Month: September, 2016
USA/Africa: From #BlackLivesMatter to #StopTheBleeding Africa
| September 22, 2016 | 8:45 pm | Africa, Analysis, political struggle, Struggle for African American equality | Comments closed

AfricaFocus Bulletin
September 21, 2016 (160921)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

The direct and indirect toll resulting from illicit financial flows
reflects the unequal value today’s world places on human lives by
race and place … Reflecting the legacy of the slave trade and
colonialism, the African continent and Black people around the world
are disproportionately located at the bottom of a global system that
systematically sucks wealth upward, toward the top “1 percent.” …
there can be no doubt that the number of deaths caused by these
structural economic inequalities rivals or likely even exceeds those
lost due to bombs, guns, or machetes.

For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/iff1609.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”

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This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains an article published today in
Praxis (http://www.kzoo.edu/praxis/making-violence-visible/), an on-line publication of the
Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College. The
article, written by Emily Williams and William Minter, seeks to do
the following: 1) introduce readers to the #StoptheBleeding campaign
and make the tremendous loss of resources from African countries via
illicit financial flows more visible; 2) begin to make the case for
linking #BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleeding with the
understanding that the same system of (mis)appropriation of wealth
is hurting people in Africa and elsewhere in the world including the
US; and 3) offer several domestic and global policy changes that
could make a difference on both sides of the Atlantic.

For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on illicit financial flows and
related issues, visit http://www.africafocus.org/intro-iff.php

In addition to links in the article below, additional newly
published resources include:

From the US-Africa Network

“Top 10 Questions About Illicit Financial Flows and Africa”
http://tinyurl.com/zz4xr53

“Resources about Illicit Financial Flows from Africa”
http://tinyurl.com/jsyg8el

From AfricaFocus Bulletin

Top Ten Books on Illicit Financial Flows, Tax Justice, and Africa
http://www.africafocus.org/iff-books.php

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

Making Violence Visible: From #BlackLivesMatter to #StoptheBleeding
Africa

By Emily Williams and William Minter

[Emily Williams is an educator and organizational development
consultant. William Minter is the editor of AfricaFocus Bulletin (
http://www.africafocus.org) and author of numerous books and other
publications on African issues and international relations. Both
authors are members of the coordinating committee of the US-Africa
Network (http://www.usafricanetwork.org). The authors are grateful
for the skillful editing of Alice Kim, which has contributed
immensely to the development of this article.]

In June 2015, a coalition of six Pan-African activist networks
launched #StoptheBleeding Africa (
http://stopthebleedingafrica.org/faqs/) in Nairobi, Kenya to curb
the hemorrhage of resources from the African continent. As the
#BlackLivesMatter movement continued to gain strength in the United
States, this Pan-African coalition came together to expose and
mobilize global support to end illicit financial flows – money that
is illegally earned, transferred or used. Estimates of illegal
transactions in Africa show a loss of at least $50 billion to $80
billion in wealth every year, a figure that would be incalculably
more if transfers made legal by loopholes and unfair treaties were
included. Some flows are only seen as “legal” because the laws are
written and interpreted by those profiting from the system.
Nevertheless, even the outflow of clearly illegal  funds is far
greater than the estimated $40 billion a year that Africa receives
in official development assistance. As explained in this 16-minute
video from the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lenH1SaOcIA), the #StoptheBleeding
campaign includes official commitments by African governments.
However, implementing these commitments depends on large-scale
mobilizations within Africa and around the world.

Unlike the pillage of Africa in earlier periods of the slave trade
and colonial rule, these illicit financial transactions are most
often hidden from public view. They happen through fraudulent
invoicing of trade, “creative accounting” by multinational
corporations, tax giveaways by African governments, and the use of
shell companies based in tax havens around the world including
Delaware, Luxembourg, Panama, the British Virgin Islands, Liberia,
and Mauritius. Despite repeated revelations, notably the recent
#PanamaPapers (https://panamapapers.icij.org/) scandal, the public
eye glazes over at billions of dollars cited alongside obscure
company names and a complex web of financial links across national
and continental borders. This article seeks to do the following: 1)
introduce readers to the #StoptheBleeding campaign and make the
tremendous loss of resources from African countries via illicit
financial flows more visible; 2) begin to make the case for linking
#BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleeding with the understanding that
the same system of (mis)appropriation of wealth is hurting people in
Africa and elsewhere in the world including the US; and 3) offer
several domestic and global policy changes that could make a
difference on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Looting Machine

As South African student activist Pearl Pillay noted, “it is a
common error of thought that violence is only what you can see”
(http://tinyurl.com/jtk3hzy). Violence that stems from decisions
made in boardrooms, city halls, and the offices of high-paid
international accounting and law firms can be harder to see than
violence on the streets but is deadly nonetheless.

In the US, economic violence is carried out through systemic public
disinvestment in health and education as we’ve seen in Flint,
Michigan’s water crisis and the closure of public schools in Chicago
and Detroit, not to mention below-poverty-level wages paid by
corporations such as Wal-Mart and McDonald’s.

In African countries, capitalist enterprises suck resources out of
the continent via traditional industries like oil and minerals and
rapidly expanding economic sectors like telecommunications and
retail:

* In Nigeria, Shell, Chevron, and other companies from Europe and
China share oil profits with corrupt Nigerian officials. The Panama
Papers reveals that “three oil ministers, several senior employees
of the national oil company and two former state governors” were
“convicted of laundering ill-gotten money from the oil industry” (
https://panamapapers.icij.org/20160725-nigeria-oil-mogul.html). One
prominent Nigerian oil trader is accused of cheating the Nigerian
government out of 1.8 billion dollars in oil sales.

*In Angola, an oligarchy headed by the president’s family presides
over oil riches in alliance with companies including Chevron,
ExxonMobil, BP, and a Hong Kong-based international network of
companies known as the Queensway Group (http://tinyurl.com/n5bn5gn).

* In South Africa, the mobile phone company MTN is able to avoid
paying taxes on hundreds of millions of dollars from its
subsidiaries in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, and other African countries,
it was revealed last year, by channeling most of its profits through
“management fees” to its subsidiary tax haven in Mauritius (
http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/td1510.php).

* Walmart, which has controlled the South Africa-based Massmart
since 2011, hides an estimated $76 billion of its foreign earnings
through subsidiaries in Luxembourg, where it owns no stores (
http://tinyurl.com/hmhg24t). By hiding these earnings stored in
Luxembourg, Walmart avoids paying taxes on the funds.

These financial practices can be as, if not more, deadly than police
violence due to the sheer number of people impacted as resources
needed for health, education, and other public services, as well as
for private and public investment in development, are siphoned out
to multinational corporations and overseas bank accounts. The
ensuing competition for scarce resources fuels local and national
conflicts, often heightened by demagogues channeling the frustration
into hostility toward ethnic “others.”

The direct and indirect toll resulting from illicit financial flows
reflects the unequal value today’s world places on human lives by
race and place; and, in fact, not only parallels the violence of
terrorism but also reflects its disproportionate toll on the Middle
East, Africa, and Asia than in Europe and the Americas (
http://tinyurl.com/hlsbj8b). Reflecting the legacy of the
slave trade and colonialism, the African continent and Black people
around the world are disproportionately located at the bottom of a
global system that systematically sucks wealth upward, toward the
top “1 percent.” Whether this system is best called capitalism,
neoliberalism, global apartheid, white supremacy, kleptocracy, or
something else, there can be no doubt that the number of deaths
caused by these structural economic inequalities rivals or likely
even exceeds those lost due to bombs, guns, or machetes.

+++++++++++

Stop the Bleeding (4-minute music video)

++++++++++++

Financial Flows and Tax Losses

With the #PanamaPapers leak in April 2016, illicit financial flows
momentarily gained international media attention. This is in part
because rich as well as poor countries are affected. A recent
calculation (http://tinyurl.com/holnnc5) estimated that illegal
tax evasion costs US taxpayers $35 billion a year, with an
additional $130 billion a year lost to technically legal “tax
avoidance.” Even without any changes in tax rates for the rich,
these “lost” funds could add $165 billion a year more in public
funds and be invested in health, education, and other public goods
that benefit Americans.

The losses to sub-Saharan Africa from illicit flows, however, have
an even more significant impact given the smaller size of African
economies and the urgent need for investment in basic services.
According to World Bank estimates (http://tinyurl.com/hw7b8t3) for
2014, while the United States and other rich countries on average
spend over $9,000 a year per person on public health, South Africa
spends a little less than $600 a year per person. Meanwhile the
average for all African countries together is less than $100 per
person per year. As the wealthy evade taxes in both richer and
poorer countries, it is always the most vulnerable in society who
suffer most from budget cuts. On a global scale, African countries
and African people suffer disproportionately, reflecting the global
hierarchy of wealth and power
http://www.africafocus.org/iff-inequality.php).

Watch this 3.5 minute video on how Zambia Sugar evades taxes.

Making Connections Across Geographic and Mental Distance

Although #BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleeding were born out of
distinct geographic contexts, highlight apparently different social
problems, call for varying solutions, and have diverging levels of
visibility in the global media, they are inextricably and deeply
linked.

Thanks to #BlackLivesMatter the pervasive systemic violence against
Black people by police and the criminal justice system in the US is
now more visible. Names like Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Sandra
Bland, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, and
Philando Castile have not been forgotten because activists have
strategically used social media, street protests, and behind-the-
scenes organizing to force the media, the public, and politicians to
pay attention.

In the U.S., increasing economic inequality has led to the
criminalization of the poor and can be directly connected to police
violence. For example, in the cases of Alton Sterling and Eric
Garner, their attempts to make money in the street economy (selling
cd’s and loose cigarettes respectively) is what preceded their
interaction with police that ultimately ended in the loss of their
lives. U.S. activists are intentionally making economic justice fundamental to the message of #BlackLivesMatter in initiatives like the Agenda to Build Black Futures (http://agendatobuildblackfutures.org/) released by Black Youth
Project in January 2016 and the Vision for Black Lives (https://policy.m4bl.org/) released by a coalition of Black
organizations in August 2016. Notably, #BlackLivesMatter
interventions in numerous cities were integral to pushing Bernie
Sanders’ presidential campaign, which appealed to a growing segment
of the American population because it called for a more progressive
and populist economic agenda, to (belatedly) acknowledge the
relationship between racial justice, gender justice, and economic
justice.

But the violence plaguing Africa remains far too invisible to most
Americans. It is more difficult to #saytheirnames when the report is
of 44 killed at the #Marikana mine in South Africa, 147 students at
#Garissa in Kenya, or hundreds of men, women, and children at #Baga
in northeastern Nigeria, places most Americans have never visited
and can’t find on a map.

Although the Nigerian-launched campaign to #BringBackOurGirls won
international fame, few Americans (beyond African immigrants and
others with close personal links to the continent) are attentive to
other struggles in Africa. Hashtags like #StoptheBleeding,
#OccupyNigeria, #MinersShotDown, #FeesMustFall, and #RhodesMustFall
echo faintly, if at all, across the Atlantic.

Making the connections between what is happening “here” and what is
happening “there” is not easy – #StoptheBleeding can feel less
tangible because the violence being contested is hidden in a tangle
of economic statistics, anonymous shell companies, and accounting
tricks – but it is fundamental to addressing the obstacles that must
be overcome to make a different world possible. It is imperative to
address the roots of injustice that connect #BlackLivesMatter and
#StoptheBleeding by fostering a collective process that builds
solidarity between movement forces in the US and Africa.

Follow the Money

When policymakers—in Chicago, Washington, Pretoria, Nairobi, or
anywhere else —ask “Where is the money?” to pay for health,
education, and infrastructure, the answer should be, in the words of
the African Union Panel on Illicit Financial Flows: “Track it! Stop
it! Get it!” (http://tinyurl.com/zvwn5p5) The debate must go beyond
the very real issues of setting different budget priorities to
raising the basic question of who pays and who is evading their duty
to pay their fair share. The first step is to ensure that there is
full information available on income and wealth of those who have
the most money, including the ultra-rich, the well-known giant
companies, and also the obscure shell companies that both use to
hide their wealth from public view.

The United States and other rich countries are the home countries
for the majority of multinational corporations involved in the
looting of the African continent. They also provide convenient
facilities for African elites to hide their riches. In a report
published in January 2016, Global Witness documented with video
interviews their undercover investigation of 13 leading New York law
firms (https://www.globalwitness.org/shadyinc/). “We said we were
advising an African minister who had accumulated millions of
dollars, and we wanted to buy a Gulfstream Jet, a brownstone and a
yacht. We said we needed to get the money into the U.S. without
detection. … the results were shocking; all but one of the lawyers
had suggestions on how to move the funds.”

On the African continent, #StoptheBleeding activist groups and many
public officials at continental and national level are working to
identify the money that pours out of the continent. They have
identified specific measures to improve tracking of fraud in trade
invoices and are campaigning against tax treaties with foreign
investors with massive giveaways. They are working with
international partners to train journalists in investigations such
as those in the Panama Paper, and with tax specialists to improve
capacity to track overseas bank accounts. Implementation depends on
mobilization of public pressure and political will in each
individual country. Since the system is global, however, it also
depends on international collaboration, particularly from the
countries where the money is hidden.

And that’s where the connection to the United States becomes
essential, and the agendas of #BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleeding
Africa potentially converge. The ultra-rich and multinational
corporations operate on a global playing field. Using secret bank
accounts, lawyers, and accountants spread around the world, money
can be transferred with a click of a mouse from Nairobi or Chicago
to the British Virgin Islands to London, with stops along the way in
Panama, the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, Singapore, and Samoa in
the Pacific. If tax authorities are going to track down the money
they should be getting, activists and honest public officials around
the world must also find ways to collaborate to change the laws and
implement them (see the text box for a few examples of key policies
that could make a difference).

++++++++++++++++

Key Policy Changes Needed for Tax Justice

1. Beneficial ownership in the US

Over two million corporations, LLCs, and other business entities are
formed in the United States every year—and almost every state
collects less identifying information from the individuals forming
these entities than from people applying for a driver’s license or
registering to vote. Indeed, many states rank among the easiest
places in the world in which to form “anonymous shell companies” or
“phantom firms” – business entities that exist solely on paper with
no obligation to list the real people who actually own or control
them, otherwise known as the “beneficial owners.” If they remain
hidden, it is not possible to find and to tax the assets, whether
they come from drug dealing or simply from rich people trying to
avoid paying taxes.

Relevant federal legislation proposed: The Incorporation
Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (S. 2489 and H.R.
4450)

2. Public Country-by-Country Reporting

Currently, multinationals are able to exploit loopholes in domestic
and international tax laws to shift profits from one country to the
next, often through tax havens (or “secrecy jurisdictions”), with
the end goal of reducing or even eliminating the tax they pay to
governments. Without leaks and whistleblowers, even governments only
see a small window into the inner workings of companies, which makes
proving tax avoidance or evasion nearly impossible. Although MNCs
report on their profits, revenue, taxes paid, and number of
employees, the global numbers they provide are for the operations of
all of their subsidiaries bundled together.

Multinational corporations should be required to submit individual
reports with basic financial information such as revenue, profits,
taxes, and number of employees for each jurisdiction in which they
operate. These country by country reports should be made available
to the public. Public country-by-country reporting strengthens the
financial system for everyone.

New regulations on country-by-country reporting by corporations were
issued this year by the Treasury and the IRS, and are also under
consideration by the Security and Exchange Commission. However,
these do not yet meet the standard of public disclosure demanded by
tax justice advocates.

3. Financial Transaction (Robin Hood) Tax

Simply put, the big idea behind the Robin Hood Tax is to generate
hundreds of billions of dollars, through a small tax of 0.5% on all
financial transactions such as sales of stocks and bonds. That money
could provide funding for jobs to kickstart the economy and get
America back on its feet. It could help save the social safety net
here and around the world, and it will come from fair taxation of
the finance sector. The revenue raised would be enough to protect
American schools, housing, local governments and hospitals, to pay
for lifesaving AIDS medicines, to support people and communities
around the world, and to deal with the climate challenges we’re
facing.

Relevant federal legislation proposed: The Inclusive Prosperity Act
(H.R. 1464), introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep.
Keith Ellison and 36 co-sponsors and in the Senate (S. 1371) by Sen.
Bernie Sanders, with 1 co-sponsor.

+++++++++++

Action at the federal level can have the widest effect, given the
size of the U. S. economy and the impact of U.S. policy on
international action. But given that corporations are registered at
the state level and also pay corporate taxes at the state level,
states also have the capacity to take the lead and set a precedent
for national action. If the political will and the technical legal
and financial expertise are available, similar laws could possibly
even be implemented at city levels, as were divestment measures in
the anti-apartheid era.

Solidarity between #BlackLivesMatter and #StoptheBleedingAfrica is
crucial. Via weak corporate tax law, the U.S. gives license to
corporations to hoard profits and withhold their fair share of taxes
from the societies and countries which allow them to become
prosperous. By standing in opposition to tax injustice, activists
can push back against an aspect of U.S. capitalism that contributes
to increasing wealth inequality. By staying informed, building
relationships, and working in solidarity, we begin to create better
conditions for Black lives across the globe.

Incremental policy change will not be enough. We must confront the
legacy of centuries of systemic injustice and end society’s denial
that this past still shapes the present. The violent inequality of
today’s world is not new, despite dramatic changes in the
technologies of both physical and economic violence. Making that
violence visible also requires making full use of new technologies,
from cellphone videos to big-data journalism. But above all, it
depends on forging links between activists engaged on these
different fronts in different places, who together can build the
political will to act and thus make new futures possible.

For More Information

Africa-specific

Tax Justice Network – Africa
http://www.taxjusticeafrica.net/en/blog/

AfricaFocus Bulletin
http://www.africafocus.org/intro-iff.php

US-Africa Network
Stop the Bleeding Africa

USA and Global

FACT (Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency) Coalition
https://thefactcoalition.org/blog/

ActionAid International
http://www.actionaid.org/tax-power

Global Alliance for Tax Justice
http://www.globaltaxjustice.org/en/resources

Tax Justice Network
http://www.taxjustice.net/reports-2/

*****************************************************

AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
write to this address to subscribe or unsubscribe to the bulletin,
or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about
reposted material, please contact directly the original source
mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see
http://www.africafocus.org

In Memoriam of Orlando Letelier: How the US Helped to Kill Pinochet Rival
| September 22, 2016 | 8:30 pm | Analysis, Discrimination against communists, Imperialism, political struggle | Comments closed
03:52 23.09.2016(updated 03:57 23.09.2016)
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Forty years ago, a bomb exploded in downtown Washington, DC. Its target, Orlando Letelier, was a Chilean diplomat and Foreign Minister in the administration former president Salvador Allende. The bombing was sanctioned by Augusto Pinochet, who subsequently came to power in a CIA-orchestrated coup d’etat. Victor Figeuroa Clark, a Chilean historian and author of the book Salvador Allende: Revolutionary Democrat, joined Radio Sputnik’s Brian Becker to talk about the events of that time. According to Clark, Letelier was assassinated because he was an extremely effective voice against Pinochet, both in Washington and at the UN. Some months before he was killed, Letelier was a key figure in lobbying to pass an amendment limiting US aid to Pinochet’s CIA-installed regime. But Letelier was also a political threat, Clark explained. The well-liked diplomat had contacts among political elites, and at the time of his death, he was the only person who could lead an organized opposition to Pinochet. Blowing up a car in the middle of the US capital is the opposite of clandestine. According to Clark, Pinochet dared the public killing because he was receiving mixed signals from the US. “Like with other right-wing and extremist regimes at the time and ever since, US institutions have given confusing signs on human rights, and the length of lead they can be given. The State Department might have given a “red light” while the CIA could have given the green light,'” Clark said. “Pinochet and the junta felt like they were on a global crusade against the evil as they thought it communism or marxism. They thought that they were representing the best interests of the US and the free world, and that therefore they would be understood and forgiven.” Letelier is one of the most famous victims of Operation Condor, a communist-hunting network orchestrated through a joint effort by intelligence services of Latin American dictator regimes, alongside the United States, to share intelligence information on left-wing organizations and their leaders. In 2001, former US State Secretary Henry Kissinger was named a suspect and defendant in a case regarding Operation Condor and related assassinations. After a visit to an investigator, Kissinger immediately left France and refused to travel to Brazil. “The US were fundamental in establishing of these intelligence services,” Clark said. “[The assassination of Letelier] was a fruit of the long-term policy of working with intelligence services and governments in order to repress the left-wing groups across the Latin America,” he added. The bombing was carried out by US citizen Michael Vernon Townley, a professional assassin, and an operative of the Chilean DINA secret police. Later, he confessed and was convicted of the assassination of Letelier, serving 62 months in prison. He is currently thought to be living in the United States under the US federal witness-protection program. “Townley’s case isn’t unusual,” Clark says. “This is one of the problems that the United States has with other countries in the world, which is not going to be remedied by the release of the classified document from over 40 years ago.” “If you hide the perpetrators of those crimes, then there is no real justice and the diplomatic problems will continue,” Clark stated.

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/latam/20160923/1045612970/orlando-letelier-car-bombing-assassination.html

US Government ‘Violates Human Rights of Black People Every Single Day’
| September 22, 2016 | 7:49 pm | Analysis, police terrorism, political struggle, Struggle for African American equality | Comments closed
21:27 22.09.2016
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Police and government corruption is endemic in the US, where politicians should work to tackle human rights abuses at home rather than lecturing other countries, Civil rights activist Toni Sanders, founder of the group Think MOOR (Movements of Organized Revolutionaries), told Radio Sputnik. On Tuesday afternoon a 43-year-old black man, Keith Lamont Scott, was shot dead by police in Charlotte, North Carolina. The shooting sparked protests from the local community, who dispute the police version of events. The local police claim that Scott was armed and “posed an imminent deadly threat to officers” who shot him. However, Scott’s family insist he was unarmed and reading a book in his car at the time of the shooting. On Tuesday and Wednesday residents of Charlotte took to the streets in protest at Scott’s death, and North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency and ordered the deployment of the National Guard and highway patrols after the protests turned violent. One protestor is in critical condition in hospital after being shot, and 12 police officers were injured after protests on Wednesday. Civil rights activist Toni Sanders, founder of the group Think MOOR (Movements of Organized Revolutionaries), told Radio Sputnik that the quick deployment of the National Guard is another sign of disparity in the treatment of African-Americans. “Look how quick they declared a state of emergency in North Carolina and brought the National Guard in. We had (Hurricane) Katrina, which was a major natural disaster over in Louisiana and all those people were stranded on rooftops, thousands of people died, it took eight days for the National Guard to even do anything,” Sanders said. Sanders said that the protests are a response to the shooting and inadequate police investigations into previous police shootings of unarmed black men. “If you commit a crime and then I tell you to investigate yourself, what can I expect except corruption? You don’t want to be found guilty, you don’t want to be liable, so what are you going to do? You’re going to make up evidence and you’re going to try to find ways to get yourself off, which is what they do every single time,” Sanders said. Sanders made a radical proposal for black people to tackle police brutality against them. This includes setting up new educational, economic and security institutions to rival those of the US government. “One of the things I advocate for, honestly, is for black people to get their own schools, start growing gardens and feeding their own communities. To stop depending on the economic structure of the US, because we need to withdraw our funds and keep our money in our communities.” “We mean community policing, that is what is going to empower us and keep us safe. The government is corrupt. The government here in the US is trash, and they tell these other countries, ‘you’re violating human rights, we need to invade your country,’ and right here in their own territory they are violating the human rights of black people every single day,” Sanders said.

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/us/20160922/1045605392/us-government-human-rights.html

Gabon: High Demand for Democracy, Short Supply
| September 14, 2016 | 7:38 pm | Africa, Analysis, political struggle | Comments closed

AfricaFocus Bulletin
September 14, 2016 (160914)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

“Among 36 African countries surveyed in 2014/2015, Gabon ranks at or
near the bottom on every indicator of election quality and fairness,
according to citizen responses collected in September and October
2015. … Gabon ranks dead last in public trust in the election
commission. … [at the same time] Gabon ranks near the top in
favoring multiparty competition and term limits on presidents, as
well as in disapproving of one-party and one-man rule.” –
Afrobarometer

For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/gab1609.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”

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Election observers agree the narrow victory for incumbent President
Ali Bongo in last month’s presidential election was almost certainly
the result of fraud. Yet his opponent, Jean Ping, is also a long-
standing member of the country’s elite, and is reportedly the father
of two children with the president’s half-sister. Ping’s support is
based largely on the fact that he is not a member of the Bongo
family, which has been in power since 1967, when Omar Bongo, Ali’s
father, came to power. The regime in this small oil-producing
country has been notorious for corruption, and for its close links
to the power structure in France, with Omar Bongo reportedly himself
a major influence for decades as a donor in French national
politics.

Ali Bongo has diversified international ties since taking office in
2009, reaching out to the United States and China. But France
remains Gabon’s dominant external partner, intricately intertwined
with both economic and political structures in the country.

For a short overview, see in particular “Gabon’s Bongo Family:
Living In Luxury, Paid For By Corruption And Embezzlement,”
International Business Times, February 15, 2013
(http://tinyurl.com/zordjcq). For more background, see the links
listed at the end of this Bulletin.

Gabon, like other Francophone African countries, is not well-known
to most English-speaking readers. But increasingly, the range of
sources available in English as well as French makes it possible to
access basic sources for both news and analysis.

This AfricaFocus Bulletin, focused on the current situation.
contains two short articles, from Chatham House in London and The
Daily Maverick in South Africa, and press releases from extensive
polling research by Afrobarometer (Everyone concerned about reliable
information on African public opinion should note that Afrobarometer
is currently experiencing a fiscal crisis, and its extraordinarily
useful and revealing research in more than 35 African countries is
threatened with cutbacks from donors, including USAID. Go to
http://www.afrobarometer.org for more background and to contribute
through paypal).

The Afrobarometer studies on Gabon reveal strong support for
democracy among Gabonese voters, but intense skepticism about the
capacity of the system to deliver. Political commentators agree that
significant reforms are highly unlikely, but there is no consensus
on the likely outcome of the dispute over the election results.

For the reader who has the time and internet bandwith to watch,
AfricaFocus highly recommends the Youtube playlist of the four
videos listed at the beginning of this Bulletin (To go directly to
the playlist, click on http://tinyurl.com/zollum3)

For up-to-date news coverage and analysis, see
http://allfrica.com/gabon (in English)
and http://fr.allafrica.com/gabon (in French), and particularly
http://www.lemonde.fr/gabon/ (in French)

For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on Gabon, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/country/gabon.php

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Announcement: New Resources on Illicit Financial Flows

Newly available on website of US-Africa Network – new resources on
Illicit Financial Flows and the Stop the Bleeding Africa campaign.
Go to https://usafricanetwork.org/home/issues/stop-the-bleeding-africa/

Thanks to Chris Root and Anita Plummer of the US-Africa Network for
preparing and sharing these resources, including “Top 10 Questions
About Illicit Financial Flows and Africa” and a carefully selected
and annotated “Resources about Illicit Financial Flows from Africa.”

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

Youtube Playlist with recent videos on the situation in Gabon

France 24, September 7, 2016 – part 1, 18 minutes & part 2 – 26
minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88h6q4P4z_Y and

London Business School, November 11, 2015, “My Two Years Working for
the Government of Gabon” – 22 minutes

Anonymous, September 12, 2016 – 6 minutes

Anonymous, June 13, 2013 – 4 minutes

************************************************

Electoral Chaos Leaves Gabon in a State of Uncertainty

Paul Melly, Associate Fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham House

Chatham House, 7 September 2016

https://www.chathamhouse.org/ – direct URL:
http://tinyurl.com/h57jts2

The country’s democratic credentials have been deeply wounded by
dodgy official results, protest riots and a brutal government
crackdown.

Gabon’s model of political moderation and gradualist reform may have
just imploded. Without external mediation, a full audit of polling
station results and a hitherto absent readiness to compromise on the
part of President Ali Bongo Ondimba and his main challenger, Jean
Ping, the country risks being condemned to months or even years of
unstable and sullen post-election stalemate.

Mild though the crisis appears by the standards of more
authoritarian or conflict-torn neighbours, it is disastrously
damaging for Bongo’s long-held ambition of transforming himself from
dynastic heir into freely-elected architect of modernization and
reform. After seven years trying to mark his country out from the
fiefdoms of central Africa’s strongmen, he now risks cantoning
himself into the category of presidents whose hold on office depends
on power rather than consent.

Contested results

Official results for the 27 August presidential election gave Bongo
49.8% of the nationwide total, compared with 48.23% for Ping; two
candidates pulled out to leave Ping a clear run, while the minor
players who stayed in the race got trivial scores.

The final winning margin was just 5,594 votes. After severe defeats
for Bongo in western urban centres such as Libreville and Port
Gentil and with national average turnout at 59%, Bongo was
miraculously saved by results from his Haut Ogooué heartland, which
registered 95% support on a reported 99% turnout. In the context of
a highly secretive electoral system, such an outcome threatens to
fundamentally undermine Gabon’s democratic ambitions.

Yet the aftermath has been even more damaging. Furious protesters
rioted, setting light to the national assembly, other public
buildings and the shops of West African traders – a longstanding
target of popular resentment.

The government’s response has been uncompromising. During the night
of 31 August-1 September, security force units, supposedly searching
for rioters, took control of Ping’s campaign headquarters. There
were several deaths, while a number of casualties were taken to
hospital with gunshot wounds; dozens were arrested, and senior
opposition figures were still in the building, surrounded by
security forces, a day later.

Gabon, so often a broker in other nations’ disputes, now finds
itself being offered African Union crisis mediation. The justice
minister has resigned from both government and ruling party,
demanding a full audit of all the election counts, polling station
by polling station.

Bongo’s failed strategy

The violence is a tragedy for Gabon. Street protest is hardly new
but is usually curbed with routine policing and the odd volley of
tear gas. Moreover, this bloodshed represents a major failure for
Bongo’s leadership. He came to power in 2009 after the death of his
father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled for four decades, in
elections that were opaque and widely seen as a continuation of the
status quo. His subsequent banning of the new Union Nationale
opposition party seemed to confirm this pattern.

But Ali has spent much of the past seven years trying to reshape
Gabon’s governance. He has sought to rebalance and diversify the
economy, improve the performance of the state and foster a more
equitable social model, tilting social services and public sector
wage structures towards the poorer citizens who had previously been
neglected in favour of the governing middle class. Key barons of his
father’s regime were marginalized, the ban on the Union Nationale
was lifted, and Bongo acceded to opposition demands for a biometric
electoral roll. Assets in France held personally by the Bongo family
were transferred to the ownership of the state.

Bongo had hoped that his measures to stimulate the economy and
protect the environment, bolster the efficiency of public services
and help the poor would allow him to shed his image as the inheritor
of dynastic power, and earn his own legitimacy through his own
performance as president. In the face of an opposition dominated by
the ancien regime power-brokers who he had forced out, Ali sought to
present himself as the real incarnation of change.

But several factors combined to undermine this strategy. The
influence of several prominent West Africans in the presidency and
in business circles close to the government was unpopular with many
locals. Like other oil producing countries, Gabon has been hit hard
by the collapse in world energy prices, despite its care in
nurturing a reputation as a prudent borrower in international bond
markets. And ultimately, Bongo under-estimated the scale of anger
and impatience for change in a country whose voters are well aware
of democracy’s advance elsewhere in francophone Africa – powerfully
symbolized by the popular revolution that felled Burkina Faso
strongman Blaise Compaoré in 2014.

Changed times

Many Gabonese feel it is now time to move on from the era of
dynastic rule, even in the refreshed and more modern form that Ali
Bongo Ondimba has provided.

Bongo seems to have been completely unprepared for the strength of
the response to the electoral pitch made by Jean Ping. As a former
regime veteran once married to Ali’s sister Pascaline, Ping could
not claim to be a new face. Indeed, having also served a term as
chair of the African Union Commission, he is very much part of the
establishment.

But he cleverly tapped into the current mood, presenting himself as
the man whose election would show that power in Gabon really could
change hands through the ballot box. A promise to serve only one
term enhanced this appeal – and usefully contrasted with Ali’s
aspiration to yet another extension of rule by the Bongo dynasty.

When most other opposition candidates dropped out at the last
minute, Ping was ideally placed to capitalize.

Furthermore, in the aftermath, Bongo has badly misread the evolution
of attitudes in the international community: France, the EU and the
US want to see a transparent and credible election process. Even
Paris, for so many years a supportive ally of the Bongos, is no
longer prepared to turn a blind eye. As a result, pressure is
mounting for a full breakdown of the vote, to show figures for every
single polling station. Privately, many diplomats feel it is clear
that Ping won, even if there was cheating on all sides.

Looking ahead, there seems no easy way out. The most consensual
option would be a full audit of the election count, with both
contenders fully committed to accepting the eventual result – a
course of action that would offer a face saving and honourable way
out to the loser. Without that, Gabon seems condemned to a prolonged
period of unrest and political confrontation. Even if Bongo hangs
on, his standing will be critically damaged.

*************************************************************

Afrobarometer Reports on Gabon

http://www.afrobarometer.org

In Gabon, overwhelming public distrust of CENAP and election quality
forms backdrop for presidential vote dispute

News Release, 1 September 2016

For full news release, as well as Afrobarometer report released on
September 6, visit http://afrobarometer.org/countries/gabon-0

Gabon’s presidential election dispute is playing out against a
background of overwhelming public distrust of the national election
commission (CENAP) and strikingly negative assessments of the
country’s election environment in advance of the August 2016 vote, a
new analysis by Afrobarometer shows.

Among 36 African countries surveyed in 2014/2015, Gabon ranks at or
near the bottom on every indicator of election quality and fairness,
according to citizen responses collected in September and October 2015.

Gabon ranks dead last in public trust in the election commission: A
majority (51%) of citizens said they do not trust the CENAP “at
all,” and only 8% said they trust the commission “a lot.”

Gabon also ranks among the worst in citizens’ perceptions of the
fairness of the vote count, the freeness and fairness of its
previous national election (2011), fear of voter intimidation or
violence, fair treatment of opposition candidates, and the
prevalence of voter bribery. Overall, Gabon citizens held the most
negative perceptions of how well elections function to ensure that
voters’ views are represented and to enable voters to remove leaders
who don’t do what the people want.

The Gabon findings are part of a new Afrobarometer report, to be
released 6 September 2016, on citizens’ perceptions of electoral
management institutions and the quality of elections, It is based on
almost 54,000 interviews in 36 African countries.

The new report, titled “Election quality, public trust are central
issues as African nations look toward next contests,” will be
available at http://www.afrobarometer.org.

Key findings for Gabon

* A majority (51%) of Gabonese respondents said in late 2015 that
they do not trust the CENAP “at all,” with 17% who trust it
“somewhat,” 24% “a little bit,” and only 8% “a lot” (Figure 1).
Among 36 African countries surveyed in 2014/2015, Gabon ranks last
in public trust in the election commission (Figure 2).

* Only 37% of citizens saw their 2011 election as having been
“completely free and fair” or “free and fair, but with minor
problems.” A majority said the 2011 election was “not free and fair”
(31%) or “free and fair, with major problems” (24%) (Figure 3).

* On perceptions of the election environment (Figure 4), seven in 10
Gabonese citizens (71%) said that votes are “never” or only
“sometimes” counted fairly. Only 15% said the vote count is “always”
fair.

* Almost two-thirds (64%) of Gabonese said they fear campaign-
related intimidation or violence at least “a little bit,” including
almost one-fourth (23%) who expressed “a lot” of fear. One-third
(32%) said voters are “often” or “always” threatened with violence
at the polls.

* A majority (56%) of citizens said that opposition candidates are
at least “sometimes” prevented from running for office. One in five
(22%) said this happens “often” or “always.”

* Three-fourths (77%) of Gabonese said the news media “never” or
only “sometimes” provides fair coverage of all candidates – the
worst rating among the 36 surveyed countries.

*Seven in 10 citizens (71%) said that voters are “often” or “always”
bribed during Gabon’s elections – far above the 36-country average
of 43%.

* Gabon ranks worst among 36 African countries in citizens’
perceptions of how well elections work. More than three-fourths of
Gabonese say elections perform “not very well” or “not at all well”
to ensure that elected officials reflect the views of voters (76%)
or to enable voters to remove underperforming leaders from office
(79%).

Afrobarometer

Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan research network that
conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic
conditions, and related issues across more than 30 countries in
Africa. Five rounds of surveys were conducted between 1999 and 2013,
and findings from Round 6 surveys (2014/2015) are currently being
released. Afrobarometer conducts face-to-face interviews in the
language of the respondent’s choice with nationally representative
samples that yield country-level results with margins of error of
+/-2% (for samples of 2,400) or +/3% (for samples of 1,200) at a 95%
confidence level.

The Afrobarometer team in Gabon, led by the Centre de Recherche en
Géoscience Politique et Prospective (CERGEP), interviewed 1,200
adult Gabonese citizens in September and October 2015. A sample of
this size yields country-level results with a margin of error of
+/-3% at a 95% confidence level. This was the first Afrobarometer
survey in Gabon.

***************************************************

Behind Gabon’s election dispute, citizens strongly support
multiparty democracy, reject autocratic alternatives

News Release, 2 September, 2016

For full news release, including figures and additional findings,
visit http://afrobarometer.org/countries/gabon-0

Behind Gabon’s eruption in post-election conflict, its citizens are
among the strongest in Africa in their support for multiparty
democracy and their rejection of non-democratic alternatives, a new
analysis by Afrobarometer shows.

Among 36 African countries surveyed in 2014/2015, Gabon ranks near
the top in favouring multiparty competition and term limits on
presidents, as well as in disapproving of one-party and one-man
rule, according to citizen responses collected in September and
October 2015.

Large majorities also expressed support for democracy in general and
for elections as the best way to choose leaders, although on these
issues Gabon ranks only average or below. Gabon’s less enthusiastic
endorsement of elections aligns with citizens’ strikingly negative
views on the national electoral commission (CENAP) and the fairness
of the country’s elections (see press release titled “In Gabon,
overwhelming public distrust of CENAP and election quality forms
backdrop for presidential vote dispute” at www.afrobarometer.org).

Findings on citizens’ perceptions of electoral management
institutions and the quality of elections in Gabon and 35 other
African countries will be released in a new Afrobarometer report on
6 September 2016.

Key findings for Gabon

*In interviews in September-October 2015, two-thirds (68%) of
Gabonese citizens said democracy is preferable to any other
political system, matching average support for democracy among 36
African surveyed in 2014/2015 (67%).

* Gabonese overwhelmingly rejected autocratic alternatives to
democracy. Nine in 10 citizens disapproved of one-party rule (91%)
and one-man rule (89%), including majorities who “strongly”
disapproved (Figure 1). These assessments place Gabon near the top
among surveyed countries. Seven in 10 Gabonese (70%) rejected
military rule.

* Three-fourths (76%) said regular, open, and honest elections are
the best way to choose leaders, compared to 82% across all surveyed
countries (Figure 2).

* In their support for multiparty competition (80%) (Figure 3),
Gabonese are second only to Ivoirians (82%) and far above average
(63%).

* Nine in 10 Gabonese (92%) supported limiting presidents to two
terms in office (Figure 4). Gabon’s support for term limits is
second only to Benin’s (93%) and well above the 36-country average
(75%).

[for full report, including figures and additional findings, visit
http://afrobarometer.org/countries/gabon-0

*************************************************************

Gabon: Jean Ping and the boy who didn’t cry wolf

Simon Allison

Daily Maverick, 6 September, 2016

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za – Direct URL:
http://tinyurl.com/hodtpeh

Opposition leader Jean Ping is incensed that Gabon’s president stole
the recent election. He’s right to be. But maybe Ping should have
harnessed this fury earlier, when he was in a position to do
something about it. Instead, as top boss of the African Union, he
helped to legitimise dodgy polls and obscure accountability. Now he,
and Gabon, are paying the price.

Let me tell you the parable of the boy who didn’t cry wolf. One day,
in an African country of your choice, a wolf passed through the
village. Observing from afar, the boy said nothing, and called no
one, even as the wolf feasted. The next day, the wolf came to
another village. Again the boy saw, again the boy ignored the
tortured shouts of the villagers as they screamed and begged for
help. And so it went on, village by village, as the wolf devoured
his way through the continent; instead of raising the alarm, the boy
stayed silent.

And then the wolf came to Gabon, where the boy lived, and started
snapping its jaws in his direction. The boy screamed and shouted and
cried “wolf!” at the top of his lungs, but by then it was too late.
Everyone around him, everyone who could have helped, had already
been eaten.

The real-life star of this little story is Jean Ping, opposition
candidate for president in Gabon.

Ping is not a happy man right now. Last week, he lost the
presidential election by the slimmest of margins – just 6,000 votes
– and he believes the poll was rigged. “The whole world knows today
who is the president of the Republic of Gabon. It’s me, Jean Ping,”
he said. “Each time the Gabonese people have chosen their president,
the dark forces are always gathered to place he who was not chosen
as head of state.”

Ping is right, of course. These elections were stolen, and brazenly
so. Despite an average turnout of around 60%, an unbelievable 99.3%
was recorded in Haute Ogue, home province of incumbent Ali Bongo –
with Bongo winning 95% of the vote there. That statistically
impossible aberration made all the difference to the final count.

Ping has rejected the outcome, and is pursuing a legal challenge.
Meanwhile, an estimated 5 people have died in post-election violence
between rival supporters and security forces.

Bongo’s security forces may have pulled the trigger, but their blood
is also on Ping’s hands.

Ping, you see, was not always an opposition candidate. He wasn’t
always an outspoken advocate for free and fair elections. He wasn’t
always a fierce critic of dictators and police brutality.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

Although memories fade fast, we must not forget that it was only
four years ago that Ping was forced out of his position as chairman
of the African Union Commission. Between 2008 and 2012, he was the
continental body’s most senior and visible leader.

In this position, he oversaw and monitored elections all over
Africa: polls both free and flawed, and everything in between. But
instead of raising the alarm when something was wrong – instead of
crying wolf – Ping legitimised dodgy polls and obscured
accountability. The very same tactics that Bongo is now using
against him, Ping previously would rubber-stamp.

Take, for example, the Sudanese elections in 2010, in which
President Omar al-Bashir – then and still wanted for war crimes by
the International Criminal Court – strolled to victory in a vote
marred by intimidation, gerrymandering, and accusations of “massive
rigging” by an opposition group. Ping, who headed the African Union
observer mission, had a more generous take:

“These historic elections have indeed afforded the majority of the
Sudanese citizens the opportunity to exercise their civic and
democratic rights by electing representatives of their choice for
the first time in 24 years. The mission believes that the just-
concluded multiparty elections will enhance the peace and democratic
processes under way in the country.”

It also fell to Ping, early in his term, to lead the African
response to Zimbabwe’s tightly contested election in 2008. In the
first round, challenger Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic
Change led Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF. A state-sponsored campaign of
violence and intimidation forced Tsvangirai to withdraw from the
second round of the vote, which he was on course to win.

While the AU was involved in mediating the Zimbabwe situation, its
solution allowed Robert Mugabe – architect of the brutality- to stay
in charge as part of a government of national unity. Ping refrained
from condemning the violence, and downplayed the extent of the
crisis. A reading of the AU’s observer mission statement, following
Mugabe’s uncontested second-round victory, noted vaguely that “there
was violence in the run down to the elections”, but failed to
attribute blame; a neat diplomatic side-step that helped Mugabe’s
regime avoid responsibility.

As leader of the African Union Commission, Ping repeatedly failed to
enforce international electoral standards, or hold African
governments to account for human rights abuses. This is not a unique
failing; a general reticence to criticise is a characteristics of
the AU, and Ping’s successor Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is also rarely
outspoken.

But now Ping finds himself on the other side of the fence. Suddenly,
he is on the receiving end of a rigged vote and electoral violence;
suddenly, he wants those international standards enforced and human
rights observed. If only he had defended these virtues earlier, when
he was in a position of
influence and could have made a real difference. If only Ping had
cried wolf before it was too late. DM

*****************************************************

Links to additional articles recommended

“Gabon’s presidential election: are the opposition’s attempts at
unifying too little too late?,” by Oumar Ba
African Arguments, August 22, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/h7us69a

“Gabon is in chaos — and France is to blame,” Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry,
The Week, September 2, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/zu7wsj5

“Meet Ali Bongo Ondimba, Obama’s Man in Africa,” by Siobhán O’Grady,
Foreign Policy, April 5, 2016
http://foreignpolicy.com – Direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/j2cjv7h

“The murky world of Omar Bongo,” BBC, May 21, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8056309.stm

“A fight inside Gabon’s kleptocratic dynasty exposes the complicity
of French business,” Emma-Kate Symons
May 01, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/hqb4lvt

“Keeping Foreign Corruption Out of the United States: Four Case
Histories: Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations,”
http://tinyurl.com/hvhqby4
September, 2010 – one of the case histories is President Omar Bongo
of Gabon – for a brief summary see
http://www.africafocus.org/docs10/usa1002.php

*****************************************************

AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
write to this address to subscribe or unsubscribe to the bulletin,
or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about
reposted material, please contact directly the original source
mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see
http://www.africafocus.org

Cuba denounces US blockade still persists
| September 10, 2016 | 11:25 pm | Cuba, Economy, political struggle | Comments closed

HAVANA, Cuba, Sep 9 (acn) Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the US economic, financial and commercial blockade still persists, and caused Cuba damages for some 4.68 billion dollars last year alone.

At a press conference to present the report Cuba will take to the United Nations, Rodriguez stressed that the economic siege has lasted over half a century and it has a negative impact on the well-being of Cuban families and the socio-economic development of the country.

The Foreign Minister said the main losses for Cuba were in the export of services and goods, increased prices to products because the need to buy them in faraway markets, and the impossibility of using US dollars in its financial deals.

Cuba will introduce at the UN General Assembly next October 26 Resolution 70/5 under the name: Necessity to end the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States to Cuba.
Despite the improvement on the relations between Cuba and the US, the harm the blockade does to the Cuban people forces Cuba to present this resolution again, said the Minister

Denuncia Cuba persistencia del bloqueo de Estados Unidos

Η πιο όμορφη θάλασσα… (“The most beautiful sea”, Nazim Hikmet)
| September 9, 2016 | 8:30 pm | Greece | Comments closed

South Africa: Post “Post-Apartheid”?
| September 7, 2016 | 8:33 pm | Africa, class struggle, political struggle | Comments closed

South Africa: Post “Post-Apartheid”?

AfricaFocus Bulletin
September 7, 2016 (160907)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

The “post-apartheid” period is now over, it seems. Whether one dates
the change from the massacre of miners at Marikana in 2012, the
death of Nelson Mandela in 2013, student protests in 2015, or the
municipal elections last month, a generation has now passed since
the high hopes of the first democratic elections in 1994. South
Africans, particularly the generation known as the “born-frees,” are
coping with the realization that that political victory was only the
beginning, not the achievement of the  hopes for social and economic
transformation so many had hoped and died for.

For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/sa1609a.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”

To share this on Facebook, click on
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/sa1609a.php

As in other African countries a generation after the achievement of
political independence, and in the United States a generation after
the dramatic gains for political rights in the 1950s and 1960s, it
is clear that centuries of history of oppression are still deeply
embedded in current stubborn structures of inequality, as well as in
the dominant culture. The number of years counted in a generation
are generally taken as somewhere from 20 to 30. But changes in
consciousness are uneven, and sharply marked by transformative
events.

Those experiences differ, of course, from country to country and
continent to continent. But in the age of hashtags such as
#BlackLivesMatter and #FeesMustFall, there are also striking
convergences and linkages across continental boundaries. Yet the
unequal balance in global media (including social media) means that
the outside world is far less aware of the changes in South Africa
than of the highly publicized events in the United States.

Today’s series of two AfricaFocus Bulletins, therefore, focuses
particularly on South Africa.

Another AfricaFocus Bulletin, not sent out by email but available on
the web at http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/sa1609b.php, contains
excerpts from a forthcoming chapter by Patrick Bond, focusing on the
link between student protest in South Africa and the current heated
debates about the government budget and economic priorities in South
Africa.

This AfricaFocus Bulletin includes, as is our normal format, several
articles and additional links related to selected topics: recent
protests by black girls against racist hair codes at elite private
schools, analysis of the aftermath of the municipal elections, and
the planned launch of a new progressive trade union federation.

A new feature this week, however, consists of links  to a Youtube
playlist of highly recommended videos available for free watching,
including two acclaimed feature films on the Marikana Massacre of
2012 (Miners Shot Down) and on the student protests of 2015 (The
People Versus the Rainbow Nation) as well as shorter videos and
interviews, such as the explosive speech by ANC veteran Sipho
Pityana at the funeral of ANC leader Makhenkhesi Stofile in last
August. You can find the listing below, with links to each video.
But, if your time right now is limited, I suggest you save this
email for later reading and go directly to Youtube to pick what to
watch and save any you are interested in to “watch later.” See
“South Africa in the 21st Century in Video: A Youtube Playlist,”
available at http://tinyurl.com/hqpr255.

Watching these videos and preparing the playlist has been both
enjoyable and highly informative for me, but it is also much more
time-consuming than selecting written material from email and web.
So I would much appreciate feedback on whether readers find any of
the videos useful, and whether you would like similar playlists to
be an ongoing feature for AfricaFocus.

To provide feedback, after you have watched a video, please fill out
this form: https://goo.gl/forms/skDu3L9MxgfpJIJj2

If you prefer audio to video, and have time to listen (a bit less
than an hour), note that KPFA radio host Walter Turner interviewed
me about South Africa after the municipal elections on his program
Africa Today. For the discussion with Walter, focused on trying to
understand South Africa’s present situation in comparison to the
parallels in the United States, visit the KPFA site at
https://kpfa.org/program/africa-today/, and scroll down to the
program for August 15, 2016. I’m not doing a form on this one, but
if you listen, any feedback (email to africafocus@igc.org) would be
welcome.

For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on South Africa, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/country/southafrica.php

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

Zulaikha Patel: How we all wish we were you

by Azad Essa

Daily Vox, August 30, 2016

http://www.thedailyvox.co.za/zulaikha-patel-wish-we-were-you/

[For regular progressive coverage of South Africa, follow The Daily
Vox on Facebook or subscribe to the weekly “Top of the Vox” at
http://tinyurl.com/z5fvnpm]

I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite like it.

The little girl – now known to all as Zulaikha Patel – standing in
front of a row of three white males, refusing to back down, calling
on them to follow through with their threats to arrest them – for
their hair.

“Take us all,” she said, for half a dozen girls at the school. “They
want to take us prison … take us all.”

It was an act of extraordinary courage that left us tingling. Who
were these brave girls and how had they secured such resilience
against authority?

I watched the video on a loop on Instagram. Stolen moments from a
protest that left me breathless. I think it was five times before I
dared to blink. And still, there was an artistry in the execution of
their defiance. A calmness that betrayed possible consequence.

For Zulaikha – her resolve was as natural as the curls on her head
and the light creases on her young face. It was earnest, determined
and uncomplicated.

Their actions were undeterred by mortgage payments and outstanding
car loans. Unconcerned about the impact of her actions on “her
career” or “that promotion”.

A free spirit, asking only for the right to be herself.

The photo of her standing tall with steely eyes, arms outstretched
and fists folded above her irresistible afro in a defiance of an
antiquated, warped and racist policy will be studied and fluttered
over for years to come.

We learnt later that Zulaikha had been previously put in detention
for her hair. That she had to leave three schools because her hair
challenged the system. Her sister said she was continually mocked,
her hair described as “exotic” and looking like a “cabbage”. She
would come home in tears.  It is remarkable then that she didn’t
look for ways to mend the “problem”.

I know I would have. I know I turned a blind eye to any whispers or
condescension from teachers or classmates at both primary and
secondary school reserved for the few brown and black faces in the
former Model-C schools I attended. I know I put on a purported
civilised face each morning I entered that school and showed my true
colours each afternoon back home or with fellow brown savages at the
local madrassa.

Then, as profiling at airports or certain cities continue to
proliferate, so many of us are shifting our behaviours,
assimilating, changing the way we curl our tongues so we fit in, or
draw attention to ourselves. And if we protest, it will be decided
after a cost-benefit assessment: based on time and place, potential
to win and lose, energy levels and interest to take on the prejudice
or let it slip. We are all in awe of Zulaikha, because we wish to
hell we could have all been her, growing up. We wish we could be
her, as a grown up.

While so many of us were trying as children, and then as adults, to
make the world work for us, we forgot that world already belonged to
each and every one of us. We’ve been left so insecure and desperate
to “make it”, we’ve been wired to forgo anything, including
ourselves.

I wondered after watching the clip another five times: what if there
hadn’t been a video to record the sublime protest initiated by the
girls of the school? The reported narrative would have never gone
viral. It would not have brought the school to its knees, its
policies into the spotlight. It might not have brought politicians
and policymakers into the discussion. Zulaikha might have found
herself immediately suspended, or expelled, maybe jailed. It might
have all been in vain.

We don’t know, as per her sister’s admission, how all of this
attention will impact on Zulaikha. She is just a 13-year-old after
all, acting on her own accord. And this is not a fight she was ever
meant to fight.

But she has provided a most memorable lesson.

Justice, it turns out, simply needs people to speak out against
injustice.

And it’s apt, that it would take a child to make us remember that.

—————

See also, for a description of the protest and its background,
“Pretoria Girls High:  A protest against sacrificed cultures and
identities,” by Greg Nicolson, Daily Maverick, August 30, 2016 (
http://tinyurl.com/hjqpzek).

***********************************************************

The Sun Also Rises: And the Darkest Hour is just before the Dawn

John Matisonn

Daily Maverick, 29 August 2016

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za – direct URL:
http://tinyurl.com/grp9h3a

[John Matisonn is the author of God, Spies and Lies, Finding South
Africa’s future through its past, and host of Cape Town TV’s Between
the Lines, a series of half-hour programs each featuring an
interview with a key South African newsmaker or analyst.]

[For a Youtube playlist of Between the Lines beginning in June 2016,
visit http://tinyurl.com/jsotek5 – For links to selected interviews,
see “South Africa in the 21st Century” below]

I guess I’m cursed to be a contrarian. By late 1996 I could see that
this democratic government so many had risked life and limb for
would not be strong against corruption. I saw it first-hand when it
sided against the honest in the first big corruption scandal of the
ANC era, at the Independent Broadcasting Authority. Everyone else
was optimistic, and I, an IBA councillor, was out of step.

Now, as President Jacob Zuma’s rank disdain for the people he
governs has seen in some a spiral of despair, I feel positive. Why?
Because August 2016 will go down in this country’s history as a
turning point. Zuma is not finished yet, but my crystal ball tells
me that whatever damage he does before he goes, and there will be
damage, politically speaking he is a dead man walking. The South
African voter has awoken. And you can take that to the bank.

Of course this may not be the end of the ANC. If good leadership,
leadership with vision and integrity, takes the helm, the ANC
obviously can rebuild. Too many people care about it to abandon it
if given new reasons for hope. But every day Zuma remains in charge
is a blessing to Mmusi Maimane and Julius Malema. For them, the
president is the gift that keeps on giving. And from the day after
Zuma goes, he will be like apartheid: Support Zuma? Who, me? Never
happened!

The cascade of good people coming out against Zuma and for Gordhan
should bring tears of relief to the patriotic eye. Let’s be blunt
for a moment, like we know South Africans are at home: a lifelong
Communist of Indian descent has the hopes and admiration of a
grateful nation. His courage, smarts and sensibleness have brought
out the best in leaders in every field and of every ethnicity.

Not a day goes past without an icon of the struggle, or a gaggle of
academics or a billionaire business leader, scathingly attacking the
president. And Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has finally lifted
his skirt. After a seemingly endless period of the unseemly
grovelling necessary to stay in his job, he’s given a limited idea
of what we are asked to believe is the real Cyril: he backed Pravin
Gordhan unequivocally at an ANC funeral.

Don’t bet the farm that Cyril will not cover those ankles again.
Zuma retains the majority in the decision-making National Executive
Committee, and Ramaphosa knows how to count. But for ordinary South
Africans, either the ANC throws out Zuma, or voters continue to
nibble away at the ANC’s eviscerated credibility and votes.

It will be a long time before all of us — commentators,
politicians, businesspeople, academics and the jobless — digest the
news of August 2016. Around 10 percent of the national budget, and
hundreds of thousands of jobs, are no longer controlled by the ANC.
Even in the unlikely event of a 2019 ANC recovery from these local
election results, further losses will accrue in provincial and
national legislatures.

The ANC lacks the tools for opposition politics, except perhaps in
Johannesburg, where the outgoing mayor, Parks Tau, retains his
skills and moral compass.

If Herman Mashaba messes up as mayor of Johannesburg, Tau’s people
will be back in 2021. That’s in the future. For the rest of this
decade, the defeated will have to adjust.

The new metro governments have something going for them. That hunger
and lack of entitlement, the feeling they have no God-given right to
govern and everything to prove, may serve them well.

Do not underestimate the prize: even if they do not get the ANC
below 50% in 2019, think about the thousands of town councillors who
lost their jobs this month, and the MPs and MPLs who know they will
be unemployed in 2019. Think about the tens (hundreds?) of thousands
of cadres whose guarantees of deployed positions just evaporated.
They must prove themselves competent, or they’re next. Those old
enough will remember that apartheid slugger John Vorster’s famous
phrase: adapt or die.

The adaptations to come will boggle the pre-August 2016 mind. Zuma
seems determined to take out Paul Mashatile as ANC Gauteng
provincial leader. He, Tau, and Gauteng premier David Makhuru
represent the best in the ANC. Urban, urbane, modern and honourable.
What will they do?

The answer follows logic: some will stay ANC to the bitter end. But
others will switch parties. It may still seem impossible to imagine,
but when they are out in the cold, their choice will be fairly
simple: DA or EFF. Perhaps COPE or the UDM will attract a few, but
they lack the infrastructure or heft to make it on their own. The
future is with three parties. Only in KwaZulu-Natal will the fourth,
the Inkatha Freedom Party, remain in the running, though the age of
its leader, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and his failure to prepare
for succession mean it too is on borrowed time. As in the white
politics days of the United Party’s Douglas Mitchell and before that
the British imperialist Dominion Party, the languid politics of our
tropical province will be slow to catch up.

The country needs to move to debate that’s more concrete. Probably
nothing is more critical or central and essential to debate than
reprioritising the national budget. That requires a public argument
tied to what the government is actually doing as opposed to what it
says it’s doing.

To give but two examples: Every government leader says we are
prioritising infrastructure, but the companies that would be
building infrastructure — construction companies — are staving off
collapse because so little is being commissioned. Infrastructure
brings jobs and growth, both short-term and long-term.

Second, the government wants a zero fees increase because it is
scared of students. But it hasn’t offered a way to pay for it.
Universities are a top priority. They provide the job creators (as
opposed to the claim especially by the American right that cutting
already low taxes on the 1% creates jobs).

Where should the money come from? That is what the debate must be
about. But first, a major step must be to cut the public sector
payroll. If we don’t we will be Zimbabwe — where Robert Mugabe has
stayed in power for 36 years by protecting public sector salaries at
the expense of the economy. In 2016 that chicken (his party symbol
is the rooster) has finally come to roost. This week, after he
proved unable to meet the payroll yet again, he finally agreed to
the cuts. That is the worst possible way to do it — to cut when you
have no money to redirect productively.

What happened on August 3 may be the best possible outcome for a
number of reasons besides giving the ANC a well deserved bloody
nose. The fact that the transfer of power occurred largely
peacefully is a good sign. That makes it more likely that the ANC
will accept the next round of losses.

As important, this slow easing of power away from the ANC is better
than an overnight landslide, for this reason: South Africa is
extremely hard to govern. Its complexity, managing unruly and
compromised trade unions and increasingly confident traditional
leaders, remain substantially the ANC’s problem.

So keep your chin up. Take the long view. The wheels of democracy
grind slow but sure. The majesty of democracy is a wonderful thing
to behold. South Africa will be back. China won’t bring it back.
America and Europe won’t bring it back. Only we, South Africans, can
and must. DM

See also Sahra Ryklief, “South Africa’s 2016 municipal elections –
why the excitement?,” GroundUp, August 23, 2016 (
http://tinyurl.com/jvbx4aw)

************************************************************

“Zwelinzima Vavi’s address to the FAWU [Food and Allied Workers
Union] National Congress”
22 August 2016

[Brief excerpts from beginning of speech by the former general
secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and
convenor of the Steering Committee for a New Trade Union Federation.
Full text available at http://tinyurl.com/j8b6roc]

It is also a time of extreme hardship for millions of workers and
thousands of your own members, particularly on the farms, where far
too many employers still act as if apartheid had never ended.

Poverty pay, casualisation, exploitation and racism are widespread
and even getting worse, as the job-loss bloodbath continues. Entire
industries are in danger of disappearing. Unemployment at 36% is
among the highest in the world, and employers have been quick to
exploit the desperation of the unemployed to find or keep jobs at
any cost in order to drive down wages and working conditions.

As well as outsourcing, casualisation of work and using labour
brokers, the bosses are now waging a concerted campaign to sabotage
collective bargaining structures and weaken the power of organised
labour. Some, like Uber taxis, want to redefine all their workers as
self-employed so-called ‘partners’, with no benefits or union
rights.

Inequality is widening globally, but South Africa remains the worst
in the world, and it is still blatantly racial as the gap gets wider
between the white, super-rich capitalist elite and the black working
class majority, women in particular, who remain even more firmly
mired in poverty, hunger and squalid living conditions. Wealth is
shifting further into the pockets of the white capitalists.

This widening inequality fosters a mood of growing anger and despair
as the problems which the ANC keep promising to solve remain as bad
as ever or get even worse. Community protests against the lack of
basic services, corruption and unaccountable local officials have
become so frequent that they rarely make the news headlines, except
in traffic reports when they disrupt motorists travel plans!

This is all aggravated by the unchecked explosion of
maladministration, corruption and theft of our wealth not just by a
few rogue families but the entire capitalist class and their
political allies in the ANC, DA and other political parties. It is
not just President Jacob Zuma and the Guptas who are plundering the
wealth created by our labour, but the entire corrupt capitalist
system of which they are part.

More and more reports are leaking out revealing systematic tax
evasion and money-laundering by big business. Millions of rands are
disappearing from the country as investors put their cash where they
will make the quickest and biggest profits, with no regard for the
welfare of the people, the environmental price and least of all the
conditions of their workers who produce the wealth in the first
place. Big business is sitting on R1, 5 trillion in the banks and it
blames this investment strike on ‘uncertainty’.

These are all the real reasons for the decline in the ANC vote and
the record high number of abstentions on 3 August. Although it is
still the biggest party, the ANC’s vote dropped from 62.9% in 2011
to 54.4%.

********************************************

South Africa in the 21st Century in Video: A Youtube Playlist

Videos selected by AfricaFocus Bulletin (http://www.africafocus.org)
as key resources for understanding South Africa today. The full
playlist is available at http://tinyurl.com/hqpr255

Miners shot down [Full documentary]
Award-winning 2014 film on the 2012 Marikana Massacre.
1 hour, 26 minutes

Shutting Down the Rainbow Nation: #FeesMustFall
by Africa is a Country
Short film on #FeesMustFall student protests. October 2015.
11 minutes

The People Versus The Rainbow Nation
by MTV Base Africa
Feature film. May 2016. Inside look at students and the issues
behind the protests.
1 hour, 2 minutes

Between The Lines Episode 1
by Cape Town TV
Interview with Sylvia Vollenhoven, June 2016. From rediscovery of
history of the Khoisan to corruption and illicit financial flows in
the mid-1990s.
26 minutes

Between the Lines Episode 3
by Cape Town TV
Interview with Andrew Feinstein. June 2016. Corruption in the South
African arms deal & the global arms trade.
24 minutes

Between the Lines Episode 6
by Cape Town TV
Interview with leading university educator Jonathan Jansen. July
2016. The state of South African higher education. Financial &
policy neglect.
26 minutes

Between the Lines Episode 8
by Cape Town TV
Interview with #FeesMustFall activist Akosua Korenteng at University
of Cape Town. August 2016.
26 minutes

Between the Lines Episode 11
by Cape Town TV
Interview with election analyst Bob Mattes. August 2016. Data-based
analysis of municipal election results.
24 minutes

Full Speech: Sipho Pityana Attacks Jacob Zuma at Makhenkhesi Stofile
funeral
by Tribe2Tribes
Devastating critique of regime corruption at funeral of respected
ANC leader. August 25, 2016.
30 minutes

“Sipho Pityana speech at Stofile funeral,” News24,
2016-08-26. Background and partial transcript at
http://tinyurl.com/glhkhgx

*****************************************************

AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
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