useful during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The AIDS official said he was also “very positive” about the tools in the pipeline to combat HIV, including the roll out of pre-exposure prophylactics for HIV negative people that can be injected every three months and will stop the spread of new infections.

Source: Voice of America

Namibia Paralympic Committee (NPC) secretary general Michael Hamukwaya has said the NPC is planning to take five sports codes to the upcoming Toyota South African Sports Association for Physically Disabled (SASAPD) championships.

The annual SASAPD National Championships brings together athletes from nine South African Provinces and other Southern African countries to compete against their peers.

This year’s championships are scheduled for Cape Town, South Africa from 17 to 23 March 2023 where Team Namibia plans to compete in Para Athletics, Para Powerlifting, Boccia, Para-Cycling, and Goalball.

Hamukwaya in an interview with Nampa on Tuesday said they have decided to take five sports codes as part of their goal is to have as many codes representing the country at the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games.

“Our aim is to develop para sports in Namibia. In the past, we focused mainly on para-athletics. The time is now to start giving opportunities to athletes living with a disability to take up codes that were previously neglected,” he said.

The secretary-general further said with the different codes, they will have a big delegation of athletes which is costly.

“We have already selected athletes that are supposed to represent Namibia at the SASAPD in Cape Town. Athletes have been going through their paces and are ready to compete,” he said.

He added that the SASAPD will be used as a springboard for the NPC to see which athletes to include in the national team for the upcoming International Paralympic Committee World Para Athletics Championships and the first-ever 2023 African Para Games in Accra.

At last year’s event held in Johannesburg, South Africa, Namibian athletes with disabilities won 30 medals after three days of the competition. They bagged 20 gold, three silver and seven bronze medals.

Other countries that competed at the 2022 SASAPD National Championships are Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Botswana, as well as nine South African provinces.

Source: NAMPA

Nigeria’s electoral commission on Wednesday declared ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu president-elect after a disputed weekend election, at a ceremony that was snubbed by the two main opposition parties.

Tinubu’s victory extends the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party’s grip on power in Africa’s top oil producer and most populous nation, though he inherits a litany of problems from President Muhammadu Buhari, also of APC.

The former governor of commercial hub Lagos polled 8.79 million votes, ahead of main opposition challenger Atiku Abubakar’s 6.98 million votes. Peter Obi, an outsider popular with younger voters, garnered 6.1 million votes.

Nigerian electoral law says a candidate can win just by getting more votes than their rivals, provided they get 25% of the vote in at least two-thirds of the 36 states and the federal capital Abuja, which Tinubu also managed to do.

Source: Voice of America