The Unravelling of South Africa

The streets of Port Alfred turned into a war zone yesterday when police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades at striking municipal workers, writes David Macgregor of Dispatch Online. He took these pictures:

In a scene reminiscent of the politically turbulent 1980s, the Dispatch saw terrified protestors chased by police – some still firing rubber bullets – across the Kowie River and arrested, some more than a kilometre away.

Shocked bystanders watched as a convoy of police – with squealing tyres and blaring sirens – raced up to nearby Station Hill and rounded up people hiding in bushes and a private house.

Port Alfred’s station commissioner, Senior Superintendent Lizette Zeelie said several attempts over the past three days to negotiate with protesters not to damage public property had fallen on deaf ears.

“We met with the shop stewards and agreed the protests would be peaceful. We warned them several times about complaints from the community, but they did not stick to the rules.”

She said since the strike had begun, protesters had illegally blocked roads including the R72, smashed concrete rubbish bins and street signs and broken glass bottles on the streets.

Zeelie said police decided on a no-nonsense approach on Tuesday night after protesters burned rubbish inMain Street, and called East London’s crack Crime Combating Unit (CCU) in to help.

Claims that police told striking workers to disperse were disputed by angry shop steward Patrick Jokani.

“We were on our way back to the municipal workshop when they attacked us without warning. It was like the 1980s … they hunted people down and even shot at our backs as we ran away.”

He denied there was any public violence, claiming the marches over the past three days had been “peaceful”.

The 19 men and two women arrested by police are expected to appear in court on charges of public violence and destruction of property.

The crackdown came as President Jacob Zuma yesterday warned that violent protesters would be arrested, after a wave of anti-poverty demonstrations rattled the country over the last two weeks.

“People have the right to protest but not to interfere with the rights of others, so violence and trashing is not allowed,” Zuma told a press conference.

“It is important that they should be arrested. There can be no justification for public violence and the destruction of property,” he said.

J.A. Kufuor: You borrow to invest, not for 'chichinga'

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor says debts his administration is said to have piled up were used to develop the country. The former president lashed out at people who accused the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of being corrupt, stressing, such critics are themselves more corrupt. The former president was speaking in an exclusive interview with local NET2 TV on Thursday. Mr Kufuor said Ghana is still regarded by development partners as credit worthy because of the prudent decision his government embarked upon. Ghana’s economy grew by some 7.3 percent in 2008 whilst GDP quadrupled over the eight-year rule of the former administration, he argued. President Mills is on record to have slammed the previous administration for piling up debts for the new administration. But Mr Kufuor maintained, during the interview that funds secured by the country during his reign were invested in the right purposes, and not for meat consumption. The former president also urged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to unite and forge ahead to win the presidency in the next election. He stressed that taking back power from the NDC would be difficult if the NPP does not unite. The former president defended his administration’s decision to take up the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative, and added that joining the programme was a prudent decision as the country then needed funds to fix what had been an ailing economy. Kufuor said his desire while in office, was to help improve the quality of life for the people, with the provision of potable water, improve education, and restore the dignity of persons. He was happy to have commissioned the tamale water project, but he said that was not enough, since about 40 per cent of the people lacked access to good drinking water. He challenged critics to visit Legon, (University of Ghana) to assess the level of infrastructure that his government undertook, saying it is the most outstanding since independence.

President tours Western/Brong Ahafo Regions

President Atta Mills The President H.E John Evans Atta Mills will from tomorrow Tuesday 28th July begin a tour of the Western and the Brong-Ahafo regions; the tour will be begin with a durbar of chiefs and people of the Western region at the Jubilee park in Takoradi. Later in the day the President will meet various interest groups in the region to deliberate on several matters concerning the socio-economic development of the region. According to a Press Release signed by Presidential Spokesman, Mahama Ayariga, the President will continue to the Sefwi-Wiaso traditional area on Wednesday where he will attend a durbar and hold meetings with various interest groups. Later in the day the President will depart the Western region for the Brong-Ahafo region; in the Brong-Ahafo region the President will visit Sunyani, Goaso, Dormaa, Tain and Techiman where he would hold separate durbars with chiefs and people of the areas and meet with interest groups. Throughout the visit the President will inspect on-going development projects in the areas he will visit and thank the people for reposing their confidence in his government.

Posted on: Monday, 27, July, 2009 Source: Office of the President

Mills Tours Brong Ahafo

Saturday, 01 August 2009

President John Atta Mills PRESIDENT JOHN Evans Atta Mills has observed that he and his team of Ministers are not special people in their own right and that it is Ghanaians who have made them special, “if we don’t perform to their satisfaction, they will make us un-special”. This he said in an apparent reference to the fact that the electorate will only renew the approval of his government based on laudable performance. The president emphasized that political leaders are not above the laws of the country, therefore they should be held accountable for their stewardship. The mechanism of checking embezzlement and corruption in the country should be strengthened for rapid economic growth, since state funds are not meant for Ministers and their families alone, therefore Chiefs must support the campaign. There was a charged atmosphere prior to the arrival of the President at the durbar ground, at Methodist Park in Dormaa-Ahenkro, where the drummers, among the attendants of the various chiefs, dished out renditions of music accompanied by skillful and beautiful traditional dance to entertain the jubilant crowd. He was speaking at Dormaa-Ahenkro, during the second day of his three day ‘Thank you’ tour of the Brong-Ahafo Region. Addressing the Chiefs and people at the durbar, President Mills reiterated that the purpose of his visit was mostly to thank the people of the Region for their support during the elections and to join them to offer thanks to God for peaceful elections. President Mills was ardent that his government needs constructive criticism, but added that we should not do or say things that will harm the reputation of the country. He asked the citizenry, to quickly draw the attention of the Presidency when things are not going right at the grassroot. He stressed that we should build the country through unity and fellow felling, devoid of selfish tendencies. The Omanhene of Dormaa Traditional Area, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu, made a litany of requests including the provision of roads, electricity, water and educational infrastructure. His foremost request was for the road from Dormaa to Nkrankwanta to be constructed, since the area is a major producer of food and cash crops. The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Collins Dauda, urged Nananom to monitor how the common fund was utilized in their localities, saying it is only through monitoring that they could help bring development to their traditional areas. Before that, a similar durbar had been organized to welcome Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills from the Western Region to Brong-Ahafo at Goaso, where Chiefs from within the Ahafo area, displayed their rich culture at the durbar grounds. Among the Paramount chiefs that attended the durbar were Nana Kwasi Bosomprah of Goaso, Okofrobour Yaw Adjei from Mim, Osahene Kwaku Aterkyi of Kukuom, Prof. Agyewodin Adu-Gyamfi Ampem of Acherensua, Okogyeadie Yaw Adusei from Sankore and Nana Osei Kofi Abiri of Kenyasi Number “one”. The President ended his tour yesterday at Nsawkaw and Techiman, where he addressed separate durbars. Source: Daily Guide/Vivianna Mensah

China and U.S. Battle for African Oil 'Intense,' Says Gold Star Resources CEO

China's African Oil Imports Speed by Britain and France

VANCOUVER, July 29, PRNewswire- The battle between China and the United States over Africa's oil and gas resources is becoming more and more intense," says Patrick Morris, President and CEO of Gold Star Resources Corp. a Canadian-based energy resource company targeting 'onshore' energy resource opportunities in Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. The company recently signed a Letter-of-Intent with Bengal Bight Ghana Ltd. to acquire 100% interest in the hydrocarbon rights of Bengal's 1,000 sq. km. Tiampoum mining concession in Cote d'Ivoire, near the border of Ghana. Gold Star also recently disclosed that it acquired International Resource Strategies Liberia Energy, Inc. (IRSLE). The company has emerged as the first Canadian junior resource company seeking 'onshore' oil and gas projects in West Africa since the 1970s.

According to Morris, "The International Energy Agency now projects that China's net oil imports will soar from 3.5 million barrels per day in 2006 to over 13 million barrels per day by 2030. China already receives 60% of Sudan's oil exports. While the U.S. today is still the number one importer of Africa oil, China is quickly closing the gap and has already sped past Great Britain and France to emerge as Africa's second largest trading partner. China's industrial growth has made that nation the second largest consumer of oil worldwide. There's no question that China is winning more and more of African oil as each month passes."

Morris also pointed out that trade between Africa and China has grown about 30% in the past ten years. "Based on substantive government reports, trade between Africa and China will exceed $100 billion by 2010," the Canadian oil executive predicted. "The United States and China will now be in an intense competitive race for the lion's share of this trade market. Both nations will be pouring billions of dollars into rebuilding Africa's infrastructure including transportation, medical and educational projects. These projects go hand-in-hand with the African oil scramble and will ultimately benefit the African people and their economy over the next 20 years. China is using the African oil and gas markets to rapidly surpass the United States from a geopolitical and economic standpoint."

Source: Gold Star Resources Corp.

Govt to punish Ex- Ministers - Asiedu Nketsia

Johnson Aseidu Nkestia, General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), has cautioned former President John Agyekum Kufuor and other high profile members of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the Mills led administration would be forced to haul former government functionaries of the erstwhile NPP administration to Court if the current vilification of the President should continue.

On his part, if it were not to be the forgiven heart of President Mills, majority of ex- ministers in the Kufour administration would have being in jail by now.

He stressed that, “the government will be compelled to take stringent measures to silence NPP members who are bent on maligning the NDC administration.”

Mr Asiedu Nkestia, who is popularly referred to as ‘general mosquito’ in political circles stated these when addressing thousands of NDC faithful today at the Tain Constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region.

He was travelling with the President on his first visit to the Region since assuming office.

Making specific reference to the interview ex-President Kufuor granted to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), he said most ex-ministers in the former NPP regime have used several platforms handed them to lash at the NDC administration instead of commending government for maintaining peace and stability.

Continuing, he disclosed that some NDC members have persistently been calling on the President to treat former government officials the same way NDC members were treated by the NPP when they exited office in after the 2000 election.

He stressed that “Whatever members of the NPP resort to, they can not stop the wheel of justice from running,” adding that “They should (former NPP ministers) be prepared to account for their stewardship if they are called upon to do so.”

But, in a sharp rebuttal on a private radio station Citi Fm, the Member of Parliament for Asokwa in the Ashanti Region, Maxwell Kofi Jumah a.k.a Kofi Ghana described the latter’s comment as unfortunate and barbaric.

He said not a floor member of the NPP will be obsessed by the comments of Mr Aseidu Nkestia , adding ‘we are to prepare to meet the anywhere.”

He said “We all know that this man speaking is a joker so i don’t see the reason we should take this man serious when he talking,” adding that ‘he should pack off.’

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Al-Qaeda supporters 'joined MI5'

A senior Tory MP has asked the home secretary whether al-Qaeda sympathisers were mistakenly recruited by MI5. Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Home Affairs counter-terror sub-committee, said he was told six recruits were ejected after worries about their past. Two allegedly attended al-Qaeda training camps while the others had unexplained gaps in their CVs, Mr Mercer told the Daily Telegraph. A Home Office spokeswoman declined to comment on the claims. 'Took advantage' Mr Mercer said he had learned that MI5 had dismissed the six recruits some time between 2005 and 2007. The MP said he feared that, in the aftermath of the bombings on London's transport network in July 2005, the security services had rushed to try and take on Muslim recruits, and that had potentially allowed al-Qaeda sympathisers to infiltrate the security service. He has written to the Home Secretary Alan Johnson asking for further details. Mr Mercer said the Commons Home Affairs committee may investigate the issue next month. He told the newspaper that the government should have been prompted to expand the security services following the attacks on New York on 11 September 2001. "In fact it took an attack on this country for such measures to be started," he added. "But at this point it was an unseemly rush of which our enemies, not unsurprisingly, took advantage." Source: BBC

“T. B. JOSHUA IS FAKE” (1)

By theghanaianjournal - The Ghanaian Journal

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“T. B. JOSHUA IS FAKE”

Longevity is not eternal - By:Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr. More Quotes | Submit a Quote

…Mills' Pastor's miracles are stage-managed;

…An adulterer and a murderer- former 2nd in command

Ghanaian President, John Evans Atta Mills might have vouched for his healing prowess as rare divine gift; but snippets of information gathered from an interview that one Pastor Godswill Agomoh Paul, one time 2nd in command to Pastor Tomitope Balogun (T.B.) Joshua granted the highly read Nigerian magazine- Life Way, suggest that the General Oversee of the Synagogue Church of all Nations based in Ekotu Egbe, Lagos, Nigeria is fake.

Pastor Godswill Agomah, who was one time head of the Ghana Branch of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, blew the whistle to the Nigerian magazine which had sought his opinion over a video documentary where he (Pastor Agomah) and other devotees of the Church had accused their former boss of grand deception, manipulation and voodoo acts.

Although he gave many reasons for his actions, he told the magazine that what triggered his departure from the Synagogue Church was an attempt by T.B Joshua to use him to kill Pastor Peter Kayode, the first head Pastor of the Ghana branch of the Synagogue Church.

Pastor Kayode helped to establish the Ghana branch of the Synagogue Church in 1997 at Agbobgloshie, a suburb of Accra. He is currently the head of the Awakeners Chapel, situated at Kotobabi in Accra.

“My own assignment was to go to Ghana and bring Pastor Kayode dead or alive,” Godswill Paul revealed, adding, “I knew I could bring him (Kayode) back alive, but I did not know how to bring him back dead”. The Joshua order, according to Pastor Godswill Paul, was issued to him in 2004.

The grand Joshua scheme against Pastor Kayode, Godswill disclosed, included doing everything possibly within his power to get the Ghanaian resident permit of Pastor Kayode revoked by the Ghana Immigration Service, a situation, the pastor explained, would have compelled Pastor Kayode to return to Nigeria or relocate elsewhere. But that did not work. Why?

“I got some elders to get me Kayode's file from the immigration office. That was when I discovered he had married a Ghanaian lady and fathered two children from her. He had naturalized and established an NGO that the government recognized and even gave awards to for the work he was doing,” Pastor Godswill Paul declared, adding “I also discovered that Kayode had established Awakeners Chapel two years back. Every legal means of bringing him back was futile”.

According to Pastor Godswill, T.B. Joshua had recalled him from his Benin base, and asked him to bring back Pastor Kayode, who T.B. Joshua had accused of rebelling against him by establishing his own Church in Ghana at a time that Kayode was expected to help grow the Ghana branch of the Synagogue Church in Ghana.

But aside his legal stay in Ghana, Pastor Godswill told the magazine that after his abortive attempts to get Pastor Kayode back to Nigeria to continue his pastoral work at the parent Synagogue Church in Nigeria, he was convinced that Pastor Kayode had a genuine reason for being reticent.

He told the Nigerian Life Way magazine that Pastor Kayode suspected that T.B. Joshua was having elicit amorous affairs with his wife and that explained why Joshua prevented her from joining his husband (Pastor Kayode) in Ghana.

“From 1997 to 2004, Kayode's wife was in Lagos with Joshua in the Synagogue Church. She was never allowed to visit the husband in Ghana,” Godswill noted, disclosing further that when the wife eventually got to Ghana “the husband refused to sleep with her. Kayode was suspicious of the move (for her wife to relocate to Ghana) because Joshua had separated him and his wife for over six years”.

“Kayode also claimed that he knew Joshua was sleeping with his wife, and that was why he did not sleep with his wife and that was why he kept her in Lagos for those years,” Pastor Godswill said. “When Joshua heard about Kayode's refusal to sleep with his wife, he invited both of them to Lagos. Then he instructed Kayode to go and bring his stuff from Ghana and stay in Lagos for a while until the differences between them were resolved”.

But Pastor Kayode, according to Pastor Godsill, would not budge. “When Kayode returned to Ghana he refused to come back to Lagos. Instead he went to establish his own church and many members followed him. From a membership of about 2000 only about 20 remained in the church (Synagogue Church of All Nations, Ghana). This infuriated Joshua”.

Joshua would then order Pastor Godswill to find any means possible to bring back Pastor Kayode.

“I tried to make contact in the military, but they told me they could not do anything. Even if he committed a crime he could not be repatriated. He would be charged and prosecuted as a citizen, I was told,” Pastor Godswill narrated.

He then decided on rugged and other unorthodox methods: “I decided to try the 'Nima boys. Coincidentally, that was the day that Kayode sent texts to the remaining few members of Synagogue on why Joshua was persecuting him. He disclosed that he re-married because he knew Joshua was sleeping with his wife. That text shocked me so much”.

So what did Pastor Godswill do next? According to him, he “took a member's handset and brought it to Lagos to show him (Joshua). He just dismissed it casually. His action not only shocked me, but also snapped me out of stupor. I knew Joshua; if that allegation had no truth, he would not have taken it lightly. He would go on the offensive with everything he had. It was at this point I began to think”.

Pastor Godswill continued with his narration: “I was in Lagos in his (Pastor Joshua's) office putting finishing touches to the crusade plan (in Ghana) when Lola, Kayode's wife, came into his (Joshua's) office. I noticed the lady was pregnant and I couldn't help but point out to him that the lady was pregnant. Again he dismissed me and commanded that I face the task on hand. After that, I felt very bad. It began to dawn on me that things were not what it seemed”.

(Read More on the issue on next Publication: The mysterious deaths at Synagogue Church and why Godwill has decided to speak now, although he left the church some four years ago)

Mills Blames Kufuor Administration

President Mills His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ghana, Professor John Atta Mills has blamed the current economic crisis in the country, partly on claims that the former NPP Administration dissipated the national coffers, leaving no funds for the management of the economy. Addressing the people of Goaso in the Ashanti Region yesterday, President Mills admitted that the country is going through crisis but accused the former Kufuor led administration of mismanaging the country. According to him, Ex-President Kufuor left the country broke, hence making it difficult for him to fix it. According to our reporter, Bernard Quanson, the President had told the people not to blame him for anything but rather, the NPP Government, for deceiving Ghanaians for eight years. The report also says the President promised the people that he would fix the economy to improve the standard of living in the country. Source: www.peacefmonline.com

Islamist attacks in Nigeria: A taste of the Taliban

Jul 31st 2009
From Economist.com

An Islamist insurgency in the north of Nigeria comes on top of another in the Delta

AP

VIOLENCE has often disfigured religion in Nigeria. Usually, it has been a matter of bloody confrontation between Muslims and Christians in the middle of the country, where the largely Muslim north rubs up against the mainly Christian south. This week, however, Nigeria experienced its most serious outbreak of another kind of religious violence, provoked by Islamic fundamentalists who take their inspiration from the Taliban of Afghanistan. At least 180 people were killed in five days of clashes between militants and the police.

The fighting started on July 26th in Bauchi state after the police arrested several suspected leaders of an Islamist sect called Boko Haram, a local Hausa term that means “education is prohibited”. In particular, the group is against Western education and influence. It wants to impose a pure Muslim caliphate on Nigeria. In retaliation for the arrest of their leaders, militants went on the rampage in several northern states, attacking the police with anything that came to hand, from machetes to bows and poison arrows.

The police fought back, killing, so they claimed, 39 militants in Bauchi. Fierce fighting took place in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, where the sect has its headquarters. On July 28th the army was called in to shell the compound where the sect’s leader, Muhammad Yusuf, has been based. As well as killing scores of Boko Haram fighters, the police arrested hundreds of suspected members of the group. Mr Yusuf himself was arrested on July 30th reportedly while hiding in a goat pen at a relative's house. He was taken into custody and promptly shot dead, according to police as he “tried to escape”.

The “Black Taliban”, as such groups are dubbed in Nigeria’s northern states, have carried out isolated attacks for several years. This time the violence has been more widespread and prolonged. Muslim sharia law was introduced in 12 northern states after general elections in 1999, but the states’ Muslim rulers have usually been cautious in applying it. This has prompted the militants to demand a more extreme form of Islamist rule and for sharia to be extended to the whole of Nigeria.

Nigeria’s federal government, along with Western intelligence agencies, has long worried that extremist groups in the north may link up with Islamist terrorist groups elsewhere in Africa, in particular with al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. This outfit grew out of the blood-soaked struggle by Islamists to overthrow Algeria’s government in the 1990s. Such connections raise the spectre of a concerted Islamist threat against Nigeria, a close ally of America and a large oil exporter. But the links have not been proved and little is known about groups such as Boko Haram.

On this occasion Nigeria’s president, Umaru Yar’Adua, acted swiftly. But it was the exception to his presidential rule. Now halfway through his four-year term, the former governor of the northern state of Katsina has achieved little. His administration is beset by indecision and drift.

This week’s violence in the north comes on top of unceasing violence in the southern Niger Delta region, where an insurgency by militants demanding a bigger share of the country’s oil wealth continues to disrupt oil exports. By some estimates, Nigeria now exports only half of what it should: Angola has taken over as sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest producer.

Despite floating various well-meaning plans to pacify the Delta, the government has failed to stop the region’s unrest. The fall in tax revenues, as a result of illegal bunkering and the sabotage of pipelines, means that Mr Yar’Adua has even less chance of tackling his country’s other problems, such as a chronic lack of electricity. The insurgency in the Delta has thrived on the back of dire poverty and high unemployment in what should be a relatively wealthy region, were it not so poorly governed. Some fear the Islamist militants in the north may profit from the same lack of opportunities, which saps the morale of young Nigerians and makes so many of them prey to extremists.

Source:The Economist

President orders probe into district assembly funds

President Mills The President John Evans Atta Mills has instructed the local government ministry to conduct a forensic audit of the accounts of all District and Municipal Assemblies in the country. According to the President, the assemblies have been saddled with too many debts due largely to mismanagement and lack of financial discipline. He made these observations at a durbar of chiefs and people of Tain in the Brong Ahafo Region at the end of his four day tour of the Western and Brong Ahafo. Re-echoing the fears of the president, Steven Anti, Joy correspondent at the presidency who was part of the tour, indicated the assemblies could be indebted to the tune of GH¢110 million- GH¢180 million. In a subsequent interview with Joy News, the head of communications at the Castle, Koku Anyidoho said the Tain district created only five years ago is indebted to the tune of GH¢1.6 million. Asked if those debts were as a result of corrupt practices, Mr. Anyidoho said the audit when completed will give full details as to how the debts were incurred. He described the president’s four day tour as “excellent” with the goodwill still intact. Meanwhile residents of Tain have appealed to government to make good its campaign promise of building a Senior High School for the district. They have also requested the government to upgrade roads linking the district to major towns and cities in the country. Tain became popular in the 2008 election after a second run-off was held in the district to find a clear winner for the closely fought election, with the then candidate Mills securing maximum votes to be crowned president. Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana