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Legalbrief Africa is supported by the Open Society Initiative
for Southern Africa, the IBA Educational Trust and E-Brief News
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Quotes of the Week
‘The independence of the judiciary must start …by appointing people of integrity, who will uphold and exemplify the independence of the judiciary.’
– Uganda’s Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki responding for calls for a probe into alleged corruption in the judiciary
‘A free press is one of the basic requirements of a sustainable democracy. Once you start to give government or its agencies powers to hinder the access of the public to information, you immediately threaten democracy.’
– South Africa’s veteran anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman on government’s move to censor the media
‘If there is no second round there's the risk of a flare-up of violence in Kinshasa.’
– a diplomat raising concerns about the DRC elections
‘This proves the elections are credible’
– Delion Kimbulumpu, spokesperson for the Independent Electoral Commission, after six electoral workers had been arrested for tampering with votes during the DRC counting process
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The views expressed in this newsletter are a reflection of those contained
in the original reports to which they are linked, and are not necessarily
those of the International Bar Association or E-Brief News CC.
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Africa Focus
South Africa: Government threat to free press
South Africa’s status as an enclave of press freedom on a continent where media repression is the norm, has come under threat in the past week with a surreptitious move by government to impose direct censorship on the print and broadcast media though a ‘backdoor’ amendment to legislation that previously regulated the content of films and magazines, writes E-Brief News. The move, seen by legal experts as unconstitutional, has shocked three of the country’s premier media freedom organisations, according to a report in The Mercury. In a statement from the SA National Editors’ Forum (Sanef), the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) and the Freedom of Expression Institute, the organisations decry a proposed amendment to the Film and Publications Act, saying the change would be detrimental to the daily functioning of the media. The Film and Publications Amendment Bill 2006 is under review by Parliament. Their concern revolves around the proposed revision or deletion of a clause in the Act that, at present, exempts newspapers and broadcasters from the same type of pre-publication screening and scrutiny applied to films, computer games and magazines. Raymond Louw, a veteran journalist and now editor and publisher of the Southern African Report, said the danger with the proposed arrangement was that newspapers particularly would be required to refer articles for approval by the Films and Publications Board before going into print. The previous Act exempted the media from these provisions to enable the print and broadcast news media to operate freely or without pre-publication censorship.
Full report in The Mercury
Government has tried to pour cold water on the issue. Home Affairs spokesperson Nkosana Sibuyi is quoted by Business Day as saying he was not aware of any proposed amendments that would affect news media. Sibuyi said if the amendments infringed on the freedom of the media, people were welcome to air their views to the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee, adding: ‘I do not think that it is proper for people to go out and make these allegations.’
Full Business Day report
The media already falls under regulatory control of three other organisations, leading critics of the proposed amendment to ask why the Film and Publications Board is needed as a fourth regulator, says a report on the AlertNet site. The FPB defended the proposed amendment, saying critics were misinformed: ‘When people say we will censor the media it is not what we have in mind,’ CE Shokie Bopape-Dlomo said. ‘It is not at all practical for us to read entire newspapers before they are published. The idea behind the proposed changes is to protect children, and not to interfere with the work of the media,’ she said. ‘Adults have the right to access information, and we are not going to change that.’
Full report on the AlertNet site
An editorial in leading daily newspaper, Business Day, takes the responsible Minister to task, calling the proposal a Draconian measure that was not contemplated even in the darkest apartheid days. The paper says: ‘We do wonder what has possessed Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to spend time trying to limit press freedom when her department can’t even staff customs posts at SA’s airports properly or ensure that basic documents such as passports and IDs are delivered when needed. Is it all a terrible mistake, or misunderstanding? We will not insult the Minister. We have to assume she means what the draft actually says and that she plans to introduce censorship of the news in SA. There is no other possible way to respond.’ It adds: ‘Her efforts will do huge damage to this country’s standing in the world. The draft is an insult not so much to the news media but to the many millions of South Africans who read it, listen to it and watch it.’
Full Business Day editorial
Download a copy of the draft Film and Publication Board Amendment Bill
General Law News
Kenya: A-G slams court’s Goldenberg decision
A report in The Standard says Attorney-General Amos Wako has lambasted a Judicial Review Court that purported to bar him from prosecuting Professor George Saitoti over the multi-billion shilling Goldenberg scam. He said the order was issued ‘prematurely and on a purely speculative basis’. Wako criticised the court for concluding that he could no longer prosecute Saitoti because he had not done so for more than 11 years, saying he could not act before he received the file, and that there was no limitation period in which to prosecute for a criminal offence. The Goldenberg Commission, he said, was a ‘fresh event’ that had unearthed new evidence. Wako said he had instructed the Director of Public Prosecutions to challenge the ruling, describing it as made in ‘grave error’. Wako and Judge Samuel Bosire, who chaired the Commission of Inquiry, have also crossed swords over the Goldenberg Commission staff’s remuneration. Bosire has described figures released by Wako as ‘inaccurate and grossly exaggerated’.
Full report in The Standard
But most Kenyans are getting tired of what is described as the ‘Goldenberg circus.’ The Standard reports that Kenyans were wondering if any progress would be made in unravelling the monumental scam, and citizens were exasperated by the legalistic twists and turns over a scandal whose details have been laid bare countless times over about two decades. The report says the affair seemed to have benefited a cabal of lawyers and judges, and it points out that there was no guarantee that the Court of Appeal would rule in Wako’s favour. It further speculates that the amounts spent in pursuing the affair could far exceed the amount initially stolen. The report concludes that the time has arrived for Wako to acknowledge his mistakes and stand up for the public good.
Full report in The Standard
Lawyers have, however, praised Wako for planning to appeal. A report in The Nation quotes a former Director of Public Prosecutions as saying that failing to appeal would be ‘a travesty of justice and against the public interest.’ Law Society of Kenya office bearers said the Society supported Wako’s decision. But Saitoti’s lawyers refused to comment, citing lawyer-client confidentiality, and a group calling itself the Kalenjin Political Alliance accused the Attorney-General of introducing politics and trying Saitoti through the media. The group said they were not opposed to Wako’s right to appeal, but to the manner in which he was going about it. Wako has raised a number of contentious issues arising from the judgment, including the application of the principle of double jeopardy, whether he gave assurances that Saitoti would not be prosecuted, and whether the judges exceeded their powers.
Full report in The Nation
Zimbabwe: Special powers to be tested in court
A number of bodies are preparing court applications to test the legality of powers granted by the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Currency Revaluation) Regulations, issued as part of far-reaching reforms announced by Gideon Gono, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. The Financial Gazette reports that the Law Society of Zimbabwe has declared the seizure of cash illegal and condemned the direct exercise of executive powers. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition have confirmed that they were instituting actions challenging the legality of the regulations, the setting up of roadblocks, and the use of unauthorised people – the militia – to conduct searches. Lawyers are particularly opposed to regulations granting immunity from civil suits, which they describe as promoting and cultivating police and state agent impunity. The Zanu-PF dominated Finance Committee has agreed to meet with Gono in a bid to pressure him to reverse the reforms, which, it is believed, are jeopardising the commercial interests of many powerful figures.
Full Financial Gazette report
Zimbabwe: Ruling raises question of credibility of elections
Following a Supreme Court judgment, which invalidated the Chief Judge’s 2005 Electoral Court appointments, Chris Mhike, a legal practitioner, warns that Zanu-PF’s status as an illegitimate and rogue regime has been entrenched. To back up his claim, he points out in an article in the Zimbabwe Independent that the invalidity meant that all petitioners and other losing candidates from the 2005 elections were denied a free and fair chance to challenge its outcome. He writes that the credibility of Zanu-PF’s victory in the elections was still at stake, but even more prominently than it had been after the 2000 parliamentary elections and the 2002 presidential elections, because the manner in which judges were appointed to the Electoral Court in 2005 was unconstitutional and invalid. Mhike adds that Zanu-PF’s victory in the 2005 elections revived its legitimacy crisis as all credible international observers were banned and because of glaring discrepancies in the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission figures for numerous constituencies. He describes the Electoral Act, which the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional, as a farcical document, and concludes that, without any competent Electoral Court in Zimbabwe, a lacuna existed in the law of elections and therefore the Zanu-PF government’s legitimacy crisis has deepened.
Full Zimbabwe Independent report
Liberia: Call for top judge to resign
The NEWS reports that controversial human rights advocate, Melvin Page, has urged Liberia’s Chief Judge Johnnie Lewis to resign immediately or face impeachment. Page has requested Lewis to make public a letter by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, ordering the suspension of Circuit Court Judge James Zotaa, but Lewis has not done so. He initially complied with President Sirleaf’s order, but later rescinded his decision. Judge Zotaa said he found it difficult to believe that the President, who has championed good governance in the country, would order his suspension without a hearing.
Full report in The NEWS
Uganda: Amnesty seeks compensation for Kony victims
Amnesty International has called on the Ugandan Government to pay reparations to the victims of rebel leader Joseph Kony's Lord’s Resistance Army, says a report in The Daily Monitor. It has proposed an ‘alternative strategy to impunity,’ which includes ‘establishing effective mechanisms to provide full reparations to victims to help them rebuild their lives.’ The 20-year-old insurgency has left behind thousands of shattered lives. The human rights organisation opposed the amnesty offer President Yoweri Museveni offered Kony and his top commanders wanted by the International Criminal Court. It proposed an ‘alternative’ which it said was a comprehensive strategy to address all crimes committed in the conflict. ‘The strategy should recognise that children above the age of criminal responsibility, who committed crimes under international law, were also victims of crimes themselves, including abduction and s exual violence which need to be taken into account in any criminal proceedings,’ the AI said.
Full report in The Daily Monitor
Kenya: Judges ignore principle of seniority
A report in The Standard points out two rulings in which judges had ignored the principle of seniority, but says judicial independence and the status of the court make it acceptable. Appellate Judge Samuel Bosire and Judge William Deverell overturned a ruling by Chief Judge Evan Gicheru in which he had dismissed a bid by a building contractor to have a constitutional court determine contractual matters. The contractor claimed that Gicheru, who acted as a High Court judge in the matter, had acted without jurisdiction in his ruling in admitting and considering evidence. Bosire found for the contractor, saying the Chief Judge had exceeded his powers. But during the same month, Bosire’s juniors, three High Court judges, severely criticised the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Goldenberg Affair, which Bosire had chaired. In their judgment, which exonerated former Vice-President George Saitoti, the judges said the Commission’s findings had no basis in law, that its report fell far short of its statutory duties, and that a clear case of bias against Saitoti was demonstrated. Referring to the 28 errors of fact Saitoti pointed out in the report, the judges said the commissioners were irrational, unreasonable and irrelevant.
Full report in The Standard
DRC: Vote-counting chaos – observers
Vote-counting in parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is descending into chaos, more than two weeks after the country held its first democratic poll in over 40 years, international observers have warned, says a report in The Independent. The results trickling in show a clear east-west split, with the current president, Joseph Kabila, overwhelmingly popular in the east. His main opponent, the former warlord and current vice-president, Jean-Pierre Bemba, is the front-runner in the capital, Kinshasa, and other regions in the west – although some of the anti-Kabila vote has also gone to the Harvard-educated surgeon, Oscar Kashala. The actual election went smoothly, but problems appear to have begun once the process of collating the votes from more than 53 000 polling stations spread across the huge, and often inaccessible, country. Although eight international observing missions were in the DRC on election day, most observers have now left, leaving a threadbare team to ensure the process passes off smoothly. Already Bemba and another current Vice-President, Azarias Ruberwa, have questioned the legitimacy of the poll. Ruberwa, whose Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) party is expected to lose support in the east to Kabila, has said he will challenge the result at the Supreme Court. The fear is that complaints over the validity of the election could spill over into renewed violence.
Full report in The Independent
The DRC expects to know the winner inside a week. President Joseph Kabila appeared on track to be returned to power, according to partial results, says a report on the IoL site. Kabila was credited with 51.6% of votes counted so far. But since they only represent 66 of the country's 169 voting districts, the people of the DRC may have to wait until August 20 before they know who will be their next President. According to the latest estimates, Bemba garnered 19.3% of the votes, up on the 17.8% announced on Saturday when Kabila had been credited with 55%.
Full report on the IoL site
Kenya: 33-year court battle ends in success
Kenyan John Mwangi Mjumbe’s battle for 60 000 acres of land in Laikipia has ended 33 years after he first led a group of 1 500 former freedom fighters to petition former President Jomo Kenyatta for a government land grant, according to a report in The Standard. Two days after receiving a letter of allotment for Solio Ranch in 1973, the CID raided the offices of the company founded by Mjumbe to raise cash to buy the ranch, removing all the documents found in the offices, including the letter. A struggle lasting three decades and involving numerous court cases ensued, with Mjumbe and his group doggedly pursuing the return of the letter of allotment. In a judgment handed down 17 years after the raid, the High Court ordered the return of the documents. But the documents were still not returned, and in 2002 the company once again filed suit. In a judgment delivered on June 23 this year, Judge Joyce Alouch ruled that the company be issued with a new allotment and also awarded costs of the suit to the plaintiffs. The judge praised the plaintiffs’ courage and said she hoped the government ministry would obey the order to bring the long-standing dispute to an end. Commenting on the case, the company’s deputy secretary, Francis Gathu, lamented that Mjumbe had not lived to celebrate their ultimate success. He said the company’s members expected the government to assist them to occupy Solio Ranch ‘as soon as possible’.
Full report in The Standard
N igeria: Clampdown on copyright violations
The N igerian Copyright Commission has arrested 30 video rental club operators and shut down 45 video clubs for alleged copyright law violations, according to a THISDAY report. A Commission Manager described the raid as very successful and said the Commission had impounded about 9 994 video cassettes and other items, worth more than N10m (US$78 000). The suspects would soon be arraigned before the Federal High Court, he said, adding that the raid formed part of a strategic action plan against piracy and more raids were planned.
Full THISDAY report
Uganda: Judiciary must act on corruption claims – judge
A report in the Daily Monitor quotes Supreme Court Judge George Kanyeihamba as saying the judiciary must act on persistent claims by the media and the public that some judges were either corrupt or handed down dubious judgments. Speaking at a conference aimed at reflecting on the challenges and prospects of judicial independence, the outspoken judge, who has clashed with President Yoweri Museveni on a number of issues, said the Constitution provided that the President could establish a committee to investigate a judge if there was evidence of corruption against him. The Chief Judge, Benjamin Odoki, supported the idea of reviewing judicial officers’ performance, but said it had to be done within the judiciary. The Deputy Chief Judge, Laetitia Mukasa Kikonyogo, said outrageous claims were made because ‘the public does not understand the things we do’.
Full Daily Monitor report
DRC: Publisher freed after nine months in jail
The New Times reports that newspaper publisher, Patrice Booto, was recently freed after spending nine months in prison. Booto was arrested last year after his newspapers had reported that the government had given US$30m to Tanzanian education agencies while Congolese teachers were striking for higher wages. He was found guilty of reporting false information, offending the Head of State, and insulting the government, and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and fined the equivalent of US$500. The court ruled that he could go free on payment of the fine, since he had already spent seven months in prison. Booto paid the fine, but the verdict was appealed and he remained in prison. He was finally freed after the Appeals Court upheld his conviction for publishing false information, but acquitted him of the other two charges.
Full report in The New Times
DRC: Warlord’s pre-trial hearing postponed
The pre-trial hearing of Ituri warlord, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the first person to be arrested by the International Criminal Court, has been postponed until September, notes the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo explained that this was because of violence in Ituri – ahead of the recent elections – meant the safety of witnesses and victims could not be guaranteed. Victims’ rights to participate have been fundamental to the court’s rules and procedures and its goal of having a solid impact on peace and transition. Borne out of a sense of frustration that victims have been too far removed from trials, victim inclusion implies that victims have similar rights to prosecution and defence teams. ICC officials or judges can appoint counsel to represent victims, or refer them to the Office of Public Counsel for Victims for different levels of legal support. The lead prosecutor in the Lubanga case said judges had to ensure that victims’ rights did not affect the accused’s right to a fair trial, and expressed concern that victim inclusion might slow down the process. Stakeholders disagree over which cases victims should participate in, and participation in The Hague could be complex, expensive, and traumatic.
Full report from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Zimbabwe: Minister in court on obstruction charge
The trial of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, who is facing a charge of obstructing the course of justice, is under way. According to a report in The Herald, the key State witness, James Kaunye, told the court that Chinamasa tried to bribe him to withdraw charges against Albert Nyakuedzwa, who had brutally assaulted Kaunye. Kaunye claimed that Chinamasa’s motive was to protect the reputation of Didymus Mutasa, the Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, who was accused of inciting his supporters to assault Kaunye prior to the Zanu-PF primary elections in 2004. He said Chinamasa offered him another farm of his choice, failing which Chinamasa would assist him to construct a dam and cattle pen at his existing farm. He also alleged that Chinamasa offered to facilitate the withdrawal of attempted murder charges he (Kaunye) faced, and to secure his appointment as senator. Chinamasa, who admitted visiting Kaunye, described the charges as ‘baseless, false and malicious’, and said he merely wanted to intervene to resolve the violence which had occurred between Zanu-PF members in the Makoni District. Chinamasa claimed that he was an innocent victim of the feud between Kaunye and Mutasa, and said he had no influence over the Attorney-General’s decision whether to prosecute or not.
Full report in The Herald
Kaunye said he could not report Mutasa’s actions to the police, because ‘the situation was tense.’ He said police officers were abducted and Mutasa had assaulted a police inspector and confiscated another police officer’s rifle. Kaunye said the inspector was transferred instead of action taken against Mutasa, and he therefore reported the case to the Attorney-General. The Zimbabwe Independent reports that Kaunye denied allegations of a feud against Mutasa, saying that he had campaigned for Mutasa in the 2005 elections. But Chinamasa’s lawyer protested his client’s innocence, saying Kaunye told Chinamasa he was going head-to-head with Mutasa.
Full Zimbabwe Independent report
Libya: Infections deliberate, HIV trial told
The trial of four Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV continues, with authorities from the hospital where the infections occurred testifying that the health workers did intend to infect the children, according to a report on the Advocate site. The Libyan experts testified that they stand by a 61-page report they submitted in 2003 that says the HIV transmissions resulted from a deliberate act. The Libyan experts also testified that banks containing HIV-infected blood plasma and a genetically modified form of HIV were discovered at the home of Kristiana Vulcheva, one of the nurses. Judge Mahmoud Haouissa, the presiding judge on the three-member tribunal of the Tripoli Criminal Court, refused to allow testimony from international HIV experts that would have refuted the Libyan experts' claims. It’s unclear whether Haouissa will allow the testimony later in the trial. The health workers, under arrest since 1999, say they were tortured while in prison so that authorities could wring confessions out of them.
Full report on the Advocate site
Botswana: AIDS r ape law under fire
A recent case involving Section 142(3) of the Penal Code, which mandates HIV testing of persons convicted of r ape, has led to renewed calls on the Attorney-General and Parliament to have the section redrafted. Saying the section caused confusion, Judge Nicholas McNally reduced the sentence of Boxer Magapatona, who had tested HIV-positive, from 15 to 10 years’ imprisonment. The section provides for a minimum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment for persons convicted of r ape and who tested HIV-positive but are proven to be unaware of their HIV-status, and 20 years’ imprisonment for those who are aware of their status. The Botswana Gazette quotes McNally as saying the intention could not have been to impose additional punishment on a r apist ‘simply because he became HIV-positive after he committed the offence.’ In 2002, the Court of Appeal had also found that Section 142(3) was improperly drafted. A defence attorney criticised the Attorney-General’s lack of response to the earlier ruling as ‘a serious indictment on the rule of law’.
Full Botswana Gazette report
Botswana: Men sentenced to death acquitted on appeal
The Court of Appeal has acquitted two men found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in 1997 on the basis that it would be ‘inhuman’ and ‘unthinkable’ that the sentence be carried out now, notes the Botswana Gazette. Judge Neville Zietsman permanently stayed the State’s case against the two men, after finding that examination of the records raised questions of whether proper consultations were held with the men before their trial, and that an attorney representing one of the men had made contradictory statements about the languages understood by the men. He also said it would be inappropriate and unsatisfactory to order a further inquiry because of the delay that has taken place, and because some of the witnesses had died and a defence attorney had left the country. The judge said the court had taken into account the men’s traumatic experiences and the delay since their appeal was dismissed.
Full Botswana Gazette report
Legislation under Review
Kenya: Bill to pay constitutional officials more
The Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2006 contains a proposed amendment aimed at implementing a new salary structure for constitutional office holders, says a report in The Standard. Debate on the Bill started in July and will resume when Parliament convenes in October. Constitutional office holders include the Attorney-General, Chief Judge and certain other judges, Controller and Auditor-General, and members of the Public Service Commission and Electoral Commission of Kenya. The highest ranked officers will be paid between Sh300 105 (US$4 108) and Sh531 650 (US$7 277) a month. An MP wanting the proposal to be expunged from the Bill has described it as a scheme to rob taxpayers.
Full report in The Standard
Kenya: Reform planned ahead of elections
A parliamentary watchdog, the Departmental Committee on Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs, says although the time left between now and December, 2007, was inadequate to carry out a comprehensive law review, minimum reforms were mandatory to prepare for the general elections next year. It said it would invite all the political parties represented in Parliament to send representatives to a consultative forum to identify the critical areas that required amendment to level the playing field ahead of the polls. A report in The Standard notes that Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister, Martha Karua, was also invited to discuss the government’s position on the proposed review. The Bill containing the minimum amendments is expected for be ready for debate in the House by the end of the year.
Full report in The Standard
Zanzibar: Move against deliberate HIV transmission
An IPPMedia report quotes the State Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office as saying the government was determined to put in place a law to criminalise the intentional transmission of HIV/AIDS. She said that although great strides have been made in developing AIDS awareness, the country did not have the legal means to halt the spreading of HIV/AIDS and control the stigma surrounding the disease. The Minister said preparation for the law had started.
Full IPPMedia report
AT A GLANCE
* Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika has demanded the resignation of the country’s top prosecutor for dropping graft charges against his predecessor, former president Bakili Muluzi. ‘I am asking him (Ishmael Wadi) to resign honourably within 24 hours – he has destroyed my credibility in the fight against corruption because I did not authorise him to discontinue the case,’ Mutharika said.
–THE HERALD
* Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission Director Aaron Ringera has been summoned to appear before a parliamentary committee probing the Nakumatt tax evasion and Charterhouse Bank money-laundering allegations. Ringera was expected to appear before the committee on August 17 to table a report on his findings and explain why the investigations into the two scandals were stopped.
– THE STANDARD
* The four-year-old land dispute between Kola Bolomope and Queen Ngozi Babalola has been resolved by N igeria’s Oyo State High Court. The judge ruled in favour of Bolomope, affirming his claim of ownership on the land through an injunction restraining the defendant from further trespass on the property.
– SATURDAY TRIBUNE
* A student of The Polytechnic Ibadan, Yusuf Bashir Kehinde, has taken the institution to N igeria’s Oyo State High Court in Ibadan for wrongfully expelling him. Kehinde claimed he had expelled on grounds that he entered for the Higher National Diploma programme with a forged National Diploma result.
– SATURDAY TRIBUNE
* The Nairobi Stock Exchange wants the Attorney-General to speed up the review of the Bankruptcy Act to protect companies facing debt obligation difficulties.
– THE STANDARD
* MP Raila Odinga has called for constitutional changes before next year's Kenyan general election. The reforms should include a review of constituency boundaries, working out a formula for appointing commissioners of the Electoral Commission, and a review of the mode of electing mayors and council chairpersons. The Liberal Party MP also said a formula was needed on gender representation in Parliament.
– THE NATION
* The Uganda Human Rights Commission has asked Parliament to support its fight for more government funding for its activities. The Commission claims it is under-funded, saying this had made it difficult for it to fulfil its constitutional mandate.
– DAILY MONITOR
* The Kenyan Government is reviewing labour laws. Labour Minister Dr Newton Kulundu said current labour legislation, training systems, labour-management relations and social security had failed to adapt to emerging realities.
– THE STANDARD
* Zimbabwe United Passenger Company board chairman Charles Nherera, who was last recently convicted of corruption involving US$85 000, should be jailed, a Harare regional prosecutor has said. He will be sentenced on August 26.
– THE HERALD
* The Nairobi Stock Exchange wants Kenya’s law on insolvency amended to protect firms hit by temporary financial problems. It says the Bankruptcy Act has been abused with receivers quick to liquidate firms that could easily be revived.
– THE NATION
* A Tanzanian Roman Catholic Priest, Sixtus Kimaro (38),has been sentenced to 30 years in jail for s odomy of a 17-year youth.
– IPP MEDIA
* Botswana’s Trade and Industry Ministry intends to amend the Industrial Developments Act to provide for joint ventures in reserved medium scale businesses. Minister Neo Moroka said the reservation policy needs to be reviewed to ensure that Batswana participate meaningfully in business activities.
– DAILY NEWS
* The Ugandan Government should abolish safe houses and stop detaining suspects illegally, because it violates people’s human rights and freedoms. Court of Appeal judge Justice Amos Twinomujuni sounded the call when presenting a paper on the theme ‘operationalising the constitutional right to bail and challenges’.
– THE NEW VISION
* Angola's Parliament has approved an amnesty plan for separatists in Cabinda as part of a deal to end a simmering 31-year conflict in the oil-rich province. The Angolan Government and a faction of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda signed a peace deal that gives special status to the restive coastal region and an amnesty to all combatants.
– MAIL & GUARDIAN ONLINE
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